My Little Prince(ss)

I'm not offended when people mistake my son Kekoa for a little girl.  He's so darn cute and all that luscious hair...not to mention the fact that sometimes my friends and I like to go nuts and dress him in girl outfits.  I've never taken him in public like this, but seriously, what a sweet little baby!

You can rest assured that my husband 100% DOES NOT support this hobby.  He neither thinks its adorable nor does he think it's funny.  Every time I do it he just mutters something in Filipino and glares at me.  "no good, it's no good...booyag booyag..."  

I just don't get it.  Can't he see how much fun we are going to have when Kekoa is first round draft pick (offensive lineman) for the NFL and we look back on these photos?!   It's going to be a hoot!

Now Ikaika, on the other hand, I would have been VERY offended if someone mistook him for a girl.

This actually happened at Mauna Lani about a week ago.  Granted, he had on toe nail polish and "girl" slippers, but he was wearing a full-on Wisconsin basketball jersey!  And there is no excuse for his hair recently.  All I could think was, "gee, thanks lady, you must think I have the ugliest little girl you have ever seen."

Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious Cookbook

I am really into Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, Deceptively Delicious.  The concept of this book is using fruit and vegetable purees to "sneak" healthy stuff into picky kids.

I've heard critics moan about how being sneaky only encourages kids to be picky and that true healthy eating begins with the acknowledgment of healthful foods as delicious, etc.  I would say that I fall somewhere in the middle of the two camps.  I don't go out of my way to hide foods from Ikaika (frankly, if he doesn't like it he doesn't have to eat it - but there isn't going to be anything else offered) and I'm never opposed to beefing up the healthy factor in anything.

These recipes are downright awesome.  Especially the desserts.

Kekoa started eating solid foods about a month ago and I admit that I've been relying on a box of Earths Best brown rice cereal and the Gerber jars-of-whatever that I'm getting from WIC.  Much like cloth diapering after a long stint of disposables, it's hard to get back into the swing of making baby food. 

This book, with all it's tempting velvety purees has lit the proverbial fire under my ass and tonight my food processor was whirring!  Just look at that bounty!  Cauliflower, kale, carrots, zucchini, sweet potato, and spinach.  Yum yum.

These can all be used as either baby foods for Koa (right now we are working on sweet potatoes and avocados, tomorrow I am introducing millet cereal) or as add-ins for our meals.  I can see why this system might seem sort of overwhelming if you aren't simultaneously making baby food, but it would probably be worth the effort if you had at least one kid that doesn't eat veggies.

Tonight I made a seafood & potato bake for dinner.  I took a cue from J. Seinfeld and replaced half the mayo in the recipe with pureed cauliflower.  No one noticed any difference.  Then I went one step further and made oatmeal-raisin cookies with banana and zucchini and brownies with (get this) carrot and spinach.  Ikaika DEVOURED the brownies.

Next, I think i am going to tackle some blueberry cheesecake muffins with yellow squash and spinach or mozzarella sticks with cauliflower. 

The little muffin up there is all that is left of some flax muffins (based off of this recipe) I made last night.  The recipe calls for one egg.  I didn't have any eggs so I replaced it with half a banana (mashed) and 1/4 tsp of baking powder.  I would argue that they turned out even better than normal.

Koa Crawling (for real this time)

Koa is on the move!  I put him down in the living room and when I look up he is under the kitchen table.  He "follows" his brother into the bedroom or his daddy into the bathroom.  He hasn't built up any speed but he definitely has mobility.

hey! there's a baby in the floor!

Maybe it's because he's such a little pipsqueak, but I just noticed that he is going to be 7 months old next week.  Time is flying!  He's already regularly eating solid foods (although we haven't had any teeth sightings yet) and here he is getting up on all fours!  Koa is able to hold and play with toys, he can practically carry on a conversation (as long as the topic is squealing or shrieking) He can sit up by himself sometimes without tipping over but he's not quite "sitting up" yet. 

So in certain ways, he is still my teeny tiny baby.  And that is good.  

