The Central Oahu Carnival is a benefit for the Honolulu Armed Services YMCA and was held at the Central Oahu Regional Park (Waipio, Hawaii) on July 30-August 1, 2010. Being that I live in the Mommy Cave, I didn’t know about [...]]]>

Central Oahu Carnival, Central Oahu Regional Park (July 30-Aug 1, 2010)

The Central Oahu Carnival is a benefit for the Honolulu Armed Services YMCA and was held at the Central Oahu Regional Park (Waipio, Hawaii) on July 30-August 1, 2010. Being that I live in the Mommy Cave, I didn’t know about this great event happening practically in my backyard. Thanks to Kamu, who invited us to the fair, we didn’t miss out on this fun-filled experience.

First of all, I apologize for the quality of the photos. They are all taken with our camera phones. I had my point & shoot camera, but when Joyce tried to take photos of Lil K and I on her first Merry-Go-Round ride, my SD card failed. What awful timing. Thank God for our iPhones (and Kamu’s Blackberry!), otherwise this milestone would have gone completely undocumented. The only unfortunate thing is that camera phones still don’t handle action shots in low-light conditions very well. Disclaimers aside, let’s talk about Lil K’s first carnival!

Lil K and I on the Merry Go Round for the first time (Photo by Joyce)

We arrived early at the carnival and it seemed that the Friday evening crowd was slow to arrive, which was perfectly fine with us. I can do without dealing with throngs of people and long lines for the rides. There was little to no waiting for anything that evening, which is great when you’re dealing with an active toddler.

After having dinner under the tent, the first ride we attempted was the Merry-Go-Round. I wasn’t sure how Lil K would handle it. Observing from the outside, the Merry-Go-Round seemed to be running faster than I remember. Perhaps it was just because I was seeing it through the eyes of a concerned parents. Despite my misgivings, I paid our fare and boarded the Merry-Go-Round with Lil K in my arms. At first, I thought we would try riding in the sleigh. Ten seconds after sitting there, Lil K decided that the sleigh was boring and she wanted to sit on a horse.

Lil K decides to ride the horse! (Photo by Joyce)

She was even particular about which horse she wanted to sit on. I wanted to sit on one that was closer to the outside, but she was intent on riding a specific horse and she pointed it out to me. When the ride started, I looked at her face to see if she was scared, but she seemed just fine. The horse bobbed up and down and round and round we went. As she was riding, she was saying, “up, down, up, down, up, down.” When the ride was finished, she immediately said and signed the word, “more.”

Lil K is having a blast -- and apparently, so am I. (Photo by Kamu)

We encouraged her to try another ride and we found ourselves at the Helicopter ride. Joyce offered to take Lil K on the ride and she was happy to take her up on it.  Into the helicopter they climbed and Lil K sat in the driver’s seat and immediately took the wheel. We even noticed that she had her hand on the stick shift as she was riding. The girl is learning! She sees me driving my car, which is a stick shift., so she copied.

Lil K's first helicopter ride with Aunty Joyce

Lil K has a fascination with airplanes lately. Ever since her Daddy made her a paper airplane, she often tries to fold one for herself a she gets excited when she spies an airplane flying overhead. So it’s no surprise that the “Crazy Plane” ride caught her attention.

Crazy Plane (Photo by Belle City Amusements)

I was a little skeptical about how she would tolerate this ride. It’s a swinging ride, going high into the air, swinging in large arcs and dips. Then, it goes backwards! As luck would have it, a row of young kids were sitting behind us, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs the entire ride. Lil K just sat quietly between Joyce and I. She didn’t seem afraid at all — she wasn’t clingy and didn’t utter a peep. I’m not sure if she thought it was fun or not, but at least she wasn’t frightened by it. She is a brave girl. Much braver than her mommy!

Me, Joyce, and Lil K aboard the "Crazy Plane" ride (Photo by Kamu)

Lil K also managed to go home with some lovely parting gifts thanks to Aunty Joyce and Uncle Kamu. Joyce took her to the fish pond and managed to hook the two turtles to go home with a bumpy red ball. Uncle Kamu got her a ticket to play a toddler basketball game. It was one of those “everyone wins” games, so they allowed me to carry her as she deposited the ball right in the basket. Her prize was that incredibly long inflatable stick. She couldn’t get enough of that stick and carried it around for the rest of the evening.

Lil K with her inflatable stick

The carnival was such a fun time for all of us. We wanted to return on Sunday, but it was raining. One thing that I realized that night is that I should let her experience things (as long as it’s safe) and not hold her back because of my own fears about how she would handle it. I loosened the reigns a bit at the carnival and allowed to try those rides, despite my apprehension — and she had fun!

