word count.

Here we go!!

mama
daddy
papa (grandpa)
pop (gramps)
gah-me (grammy)
gah-ma (grandma)
aunty
uncle
emi
kaci
me
baby

apple
nana (banana)
ice
rice
noodle
yo-yo (yogurt)
yo drops (he totally said this yesterday!)
pune (prune)
cack-ah (cracker)
juice
mahlk (milk)
wa-wa (water)
boof (fruit)

ball
chain (train)
bat
bin-bi (binky)
ba-ba (bear)
cah (car)
poon (spoon)
turn
walk
eyes
nose
toes
peas (please)
than - ku (thank you)
lah vu (love you)
yes
no
cold
hot
go
cheese
see
up
down
oh-pah (open)
cose (close)
more
gen (again)
pen
bowl
pat
moon

beach
zoo
park
play
cook
airplane
fly (butterfly)
duck
hat
bup (cup)
shoes
teeth
nigh (good night)
bye
kinko - kinko (twinkle twinkle)
turtle
fish
peep (sheep)

elmo
abby
cah-gu (cookie)
go-vo (grover)
ernie
burt
big bird
ah-car (oscar)
ah-ah (for the count)
he says something for zoe but i can't recall
papi (for patti labelle!)
sing
row
mi-mee (mickey)
boo (peek-a-boo)
music

And he can count from 1-10 and say his ABC's, though not all the words are perfectly clear

That's almost 100 :) I'm sure I'm missing a few words here and there too. So, I guess he's not doing so bad after all! Phew!

anybody miss me?

Wow, last blog entry June 10. That's not good. Cam's been up to his usual cuteness in the last month. More words are starting to come in but communicating with him is still more mommy telepathy than anything. B and I have actually been wanting to put together a list of all the words he says and do a word count. That just may be my next blog entry! We're crazy, I know.

Here's some pics from the last month for any faithful readers out there annoyed at my lack of Camden updates.


bishop museum. poor guy was not having the T-rex!



Ice Age train at the mall. He went on this like 5 times in the last month!


He liked the helicopter ride the best.


More windward mall fun!


My first golf lesson.


ELMO!!!

seek? yes. hide? not so much.

Cam's new favorite game is hide and seek...sort of. He's got the seeking down pat and even covers his eyes and counts to 10 (or to 3 properly and then babbles til I get up to 10). After the "ready or not here we come!" line, he runs off excitedly to find daddy or mommy depending on who gets designated as the official hider. The parent who is the co-seeker with Camden talks him through the seeking process. i.e. "Is daddy in Camden's room? No....Is he in the kitchen? No..." Until finally, Camden finds the person he's looking for and thinks it's just the best thing ever!

Early on when we first started playing this game, we tried to get him to hide with one of us. He did not get that concept at all and would immediately run out of his hiding place laughing hysterically once someone started looking for him. Now, he understands that he has to stay put and hide but hasn't quite grasped that he also needs to be quiet.

The other day, I was hiding with Camden in our hall closet (his most favorite place to hide) and Brian was looking for us. B did the usual commentary as he went around the house seeking. The greatest part though, was every time Brian would ask the rhetorical question like, "Is Camden in his room?" Camden would answer out loud from the closet, "Noooo." So the game ended up going like this:

Daddy: Is Camden in his room?

Cam in closet: Noooo

Mommy hiding with Camden: Shhh. You have to be quiet so daddy doesn't hear you.

Daddy: Is Camden in mommy and daddy's room?

Cam in closet: Noooo

Mommy: Shhhhh (with laughter, of course)

Daddy: (now laughing) Is Camden in the kitchen?

Cam in closet: Noooo

Clearly, hiding still needs a bit of work. Love.

mommy the maid.

I seriously feel like I spend half my day cleaning. I am not a neat freak by any means but there are certain things I am a bit neurotic about: 1) dust. 2) insects! and 3) too much clutter.

Since having my son and moving to Hawaii, there has been an increase in all three categories. In Seattle, we had a bigger house but no toddler and cold weather which made it so that our windows were closed 9 months of the year. I pretty much only cleaned when we were having company over or when things started getting bad enough to where I started feeling icky. (A technical term, thank you)

But now, I swear I am cleaning every day and doing a good, deep cleaning once a week! Why? Well, the number one reason is Camden, of course. The toddler that he is, he has no control over crumb dropping, drink spilling, toy throwing, crayon marking and otherwise destroying all that is our house. (Thank goodness it's a rental!) So, I'm constantly cleaning up and picking up after him. That's my daily routine.

