Family Friday: 23 Months Old

It's been over a month since my last post.  I involuntarily took a break because this was honestly a really rough month physically and mentally and I didn't get much of anything accomplished.  This post is about her, not me, so I'll leave the details for another day.  I did at least get these photos done, even if they sat on the memory card for the past 3 weeks.

This month CC and I went to the Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park near Kaneohe for her photos.  This is a buddhist temple that is a smaller-scale replica of the Byodo-in Temple in Japan.  It is open to the public daily for a small fee.  The temple and gardens are a beautiful and peaceful place to spend some time.

The last time we were here, CC was only 6 months old! What a difference a year and half makes! I had no idea at that time that her head would erupt in a mound of curls!

At 23 months old, CC is still wearing size 4 diapers, mostly size 2T clothing (some smaller), and size 6 shoes.  Being summer year round here, we really get a lot of use out of her clothes since she can wear them until she outgrows them instead of just until the season changes. There are some things she has been wearing for over a year now! She still has a few 12 and 18 month shorts and skirts that still fit. It depends on the brand, not all sizes are created equal.

CC still follows the same eating and sleeping schedule.  She has been eating 4 times a day and sleeping 12 hours a night since she was 5 months old.  She started coming into this schedule on her own around 4 months and I just made sure she stuck with it.  Consistency was key and it still is.  If we want a happy toddler, then she needs to stick to her schedule (within reason).

There is a small gift shop on the temple grounds where you can purchase a small bag of fish food.  If you are military, you get a bag of food for free!  CC had a great time feeding the fish and birds.  She threw out one pellet at a time... thankfully we weren't in any hurry!

CC still loves her pacifiers. They are definitely a comfort item now and an addiction. I'm not going to make her quit them cold turkey yet but we are limiting them to only the crib and the car for longer rides.  There have been a few times in the past month when CC really wanted her paci.  When I tell her she could only have the paci if she's in her crib, then she wants in her crib so she can suck it! She sits quietly in her crib for about 20 minutes, gets her sucking fix, and then wants out to play again.

CC is still primarily babbling when she speaks but she is constantly learning and adding new words to her vocabulary.  Most notable for month 23 was that she started saying yes and no instead yeah and uh-uh.  She also started saying please ("eese") consistently and unprompted. She introduces Johnnie and I to everyone who pays attention to her as mama and daddy.  She knows her name but has not said it yet.

CC loves her babies (baby dolls and stuffed animals) and loves seeing real babies when we're out somewhere. She still loves Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and watches an episode of that almost every day.  She loves to "write" with pens, markers, crayons, and colored pencils. She also loves to brush her teeth and would brush them all day long if I let her!

Soon CC will be 2 years old! We are having a small casual cookout with a few friends to celebrate. Johnnie's parents will also be here for a visit.

For the past year, I've been referring to CC by number of months instead of simply saying "She's 1."  I know this annoys some people (usually those who don't have children) but there is such a HUGE difference between a 13 month old and a 23 month old despite both technically being "1". This has been such an incredible year for change, in both her looks and her abilities.  Once she turns two, I will stop counting by months.

I will also be stopping the monthly photos when she turns two and consider this project complete.  I'll still take random photos as often as I always do but I'll leave the official photo shoots to once a year. This was actually an extremely difficult project and I'm honestly glad it's about over.  CC is not a cooperative photo subject (notice how few photos in this post actually show her face?) so these photo shoots were quite stressful to accomplish.  I'm glad I have these monthly photos and I hope she appreciates them someday.  I also hope that she will eventually cooperate for photos, or at least look at the camera :)

*******

"The key to happiness is letting each situation be what it is

instead of what you think it should be."

~ Mandy Hale

Family Friday: 22 Months Old

We were a little late with this month's photos. We moved at the beginning of the month, then stormy weather rolled in, and then I was sick for a week...  I'm getting caught up just in time to take more photos!

For this month's photos we went to the Kawainui Marsh Trail in Kailua.  This is a 1.3 mile long path for foot, stroller, and bicycle traffic only.  There is a paved sidewalk next to a gravel road about the width of a car.  We saw a lot of people walking their dogs, jogging, and riding bicycles.  We didn't notice any bugs on the evening we went but people we talked to said that gnats and mosquitos can be really bad at times.  The views are great but there is no shade so going in the morning or late afternoon is best.

