Just a few things.

I like warmer weather and all, but a part of me mourns the winter days when missing a spot while shaving doesn't matter.  Also, toe nail polish.  I really dislike painting my toe nails.

~~~~~

As I write, the child is eating...raw onions.  He's an odd one. Maybe I need to stop trying to get him to eat beef and chicken and need to start giving him things like liver and headcheese.  He seems to prefer really strong, almost obnoxious flavors.

~~~~~~

Really, this whole kinda-sorta-vegan is a lot more fun that I thought it would.  It's been amazing enough that I think we'll stick with the low dairy diet even when/if he outgrows his allergy.  If we do eat dairy, it will probably be yogurt.  I always blamed produce for being too expensive, but actually without dairy products eating up our budget we have produce coming out of our ears.

But note: don't just cut dairy cold turkey.  Either cut back slowly or go through a full detox diet.  We all got pretty sick.

~~~~~

In my generation it's very trendy to be creative and do your own projects, cook your own food, alter your own clothes (or get them from thrift shops), etc.  I think that's a great trend.

What I don't think is a great trend is the compulsive need to post every single little outfit/meal/DIY project on Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram.  It makes me wonder: do we actually value creativity, artistry, or frugality?  Or do we just want the praise for doing the trendy thing?

I understand it for small businesses and blogs dedicated to a particular thing, but we seem to have an inordinate need that our work be applauded.

