ZumwaltOhana.com

Guilt-Free Indulgence

This week we received the official certificate for one of Koa's birthday presents - one share of Starbucks Corporation stock.  His Uncle Wes and Auntie Jessi got if for him from OneShare.com.  Now we can all have our $4 lattes and feel like we are contributing to a college fund somewhere far, far away.  You will find a photo of said certificate in the Koa's First Birthday! photo album.

While you're browsing the photo albums, you might also want to visit Foster Koa @ 1 Year Old and see pictures of him on the hunt.  We have some frogs who live in our front yard (in our Bird of Paradise tree) who are rapidly becoming more and more afraid when they hear a little voice say, "Ohhh, oooooh, yeah!"  We've been fostering this fascination since he was probably about five months old (maybe younger).  When we would come home after dark and see frogs in the yard we would take him over and hold him above them to see if he could see them and if he would try to touch them.  You may remember that before "Littlest Duck" there was "Mr. Frog" (His first favorite toy), so we thought he should get to see what a real frog was like.  Over time he has become more and more interested in them.  Now, he is what you might call a "frog stalker".  If we come home at night, as soon as we take him out of the car and start heading down the sidewalk he immediately starts in with, "Ohhhh, Ooooh!" and the frogs start lookin' for cover!  We finally decided it was time to document it.  I think he had the most fun the night we took pictures because the light from the camera helped him see them better.  He was scrambling up the hill and through the bushes to get to them.  It was really fun to watch and help him spot one that hadn't successfully hidden yet!  And yes, he does catch and touch them with increasing frequency (soon we'll have to teach him to be a bit more gentle towards the frogs)!

Along with the frogs in our front yard we also have lots of plants.  As Zak likes to say, "you can take the girl out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the girl."  So, I have a quite a few plants that I've been mothering for a while and I have a few new ones I thought I would share.  You can find pictures and a little description of a few of them in the Kathy's Spring Foliage album.  I plan to update the pictures as they continue to grow and produce.  This year I have started growing herbs which I have really been enjoying as I have also been learning to cook more since I have become a stay-at-home mom.

Although I don't get to use my herbs very often in desserts, I have also been having a lot of fun learning how to make some of those that we've had at fancier restaurants.  We mentioned in a post previously that we had made chocolate souffle and it turned out really good.  Well, last week we had some friends over and tried our hand at creme brulee.  Well, this one wasn't quite a success.  I'm not sure if it was the recipe or my execution of it, or just my preference for a certain texture, but it was a little too much like flan.  If anyone has any input on what I did wrong I am very interested in hearing it!  I also tried to use the broiler instead of getting one of those cool kitchen torches.  It turns out I am just going to have to get one of those if I am going to be a success (shucks!).

One of the ironic things about us and our fancy deserts is that we always seem to decide to try one of these when we are having a not-so-fancy dinner.  For instance, when we made the souffles we had turkey sandwiches for dinner.  With the Creme Brulee I served sloppy joes (which is also ironic because we almost never have sandwiches).  I had tried a new recipe from Robin Miller and we really liked it.  You might enjoy seeing just how much Koa enjoyed the leftovers the next day when you check out some of his latest pics.  That is one of those instances when lunchtime leads right into bath-time!

So far potty training seems to be going pretty well.  We definitely have good days and bad days.  We've employed a technique that some folks at church used to potty train their little girl - a timer.  We set the timer in the bathroom to go off every 30 minutes at which time we take Koa to the potty (the timer is more to help us be consistent rather than Koa!).  This system gets Koa used to being dry and only using the restroom in the restroom instead of in his "big boy" pants.  As time goes by we gradually lengthen the time between potty trips while working on Koa's "signal" to give us whenever he needs to go.  So far it has been rather hit and miss, but we have seen improvements.  Koa now stays dry more often than he doesn't.

In lieu of this, we are not sure we "manage [our] children well," but apparently the church does because they made Zak a deacon last Sunday.  They had us come forward before the closing prayer where they gave us both a lei and introduced us to the congregation.  Zak is now heading up the Small Group ministry of our church, which means he'll be starting up a Small Group ministry for our church!  Hopefully Koa doesn't get us demoted!

From Sickness to Health

Well, the Zumwalt ohana has almost fully recovered from whatever bug Zak dragged home with him from the dirty mainland!  Koa and I both came down with it a few days after Zak got home.  I'm sure it didn't help that we were all up way too late for several nights in a row or that we were so busy with festivities the weekend that he got home, but we all got it pretty bad.  We also didn't really slow down enough to recover from it very quickly so it stuck with us for the whole week.  I think Zak and Koa are fully recovered now and I just still have a funny sounding voice and a tickle in my throat every now and then. 

Part of the reason it stuck with Koa as long as it did was because he was also cutting two new teeth (he's up to eight for those who haven't been keeping track).  He was waking up in the night for several nights in a row which is what he usually does when he's cutting teeth, but this time I didn't know for sure what was causing the waking and I didn't know what to do for him, either.  It was an uncomfortable situation for all of us!