At 22 months old, CC is still wearing size 4 diapers and mostly size 2T clothing. She is wearing size 6 shoes.  I haven't measured her height or weight lately but she is definitely getting taller and leaning out some.  Her hair is growing and getting lighter, although I'm pretty sure she is destined to be a brunette.  It is still as curly as ever!

CC still has a bedtime of 7:30pm and sleeps for about 12 hours.  She takes an afternoon nap everyday, usually from 1:30 to 3:30pm.  She has stopped crying at nap time and bedtime now. She throws her selected baby dolls into the crib, goes in willingly herself, and then goes to sleep without a fuss. Easy-peasy... finally!

CC eats 3 meals and 1 scheduled evening snack every day.  She has started occasionally wanting a mid-morning snack which I do give her when she asks.

CC drinks water all day and always has multiple cups sitting around the house.  I'm amused by that because I have always done that myself, even when I was young.  CC does not like plain milk of any kind.  For calcium, she does eat a lot of cheese and I make her smoothies with breakfast made with either almond milk or coconut milk (because that's what I drink myself).

CC is such a little person at the table now.  We never bought a high chair for her.  Instead, we used the Inglesina Fast Table Chair so that she would be more a part of our meals (besides the fact that high chairs are big and take up a lot of space).  She used the Inglesina for a year, until she was about 18 months old, and then we switched to the Graco Blossom Booster Seat. The booster was short lived, she only used it for about 3 months. She loves to put her baby dolls in it now and play with the buckles but she refuses to sit in it.  She wants to sit in a normal chair like everyone else.

CC drinks from either a real cup or a cup with a straw now.  She can also drink from normal water bottles.  She uses real metal silverware (I bought some small sized real forks and spoons) and she occasionally use real plates (our salad plates are the perfect size). All of these changes make eating out at restaurants so much easier since we no longer have to take any of our own things along.

CC's language is still a lot of baby babble but occasionally she'll say things in plain English.  She understands everything and follows directions extremely well.  Her list of words she uses on a daily basis is growing.  Her top most-used words are uh-oh (something's wrong), uh-uh (no), yeah (yes), agua (water), and more (still accompanied by the sign language).  She is starting to say please and thank you (also still usually accompanied by the sign language).

CC says Dulce (deh-see) and has picked up a few things on her own in regards to Dulce just from watching me.  For example, CC calls for Dulce by yelling her name and smacking her lips (trying to mimic the sound I make); when we leave the house, she tells Dulce to be a "guh goo" (good girl) like I always do; and when Dulce rolls in the dirt, CC says "bah goo" (bad girl) and shakes her finger.

CC still loves music and loves to dance and sing.  She plays her keyboard and other instruments every day.  Her favorite toys right now are her "babies" and her shopping cart.  She loves to color but still needs supervised with writing utensils.  She still loves to read and looks at books quietly by herself.  Lately, instead of wanting me to read to her, she gives me a book to read while she reads her own book beside me :)

CC watches a TV show once a day.  Last month she couldn't ever decide which TV show she wanted to watch. This month it is Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood every single time.  She loves that show!  I honestly love it too - the characters are cute, relatable, and diverse (some are animals and the rest are people of different races), there is a lesson of the day that is sung often throughout each episode, the show really focuses on feelings, the content is very relevant to toddlers and preschoolers, and it is educational!

CC still throws tantrums and she screams when she gets frustrated.  Fortunately both of those things are short lived once I give her the understanding and words that she needs to describe her feelings.  The Happiest Baby on the Block was my lifesaver when CC was a newborn.  The things I learned from Happiest Toddler on the Block are a huge help now.  Below is a great video clip of the author Dr. Karp on the Dr. Phil show putting his advice into action.  You do feel like a moron at first but it does actually work, especially if you use it consistently.  It is now second nature for me to start most things I say to CC (even in normal conversation, not just tantrums) with "You want..." or "You don't want..." which lets her know that I hear her and understand her. This almost always calms her down quickly during a tantrum or prevents one altogether.

