Eating Poi - Kekoa's First Taste of Food

Yesterday was Mr A's birthday (hau'oli la hanau, big guy) and it was also the day that Kekoa got his first taste of real food - POI!  The world's most perfect baby food.  He only licked a little off dad's finger but he sure liked it.  I really want to try and get as close as I can to 6 months with breastfeeding so this probably isn't the beginning of serious food introduction.  Ikaika was so...hungry! all the time that we started him on solid food around 4.5 months.  But I remember having reservations about that and if he had been sleeping through the night as soundly as Koa, I would have waited.

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Here's Ikaika letting you know what he ate for dinner.
Translation: "chicken, rice, poi, banana bread...it was good...no! no!"...having a "freak out at the paparazzi" moment.

Christmas Time is Near

Here comes Christmas.  And just in time I have found the new Knox College Prairie Fire Store!  (the official online store of Knox College athletics).  For quite awhile now my sister has been loading my kids up with Beloit gear.  Now I can outfit my babes in some representation of mom.  (I have one Knox shirt and I've been squeezing Ikaika into it for over a year now)  Nice.  Very nice.

I like all these shirts but I don't like how kids shirts come at adult prices - that really limits how wild I can get here.

Uhu Hunter

I caught this uhu yesterday at Mahukona.  These blue ones have less bones than the red ones and make for some good eatin'!  I literally just cast a line in haphazardly and hooked this on my first try.  I can not believe he didn't break the line.  3 casts later - my reel broke.  What luck!

3 1/2 Months - Holding Head Up

Kekoa is a little over 3 and half months old now.  From what I understood at his last doctors appointment, he's "supposed to be" rolling over.  He's done it once or twice but with no real consistency in effort.  I wonder if he will learn things faster or slower than Ikaika.  Sure, he has another little kid to look up to, but I take a much less active role in his development since I have about a million other things going on during my day.

Here's his latest trick - holding his head up! 

Just look how high he gets that noggin'!  That's a solid few inches and he can hold it there for 15-20 seconds.
(Mr A made fun of me for making this blanket because Ikaika was practically walking but now it's so fun and useful -so neener neener)

"Phew!  What a workout!"

My Son, the Drag Queen

Granted, this is not the best picture (it was taken on my phone with a tremendous amount of backlight).  I wanted to share my latest and possibly greatest idea - BEHOLD!  MY DAUGHTER!!!

With Mr As vasectomy date approaching, it is becoming more of a reality that I will never have a little girl to call my very own.  I believe that Kekoa, with those long locks and big eyes, can pass for an acceptably cute girl.  So, since he is small enough to not care (or remember) - I have decided to occasionally dress him like a girl.  Bows, dresses, bloomers - you name it!  I started today at MOPS, as you can see, with a curly little clip borrowed from my friend Jill's daughter Lily.  Koa doesn't look happy about it but I think that had more to do with the fact that I was simultaneously feeding him and drinking Starbucks. 

I'm going to go balls out (so to speak) next week so stay tuned :)

Holiday Crafting Party - Mom's Night Off

 Every mom needs a break.  Especially me.  I finally got out of the house and away from my children!  A friend from my mom's group - MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) - hosted a crafting party this weekend.  What is a crafting party, you say?

First of all, there is food and friendly conversation...

An opportunity to work on a UFO (unfinished object) or just watch other people and get some good ideas.  Niki was making a digital scrapbook, which I had never heard of but now desperately want to try!  I was knitting an afghan.

SIDE NOTE: Every time I start an afghan it seems like a great idea.  Then I get about half way through it and think "This is so stupid, why did I ever want to do this?  This will never get done in time.  I am sick of looking at it."   I spend the next few weeks/months/year stressing out about getting the stupid thing done so I won't have to look at it again.  Sigh...  oh well.

There is also plenty of wine, which leads to plenty of dancing! 

Knowing what I know now about crafting parties, I am going to bring something more brainless next time.  The afghan isn't exactly "complicated" but the pattern does have some amount of open lace-type work and requires a certain level of concentration I just didn't have with all the rowdy fun going on.  I got about one and a half rows done in 6 hours.

 For some reason, there was also an aerobics demonstration.  I'm not sure if this is standard craft party stuff but it worked for me.  And just look at my form!  Must be all the weight lifting in college!

Operation Christmas Child MOPS Charity Event

Today was a MOPS event for Operation Christmas Child.  This is a national Christian charity project where you stuff a shoebox with toys, school supplies, hygiene things, etc. and send those boxes to less fortunate (is that the PC term for "poor"?) kids around the world.  For some kids, it's their first experience of Christmas - not just the gifts, but the whole Christ part of Christ-mas.