Then there's laundry. Kids go through clothes like no other and I'm doing laundry ALL THE TIME. And I only have one child! I can't imagine the moms who have multiple children. Makes me want a Jetson-style self-washing washing machine should I have another kid. Like, for real.

The other part of the equation is just this particular house in this part of the world. Our house is smaller than the one we had in Seattle, but most of our rooms have laminate floors so dust bunnies are a plenty. Good thing someone invented the swiffer sweeper cause I go through Costco size packs of the stuff like it's going out of style. And since we live in Hawaii, our windows are ALWAYS open, bringing in the dirt and added dust from outside. Lovely.

And because this is an older house, there are little cracks here and there that let the insects in if you're not careful. Leave some sugar on the counter or neglect some Camden crumbs for too long and you got an ant/roach problem you do not want. Also because this house is older, there's no dish washer. Let me repeat that...NO DISH WASHER. Let's just say I have a serious case of dishpan hands.

And so, I find myself washing, sweeping, dusting, cleaning and organizing my life away. I'm now looking into new toy and book organizers to buy cause the overflow of stuff is starting to get out of hand. Target is calling me!

All I can say is, it's a good thing I'm only working part-time cause my other part-time job is spelled M-A-I-D.

our own personal entertainment.

Who needs to watch a new sitcom when you have Camden in the house? His cuteness is pure comedy all on its own.



so THIS is what it feels like to be dizzy.



ewwww. stinky feet!



Turn the volume up! When Cam isn't quite ready to sleep, he talks to himself and jumps in his crib. SO CUTE.

word explosion?

everyone keeps telling me about the "word explosion" that hit toddlers around 18-20 mos. i excitedly waited for his 18-mo bday thinking that he'll suddenly start talking. nope. 19 months...his word count has definitely increased but i wouldn't call it an explosion. then a few days ago, on may 17 to be exact, it's like something clicked in cam's head overnight. all of a sudden he was repeating all kinds of words we've been trying to get him to say for months. just in the last few days he started saying the following:



love you
apple
circle
please
thank you
one, two, three
delicious (something close to it at least!)
train
down
bowl
baby
hi
bye

but is it the explosion i've been anxiously awaiting? only time will tell but it's a word burst for sure! you don't know how excited brian and i get when cam repeats something we say. his "please" and "thank you" is quite clear and my favorite is of course when he says, "love you." :)

cam on camera

camden's doing the funniest things these days. although it's tiring, i'm really going to miss this toddler stage. he's so much fun!

here's a couple of recent videos that crack us up.


this is what happens when i don't nap at grandma's house.



and this was just this morning. low, low, low!

the opihi phase

for those of you who don' t know, an opihi is a small, snail-like creature that sticks to ocean rocks. it's also a cute term for "little one" since opihis are so tiny. hence, camden's current stage of being incredibly clingy to mommy has been coined the "opihi phase."

and an opihi he is. the last couple of months, he's become very shy around people he doesn't see often. in fact, he's pretty much shy around everyone except mommy, daddy, grandparents, uncle dave and emi. everyone else, he takes a good half hour (at least!) to warm up to. if he sees you more often, the time period is less but if you're a stranger? forget about it. this kid won't give you the time of day. he'll see you, run to me and grab onto my leg, hanging on for dear life.

but this opihi thing doesn't seem to only apply to strangers. sometimes, it applies to daddy. recently, cam's being doing this thing where if daddy's around, he ain't having any of brian. he only wants mommy. sometimes, he even wants grammy, gramps and uncle over daddy. poor brian. i don't know if it's because brian's away at work all day and cam is mad at him for being gone? brian seems to think that's what it is. makes sense, i guess. i do know for fact that camden really loves having both of us together with him. he'll start chanting, "mama, dada. mama, dada" over and over again. so perhaps he does resent brian because he's not around as much. can kids be that smart this young and unconsciously be punishing daddy for working? scary.

people say it's a phase and it'll pass. i sure hope so! i try my best to bring him around a variety of people and have been trying to have him play with other kids more often. there's a bunch of great, free activities nearby on the weekdays. bunjie the clown at the town center on mondays and keiki club at pearlridge on tuesdays. there's also tiny tots tuesdays in mauka. hopefully he won't be an opihi much longer. i want him to be more social!