This past Saturday we had a fun day at the beach to bid farewell to a couple of families from church who will be leaving us soon.  It was a beautiful day at the park where we got married.  It was really neat to be back there and enjoy a great day of food and festivities.  The same day, some students from Harding University flew in for their Spring Break campaign.  It is so good to have Kaitlin and Chanel back here with us.  Ironically, we haven't seen Kaitlin since that lovely day at Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach Park almost five years ago.  Too bad the rest of her family didn't get to come back with her!!

On Sunday morning it was announced that Zak is one of three men to be considered by the congregation as deacons.  He and I had a meeting with the elders on Wednesday to talk about what all that meant for us as well as the Biblical requirements for a deacon.  They let us know that he would most likely be the deacon in charge of guiding the small groups.  The congregation has three weeks to come to us with any concerns they may have and then the deacons will be installed.  So far we have received a lot of encouragement.

Zak has also started up his college classes again after his short time off.  He is now taking his remaining classes through Wayland Baptist University.  He is taking Old Testament History and New Testament History at the same time. He has about 20 credits left to complete his bachelor degree.  These classes are all on line just like the ones he was taking through Thomas Edison State College.

Koa has been working on a couple of new skills this week.  He can now catch a ball pretty consistently.  He can also throw it, although not always in the direction of anything or anyone in particular, but he's getting better and better every day at interactively "playing ball".  If I remember correctly his Grandpa Stimple said he wouldn't be much fun until this stage.  So, you can come play with him now, Stimple!  He is also just starting to be interested in kicking the ball.  He will only do it once or twice a day and not on demand, but he's getting more interested in using his feet for different things (like stepping in any flour I spill on the floor in the kitchen before I can get it cleaned up) so I'm sure any day now we will have a budding soccer super-star.

In the last post I mentioned that he has been using the potty, but we are not actively potty training.  Well, I guess I have to withdraw that statement.  Apparently what we are doing is potty training (or toilet learning, if you prefer).  We are still just setting him on the potty at different times throughout the day--like before and after naps and eating.  He generally goes shee shee as soon as we set him on it.  On Sunday he went poo poo in the potty twice.  I've been doing research on it and apparently we aren't the only weirdos on the planet crazy enough to start this early, but as far as the US goes, we are definitely in the minority. 

I had seriously considered starting this training when he was even younger because my grandma had told me she had all of her kids trained before they were a year old (and she had eight kids!).  That is why we even owned a potty chair at this point.  However, since then I had heard a lot of negative talk about toilet training this early and how it is not even physically possible for a child to have willful control over the muscles that are required.  So, even though the idea hadn't completely left my mind I hadn't done the research to make a better decision about it.  So, I guess it is a good thing we had our little "diaper rash incident" to light a fire under me.  I have since found a couple of good articles on the Internet (you can access two of them here and here for those who are interested) and I have a book on order through the Hawai'i State Public Library system.  It should be an adventure either way.  If anyone has any input on any of this I am more than willing to listen!  If he does become potty trained this early I will have a whole other dilemma on my hands--where to find underwear to fit such a tiny bum!   

One Year Ago Today

It's hard to believe that before 9:42 AM one year ago we didn't even know if we would have a little boy or a little girl to bring home.  Now it has been one whole year that we have been living with this extra little person in our lives. I don't think we had any idea how much we would enjoy having him around.  I guess now it's official--we really are grown up.  I suppose now we will have to face it.

Just because we are grown up, though, doesn't mean we don't know how to party!  We enjoyed quite the shindig yesterday with about 28 1/2 friends (We'll let you guess who the half is).  Koa was oblivious to all the excitement as he played croquet with his friend, Mason, until we got to the singing and cake and presents and then he wasn't really sure what to make of all that attention (since he usually gets so little of that).

We had the party catered by The Great Wall chinese restaraunt in beautiful, downtown Wahiawa.  So, Koa got to try his first General Tso chicken which he seemed to enjoy almost as much as his dad does.  He also loved the broccoli and beef and the mixed veggies and rice.  I didn't let him have any shrimp fried rice since he has never had shell fish.  There's nothing that'll ruin your birthday faster than finding out you have a shellfish alergy, I suppose.

After lunch we cleaned up a bit and Koa played some more with his friends while Zak took some folks out for a sail.  The unexpected full moon and it's crazy low tide caused them to run aground (that silly moon is so unpredictable) for a couple minutes, but they made it out alive and escaped Davey Jones' Locker one more time.  It's a good thing, too, because we were awaiting their return for dessert!

When Zak and his shipmates returned we moved on to the good stuff--cake and ice cream.  We had homemade peach/mango ice cream and my mom's chocolate cake with chocolate icing and M&Ms.  Koa wasn't really willing to eat it with his hands.  He's not a big fan of goopy things.  If there's no other option and he's starving he will do it, but he prefers utinsils when it's messy.  So, I fed him a bite of the cake and he spit it right out.  Once I explained to him that there are much nicer ways to tell your mother you don't like her cooking, he had another bite and decided it wasn't so bad.  So, he had about a quarter of his piece of cake and some ice cream and that was enough.  He was all pau.  I guess he filled up on broccoli.

