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!

hug mickey!

i heart this video. and not just because, in my obviously unbiased opinion, camden is basically the cutest little boy alive, but it is also unbelievably cute that camden loves his mickey so much!

and it doesn't stop there! the best part of the video is at the end when cam pats mickey on the back while hugging him. i guess he figures he's always getting pat on the back when he gets a hug so that must be the norm, right? haha.

LOVE IT.

riding the train

This train is the hit of our nearby mall. Kids line up to go on this thing and all the parents stand on the sidelines going, "Ooh, ahh...so cute!"

After hearing stories about kids who start crying in the middle of the train ride, I was a bit worried about Camden going on it. He's a little young to ride the train by himself but I figured, what the heck. So, I strapped him in the seat and off he went! The first time he just sat there taking it all in. He seemed to like it but I couldn't be sure. At least he didn't cry.

I was at the mall again today and since the holiday train is still in service I figured I'd let Cam give it whirl again. This time he LOVED it. Waving, gently hitting the boy in front of him as only Camden can (that poor little boy didn't know what he was getting into sitting in front of my son!), and then afterward walking back to his seat cause he wanted to go again.

Not bad for a 15 month old, I think. Not bad at all.


waving, just waving away


aaaand hitting the boy in front of him. poor kid.

how about some christmas pics?

honolulu hale


cam wanted to hold grandma and aunty's hands the whole time!


my family


my friends. boy, it's hard to get them to sit still.


christmas eve


christmas morning! i loved opening presents


hope everyone had a great holiday! xoxo

cookie day!

yesterday, i hosted the 4th annual cookie day at our house. it's a tradition we started in seattle and i wanted to keep it going. new faces and a lot more craziness (more people and more kids!), but a very fun day nonetheless.

oh, and i'm sure camden enjoyed himself because not only did he have fun playing with all the kids, he got his first taste of pizza AND cheetos! i can take small comfort in the fact that they were Natural Cheetos so some of the ingredients were organic. but still, it's cheetos. i swear under brian's not-so-watchful eye, this kid must of had like 15 pieces throughout the day. every time i looked at him he had another cheeto in hand!!

here's some pics from cookie day. :)







the cookies


the cocktail


the babies!


the kiddies


the crew