TMTM.

remember the days in intermediate school when we used to use acronyms like this? here's a refresher: it means "too much to mention." and that's how i feel right now. i've been away from this blog for SO long that there is just too much to share of what's been going on. plus, with my mommy brain still intact (i'm starting to think it's a permanent state of being), i'm not sure if i can even recall all the things i'd like to share. but here it goes...

• i have been sick since the beginning of march and after two rounds of antibiotics, am FINALLY better. i coughed so much that i bruised my rib or pulled a muscle or something and had to pop ibprofen pills for a week. it hurt to lift my arm which made carrying camden loads of fun. please, viral gods, let that be my last illness of 2011!!
• we had brian's oishi family reunion in mid-april. his cali family flew in for a few days and we had jam-packed schedule of outings, dinners and all around fun with his cousins and their kids. it's great seeing cam play with his 2nd cousins! especially since he won't have many. :(
  
• i started working part-time after months of searching for the perfect gig. this mommy/work balance ain't easy, let me tell ya. thankfully, i found a 20-hour a week contract gig so i can work from home, avoid the crazy hawaii traffic and still be around for camden. he goes to my mom's on MWF and then i'm with him TTh. so far, it's been working out well!
• camden, of course, is cuter every day!! the "word explosion" has yet to hit, but he's trying. his new ones include: store, egg (ga-ga) and emi (na-na, don't ask me why). but for some reason, he no longer says "up." he just says "uh" instead. it's like the word has fallen out of his head. i'm trying not to worry about it. :/
• his newest feat is that he's learned how to climb up onto the couch all by himself! luckily, he hasn't tried escaping his crib...YET.
• cam's very into giving kisses these days. it's adorable!! he says "muah" every time he does it and periodically throughout the day will come up to me and give me muahs on my cheek, my leg, my hand, my back. i. love. it.
  
• easter's coming up and we have a big family easter dinner on brian's side. somehow being a mom has inspired me to try and be crafty against my better judgment. i'm not really the crafty kind. drawing, art...i like that better because it doesn't have to be so precise. but crafts? if it looks messy, it sucks. i'm giving it a shot tho. so, B's family will get crafty-ish little easter gifts with glue running down the sides.

here's some recent pics!



chuckecheese


aikahi park


family reunion


cousins


i love sand!


discovery center


leila's 1st birthday

new words!

yes, i'm a blogging fiend today. trying to make up for my MONTHS of neglect on this thing. so, new words camden says:

WOW (yes, caps are necessary here)
uh-oh
ball
car
turtle
no (i've only heard it a couple times, which i think is a good thing!)
yes (sounds more like "yeah" but he's trying)

and ones you have to decipher:

doh-da = toy story
rhy-sh = raisin
coco = uncle

it'll be great when he starts saying crazy sentences like "mama, coco no doh-da. rhy-sh?"

veggie tales

i'm trying my best to get cam to eat more vegetables. he's not having it. i've been making him these cheese broccoli bites that tastes more like cheese than broccoli so that's the only thing he'll eat that's not a meat, starch or fruit.

one of my baby hui mommy friends suggested putting zucchini in muffins. genius! so, i found this zucchini orange muffin recipe that's awesome. cam loves it and yay! a new veggie. i also decided to finally try and make sweet potato fries since cam won't just eat potatoes on his own. found this recipe for it and he loves that too! two for two. i'm on a roll :)

emi and camden

took camden and his cousin, emi to the playground today. they both just loved it and cam was even mad when it was time to leave. it's so great to see them play together. now that camden's a little older, i think emi sees him more as a playmate than a nuisance. haha. she really takes care of him like a big sister and it's so cute. i can't wait til cam starts talking. that's when the fun between the two of them will really begin. i can just see it now..."no, that's MY toy!" ... "no, mine! i had it first!" ... "moooommy!!!" heart.

here's some pics from their time together today. no doubt, camden loves his cousin!

more of 'how cute is my son'

he's very into sitting in his toy bin at the moment.


my lunch date.


stickers!


can you guess where i am? :)

sick, sick, sick.

