Cameron turned 16 months old this week! She is growing and developing by leaps and bounds. I am amazed by her every day. We had an exciting but rough week so I did not get her monthly photo shoot done yet. We will get it done soon and I will do her official 16 month post next Friday.
The week started out great. Last weekend we took our bicycles up to Waialua on the North Shore to ride on the Waialua Bike Path. This is a wonderful 5 mile long, flat, straight, paved, 2-lane path for biking, running, jogging, and walking. Let me regress and mention that before we drove north, we stopped and got new tubes and tires put on Johnnie’s bike. We put Cameron and Dulce in the bike trailer and headed out.
Seeing a rainbow is always a sweet reminder that we live in Hawaii. Seeing tsunami warning sirens are always an unnerving reminder that we are on a small island in the middle of the ocean…
We stopped at the intersection of Waialua Beach Road and Goodale Avenue when we saw the most perfect thing parked there… a cupcake truck! Hawaii is known for it’s food trucks. Everywhere you go you’ll see shrimp trucks, bbq trucks, lunch plate trucks, shave ice trucks, etc. This is the first time we ever saw a cupcake truck.
So many flavors to choose from! Johnnie got the “What the French Toast?” cupcake which was topped with bacon and I got the “Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa” cupcake. They were pretty amazing 🙂
Johnnie waited with the bicycles and talked to Cameron while I ordered the cupcakes. That’s when we heard loud bang – like a truck backfiring. After a moment of confusion, we realized that Johnnie’s brand new tire tube had exploded! Thankfully it happened while we were stopped – God bless that cupcake truck.
Johnnie rode my bicycle back to get the car while Cameron, Dulce, and I waited with his bike and the trailer. We didn’t get very far on our ride but it was still a fun adventure 🙂
Late Monday night Cameron came down with a stomach bug. We put her to bed and two hours later she was covered in vomit. She has not thrown up since she started solid foods 10 months ago… so lucky, I know! When babies are strictly formula fed or breastfed, their vomit isn’t such a bad thing. However, when they start eating normal food it turns into full adult-type vomit… and it’s gross. Thankfully it only lasted one night and both Johnnie and I were home to help. Poor Cameron emptied her stomach in a few different bursts and then dry-heaved for hours. She was so scared of what was happening and was left so weak that by the end she could barely lift her head. She lost her appetite and had some vicious diarrhea for four days but is now back to her old self.
I caught her stomach bug on Wednesday – it was milder than what Cameron had but I’ll spare you those details. The day I started feeling better was the day Johnnie came down with it. His case was even milder and shorter than mine. Cameron had a scheduled ‘well visit’ with the pediatrician this week and the doctor said the stomach bug has been going around base… bummer that we all had to catch it.
Cameron fell in love with the giant blue hippo table at the pediatrician’s office 🙂
In the midst of our crazy week, we got some good news… we’re moving! No, we did not get a new assignment. We still have one year left on this island. We are simply moving off base to a different rental house in two weeks. I’ll share more details on where once we move but I will say that it’s going to make this a pretty epic year for us. There are a few different reasons involved in why we are moving but one of the big reasons is that both Dulce and Cameron have some severe skin issues that may be partially or fully triggered by where we live. I’ve never let on about Cameron’s issue before because we were trying to understand it and treat it first. Unfortunately it turned into a much bigger journey than we ever thought it would. I am working on a detailed blog post to describe it all in hopes of helping others who are battling the same issues.
I’ve been keeping up with my 365 Instagram photo challenge so far and really love doing it! I attempted a similar project back in 2006 but it is so much more fun this time using Instagram. I am determined to finish the project and have the year of photos made into a photo book for us. Here are photos from the first ten days:
The topical steroids simply a temporary band-aid for the eczema, making it difficult to tell what is really a trigger and what is really a steroid induced reaction. Stopping the steroids was the best decision (but also the most difficult) that we have made in our daughter's skin care. Now that we are finally clear of the withdrawal, we are seeing progress! Lucky for you that you haven't used it on your son for very long! I have never let on about our daughter's eczema on this blog yet but I will soon. I am working on detailed blog post to describe the progression, everything we've tried, the steroid withdrawal, and her current condition. I hope you'll check back and find that post to be helpful!
Hi! I came across a comment you left about topical steroid cream addiction. I just wanted to say thank you! My 3 month old has eczema really bad! It began when he was about 6 weeks old. I have spent countless hours researching and trying to figure out the best course of action. We have already used topical steroids, but I have had absolutely no peace about this. I kept telling myself I would just use them to heal his skin while I was figuring out his triggers. Now I know that this is how it all starts! I can not thank you enough! Really! Thank you, thank you!