keiki on the way

Oh hey, guess what? I'm pregnant! Here's our first baby picture:

Why is the new scanner being such a brat? The actual image is so much clearer (and lighter) than that!

Today our little keiki is 24 days old! Today it will grow arm & leg buds, it will be about the size of a grain of rice, and the heart has already started beating!

keiki is the Hawaiian word for "kid" (think cake-y), a word I've always loved. I looked up the Hawaiian word for baby and since keiki is an acceptable option, and is better than pepe or kama, baby's nickname is going to be "keiki" for awhile. Small "k". Don't want to start thinking that is the actual name.

Speaking of Hawaiian... being pregnant is bringing back more words I didn't realize that I knew.

hapai (hu-pie) - pregnant; also "hapai banana" refers to a certain local tour company's busses...
wahine (wa-he-nay) - female
kane (ka-nay) - male
okole (oh-koh-lay) - baby's bottom
opu (oh-poo) - stomach
kaka (ka-ka) - shit
shishi (she-she) - pee; also "go make shishis" means urinate
ukus (oo-koos) - head lice
ali'i (ah-lee-ee) - Hawaiian ruling class of royalty
kapu (kah-poo) - forbidden
heiau (hey-ow) - temple, holy place
menehune (may-nay-hoo-nay) - small, magical trickster people, similar to Irish Leprechauns
hele hele (heh-lay heh-lay) - literally go go, it means "let's go already!"
pau (pow) - finished
ono (oh-no) - yummie!
mauka (mauw-kah) - mountainside, uphill
honu - the Hawaiian green sea turtle
nene (nay-nay) - the state bird, the Hawaiian goose
Ohana (oh-hah-nah) - family
kaukau (cow-cow) - food, "The kaukau at the luau included laulau."
opihi (oh-pee-hee) - dome-shaped sea snails that are often harvested with a knife right off the rocks at a beach and immediately eaten raw
haupia (how-pee-a) - yummie coconut pudding jell-o!
laulau (lau-lau) - yummie steamed packet of mixed meats rolled in ti leaves
kalua pig (kah-loo-ah pig) - an entire pig steam-roasted with hot rocks in a buried pit for many hours
imu (ee-moo) - a pit that is digged up to be filled with football sized rocks and wood set afire to heat the rocks, the rocks are then buried to heat up more for a few hours. Then the rocks are uncovered, some set aside, the remainder covered in a bed of burlap bags and lots of ti leaves to hold packets of laulau and bananas and an entire pig. The reserved rocks are stuffed into the pig for better cooking, more burlap and leaves cover the whole lot, then the pit is reburied. Food is cooked for at least 12 hours. The entire process takes about an entire day and night.

Here's some pidgin for you:
stay - English word, substitute for "am or is", ie: "I stay sad." (I am sad.) Or everyone's favorite "I stay going already!" (I'm going already, sheesh!)

Hawaiian words most people already know: wiki wiki (go quickly, thanks Wikipedia!), aloha (hello or welcome or love or about 20 other things...), mahalo (thank you), luau (party, traditionally an extended-family outdoor gathering with a big potluck dinner), lanai (porch), ahi (tuna), lei (flower garland), puka shell lei (a necklace made of little snail shells with little holes), pupus (appetizer, usually served as a "pupu platter"), ukulele (Hawaiian stringed instrument like a small guitar), Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas), big kahuna (chief), mana (magic/power), tiki (Hawaiian totem poles), poi (pudding consisting of pounded taro root)

"Aloha, and mahalo for flying Hawaiian Airlines. If you look out the window at the mauka side of the island, an Ohana luau with ono kaukau stay pau. Oh, and there is a hapai wahine making shishis and showing off her okole!"

So why is Hawaiian so much on my mind? Because I've always wanted to name my kids with Hawaiian names. I have a girl name already, can't settle on a boy name. Every time I try to think of one, I remember that my baby will not be Hawaiian. I get mixed feelings. I wonder if it's worth pondering at all. I wonder if my kid will hate me. I get very sad that my kid won't look like me. We chose a donor that was an acceptable appearance match to me. But I will be the first in my Mom's family to have a baby that isn't blonde and blue eyed and a spitting image of myself or my mother as a baby. It's a family tradition!

I just have to remind myself of the things my baby will <i>not</i> inherit: the family crazy, the family linebacker shoulders, the family battle of the bulge, the family suck-ass immune system, any connection to my father...

But will the baby grow up to tan, or just burn and freckle? If out in the sun too long, will some freckles look green? Will there be auburn highlights to the hair? A tendency to blonde around the face?

Is it better to have a baby that looks like me, or an adult child without diabetes? "Snap out of it!"