April 23,
1980-July 16, 1983
Debbie Cook was up visiting and came over to say howdy.
She'd been visiting for a little while when she caught on that I was looking at
the clock about every three minutes...she asked if I was having contractions
and I had to admit...yes. But they'd been pretty steady ever since I'd lost the
twin so I wasn't worried. They were just
getting a little closer but didn't seem to be too serious. She wanted us to rush right into the hospital
right then! I figured we still had nearly a month left so wasn't in a hurry.
But she was insistant. Curt got showered and ready to go and then we headed out...stopping
by way of Peach City
When we got to the hospital and they went to check me I
heard "We've got feet! Push em back in..." Emergency C Section. I don't know if I ever did thank Debbie for
insisting that we go in.
When I came out of the anethesia and saw little Camille for
the first time I said "That can't be my baby!" She had all this black
hair...and she was so adorable. (Not that the other kids weren't adorable!) Curt said "Yup she is ours and I think
she's inheireted some of our Indian heritage!" (both Curt's mom and mine claim some Cherokee
blood)
Camille was such a character right from the start. She
radiated life and happiness. She giggled a lot and had such a bubbly
personality. When I was at town shopping, complete strangers would come up to
talk baby talk to my little girl....and she'd try and talk back with them, even
before she could say real words. Where
Katie was mild and quiet, Camille was loud and spunky. She demanded attention! But in a happy
way. She was a joy and a handful at the
same time. She had tons of curiousity
and questions. She wanted to do
everything right now... trying to walk at nine months...trying to do everything
the "big kids" did. Trying to help in every way imaginable with some
pretty disasterous results at times! She potty trained herself at 18 months
because she loved her sister's new underwear and wanted to wear them instead of
diapers. She went downstairs to her sisters room and put four pair on all at
once...and then peed them. I wasn't too
happy and told her "You can't wear those panties until you can go potty in
here" (pointing to the toilet). She looked up at me with tears in her eyes
and I felt like some monster. I put her
diaper back on...she took it back off and climbed up on the toilet hanging on
to the toilet paper holder so she didn't fall in. She sat there until business was done then
put the new underwear on...never to wear a diaper again. It was the easiest potty training of any I
did.
We were getting ready for a family hot dog roast. Jared
wanted to go over to the park where they were having a ward party with races
and games for the kids. He went out to beg his dad (who was working in the
garden) one more time to go over to the park. Camille followed him out and was
pushing a folding chair over to the fire pit...where there were only
coals. She climbed up into the folding
chair...which promptly folded over and dumped her into the coals...which
instantly burst into flames...causing Curtis to drop everything and run like
crazy to see what was going on. He burnt
his hands pretty bad pulling her out. His dad came up and they took her into
the hospital where she was life flighted down to Salt Lake
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