march has been a rough month. camden got sick at the beginning of the month, followed closely by me coming down with a nasty cold that is STILL lingering. camden's illness started with conjunctivitus. he had mucus coming out of his eyes but they never did get pink. but i took him to the doc to get eye drops and then disinfected practically everything he touched. putting eye drops in his eyes was a blast, btw. camden would shut his eyes as tight as possible, thrash around and turn his head from side to side so it's pretty much impossible to get a drop in. the first few times i held his arms and legs down with my legs and then tried to pry an eye open and quickly get a drop in. mind you, all the while camden is crying bloody murder. our neighbors probably thought i was abusing him. the doc said to give him the drops 4 times a day at a minimum. what??? you gotta be kidding me. i then opted for just putting a couple drops on his eyelids and just hoped some of the medicine would somehow get in his eyes. seemed to worked cause the mucus stopped. but then his congestion, fever and cough kicked in so that led to sleepless nights on all fronts. it seriously was like having a newborn back in the house! let's also not forget that i am now sick with crazy congestion and a killer cough. not sleeping then gave me the worst sore throat ever, prompting me to go to the doctor myself. he gave me antibiotics which were like a gift from the heavens. they made things better but 2 weeks later and my sore throat is returning! die, superbug, die!!

camden, thank goodness, is better. his fever broke after a few days of fighting him to take his tylenol drops (what else is new?) but then the hives set it. yes, that's right...hives. he'd break out in hives after his afternoon nap every day for 4 days straight. the doctor said some viruses just have hives attached to them and there's nothing you can do but ride it out. poor camden. :( here he is sick, wanting to do nothing but watch elmo all day long. he was a trooper though and is now back to his usual, happy self.

but mommy and baby sick at the same time? definitely not a fan.

camden's first crush

the cutest thing happened today. we were at kahala mall to meet the lady who makes these awesome it's mine baby blankets and after cam devoured some sweet potato fries at the counter, he was running around the mall having a blast.

that's when cupid struck. a cute little girl a little older than cam walked by with her mommy and twin brother. at first, i didn't realize that cam had fixated on her. we were walking in the direction of our car but when the little girl turned left, cam went after her. it wasn't until i called after him 10 times telling him he's going in the wrong direction did i figure out that he was walking with purpose. the little girl was a good distance away when the light finally went off in my head.

"cam, do you want to play with that little girl?" i asked.

he nodded vigorously.

"oh, well she's far away. wave bye to her," i said.

he immediately waved in her direction. now when i ask cam to wave at people, it's a crap shoot whether or not he complies. he usually does it for people he knows, but strangers? usually not. that's when i knew he really liked her!

the girl was outside of cpk with her mom and brother. they were looking at a menu and i felt bad for cam that he really wanted to go see her. plus, i was intrigued by this whole thing and wanted to see what he'd do. so i told him, "okay, well she's standing outside the restaurant so if you want to go see her, you can."

he practically RAN over to her. SO CUTE!!

i walked a little behind him as we approached the family just to see if cam would really go right up to the girl. he slowed as he reached them but definitely walked up to her and stopped about 2 feet away.

i told the mom that he really wanted to play with her and she and i chatted for a bit. her kids were twins, 23 months old. the little girl's name was sadie.

camden stood by her but not too close, suddenly shy as i told him to say hi to sadie. after a few minutes i said, "okay, well we gotta go. want to give her a high five?"

he went to do so but sadie wasn't interested. poor camden!

i took his hand and tried to pull him away back toward our car. he protested by whining. i told him we had to go and to wave bye to sadie. he protested again. finally, i had to pick him up and carry him away as he waved goodbye over my shoulder.

halfway down the hallway back to the car, he squirmed and wanted to be put down so i plopped him on his feet. and you'll never guess what he did! he laid himself on the carpet of kahala mall because he did not want to leave!! he literally lay there on his back looking up at me. i have NEVER seen him do this and i must say, it was so sweet because i knew it was for sadie.

i had to distract him with my camera and carry him all the way back to the car just so we could get out of the mall. my little man's first crush! cutest. thing. EVER.

who knows? maybe soulmates are real. and if he ends up marrying a girl named sadie, there will be no denying it.

checkmate.

feeding a toddler is like chess. you need a strategy. you need to outsmart your opponent (aka your kid). you need multiple players (food groups) to make its way across the board only to get knocked out by said opponent. it's a game and a constant battle all rolled up into one.

luckily, cam is a pretty good eater. he's usually not too picky but he does have days where he refuses to eat what i offer him and other days where he devours the same foods he refused just the day before.

but there is a strategy to feeding my son.

you have to offer him a number of different items. you never know what he's gonna like on any given day.

if you put too much in front of him at one time, he's overwhelmed and just starts throwing stuff around.

if he's eating something with vigor, but you mention something else, he will now ONLY want what you just mentioned. like today, cam was happily eating his fish, which i wanted him to eat. then brian comes along and goes, "cam, do you want noodles?" great, daddy. now all cam wants are those unhealthy noodles even if he has half a bowl left of fish that he was blissfully enjoying just 2 seconds ago.

