Family Friday: April 18

My friend and running buddy, Laura, arrived about two weeks ago for a long visit (she's still here and her mother joined us a few days ago as well).  She came to run the Hapalua Half Marathon with me and since she works a full-time job via internet, she is able to stay for a while.  Having her here has been helpful in giving me the freedom to run errands during CC's naps and having an extra hand to help get dinner ready.  It's also nice having a friend to talk to everyday as well :)

I have a ton of photos of CC but not very many of her and I together since I'm the one always holding the camera.  I'm thankful that Laura has been snapping some photos of CC and I together in the past couple weeks - they are already some of my favorite photos!

See more on Instagram! http://instagram.com/johnnieangela

CC has decided this week that she loves vegetables again (but still not potatoes) after a month-long dislike of them.  I'm glad that was just a short phase!  I offer her a fork at every meal and this week she has started using it correctly for about half of what she eats.  It has been a process for the past couple of months that she has been figuring out.

We had a well-visit with the pediatrician this week.  According to the evaluation, CC is very advanced with her physical abilities and fine motor skills but lacking with her language because she has a small spoken vocabulary (her sign language words do not count).  We're not worried about that at all because we know that her level of understanding language is very high and that her spoken language will come when she's ready.

This past week CC has been babbling up a storm.  She has very animated conversations with us and is now "reading" her books out loud to herself... but all in her own language.  This week she started saying up and can clearly say Laura (which is her first spoken name).  She points and yells excitedly when airplanes and helicopters fly by our house and we just realized a few days ago that she is actually yelling "There it is!" when she sees one.  I guess that with all the words we say (airplane, plane, el avión, glider, helicopter, Coast Guard) that it's easier for her to simply say that phrase.  That is officially the first time she has put words together into a sentence or phrase.

I became friends with Laura when we were living in Georgia over five years ago.  She has known Dulce from the time that we adopted her and spent a lot of time with her, often watching her during our frequent out of town trips.  Dulce hadn't seen Laura in over three years but she absolutely remembered her!  Dulce cried and cried when she saw Laura and even slept on her bed with her the first night.  A dog's love obviously knows no time or distance :)

Dulce loves chasing sand crabs and has discovered recently that she can catch them if she digs very deep holes.  Every morning she digs holes as deep as her front legs will go and actually catches at least one crab a day.  They usually survive but with some battle wounds.  Dulce luckily hasn't gotten her nose pinched... yet.

This past week had fun times on the beach...

a long overdue date night...

and evenings of drinks on the lanai watching the sun set into the ocean.  I am so thankful for every day :)

*******

"True friendship isn't about being inseparable,

it's being separated and nothing changes."

~unknown