Beautiful Jewelry for Girls (and more liberal boys)

My (talented, awesome) friend Jill came up with the idea of these super adorable and sparkly bracelet/necklace sets.  I am trying to raise money for the Girls Trip to Oahu in April so I'm thinking about making some of these and pimping them out on facebook.

Any girl moms or friend's of little girls want to score some of these?  Lily (pictured here) is 13 months, but our friend's two year old got something very similar for her birthday and we were dressing Koa up in them too - so they obviously span the age gamut. 

Keep an eye on my facebook page - I think I'm going to pump out some cute girl stuff in the next week or so. 

Tea Party Trauma

Ikaika went to a friend's 2 year birthday tea party this afternoon.  We dressed all fancy - I even put gel in his hair.  There were finger sandwiches and precious mini red velvet cupcakes.

Then things took a turn for the grotesque.  He fell and hit his face on a stair.  The blood alone was scary and, since it was a facial injury, was massive in quantity.  But the real gross part was the actual cut, which was deep enough that the nurse in the ER said  to the doctor "there's something white in there" and he said "no, that's a part of him".  Eww!

They used dermabond (superglue) instead of stitches so hopefully the scar won't be as noticeable.  I was a little worried that because this is Big Island and the technology isn't exactly "cutting edge" he would be left with a disfiguring scar that would stare out at me from his forehead for the rest of his life and shout "you are a terrible mother who let your kid fall and crack his head open even though you were standing two feet away from him!"

He seems to be okay now.  He was good in the ER, then we stopped by a friend's house afterward and he was showing off his bloody shirt.  I promised him ice cream but I might need to eat it all.  Mr A and I are both on an adrenaline come-down.  Bleh...

Oma, Opa, Beth & Ethan Trip Pictures

 checking out the tide pools at Honaunau with Uncle Ethan and Opa

a little Hawaiian drool in the Place of Refuge

Daddy Daughter Day in the Valley of the Kings (Waipio)

Kekoa Crawling (almost)

 

Koa is finally starting to move around!  He's still a got some fine tuning before he's crawling, but he is certainly able to motor around the living room.  I lay him on the floor and the next time I look over he's under the couch.  Then I look over again and he's behind the toy box, etc.

I can't just plop him down and expect him to be there when I return, can't change him on the bed and walk away, and I have to scour through Ikaika's toys to find all the small parts! What a pain! But I'm still proud of him anyway :)

Of course, he's not going to let something like learning to crawl hamper his love affair with his fingers.  Those puppy eyes...they just melt my heart....

Punahele

Au Pau wit da Keikis

In case you heard church bells chiming and doves being released yesterday - it was probably because Mr A got a vasectomy!  After 3 decades of fathering youngsters, my husband finally hung his parenting hat for good.  Koa is it.  The very last direct recipient of Mr A DNA.

His personal experience, which I won't relate in detail, was nothing short of traumatic.  Let's just say that if you are looking for cutting edge technology in medical procedures, Hilo is not the place to find it.  He may have had a more comfortable experience if it had been performed in a hotel room...in Mexico.  It was that bad. 

I can hardly feel sympathetic for him because I got sutures in my most sensitive areas and that was only AFTER pushing out a ginormous baby!  And let's not forget that I didn't have the luxury of numbing medication with my first.  So, frankly, now we're even.

I still can't believe he did it.  Part of me wanted to run into the room and put a stop to it because I might want that third kid someday when life settles down and we are more stable.  Another part of me doesn't want that at all.  I've got my little pair of monsters and that seems like quite enough.  Adoption is always an option if we seriously change our minds, but I doubt we will.  The kid ship has sailed.

I know a lot of guys (including my husband) have a weird attachment to their sperm and equate it with virility.  Even though they don't logically want more children, they just can't deal with the idea of changing that part of themselves.  So I'm really super duper proud of Mr A for making the responsible choice and just getting it done.  Hopefully he will serve as an inspiration to men - especially "local" men (older local men)- everywhere.