our charming little monkey

I'm pleased to announce that Cameron has overcome her stranger anxiety phase. The days of crying when a stranger speaks to her are over. In fact, the other day in the lobby of the doctors office she walked up to another mother holding her daughter, and put her hands up in the air, as if requesting to be held. Of course the mother did not choose little Cami over her own child and politely declined so Cameron then just decided to hold, quite affectionately, on her arm until I came to the woman's rescue and escorted my little girl back to "our" area. Upon arriving there, she saw a cute little boy, perhaps about 13 years old, and sat down to admire him. She just sat there staring at him and smiling. Fortunately he was called into the back, so she wasn't able to go beg for him to hold her like she did the other mother. Her one year check up was fantastic-she is very healthy and was also very personable with the doctor. Before being examined, the doctor knelt down to ask permission of Cami to be picked up and put on the table...Cameron just looked at her, walked all the way around the kneeling doctor, and when she got to the other side leaned in to give her a huge hug. It was precious. Eric, the doctor, and I all thought she asked "is this your watch" when she grabbed for the doc's watch. She replied, "yes, that's my watch." I am almost certain she is trying to say "I love you" now. She is jabbering all day long so it's difficult to decipher which words are real and intended, and which ones are not. Eric and I put up our decorations last night-he called our tree the Charlie Brown Christmas tree...so we're quite proud. And a bonus: it leans! Despite being a little pitiful, it's beautiful and when Cameron woke up this morning and saw it she said "oooh! wow" so she seems to like it just fine. Since my parents put their Christmas decorations up really early this year, Cami has had some time to learn that she is not supposed to touch the tree or the ornaments. Although she does a wonderful job obeying this rule over there, I was skeptical with how she would behave at home. To my surprise and amazement, she has not tried to touch it one time. I'm so proud. She stands in front of the tree and admires it, but after a minute or more she moves on to her toys nearby. Tonight when I put her to bed, I was in her room standing over her crib kind of singing and talking softly to comfort her and get her to go to sleep. I had to give up because she was hilarious. She grabbed on the crib rails and starting jumping up and down and laughing and going crazy. By the end of the day I tend to be immune to the little stunts she pulls...but this was just too much to handle. I couldn't conceal my laughter when I see this chubby bodied angel laughing and jumping up and down in her crib when she knows it's bedtime. I had to leave the room because my reaction was just making her more wild, like a little monkey in her cage. It was so funny. She is putting up a little fight now at bedtime, where her bedtime before this phase was 7 pm, it's creeping upon the 8 o'clock hour now. Cameron just has a zest for life and wants to stay awake as long as we allow, I suppose. I'm sorry I don't have new pictures today. . . I will try to take and post some tomorrow. But. . .here is a picture taken this time last year with Cameron and her daddy. awwww..... The next two pictures were taken when she was exactly one week old--I remember that because it was Eric's birthday (nov. 12th)... Have a great day! Peace