Family Friday: 19 Months

This month Cameron and I went with a friend to Waimea Valley to take her photos.  It was so helpful having my friend along to help get Cam's attention.  Cameron was running everywhere until my friend asked her dance... genius!  She stopped in the middle of path and started dancing for us long enough for me to get a good photo :)

Waimea Valley is on the North Shore across from Waimea Bay.  It is a beautiful area with a gift shop, cultural events, and a farmer's market held every Thursday.  For a fee, you can hike the 1.5 mile round-trip paved walking path to Waimea Falls.  It is a beautiful walk through lush scenery to a waterfall at the end.  There are many dirt and gravel paths that veer off of the main path to lead you through different gardens, an ancient Hawaiian living site, and along a stream.

At 19 months old, Cameron is wearing size 4 diapers and size 5 shoes.  She wears mostly size 18 month clothing but some 24 month and 2T things are starting to fit.  I can pick out her outfits with little fuss but she wants to choose which shoes to wear.  She can put on most of her shoes by herself now.

Cameron loves reading books (with someone and by herself), listening to music and playing her instruments, and dancing (if she hears any music, her hips start swaying).  She love all animals (especially dogs), shoes, necklaces, purses, baby dolls, her truck, and her shopping cart.  She loves getting baths and playing with water (I give her beach buckets full to play with on the deck).  She loves rocks and picks them up everywhere we go and she also loves taking Dulce for walks and holding the leash.

Cameron will now usually give hugs and kisses when we ask.  Sometimes her kisses are her lips mouth pressed against ours and other times it is only the kissing sound "mmmwah" in our general direction.  Sometimes she surprises us with heart-melting random kisses, hugs, and cuddles.

Cameron's hair is growing and is still as curly as ever.  Every morning while she eats breakfast, I spritz it with water and comb it.  It dries into perfect little ringlets and curls.

Cameron wanted to help me push the stroller through the park instead of riding in it.  She loves to help me around the house and do whatever she sees me doing.

Cameron seems to understand almost everything she hears but her vocabulary is still limited.  I imagine that she is simply absorbing everything right now and will start spitting out complete sentences some day.  Her most said words are this and that.  She is constantly pointing at things saying "This?" or "That?" and we tell her what it is.  When we say something that she doesn't understand, she will say "What?" with perfect clarity and a little attitude.

Cameron sleeps at least 12 hours each night with a bedtime of 7:30pm.  She takes 2+ hr nap during the day, usually in the afternoon.  At our old house she slept in footed pajamas because of the air conditioning.  It is a lot warmer here so we recently got her some new big girl pajamas - the cute little matching sets of tops and bottoms.  On cooler nights she wears a sleep sack over her pajamas.

We always put her to bed with a doll, a couple of board books, and a couple of pacifiers.  She will often look at the books before falling asleep and in the morning she happily plays her doll and reads until we go in to get her.  She still needs the pacifiers for falling sleeping, both at night and for naps but we don't use them during the day unless we go out somewhere.

Last month Cameron was on a vegetable strike but this month she has willingly eaten a small variety of veggies and I discovered that she loves veggie burgers.  She still won't drink milk but she likes drinking smoothies so I'll make her one a few times a week to have with breakfast.  Her most favorite recent smoothie consisted of oranges, pineapple, banana, kale, pineapple juice, and milk.

Cameron is a sweet, independent, and curious little girl who is (usually) a lot fun to be around.  Life with a baby was extremely difficult for me so I am thankful that babies grow quickly.  Life is exponentially easier and more enjoyable this year and keeps getting better each month.  This is is my absolute favorite age yet and really makes me love being a mom.

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"These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this"

~Trace Adkins