We had so many donations this year!  We stuffed at least 25 and probably could have done more but we ran out of boxes!  Everyone was very generous with their donations.  Some of these items were nicer than what I buy my own kids for Xmas.  See that basketball?  Oh yeah...I donated that.

Here's what the boxes look like when they are all ready to go.  There are three different age groups to choose from and you can pack it for either a boy or a girl.  That way 14 year old boys aren't getting hello kitty lip balm for Christmas :)

Starbucks, a faithful supporter of MOPS, donated this ten cup jug for our packing party.   Thanks!  I think this little to-go thing is so cute, too.

Ikaika, of course, had a blast playing with his little friends all morning while we packed boxes.  Yesterday, when we were shopping for stuff in WalMart, I kept explaining to him that all these toys and toothbrushes were going to little kids who didn't have as much as we did.  I don't know if he got it, but it made me feel good to be able to involve him in a service project - since I strongly believe that is what the holidays are all about.  Ikaika liked picking things out and I let him draw in the cards that we packed inside the boxes.

Do you like the sweater vest?  It helps to counteract the crazy hair he's had going on lately.  Thanks, Granny.

Oh Koa.  You very desperately needed a nap after all that excitement this morning!

Stout young men

According to the latest check up, my children are short and fat.  Well, not exactly short (ok, Koa is short) but they are proportionately heavier than they are long.  I would venture to say that Ikaika may be considered overweight for his height (his BMI is slightly higher than average) and Koa would be considered a sausage.

I was sad to see the percentile chart.  Call it what you want, blame it on our education system's emphasis of standardized testing, it made me feel like a failure to see that my kids were not excelling in every category.  I want my kids to be above average - 90%+ - in everything, and that apparently includes height and weight. 

Crazy mom moment?

You bet!  But, upon further consideration, I became somewhat concerned about how our eating habits may be affecting our children.  Mr A and I both eat way more than the recommended serving size.  Portion control is a foreign language in this house.  I knew Ikaika eats a lot.  But I wonder how much of that is him being truly hungry and how much of it is the constant praise he gets for being a "good eater"?  Or how much of it is him watching us eat huge meals?  With Koa, I have even began to give him a bottle of formula at night because I don't think he's getting enough to eat - which is clearly not the case. 

Hmm...I'm going to bank on them eventually growing out of it (or into it, depending on how you look at it).

Watching Sports on TV (aka why fall is such an amazing time of the year)

Today has been (and continues to be) an amazingly lazy day of TV watching.  UH played Boise St this morning, kick off at 930am.  Massacre.  We blame it on their speedy acceptance of a bowl bid. 
There was a crazy horse race at Churchill Downs, too.  I'm not into running the horses but I was roped in by this story of a successful mare and - you know - the feminist in me couldn't resist.  She lost by a nose but it was still an incredible finish.
The road to the Frozen Four continued today with a match up between Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Frankly, it's cold enough in Waimea today that I was considering setting up an impromptu hockey game in our yard...but I settled for what was being offered on TV instead.
Now Oregon State is playing and after that is some high school football action - Leilehua (Mr A's alumnus) vs Waianae.  Kahuku - the favored team and nationally ranked program - has been disqualified from states this year because of an ineligible player (or something like that).  It's been the shocking news of the weekend here in Hawaii.

Wall Stickers for Wood Paneling

 The new house is so exciting - a carport, an "office", a vacant lot right next door!  The only thing is that the inside is tastefully decorated with super stained white shag carpet and wood paneling...IN EVERY SINGLE ROOM!  You can pop small nails into the spaces between the slats, but it was a serious challenge to work around the overwhelming amount of wood on the walls.

 
My sister got us these appliques from Target.  They are just giant stickers that you slap up on the wall.  Ikaika was so excited to put them up and even help mount some of the stickers himself.  I love the result and he loves it too (which is the most important part)  I'm going to try and peel them off and take them with if and when we move again because they are just that awesome.

These little guys are from my parents and I confess that this is much more my style of decorating for a kids room - vintage hipster.

My List of What I Will Be Able To Do Someday

1. go to the beach
2. see a movie at a movie theatre
3. browse slowly through the thirft store
4. go somewhere without having to open the back door to get the baby out
5. take a class at the university
6. nap without being half awake listening for "mommy! shi shi!"
7. read a book at Starbucks
8. go to an athletic event and actually pay attention to whats going on
9. wear dresses that zip up the back
10. leave the house for more than 4 hours without wondering how the baby will eat