Reflections

Cammy's First Years

Cammy was born on March 26, 1969 at 8:27 p.m. He was our firstborn, the first grandchild of Michael and Carole Ramos and the first grandson of Cameron (Sr.) and Edwina (Lei) Deal. Three and a half (3 1/2) weeks premature he only weighed 5 lb 1/2 oz. In spite of his size, Cammy was a real spunky kid. For the first few months he kept us up a lot. He was colicky and was difficult to put down to sleep. We often took drives sometimes as far as Aina Haina or Hawaii Kai to get him to go to sleep. Since I was only 17 years old and still in school, he spent a great deal of  time with his Grandma Ramos and grew very close to her. He loved her very much. She made a great impact on his life and her death in 1987 affected him deeply. My little sister, Carolyn, was only 1 year and 4 months old when Cammy Boy was born. Since he spent so much time at my mother's house he and Carolyn grew up together and were inseparable. They shared the same circle of friends until high school.
                                       
Cammy was a very bright child who started speaking before his first birthday. You just never knew what was going to come out of his little mouth next. As a little boy, he was very active and inquisitive. Wherever there was a hole, it almost guaranteed that his finger (or his hand) would get stuck in it.  His fingers or hand have been stuck in numerous gumball machines or soda machines. He also had a knack for wandering off. Only he never thought that he was lost...WE were the ones that were lost. When he was (almost) three years old, he wandered away from me at Sears Ala Moana during the Christmas "rush."He was "lost" for nearly an hour. I finally found him in the Ladies' room in one of the stalls. He wasn't even phased. When someone asked where his Mommy was, his reply was, "I don't know, lost I guess." He sure kept us all on our toes. One day when he was three, he got a hold of a large container of baby powder. I got a little suspicious when he kept running out of the bedroom smiling with some powder smudged on his nose. When I went into the bedroom, I was horrified! The room looked like it was hit by a blizzard. There was a thick layer of baby powder on everything...including his father who was still asleep on the bed! The only place he didn't douse in powder was where his baby brother Chris was sleeping.