and of course to top it all off, feeding is a completely messy experience and i feel bad for the clean up crew at restaurants. i think more food gets on the ground beneath his highchair at those places than in his mouth.

here's a list of the foods he likes at the moment. not that anyone reading this cares all that much, but it'll be nice for me to look back and remember it later on:

• chicken. he will eat chicken made in pretty much any way imaginable.
• oranges. his favorite at the moment. he can eat a whole orange PLUS other foods for a meal.
• pears. if it's ripe enough, he loves them. if it's not, he turns it away.
• bananas. loves them until i give it to him too much and then he's sick of them.
• tofu. if it's prepared with soy sauce, ginger or miso, he's all over it.
• purple sweet potato. LOVE.
• broccoli cheese nuggets. a recipe i found on wholesome baby food. it's how i hide that dreaded broccoli and it works!
• peanut butter sandwiches. he has mommy's genes! not allergic and can eat an entire sandwich.
• cheese puffs. a bunch of different "toddler" brands are available but basically it's just baked cheetos if you ask me. he gets it as a treat sometimes and loves the stuff.
• any kind of meat. he is daddy's son. this kid is a carnivore for sure.
• eggs. he loves eggs. maybe because i ate a ton of it when he was in the womb?
  
• fish. he really really like fish. it stinks up the house, but at least it's good for him.
• noodles! he will eat any and all kinds of noodles. no matter what.
• cream crackers. i'm sure these are not healthy for him at all, but he asks for them constantly.
  

on his dislike list?

• vegetables. i need to figure out other ways to hide veggies. i try to give him cooked carrots, peas, beans, etc. no such luck. i did get him to eat green peppers that were hidden with his tofu once. maybe i should try that again...
• asian pear. brian and i think they're delicious but cam does not agree.
• mushrooms. he doesn't seem to be a fan.
• cabbage. unless i stuff it in his mouth with some noodles, he won't eat it.
• applesauce. this is a crap shoot. some days he loves it, others he hates it.
• muffins. some days, love. other days, eh.
• grapes. i try and try to give them to him and he just does not like them.
• strawberries. same as grapes! not having it.
  

let the games begin!

camden updates 2011

you'd think that my appendectomy recovery would have made me blog a lot since i was practically chained to the house for 2 weeks, but clearly that has not been the case. thankfully, i'm pretty much healed from that random and incredibly painful ordeal, and thanks to brian and my wonderful parents, these past couple of weeks have almost felt like a mommy vacation! since i couldn't carry camden for 2 weeks post-surgery, i couldn't take cam in or out of his crib, put him in his high chair or do much of anything. so, i milked it for all it was worth. i slept in every morning and gladly let my mom feed him during the day. i missed carrying camden but i have to admit, after awhile i got used to my new found freedom. i could sit around and not feel guilty about it cause i figured after all that appendix pain, i deserved it!

but now my 2 weeks are up and it's back to normal mommyhood soon. i've been carrying cam here and there the last couple of days and i have to say, it felt so nice to "up up" him again.

but enough of that.

so what's new with cam these days? well, he's babbling a lot more. he's definitely telling us something but most of the time you're guess is as good as ours as to what he's saying. his vocabulary now consists of:

mama
dada
nana (banana)
wawa (water)
baba (binky or big bird)
papa (grandpa)
gahma (grandma)
nu-doh (noodle)
ah-mm (elmo)
ku-kuhm (cookie monster)
cuh-cuh (this means a number of things: cracker, keys and car are what i can make out so far)

it's not much, but at least it's something! other new feats:

• he nods his head yes. but it's only one nod and then bouncing of his body.
• he knows how to spin around in a circle, both on his feet and while sitting on his butt. daddy taught him both.
• he can knock on doors.
• if he wants to show you something or wants you to do something, he'll grab your hand to lead you somewhere or put your hand on whatever it is he wants. i.e. if he wants you to unscrew the cap to his sippy cup, he'll grab your hand and put it on the cap. incredibly cute!
• he can point to and/or show you his head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, belly (in both japanese and english) teeth, hair, feet, toes, hands and fingers (only in english cause i don't readily know the japanese names for all of the last six).
• he does the "hot dog" dance anytime he sees mickey mouse. if you've every watch mickey mouse club playhouse, you know what i'm talking about.

here's my handsome little man, growing up so fast!