Here’s a short video recap of some of the highlights of the night. Again, lacking my usual camera, the video was taken completely with my iPhone.

Stickers used as incentive for potty training

Potty training day #2

Today’s scorecard: 7 successful attempts, 3 accidents. Still zero poop. (She managed to poop while she was still wearing her overnight diaper this morning and refused to use the potty.)

Yesterday’s successes were a hard act to follow. It’s [...]]]>

Stickers used as incentive for potty training

Potty training day #2

Today’s scorecard: 7 successful attempts, 3 accidents. Still zero poop. (She managed to poop while she was still wearing her overnight diaper this morning and refused to use the potty.)

Yesterday’s successes were a hard act to follow. It’s hard to top a day with 9 successful potty attempts and 2 excusable accidents. Today, there were 3 accidents — 2 of which were likely my fault for deciding to rely on Lil K’s ability to inform me when she had to use the potty. I guess she’s not ready for that yet. I should’ve stuck to the method of putting her on the potty every hour on the hour instead of asking her, “do you need to use the potty?” For all intents and purposes, I could have been asking if she wanted a root canal. Anything interrupting her playtime that doesn’t involve TV or ice cream will likely yield a negative response.

The other accident happened on Hubby’s watch when I was out taking my mom to the doctor. To Hubby’s credit, he was sticking with the routine, but I guess Lil K’s bladder was ahead of schedule. And again, right now, she’s not apt to volunteer to sit on the potty.

There were a few times I think she went on the potty just to get the sticker. She eeked out a few drops of pee, immediately jumped up and applauded herself, “yay!” she cheered and said, “sticker.”

Speaking of stickers, I have to say that I just love Price Busters. I bought three sticker booklets for $1.69/each. Each booklet contains 276 stickers. That stash will reward a whole lot of peeing and pooping!

NOTE: This is not a sponsored post. I will proclaim my love of cheap stickers for free.

Perhaps to say that today is “day #1″ of potty training is somewhat misleading. The little pink potty has been a fixture in our bathroom since Lil K was 16 months old. (It’s amusing to note that Lil K is wearing the same pink shirt in the photo [...]]]>

Lil K's potty training chart

Perhaps to say that today is “day #1″ of potty training is somewhat misleading. The little pink potty has been a fixture in our bathroom since Lil K was 16 months old. (It’s amusing to note that Lil K is wearing the same pink shirt in the photo in the previous potty entry, too.) She has been following me into the bathroom and sitting on the potty (fully clothed) for the past several months. We’ve been putting her on the potty before baths and she had been peeing pretty consistently into the potty, but I didn’t start officially potty training her until today.

I made a potty training chart for Lil K and we put stickers on it every time she uses the potty. Today, there are 9 stickers on her chart!

Last night, I asked Lil K if she would like to start wearing her “big girl panties” in the morning. I explained that it meant that she would need to use the potty and there would be no diapers. She agreed and even seemed pleased by the thought of transitioning from baby to big girl.

This morning, I reiterated about the panties and the potty as I changed her out of her diaper and sat her on the potty. She immediately used the potty and earned her first sticker! I slipped on her cotton training underwear and stationed her potty in the living room. I am taking some cues from an article on potty training by John Rosemond (via Mitchell, @scrivener). He suggested having a potty near where the child is playing because the “out of sight, out of mind” principle can work against you in this case.

Rosemond recommends the bare bum approach where you allow your child to run naked from the waist down for a week to teach them to use the potty. That’s why he calls his method “Naked + $75″ — the $75 being the cost of carpet cleaning. I am less tolerant of urine and feces on my carpet, even temporarily, so I am employing a modified approach that uses cotton training pants that allows the child to feel wet while at the same time containing the mess in the event there is an accident.

I took her to the potty every hour on the hour and she used the potty every time except once. She was so pleased to receive her reward and would run to the livingroom where the chart was posted to get her sticker. She is allowed to place the sticker anywhere on the paper. (It’s tough to get her to put the sticker in the exact spot that I want, so I just let her stick it anywhere to decorate the chart.) Then I stick a round colored dot in the square, drawing a happy face on it to indicate that she used the potty successfully.

At naptime, I took out a diaper for her. I wasn’t confident that she could hold her pee in her sleep, especially on her first day. She spotted the diaper and started crying.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” I asked her.

“NO DIAPER!!” she wailed.

“You don’t want to wear a diaper?” I asked.

“Noooo diaper!”

I didn’t want to discourage her since the momentum was moving in the right direction. I put a waterproof pad under the bed sheet and a bath towel over that. She took a nap wearing her cotton underpants and when she woke up there was indeed a little bit of pee in her panty, but I am not disappointed at all by that. After all, I wasn’t expecting to have her 100% potty trained in a day.

