menu coloring and spacing

Hi everyone, just two quick questions as I’m still not fully fluent in CSS to know which sections I need to be tweaking 🙂

I’ve been recoloring the menu so that the current (selected) category is highlighted along with any subcategories. Problem is, as soon as I mouse over a subcategory within the menu, the parent category is no longer highlighted. I’d like to keep that entire category/subcat structure highlighted.

The other question I have is regarding spacing between menu items. There are so many padding/margin options in the header code that I’m not quite sure which one I need to be fiddling with. I just want to space the menu items out a bit more across the page.

If I’ve confused anyone, I apologize – I can always provide a screenshot if needed. Thanks in advance!

header code:

/*nav links*/
#header ul li { float:left;white-space:nowrap;}
#header ul li a {float:left;display:block;color:#444;padding:5px 0 5px 10px;}
#header ul li:first-child a {padding-left:0;}
#header ul li a:focus, #header ul li a:hover, #header ul li a:active, #header ul .current_page_item a, #header ul .current_page_ancestor a{background:#dddddd;text-decoration:none;},
body.home #header ul li.home a, #header ul .current-cat a, #header ul .current-cat-parent a, body.category-blog #header ul .blog a {text-decoration:none;}
body.shopping_cart #header ul  .current_page_item a  {text-decoration:none;}

/*search || Page Navi*/
.searchWrap, .page_navi {overflow:hidden;}
#searchform, .page_navi ul {float:right;}
#searchform input {float:left;padding:2px;}
#s {width:213px;margin:0 6px 0 0;}
#searchFind {margin:0;}
.page_navi ul li a {font-size:0.9em;}

/*LR Navi*/
#header .LR_navi {padding:10px 0;}
#header .LR_navi a {font-size:0.9em;padding-top:10px;}

/*Main Category Navi || Hybrid navi*/
#header .main_navi {clear:both;float:left;padding-top:10px;}
#header .hybrid_navi ul {float:left;}
#header .hybrid_navi ul.categories, #header .hybrid_navi ul.pages {margin-left:10px;}

/*Secondary Navi*/
#header .secondary_navi {padding-top:10px;}

/*Hybrid Navigation Drop Downs*/
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul {position:relative;}/*for IE7*/
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul, #header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul {z-index:900;}
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul li {position:relative;}
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul li.drop
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul li a {padding:5px 10px;}
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul li:first-child a {padding-left:0;}
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul {position:absolute;display:none;top:20px;left:0;background:#dddddd;float:none;}
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul li, #header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul li a {text-align:left;display:block;float:none;border:0 none;}
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul li a, #header .hybrid_dropnavi ul li:first-child ul  a, #header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul li:first-child a {;padding:10px;text-decoration:none;}
#header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul li a:focus, #header .hybrid_dropnavi ul ul li a:hover {background:#d2d2d2;text-decoration:none;}