www.HawaiiMoms.com is where you'll find a link to the Family Tree blog, with Advertiser writer Treena Shapiro's insightful look at parenting. Or you can enter online discussions with other moms. Here's what one mom of 2-year-old twins wrote: " ... The first year was a bit of a challenge, the first six months being the most difficult. It gets better, and now the fun begins. ... As you see your children develop, you will be amazed how they are different from singletons. You will see the special bond. I waited for 10 years and wish I had done in-vitro earlier; we are so blessed that everything went perfectly fine."

— momoftwins, in the Multiples forum

HAWAIIANA

SUMMER WORKSHOPS SLATED

John Keola Lake, Chaminade University's kumu-in-residence, will be among the leaders of summer workshops and seminars. The series, Nana I Hawai'i I Ko'u Mau Maka (See Hawai'i Through My Eyes), will start Monday and July 18 and will include intensive half-day sessions with well-known kumu hula such as Coline Aiu, Chinky Mahoe and Kapi'olani Ha'o. Other offerings: "On Being Hawaiian," "Indigenous Peacemaking," "Chant, Oli: The Lyrical Poetry and Prose of Hawai'i." Register: 735-4739, marciab@chaminade.edu or www.chaminade.edu.

— Wayne Harada

FINAL WORD

'I'm not interested in engaging in a bunch of Sister Souljah moments just for the sake of it. If I do that, it's ... because it's what I really believe."

Barack Obama | the presidential hopeful on his campaign, in Time magazine