Family Friday: 16 Months Old


I feel like Cameron has grown and changed so much since last month!  Not only in the way she looks but also in the way she is acting and understanding.  This month we took photos at the dog beach on Hickam Air Force Base.  I'll miss this beach when we move - the compacted sand, the calm water, the airplanes flying low overhead, the extra low tides, the dogs running around, the glorious sunsets, ...

At 16 months old, CC is 22 pounds and 30 inches tall.  She is wearing size 4 shoes (tiny feet!), size 4 diapers, and a mixture of size 12 and 18 month clothing.   She now has 13 teeth: top four front teeth, bottom four front teeth, all four first molars, and now one upper canine tooth.  Her hair is longer than it looks.  It goes down to her shoulders in the back and covers her eyes in the front but the curls keep it up and out of the way.

She is slowly overcoming her dislike of the sand.  She will touch it now but still doesn't want it to touch any other part of her.  That will surely change in this coming year.


CC has a few new words and sounds: wow, nanna (banana), roar, meow, and moo.  She uses "wow" in the correct context whenever she sees something interesting, beautiful, or unusual and it's so cute!  She uses animal sounds when she sees animals in books, on screen, or on toys.  She occasionally repeats sounds and words that she hears.  She loves pointing at things, in books or in real life, to have us name what the thing is.


airplane!


CC still loves dogs, books, and music.  She now really loves dolls and stuffed animals as well.  She holds them, hugs them, and pats their backs.  She loves stirring and eating pretend food.  She loves wearing big shoes in the house.  She loves going for rides in the stroller and bike trailer.  She loves climbing on anything and has recently started climbing up to and going down the sliding boards on the neighborhood playgrounds all by herself!



CC hates being told not to do something and will instantly have a meltdown, running into my arms to sob against my shoulder every time.  She is starting to learn and test limits so there has been a lot more crying lately.  I try to keep her environment as "no-free" as possible but there will always be things that she needs to learn.  For example: it is okay to hit her toys against the ground, but it is not okay to hit furniture or Dulce with her toys.  When I say something like "I won't let you hit Dulce with that", she will throw her toy down and sob like it's the end of the world.  A few minutes later when she's done crying, she will take the toy near Dulce again, look and me, and say "no, no, no" while shaking her head - as if checking to see if she understands correctly.  I rarely have to tell her not to do the same thing twice.  She is a really good listener.



Lately, CC has been wanting to be hugged a lot.  She lays her head on my shoulder and pats my arm so that I'll pat her back (just like she does to her dolls).  It's so sweet, it melts my heart.  I always make time for her hugs :)


Cameron sat on my lap and watched this sunset with me... I'll remember sweet moments like this even if she doesn't.


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"A hug is worth a thousand words."
~Author Unknown

Family Friday: January 10

Cameron turned 16 months old this week!  She is growing and developing by leaps and bounds.  I am amazed by her every day.  We had an exciting but rough week so I did not get her monthly photo shoot done yet.  We will get it done soon and I will do her official 16 month post next Friday.

The week started out great.  Last weekend we took our bicycles up to Waialua on the North Shore to ride on the Waialua Bike Path.  This is a wonderful 5 mile long, flat, straight, paved, 2-lane path for biking, running, jogging, and walking.  Let me regress and mention that before we drove north, we stopped and got new tubes and tires put on Johnnie's bike.  We put Cameron and Dulce in the bike trailer and headed out.


Seeing a rainbow is always a sweet reminder that we live in Hawaii.  Seeing tsunami warning sirens are always an unnerving reminder that we are on a small island in the middle of the ocean...


We stopped at the intersection of Waialua Beach Road and Goodale Avenue when we saw the most perfect thing parked there... a cupcake truck!  Hawaii is known for it's food trucks.  Everywhere you go you'll see shrimp trucks, bbq trucks, lunch plate trucks, shave ice trucks, etc.  This is the first time we ever saw a cupcake truck.


So many flavors to choose from!  Johnnie got the "What the French Toast?" cupcake which was topped with bacon and I got the "Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa" cupcake.  They were pretty amazing :)


Johnnie waited with the bicycles and talked to Cameron while I ordered the cupcakes.  That's when we heard loud bang - like a truck backfiring.  After a moment of confusion, we realized that Johnnie's brand new tire tube had exploded!  Thankfully it happened while we were stopped - God bless that cupcake truck.


Johnnie rode my bicycle back to get the car while Cameron, Dulce, and I waited with his bike and the trailer.  We didn't get very far on our ride but it was still a fun adventure :)


Late Monday night Cameron came down with a stomach bug.  We put her to bed and two hours later she was covered in vomit.  She has not thrown up since she started solid foods 10 months ago... so lucky, I know!  When babies are strictly formula fed or breastfed, their vomit isn't such a bad thing.  However, when they start eating normal food it turns into full adult-type vomit... and it's gross.  Thankfully it only lasted one night and both Johnnie and I were home to help.  Poor Cameron emptied her stomach in a few different bursts and then dry-heaved for hours.  She was so scared of what was happening and was left so weak that by the end she could barely lift her head.  She lost her appetite and had some vicious diarrhea for four days but is now back to her old self.