We had dinner at grandma and grandpa’s house and I was concerned that it might set her back in the potty training. I brought the potty along and she used it twice while we were there, not having one accident during the nearly 3 hours that we were there.

As I was getting her ready for bed this evening, I was brushing her teeth. She is normally very squirmy and resistant to this part of our bedtime routine and will often cry out that she needs to “doo doo” as a distraction to end the toothbrushing. It worked the first two times, but I’m on to her now. Tonight she used the same tactic but instead of saying “doo doo” she cried, “potty!” I thought she was just trying to trick me again, so I told her that she would have to wait until after we were done brushing her teeth. After that, I took her into the bathroom to use the potty and lo and behold, pee in her panty. I guess she wasn’t kidding this time.

So really, I don’t consider that accident her fault, since she really did try to tell me that she had to use the potty but I didn’t let her go. Oh, poop. What a mean mommy.

I couldn’t be happier with our first day of official potty training. 9 successful attempts and 2 accidents — and no pee on my carpet! I’m a little concerned that she didn’t poop today. She said she needed to go, but was reluctant to use the potty. I encouraged her to use it anyway, but she didn’t produce a poop. I am hoping that she’s not holding it back. I consider her first poop in the potty a milestone to be reached, so we’ll see how long that takes.

My friend Arnold asked me if I would be photographing Lil K’s first poop in the potty and posting it on the Internet, Kate Gosselin style. Although I am no stranger to the concept of “oversharing,” I don’t think Lil K, ten years from now, would appreciate a photo of her and her first potty poop circulating on the interwebs. Arnold suggested that I take the photo and put it in our personal family scrapbook for posterity. I just might do that. In this age of digital photography, at least I don’t have to be embarrassed to take that roll of film to a One-Hour Photo.

More potty training progress reports to come.

Lil K (21 months) has been drawing these images that look a lot like faces. When asked what they are, she may say that it’s mommy or daddy — or someone else in the family. It’s so fascinating to watch her draw. She often does it so deliberately with such meticulousness [...]]]>

Lil K (21 months) has been drawing these images that look a lot like faces. When asked what they are, she may say that it’s mommy or daddy — or someone else in the family. It’s so fascinating to watch her draw. She often does it so deliberately with such meticulousness and concentration. Other times, she’ll casually scribble.

Perhaps I’m a little biased but maybe we have a budding artist on our hands?

Unfortunately, Baby Champuru is interested in sampling whatever I am eating, so I often have to indulge her in a few spoonfuls lest I [...]]]> M&M McFlurries are my guilty pleasure. 620 calories of guilt. Whenever I am out and about, I can’t resist the siren call of the McDonald’s drive-thru on the way home.

Unfortunately, Baby Champuru is interested in sampling whatever I am eating, so I often have to indulge her in a few spoonfuls lest I face the Toddler Wrath, which is fierce indeed. The prospect of sharing this sugary indulgence with her has compelled me to skip the treat on more than one occasion. (Oh, the sacrifices I make for you, girl!)

But today, with plans to enjoy Hubby’s day off outdoors thwarted by the rain, I felt entitled to have my McFlurry and eat it (MYSELF), too.

From my iPhone, I hit the McDonald’s website and looked up the nutrition information on the desserts. I quickly skipped past the McFlurry section (“620 calories” is already burned into my brain) and looked up the Kiddie Cone. Only 45 calories and 6 grams of sugar. Of course, she wouldn’t eat all of it, so her intake would be less than that. So that’s what we ordered for her.

Baby Champuru enjoyed her very first ice cream cone today in the backseat of the car in the McDonald’s parking lot. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard today, so we figured it was best to drive-thru and stay dry.

I ended up scraping most of the ice cream off the top as it was melting faster than she could consume it — and, besides, we didn’t want her eating that much ice cream anyway. She had a good time with the ice cream and chomped through about half of the cone to get to the inside.

Of course, she made a great mess, but nothing that a package of baby wipes and a handful of napkins couldn’t handle. And thank goodness for bibs. The one she is wearing happens to be our favorite one – given to us by our friend Renee.

Ice cream is my vice. (Well, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies from the Cookie Corner, and Diet Pepsi.) I know I need to reign in my sweet tooth, especially if I hope to model healthy eating for Baby Champuru. I’m hoping to make ice cream an occasional treat, not a daily staple.

What’s your vice? And when did your children have their first taste of ice cream?

