Boxers or Briefs?

These are my husband's new boxers. He was so excited to bust out his underwear that he bought a long time ago and left all packaged up in the closet. He said he needed a special occasion/reason to bring out the new stuff. I guess the other pairs falling apart wasn't a good enough reason, but going on vacation was! When he opened this plaid pair he got overly excited. He exclaimed, "I want to put these on right now, they are SO awesome!" and "I almost want to make a pillow case out of these bad boys!". I have never seen someone so excited about a pair of plaid underwear. I immediately washed and dried them and let him know he could wear them if he wanted. Much to my surprise he told me in such a serious tone that "those are vacation underwear". I guess he is serious about their importance!

What am I going to do with him?

Band Aid Reports

Last week was a busy week at daycare for Camden, and it was only a four day week for him! It started on Monday when he was walking in between the rocking chair and the table. He managed to fall and scrape his ear pretty bad, so I got the phone call while I was at work to notify me that they had to fill out a band aid report because he was hurt. When I went to pick him up his left ear was pretty scraped up and a little on the side of his face. They said when he did it he cried so hard he stopped breathing momentarily. She said his lips started to turn blue and they had to blow in his face! :/ poor kid!

Tuesday went by fairly uneventfully. He was growing teeth so he did get teething tabs to help with his fussiness.

Wednesday I get a phone call about noon. They called to tell me that another kid bit Camden on the hand. They said it didn't draw blood but there were red marks. When I went to pick him up, my first question was "What did he do to instigate being bit?" They surprised me a little when they told me he didn't do anything. He was just sitting on the mat with his hand up and the other little boy just decided he needed a snack. They said Camden cried super hard again, and four hours later he still had the marks on his hand. Chris was hopeful it wasn't his little troublemaker buddy that did it - I wasn't so sure. They did tell me that after the incident that Camden was playing with a toy, and the other kid who had bit him crawled over to him. They said Camden handed over that toy as quick as he could and then crawled off. So funny!!

{ouch!}

Thursday was his last day at daycare for the week. One of the regular girls was out b/c her son was sick, so there were subs in and out. When I went to pick him up I noticed his forehead right away. They said they would have filled out another bandaid report (that would make it three in four days!) but they didn't have a clue how he did it!

{This picture was taken four days later. check out the center of his head!}

Silly boy. He plays so hard! We will have to see what this four day week brings!

11 Months: A Letter

I still can't believe that I have an almost ONE YEAR OLD. *cue crying noises* You have gotten big so fast!

This month your one tooth has finally poked through that we can see it when you smile. Speaking of smiling, you are great at giving us big cheesy grins now. You know, the kind where it looks like you are gritting your 'teeth' (err..tooth) and getting ready to smile for your kindergarten picture. Adorable! This last week of your tenth month you have been trying to cut another tooth to give you a pair down below, it has finally poked through, but you don't see it yet when you smile.

{I love your ornery little face here}

You are wearing clothes ranging from 6 month to 18 month onesies, pants needing to be 12 months or larger and we are about to move you up a size in shoes to size 3. You just switched to wearing a size 4 diaper.

Your sleeping is much improved. Now that you are no longer suffering from a double ear infection and cutting teeth at the same time, you are sleeping well. Your usual schedule is about 9 hours at night from 8p to 5-5:30a. You are still taking two naps a day, one about 9 and the other around 2. You are taking fourish bottles/sippys a day, one bottle in the morning and at night, and two-three sippys of milk at daycare. They told me earlier this month at daycare they wanted to prepare you for the transition to the big boy room. (again: cue sobbing). To move to the big boy room you must be eating table foods and drinking from sippys-no bottles. Well let me just say you easily switched over without a hitch. They told me they think you drink BETTER from your sippys than your bottle. They also told me the other boys in your room have trouble with switching over and aren't doing as well. I think to get you switched over - all I did was bring your sippy cups and you were done. Finished. Switched over. They also said when you switch to this big boy room you will switch to one nap a day and will no longer have a crib but a cot. Crazy to think about my little one year old on a cot!