Zak and his compadres played a rousing game of croquet before we moved into the presents portion of the day.  Since most of the children involved had not had a nap all day we were trying to hurry through the presents and prevent a melt down from any of the little ones--especially the one at the center of attention--so I did most of the unwrapping and we moved through the mountain of presents pretty effeciently.  Koa got some really neat gifts!  Now we get the task of figuring out where to put it all.

Our final event was a game that had been going throughout the day.  We had thirteen pictures of Koa at different ages--one pre-birth and one for each month following.  We hung them in a random order and then asked everyone to guess the correct order.  We offered big money, but no one was able to guess the correct order.  Apparently that male pattern baldness period he went through really threw some folks off the track!  At any rate, it was a fun to look back and see how much he has changed over the year.  At no other time in his life will he grow so quickly or develop so dramatically as he has this year.  Have no fear, we will still be documenting!  There is a brand new photo album for Koa's birthday party here, and more pictures and even some videos are still on their way! 

Most of our friends packed up and left after the game, but there were a faithful few who stuck around to go sail with Koa for his very first time.  They were brave souls to step on a 27 foot boat with a toddler who hasn't had a nap and is coming down from a sugar high.  If I had the choice, I might have stayed behind!  The first few minutes were really nice.  Koa seemed to love the wind in his hair and the side to side motion of the boat, but just a little way into the trip he decided he wanted to get down and walk and when I told him he couldn't it all fell apart.  He finally had the melt down that we knew was coming.  I tried to get him to just lay down on the little bed and he fought it and fought it until he crawled up into my arms and whimpered himself to sleep.  I layed him down on the bed and he had a tiny little nap there on the boat.  He might have slept longer, but it was hotter than a two dollar pistol down in the cabin. 

Once we were done sailing, we headed home and fed him some dinner, bathed him and put him to bed.  He slept from 7:30PM to 7:30AM (his normal bed time is 9-7) then we got him up, fed him, dressed him for church and layed him back in his bed and he went back to sleep 'til we were ready to leave.  His real birthday has been a much more mellow day--thankfully. 

What a lovely party he had, though.  We were so blessed to be in the presence of friends who love him so much and whom he adores.  We have such a great group of friends who have been so supportive and helpful this year as Zak and I have been learning the ins and outs of parenting.  They've been more than willing to babysit any time we need and so good about listening to us hash things out as we debate over parenting topics and decisions.  I hope when Koa grows up he still has a group of friends as good as the ones he has now! 

More Birthdays...

This has been a week brimming with excitement and preparation.  Thursday night Zak finally made it home after his plane was delayed by about three hours.  So, Koa and I dragged ourselves to the airport at about 11:30 to bring him home.  Once we got home, Koa was so excited that he didn't want to go to sleep.  He was running around giving Daddy the run down on everything in the house.  It went something like this, "Yeah.  Yeah!  Yeah, yeah.  Yeah!!"  Once Zak felt amply informed we put Koa in his bed and he was fast asleep.

Unfortunately when Zak came home he had a bit of a cold and his voice was pretty hoarse.  That has only gotten worse since he got home.  He had almost no voice at all by Friday night. 

In the midst of the week while Zak was gone I discovered that Koa has an allergy to tea tree oil.  I have been washing his diapers using that as a natural anti-bacterial in the wash and it gave him a very severe diaper rash.  It was so bad it woke him up in the middle of the night and he couldn't go back to sleep.  I couldn't figure out what was bothering him.  When I figured it out in the morning I felt like an awful, awful mother! 

There is a good side to the story, I suppose.  That day he had some extra naked time to give his little bottom time to air out and he actually took a naked nap.  So, when he got up from his nap I decided to put him straight on the "big boy potty" to see if he would shee shee--he did and he has now used his big boy potty 4 times successfully.  I don't really intend to actively try to potty train him just yet, but I figure if he gets the idea that it is an option maybe potty training will be easier when the time comes.  Right now I just set him on it when I am changing his diaper after a nap or snack.  If he manages to go shee shee I make a big deal about it and then show him how we pour it in the big potty and flush it away.  I'm sure it's not really necessary to foster a little boy's fascination with bodily functions!

On more sophisticated topics, Friday night found us out to dinner celebrating our friend Jessica's birthday.  We went to a restaurant on the North Shore called 21 Degrees North.  It's a fancy restaurant with less than fancy service.  We were all there until about 11:30 and it wasn't because we were just having such a good time that we couldn't pull ourselves away!  The service was just that bad.  However, we enjoyed spending time with Jessi and celebrating her special day.  Happy birthday, Jessi!

When we got home that night I still had a birthday cake to decorate for the following day.  I had planned on just buying Koa's cake at Costco, but when I went by and looked at them and read the list of ingredients I couldn't bring myself to order it.  So, I went home and called my mom for her chocolate cake recipe.  At that point I realized I have only made a cake one other time in my life and that was about a month and a half ago--an angel food cake--and it wasn't very good.  Fortunately cake baking is not rocket science (as my mother informed me) and my experiment was fairly successful (not as good as mom's but who's surprised by that?).  I made them before we went to dinner with Jessi and let them cool until we got home.  We were up until almost three in the morning preparing games, cakes and decorations for the coming party.....