Baby Champuru enjoys her 1-1/2 year birthday cake & ice cream

I consider 18 months to be a milestone. 1-1/2 years old.  Definitely no longer a “baby,” she is a full-fledged toddler now with the will to match. She’s also sweet as pie, bright, and friendly.  She’s [...]]]>

Baby Champuru enjoys her 1-1/2 year birthday cake & ice cream

I consider 18 months to be a milestone. 1-1/2 years old.  Definitely no longer a “baby,” she is a full-fledged toddler now with the will to match. She’s also sweet as pie, bright, and friendly.  She’s also determined, focused, and sometimes strong-willed.

I am learning a great deal about her personality by observing her in social situations.  When she is among children, she is very friendly — bordering on aggressive, even. Whenever she sees a child, she will pursue them and attempt to make friends, waving her little hand in front of their face if they appear to be ignoring her. This intimidates shy children, as we discovered on several occasions, but most recently when shopping at Gymboree. Baby Champuru wanted to make friend with a girl who appeared to be about 3 years old. She followed her around the store a bit, waving and saying “hi.” The girl eventually ran to her mother and cowered between her legs to avoid Baby Champuru’s advances. We suspect that Baby Champuru acts that way because she is surrounded by family members who shower her with affection and attention, and she cannot imagine that other people are not interested in playing with her or greeting her with a hug.

Despite her outgoing nature amongst children, Baby Champuru is still somewhat fearful of adults, but I am seeing definite improvement. She is doing much better at family gatherings, it usually just takes her some time to warm up and get comfortable with her surroundings.  By the end of the night, she is making her rounds and giving everyone (and I mean everyone) a hug and a kiss before she makes her exit.

Baby Champuru’s vocabulary is well over 60 words and I’ve already lost count. I started listing them here, but I have not been able to keep up. I’ll have to attempt to update that list soon before I completely lose track of her vocabulary.  She is not speaking in sentences yet, but I’m trying to teach her to use words together.  She still uses sign language, even as she’s speaking the word, so our fears that signing might possibly delay her verbal communication were laid to rest.  I believe that teaching Baby Champuru sign language was a great decision and a big thank you to @catskittyns for giving us a great resource on Baby Sign Language to get us started!

Last month, we decided to switch pediatricians.  We were fine with our old pediatrician, but the switch was determined more by convenience of location and a desire to consolidate our healthcare under one roof. We also liked the online records option with our current system.

At this visit, she received just one shot: Hepatitis A vaccination.

Although we transferred Baby Champuru’s records to the new doctor, I guess they don’t put it into their system. So they didn’t have historical data on her height and weight progress.  When I plugged in the information to my Kidmondo account, I noticed that her height stayed the same (31″) since her 15-month checkup.  Her weight went up slightly from 20 lbs. 15 oz. to 21 lbs. 6 oz. She is now on the lower end of the percentile 30% for height and 36% for weight.  It concerns me somewhat that she is not tracking with the trend line, but the doctor did not seem concerned with her progress.  I think I need to incorporate more protein and milk into her diet.

Speaking of milk, we haven’t been able to get Baby Champuru to drink the recommended 16-24 oz. of milk per day ever since we switched her from bottle to cup. I mentioned to the doctor that she eats cheese and yogurt, I am still nursing her a few times a day, so her diet is not completely devoid of milk. When she heard that I’m still nursing Baby Champuru, she promptly informed me that I should consider weaning her as soon as possible. She warned that the longer I wait, the harder it will be.  I tend to lean toward Attachment Parenting principles and feel that extended breastfeeding is beneficial to a baby’s emotional and physical well-being. Here’s some information from the AskDrSears.com website on the issues of breastfeeding benefits and weaning:

In many cultures a baby is breastfed for two or three years. Our western culture is accustomed to viewing breastfeeding in terms of months. This is not the norm the world over. While weaning is a personal decision, nutritionists and physicians advise breastfeeding for at least one year because by that time most infants have outgrown most of their food allergies and will thrive on alternative nourishment. We urge mothers to think in terms of years, not months, when contemplating how long to nurse. Breastfeeding is a long-term investment in your child. You want to give your baby the best emotional, physical, and mental start. Extended breastfeeding is nature’s way of filling your baby’s need for intimacy and appropriate dependency on other people. If these needs are met early on, your child will grow up to be a sensitive and independent adult.

As a society, many people think it’s strange to nurse a baby over a year old. Of course, I won’t be nursing Baby Champuru until she hits kindergarten, but I do feel that the first couple of years are critical for establishing the bond between mother and baby. In this case, I will not be taking the doctor’s advice regarding weaning unless I see signs that Baby Champuru is ready.  Especially since I’m still trying to get her to drink whole milk, why would I want to take away this source of nutrition from her?  I don’t expect to agree with the doctor on every issue pertaining to raising my child, but I do try to make informed decisions that I feel are best for my child.