I caught her stomach bug on Wednesday - it was milder than what Cameron had but I'll spare you those details.  The day I started feeling better was the day Johnnie came down with it.  His case was even milder and shorter than mine.  Cameron had a scheduled 'well visit' with the pediatrician this week and the doctor said the stomach bug has been going around base... bummer that we all had to catch it.

Cameron fell in love with the giant blue hippo table at the pediatrician's office :)


In the midst of our crazy week, we got some good news... we're moving!  No, we did not get a new assignment.  We still have one year left on this island.  We are simply moving off base to a different rental house in two weeks.  I'll share more details on where once we move but I will say that it's going to make this a pretty epic year for us.  There are a few different reasons involved in why we are moving but one of the big reasons is that both Dulce and Cameron have some severe skin issues that may be partially or fully triggered by where we live.  I've never let on about Cameron's issue before because we were trying to understand it and treat it first.  Unfortunately it turned into a much bigger journey than we ever thought it would.  I am working on a detailed blog post to describe it all in hopes of helping others who are battling the same issues.

I've been keeping up with my 365 Instagram photo challenge so far and really love doing it!  I attempted a similar project back in 2006 but it is so much more fun this time using Instagram.  I am determined to finish the project and have the year of photos made into a photo book for us.  Here are photos from the first ten days:


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"The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created:
converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent
of three thousand miles per gallon."
~Bill Strickland

Happy New Year 2013-14!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!  Happy New Year!  2013 seemed to last forever and fly by all at the same time.  Looking back on photos from the year, I can't believe how much Cameron has changed.  Watching children grow is the true measure of the passage of time.

We did not go out for New Year's Eve this year but we did stay awake until midnight for a kiss.  I started out New Year's Day photographing the sunrise from the east side of the island with a friend while Johnnie and Cameron had some daddy/daughter time.  We ended the day with a family trip to the west side of the island to see the sunset.  Photographing the sunrise and sunset on the same day was a big item on my Hawaii bucket list and New Year's Day was a monumental day to do it!  To be honest, the photos are still on my memory card but luckily I have some Instagram photos to share :)



*** 2013 in Review***

In January Cameron learned to roll onto her side, I stopped breastfeeding her, and we joined some friends on a whale watching cruise.


In February, Cameron began rolling from her back to her stomach and began moving across the floor.  She also experienced her first Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day!


In March, Cameron started eating baby food and became a champ at moving around.  We went on an excursion to the Byodo-In Temple and she enjoyed her first St. Patrick's Day and first Easter!


In April, Cameron was still low-crawling and was able to sit up unsupported.


The best event of the year was in April - Johnnie returned from his six-month deployment!  We were very glad and thankful to have him return safely home to us.


In May, Cameron started pulling up on things and was pulling up to standing by the end of the month.


In May we also took a trip to Pennsylvania to introduce Cameron to my family.  The photo below is my parents with my three brothers and myself, our spouses, and our children.  Our family of six has grown to a family of 16.  It's so special when we can all get together!


In June, Cameron began cruising along furniture and walking with her learning walker.  She was able to stand unsupported by the end of the month and also got her first two teeth.


In June we also took a trip to Seattle to introduce Cameron to family and friends, and Johnnie and I both ran a half marathon.


In July, Cameron took her first steps, began climbing stairs, and took swimming lessons.  We also celebrated Dulce's 4th birthday!


In August, Cameron was walking everywhere - no more crawling for her!


In September, Cameron turned one year old and we had a house full of visitors to help celebrate!


Also in September, because family was there to help watch Cameron, I took an impromptu Space-A trip to Japan with some friends!


In October, I took a weekend trip to San Jose to run a half marathon with a friend and we had fun dressing up as a family of pirates for Halloween.


In November, Cameron's birth story was published in Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine, Cameron and I took a ride on the Hawaiian Railway Society Train, and we had a great Thanksgiving at our house with friends.


In December, we picked out a Hawaiian Christmas tree, went the Hickam Freedom Tower Lighting where we saw some celebrities, Johnnie and I both celebrated our 36th birthdays and we also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, we had a wonderful family Christmas, and we went to the North Shore to watch the Pipe Masters Surf Competition.


2013 was a good year for running!  I completed three 5K races (Cameron rode in the Bob stroller for all of them!), one mud and obstacle Spartan Race, and two half marathons (Rock N Roll Seattle in May and Rock N Roll San Jose in October).


A few goals for 2014:

Continue to blog! I will continue with our weekly posts and hope to get a few extra posts up as well.  I would love to get caught up on the dozens of blog draft posts I have started...

I am attempting a 365 photo challenge on Instagram.  I'm going (to try very hard) to post a photo every day with the hashtag #2014daybyday.  Tag your photos with #2014daybyday if you want to participate - I'd love to see them!  If you're a phone photo kind of person then you need to check out one of my favorite apps, PicTapGo.  I almost always edit the photos on my phone with it before uploading them to Instagram :)

My photography portfolio is growing and I would like to get a collection of prints/products up for sale this year.  Choosing and preparing the photos takes time so we'll see how it goes.

I will definitely run at least one half marathon this year and hope to run some other races as well.

This will be our final year in Hawaii so we are going to enjoy it as much as possible!


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"Approach the New Year with resolve to find the opportunities hidden in each new day."
~Michael Josephson