Some people talk about the Terrible Twos while others swear that two was fine and that it's the Terrible Threes you have to worry about.  Every child is different... we'll just take it one day at a time and see how it goes!

*******

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up

is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."

~Phyllis Diller

Family Friday - June 26

How is it the end of June already? This year is flying by! Perhaps it seems to be going even faster than normal because we know that our time in Hawaii is coming to an end.  We are due to leave the island within the first couple months of the new year.  It will be a few more months before we find out where we're going next but the possibilities are certainly occupying our thoughts.

CC has turned into little miss opinionated lately.  She has strong opinions about what she wants to wear now (though luckily she's still open to suggestions) and she also has opinions about what I wear!  There are some days where she will pull at my shirt and say "no, no" and then take me by the hand to my room where she opens my drawer and picks out a different shirt for me to wear.  I'm not exaggerating!  I don't usually comply unless it's a hot day and she picks out a tank top :)

She also has strong opinions about TV shows now as well.  Sometimes we start 3 or 4 different shows before she agrees that one is suitable enough to watch.  Lately she has been watching Curious George, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, and Sesame Street (but she hates the Elmo's World portion of it).  We watch one show before lunch most days.

CC's new favorite phrase is "How 'bout... "  When we ask her any questions concerning what to do or what she wants, she enthusiastically replies "How 'bout (baby babble)? How 'bout (more baby babble)?"  She is trying to make suggestions but we can't understand the babble so we give her some options and she says yes or no.

She has also developed an interest in photography this week.  She carries around my Olympus Tough camera and points it at things, saying "cheeeeese".  Once she learns how to actually take photos, I will write some posts featuring her work :)

CC has had some pretty epic tantrums lately.  It's almost always when she is tired or hungry and I tell her not to do something or I don't do what she wants me to do.  She will stand, red faced, and scream as loud as she can, and then she will cry like it's the end of the world.  Funny thing is that if something distracts her for even a second, the screaming and crying instantly stop... until she remembers that she was in the middle of a tantrum and then quickly resumes.

CC still loves to dance and now she likes to hold our hands and dance with us.  We even got Dulce in on the fun a few times!  Luckily "dance with me" (me holding her paws and taking some steps) was already in her trick repertoire so she doesn't object too much.

CC has a head full of curls that makes her hair look a lot shorter than it is.  It is actually well below her shoulders, it just seems to curl tighter the longer is gets!

We have been busy in the past week because we're moving!  Yes, again!  And no, we're not leaving the island yet.  We love our beachfront house on the North Shore but we have been dealing with an extremely difficult, inconsiderate, and uncooperative landlord since we moved in.  Things have gotten worse lately and we've had enough so we're moving out.

This is a sudden move - certainly not planned.  At first, it was pretty devastating to think about leaving this house but then we realized that this a great opportunity to experience yet another very different part of the island!  We were blessed to find a great house in Kailua on the east side of the island to stay in for the remainder of our time.  The house is clean and it's empty so we will be able to get all of our things out of storage and live comfortably.  It is considerably larger than our current rental, it has a large enclosed backyard (perfect for Dulce), an in-ground swimming pool, and it's only a few minutes walk to a gorgeous beach with turquoise water and white sand.  Best of all, the owner is amazingly helpful and friendly!

This is an easy move since most of our belongings are in a storage room.  I have been packing up what we can so that the moving company can get in and out quickly.  CC has been helpful, trying to assist me with the packing :)

Dulce loves life here so she's not too happy about the changes going on.  She doesn't yet know how much she's going to love her new backyard!  She has been grumpy this past week and tried to unpack her things as I was packing them.

Here on the North Shore, we see sunrises and sunsets.  The sunrises are over land, as are the sunsets for half the year.  On the east coast, we'll miss out on sunsets but we will see spectacular sunrises over the ocean every morning - the photographer in me can't wait!!

Kailua is a pretty amazing town with a lot of shopping and restaurants, and the nicest beaches on the island.  It is vastly different from the quiet, laid-back, hippy lifestyle of the North Shore.  We are certainly blessed that in this one assignment, we get to experience living in three very different parts of this island.  We will leave here with no regrets.

I am really going to miss our ocean view and having the beach in our backyard.   I am thankful for every day that we lived in this house, despite the difficulties we put up with.