Aside from that, the doctor is happy with her developmental progress and said that we will see her next in 6 months.

On Easter (April 4, 2010), Baby Champuru turned 18 months old.  Last year, at 6 months old, she was too young to participate in the Easter festivities, so I was really looking forward to this year’s family gathering. In preparation for the annual Easter egg hunt, I bought her an Easter basket and [...]]]>

On Easter (April 4, 2010), Baby Champuru turned 18 months old.  Last year, at 6 months old, she was too young to participate in the Easter festivities, so I was really looking forward to this year’s family gathering. In preparation for the annual Easter egg hunt, I bought her an Easter basket and some plastic eggs.  Then, we did egg hunt training in the living room. I hid the eggs — mostly in plain view — for her to find.  I coached her to find the eggs and put them in her basket.  Picking up items and putting them in baskets or boxes is already a favorite activity of hers, so she enjoyed the egg hunting.  My intent was not to be all crazy competitive about it, but rather I wanted to introduce her to the concept of hunting for eggs so the actual event would be more enjoyable for her.  And it was!

Baby Champuru found 21 eggs, many of them filled with coins and dollar bills.  The ones filled with jelly beans were given to her older cousins to enjoy.  $8 was added to her piggy bank this Easter!  (Thank you, Aunty Rene!)

She had a nice time playing with her cousins and enjoying the attention of family members. A happy Easter, indeed.

After we returned from church on Saturday night, I was rushing around getting ready for bed. Hubby and Baby Champuru were playing in the bedroom. I had a glass of water sitting on the desk.  Baby Champuru signed and said the word water, indicating that she wanted a drink [...]]]>

After we returned from church on Saturday night, I was rushing around getting ready for bed. Hubby and Baby Champuru were playing in the bedroom. I had a glass of water sitting on the desk.  Baby Champuru signed and said the word water, indicating that she wanted a drink of water.  Hubby took the glass and held it to her mouth.  She said “no” and patted the floor in front of her, indicating that she wanted him to put the glass down. Which he did.  To his surprise, she took the glass in both hands, lifted it to her lips, and began to drink. Unassisted.

We had never taught her to drink from the cup on her own. We had always held the cup to her lips, tilting it ever so carefully so as not to pour too much water in her mouth.  This was the first time she drank from an open cup without help.

She enjoys using the open cup, but is still prone to spilling if she gets too excited or distracted.  Nevertheless, she is making great strides toward independent eating and drinking this month!

Baby Champuru has developed an affinity for spoons lately.  I gave her a disposable plastic baby spoon, a plastic measuring cup, and a plate to play with and she has been pretending to cook.  She also uses her stacking cups as bowls to serve us meals.  She will stir her pretend soup in [...]]]>

Baby Champuru has developed an affinity for spoons lately.  I gave her a disposable plastic baby spoon, a plastic measuring cup, and a plate to play with and she has been pretending to cook.  She also uses her stacking cups as bowls to serve us meals.  She will stir her pretend soup in the measuring cup, then pour some into a stacking cup and proceed to feed it to her dolls.  Or me.  Whomever looks hungrier at the time.

During mealtime, she has been asking to hold the spoon.  Everyone knows that: toddler + food + spoon = BIG MESS. So I had been previously hesitant to let her control the spoon.  Last week, I gave her the spoon as she was eating Cheerios.  Her baby doll was sitting next to her on the high chair.  Using the spoon, she picked up two Cheerios and proceeded to feed it to the doll.  I was surprised by her coordination and took note of this.  Perhaps it was time to allow her to try feeding herself?

On Sunday, I finally decided to let her attempt to feed herself.  I know it’s good for her development and I can always clean up.  I’m always cleaning anyway. What’s the difference, right?  With a bowl of yogurt before her, I handed her the spoon and she gleefully shoveled a spoonful of yogurt  into her mouth. She stopped and looked at me, as if to gauge my reaction. I gave her a huge smile and burst out enthusiastically, “you did it! Good job! You’re feeding yourself! Mommy is SO proud of you!” She gave me the biggest smile ever. She accomplished something and she knew it.  It was a great moment.

Today, I discovered that Baby Champuru has created her own word for spoon and it’s “money.”

I don’t know why or how it came to be, but whenever she wants a spoon, she says “money.”  Oddly enough, when I refer to the object as a spoon she knows exactly what I’m talking about.  But when she verbalizes it, she says “money.”  I keep correcting her, but she refuses to call it by any other name.

Is that weird or what?