~~~~~~

My pastor posted an article (sorry, I can't find it) the other day.  I really appreciate that he passes on really great thoughts each week.  This particular article was written to parents; essentially it says that we are the guardians of our child's cyberpresence.  The pictures and statuses we post may not go away. So don't post anything that you wouldn't post if your 13-year-old child was standing over your shoulder.  That was a little convicting.

~~~~~

Avocado.  Oh my goodness. I made chocolate avocado pudding the other day, and it was AMAZING.  One drawback: it looked horrible.  I wouldn't ever serve it to a guest because of the look.  The recipe I used didn't include almond milk, though, so maybe it would be creamier and smoother with the milk.  So what do you think: would you try something like this?

Nearly a Year

Hello grandmothers, friends, family, fans!  It's time for another update from yours truly.  This has been a GREAT month for me!

11 Months

Mommy has been discovering this month what I've known all along: I am a born vegan.  I love being egg and dairy free.  Unfortunately, Mommy can't seem to come to terms with my chosen lifestyle and keeps trying to get me to eat this awful disgusting stuff called meat.

You would think she'd be okay with my veganism, because while I'm very picky about meats and breads, I enjoy the wide world of fruits and vegetables.  My absolute favorite is watermelon - I get so excited when I see those red cubes of juicy goodness! Other favorites are zucchini, cucumber, corn, tomato, apple, sunflower seeds, and apricot.   I also eat salad greens (especially cabbage), but you'd better have lots of time to spare when you feed it to me!  I have eight teeth now, but they're just not the same as molars.

Eating salad without molars is an art form.

As the genius that I am, I figured out a way to get a tasty snack whenever I want: during my meals, I drop little bits of food over the side of my highchair.  Then when I'm hungry during the day, I just help myself!  It's a foolproof plan, except for one catch: the chair itself.  Turns out I can get under the chair, but I can't get out.    Even more treacherous: the chair seems to magnetically draw my favorite toys under it, dooming us all to entrapment.

"Really?  Do you have to take pictures right now?"

Speaking of entrapment, I live for the times when I get to go outside.  The first thing I like to do in the mornings and last thing I do at night is sit on Mommy and Daddy's bed and look out the window while Mommy brushes her teeth.  On Wednesdays I can see a trash truck come and that's the highlight of my week!

Bedtime ritual

Unfortunately, Mommy insists that I must stay in for large portions of the day.  I take solace in my friend Pooh Bear.  He loves kisses, and unlike Daddy, he doesn't complain in the slightest when I accidentally bite or the kiss is too wet.

"Could you spare a small smackerel?"

I've been told many times this month that I'm very busy.  Well of course I am!  What, do you think the box is going to play with itself?

Sadly, Mommy does like me to cease my important activities during diaper changes, for some unfathomable reason.  So I read to myself.  I even say the words and stop when I'm turning the pages.

This next month will be a big one: before I turn one year old I get to visit Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa!  I can't wait to see everyone and go to the beach and be adored.  In the meantime, Daddy and I are sending lots of aloha your way!

That's supposed to be a wave.  Or a fist bump.

Yours truly,
Kekoa

How to Spend a Fortune By Baking from Scratch

START

Step 1: RSVP to party.  Ask what you can bring.

Step 2:  Make sure the host(ess) asks you to bring bread.

Step 3: Toy between buying bread and baking bread.  When the weather is cool earlier in the week, commit to baking bread.  Foolishly talk through your decision with someone who will be at party.

Step 4:  Ask a friend for a bread recipe.  Make sure (s)he swears it is the easiest, most foolproof bread recipe in the world.

Step 5:  Discover that the weather is in the mid-80s.  Reconsider buying bread.

Step 6:  Remember that you SAID you were going to bake bread and you can't let the masses down.

Step 7: Prepare the dough.  Use every last bit of your flour up. Notice that everything goes exactly as planned - this is gonna be great!

Step 8: Preheat the oven.  Cry.

Step 9: Put the dough in the oven.

Step 10:  Cry some more.  Dig portable fan out of closet.

Step 11: Discover that foolproof bread is doughy on the inside, almost burned on the outside, and flat.  And it smells like...yeast.

Step 12: Have a flashback to days with a newborn.

Step 13: Decide that no way, no how are you serving anything that can induce flashbacks to days with a newborn.

Step 14: Remember that all your flour is gone, so you can't bake anything else.

Step 15:  Discover that you forgot to turn the oven off.

Step 16: Go to store. Buy questionably fresh bread at astronomically high price.

Step 17: Remember that you had a salad for lunch.  Think about how small that salad was.

Step 18:  Buy the bread.  All the bread.

Step 19:  Unwilling to leave the store's air conditioning, walk up and down each aisle to prolong the visit.  Remember your empty flour container.  Buy more flour.

Step 20:   Visit the produce section.  Buy the produce.  All the produce.  Except the onions.  No onions.

Step 21:  Well, maybe green onions.

END

and I never knew... (part 1)

Dear Mom,

I always knew you weren't the worst Mom in the world (even those frequent teenaged days when I was pretty sure you weren't the best), but I never knew for what and how much I should be grateful. 

I always knew labor was no fun, but I never knew that I should be grateful for the heartburn and pressure and itching and swelling of pregnancy.

I always knew babies had to be fed and cuddled, but I never knew that "sleeping through the night" once didn't mean the baby would always sleep through the night from that point on.

I always knew toddlers required constant attention, but I never knew how tempting it is to let little things slide to avoid the fight.

I always knew parenting had to roll with the punches, but I never knew how many punches there were.

So, thank you.

Thank you for rushing home to get me in my crib for my nap every day. Sorry I was such an inflexible little squirt (still am - you and Josh can sympathize on this one!)

Thank you for saying "no" to me often and quickly.  Thank you for disciplining me even when it would have been easier to let some things go.

Thank you for not saying "no" to everything.  Thank you for allowing me the freedom to bonk my head and make a mess.

Thank you for making me laugh ten thousand times.  Thank you for loving my baby smile.

Thank you for putting me in the sling, even when it made your shoulders ache, and letting my spirited-but-shy self enjoy the view without the dangers.

Thank you for saving my life from a well-meaning two-year-old on the basement stairs.

Thank you for giving me the freedom to destroy what was mine, rather than controlling my possessions.  Six years later, Claudia's smooth bald head was still a comfort to me.

And most of all, thank you for not being so tired of me that you put the brakes on having more kids.  The best gifts you ever gave me were my brothers-turned-best-friends. 

(well, and the hockey sticks were pretty amazing, too).

Happy Mother's Day.  < 3

And the verdict is:

Eggs, milk, and peanuts.

Those are the culprits and have been causing the horrible red itchiness on my baby for the past five months.

Both Kekoa and I are on an egg-free, diary-free, peanut-free diet, and my goodness, he's like a completely different baby.

1.  The eczema is nearly gone.  There's still a little in his elbow and knee creases, and this morning this was an itty-bitty patch on his neck.  But for the first time in months, his torso is baby soft.

2.  He's eating better.  The doctor said his mouth and nose were swollen from the allergens.  He's never been a good eater and spit a lot of food out, but we're seeing improvement in that area!  He's accepting new foods readily.  He still refuses some foods we had previously given him - I'm thinking maybe he associates their tastes with discomfort?  So he's still not a *great* eater, but I feel for the first time he's getting a significant amount of nutrition from solid food.

3.  He's sleeping better.  The combo of the itchiness and the poor eating led to frequent night wake-ups where he was either hungry or needed a lotion application.  And now for three nights in a row he's slept 8 hours!  He hasn't slept that well since before he was mobile and burning more calories.

4.  He's, er, functioning better.  His little digestive system seems to have figured things out!

My initial reaction was relief.  I first noticed reflux-like symptoms at two weeks, when he had crying fits where he arched his back often.  I went on a total elimination diet, slowly introducing things back in.  But as he got older, he spit up more and screamed less, so I never knew if the problem was solved.

I second-guessed myself a lot regarding that.  No one else was ever there for the screaming episodes, so sometimes I wondered whether I had imagined it.  Maybe all babies cried like that?  Maybe I was clueless as to his baby language?  Maybe I wasn't fulfilling his needs so he kept crying?

And now I know!  He actually did have reflux based on food sensitivities.  While I'm not happy about that, it is relieving to know that my mommy intuition is happily intact, and that I wasn't just ignoring some other need that he had.  :)

Anyway, I'm actually getting quite excited about this whole diet change.  It's a good motivation to scrutinize our diet and eat healthier.  I have to get creative about making up the missing nutrients and proteins from other food sources, but most baked goods are automatically out.  That's not a bad thing.  

According to that all-trusty source the internet, a significant number of kids grow out of milk and egg allergies by the time they're four.  About 86% of kids grow out of them by sixteen.  So we're hoping that eventually he won't have to be the kid at birthday parties who isn't allowed to eat the cake.

On the other hand, only 20% ever outgrow peanut allergies.  It's nice to meet you, almond butter.