This is a long weekend for Johnnie so we went to the Honolulu Zoo on Friday. It was Cameron’s first time to the zoo and a sweet family trip to celebrate Valentine’s Day! Cam wore a white onesie so that I could also take her monthly photo. It was a rainy kind of day so there was hardly anyone around. Luckily it didn’t rain at all while we were there and we got the benefit of cloud cover to block the hot sun. The zoo offers a fantastic military discount (almost half off for adults) and children under 2 years are free. It’s a small zoo but it’s worth a visit if you have children who would enjoy it.
Cameron has animal magnets and some animal books. She knows some animal sounds (cow, monkey, cat, and dog) so we were excited for her to see the live animals at the zoo. She often seemed more interested in the flowers and scenery than in the animals but she did like the monkeys, giraffes, and elephants. There was also a children’s zoo section that had barnyard animals which Cameron loved and a nice playground that was hard to get her away from. We took our stroller but Cameron wanted to walk almost the entire time.
At 17 months Cameron is wearing size 4 diapers and still wearing size 4 shoes. She has 13 teeth and 3 teeth bumps that are on the verge of breaking through. Cameron sleeps 12+ hours at night and is in bed by 7:30pm. She takes a nap of at least 2 hours during the day. Lately she has been taking an afternoon nap instead of her usual morning nap.
Her hair has really been growing lately. Her little curls are turning into little ringlets and I’m able to pull it up into little ponytails now. I’m thankful that the curls keep her hair up and out of the way so we that don’t have to worry about haircuts. I don’t plan on cutting her hair
ever for a long time because I want her hair to be all one longer length with no bangs.
Cameron has developed a love of cleaning in the past month. Give her a baby wipe or a washcloth and she will happily wipe off the furniture, the floors, her toys, and even Dulce. This new interest works well at meal times. When she is done eating, I give her a baby wipe and she wipes her hands, her mouth, and the table in front of her.
Cameron’s most used words are “hi” (hiiieeeeee) and “wow”. She asks questions and makes statements about things with perfect inflection, although the sounds are
gibberish her own language. I predict she will be a very animated speaker some day. If you ask her a question, she will now answer
yes or
no which is very helpful. For
no, she will actually say “no” and shake her head. For
yes, she will sometimes says “yes” and other times will pat her chest (her sign for ‘please’) or stomp her feet excitedly. When she wants something, she will “ask” for it while patting her chest.
Now that Cameron has all of her front teeth and four molars, she is getting better at biting off and chewing food. She has a tendency to take really large bites so I still give her bite-sized pieces of food unless it’s something that is easily chewed. She is pretty good at trying new foods but if she decides she doesn’t want to eat something, then she wants it off of her plate ASAP. She loves cheese, pancakes, and muffins right now. I get many different types of cheese for her to broaden her palate, buying the packaged cheese that I have to shred or cut up myself. Lately we’ve had sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Havarti with dill. I make pancakes (
using this recipe) and pumpkin applesauce muffins (
using this recipe) and freeze them, thawing them out as needed. Cam even likes gnawing on frozen pancakes, which probably feels good on her new teeth that are coming in. I have some other muffin recipes containing veggies that I’m going to try soon.
Despite the popular recommendations, I never tried weaning Cameron from bottles. Up until last month, she was still drinking three bottles a day. In the past month she began losing interest in bottles on her own and now won’t even finish one throughout the day (unless we’re in the car). Now I just have to get her to drink milk from a cup… she currently will only drink water from a cup. Since cutting back the bottles, she has started wanting a snack before bed – totally her idea which she was good at communicating. She now eats three meals a day (at approximately 8am, 12pm, and 4pm) and has one snack at about 6:45pm. She drinks as much water as she wants throughout the day.
At 17 months, Cameron still loves music, books, and dogs. We know she has good vision because she can spot a dog a block away. She loves baby dolls, stuffed animals, and shoes. She loves riding in her wagon, stroller, and bike trailer. She loves playgrounds and going down sliding boards. She loves to climb and bounce on anything. When she is fussy and wants held, you
must be standing up to hold her – no sitting down on the job!
*******
“Love puts the fun in together, the sad in apart, and the joy in a heart.”
~Author Unknown
Thank you 🙂
She is such a cutie!