Ocean view + sunset + wine = happiness :)

When I started this blog three+ years ago, I put the tag line "Life is an adventure every day" at the top under our title.  That's actually not how I always looked at life up to that point but I wanted to, so I vowed from then on to change my attitude and believe it... it's been a process.  Life is far from perfect but it is a hell of a lot more enjoyable when you have the right attitude.  This quote is a good reminder of that:

Count your blessings, be thankful everyday, and know that everything happens for a reason.

*******

"A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour."

~Author Unknown

Big Island Day Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Johnnie traveled to the Big Island (the island that is officially named "Hawaii") for a two-week work trip.  If we could drive on water, it would have only been a 2.5 hour drive to get to him.  Since we don't have an awesome car-boat, we flew on Hawaiian Airlines from the Honolulu Airport instead to spend Father's Day with him.  The plane was large and comfortable, and the flight only took 40 minutes.  This was a fun day-trip adventure; we were gone for about 10 hours.

I honestly feel that life with a toddler is exponentially easier than life with a baby.  Take this day trip for example: I took Cameron and a lightweight backpack - that was it!  No need for a carseat, stroller, baby carrier, bottles, baby food, blankets, burp rags, baby toys, or the billion other things that babies need.  This was a very simple, easy, and enjoyable trip off the island!

Our day trip backpack contained: diapers, wipes, one outfit change for CC (just in case), a straw cup, snacks, a pacifier, sunglasses, my wallet, my phone, and CC's Barney doll.

CC walked herself through the airport and onto the plane... actually, she was skipping and hopping at times :)  She LOVED seeing airplanes up close and seeing all the little carts speeding around outside.

CC is under two years of age so we got an "infant in arms" ticket for her.  The plane was not very full on our trip to the island and the two seats next to mine were empty so CC sat there for most of the flight.  She sat down and buckled herself in and waited patiently with her pacifier and Barney the entire time we were taxiing.  She moved over to my lap for the actual takeoff.  She whimpered a bit as we were climbing in altitude, unsure of what was happening but once we leveled out, she returned to her seat and looked at the in-flight magazines for the remainder of the trip.

Johnnie picked us up from the airport in a rental car with a carseat.  CC's carseat is still rear-facing in our car but we put the rental carseat facing forward.  This was a new experience for her and she was pretty amazed by all that she could see out of the side and front windows!

Our first stop was a coffee shop for some lattes and then we headed to the Historic Kailua Village to explore for a while before lunch.

We had a delicious and enjoyable Father's Day lunch at The Fish Hopper restaurant with a great table overlooking Kailua Bay.

After lunch we went to the Kamakana Playground at the Harold H. Higashihara Park located at 78-7300 Kuakini Hwy.  This playground is HUGE!  Johnnie and I were just as excited as CC to play on it!

This playground is at about 1,300 feet in elevation.  Since we spend most of our time at sea level, the altitude made me feel short of breath after being there for a while.  CC seemed to be fine with it but then again, she can't really speak to let us know!  I felt better once we returned to a lower elevation.

We left the playground in time for CC's nap.  She was so tired from running around and climbing that she fell asleep soon after the car started moving.

We took a long scenic drive to let CC nap.  We relished in the vastness of the landscape and the open road with virtually no traffic... it was such a welcome sight after living on a crowded island for the past 2+ years now!

Some of the land was practically glowing with bright and vivid color...

while other areas were rough, volcanic wasteland.

When CC woke up, we stopped to browse at a Crocs store in the Queen's Marketplace in the Waikoloa area.  CC tried on a few pairs of shoes and fell in love with these pink ones.  Once they were on her feet, they weren't coming off.  The sales clerk cut off the tag so she could ring them up and CC wore them for the rest of the day (and every day since then).

Johnnie flew home with us at the end of the day!  This flight was more crowded so CC sat on Johnnie's lap the whole time.  She did fine on this trip but was more unsettled since she couldn't move around as much and she got angry when she couldn't put the tray table down until after take off.

We may take a trip to another island this year but that will be as far as CC will fly until we move from Hawaii.  It's at least a 5 hour flight to the west coast of the mainland and we don't care to go through that with a toddler until we absolutely have to.

*******

"Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind."

~Seneca