You are doing fairly well with your table foods. Some textures really bother you, but we are working on it. You LOVE your carrots, those you will eat without fail. Some days you do exceptionally well with your table foods, some days you refuse and want only purees(Not very often in the last few days though). You are also loving, turkey meat in patty form, ravioli, cheetoes, pineapple, watermelon and basically all fruits. Not a fan of: broccoli in either puree or solid form, or green beans/squash in table food form. You are also getting pretty wise about sticking your hand over the side and feeding Pearl. Pearl loves this. Mommy - not so much.

You are a busy little bee. You are constantly on the go, whether it be speed crawling, pulling up or cruising. You can even get from sitting to standing without any assistance for balance. Those chunky thighs are beneficial! I have seen you take a about five steps on your own, you are getting there babe! No hurry though, mommy wants to still be able to refer to you as "her baby". You love going on our nightly walks (if it's not too hot) with Pearl, and you especially love weekends when you get to go swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Mommy likes those times to, because you always sleep well! You are not afraid of the water, little one. You even try and put your face in it to get a drink. Something I want you to enjoy is water and I like that until this point you are fearless.

At ten months old you moved up a room at church. No longer in the nursery! We went to pick you up on your second week there and you were SO cute. One of the workers was holding you. We appeared at the door to get you, and you did a double take. You looked at us, then looked at the girl holding you, looked at her again and then began to cry. You didn't realize that you didn't know the person that was holding you. It was absolutely adorable!

{You love letting others blow your whistle and you are SO close to figuring it out yourself!}

Your playing has become more purposeful. You are learning to put things in and out. You are learning to fit things through certain sizes/areas. (Ex: pulling your toys through your new gate daddy made you. You have to hold them just right to get them through the slats.) You are enjoying your blocks and knocking them down when Daddy stacks them. You especially love getting in to trouble. Pulling things off of the pantry shelves, or off of the end table.

{pulling things out of the pantry while 'blowing' your whistle}

We are working on learning the meaning of 'no'. You still like to speed crawl to Pearl's bowl and dump the water all over yourself and the wall. You also like to play with the blinds which according to Daddy is a BIG no-no.

You are still pretty quiet. You are usually too busy "working" to speak. You'll grunt while you are "working" with all of your toys, but you are usually too intensly focused to do much of anything else. We have been working on "Da-da-da" and you have a cute little "Mom" figured out with a long 'oh'. You also say lots of "gah-gah-gah". We are still working on signing milk, mom, dad" and hoping you will catch onto which one of us is mom and which one is dad.

You have taken to chugging out of an open cup like a frat boy downing a beer. We will put you in your tub and the first thing you do is grab your little cup and hold it up to your face, suck in a bunch of your bath water, pull back the cup and give a precious satisfied grin. Shortly after this you will emit a frat boy burp. Hey, it's not easy chugging like that!

You have shown a little bit of a pouty side this month as well. When you don't get your way or you get told 'no' you will crawl away, put your face on the ground and cry or whine. Oh my gosh is it funny, but at the same time you have to learn that you won't always get your way. You have been doing lots of whining to get picked up whenever you want and your Dad has been having to remind me not to pick you up just because you are fussing. No one likes a clingy baby! Sometimes you do this thing where you clench your fists and holler. Daycare and I have dubbed it "the Hulk". You do it when you are upset or really excited about something and it seems as if you are going to burst out of your skin.

{Doing "the Hulk"!}

Camden, you are our pride and joy. We never knew how much happiness and joy you would add to our lives. You keep us so busy, and always entertained. And next month I will be writing your ONE YEAR post. Sweet boy, I cherish this time with you as a little one, but at the same time I look forward to what is to come.

I'll love you forever,
Mommy

Because I can't resist...

I couldn't help myself! So cute.

11 month update to come soon. Hopefully today on the 11 month date, that is if the mister will take good naps today before I go get my hair cut!

Teeth.

Teething. Ugh. It's really not any fun. Why is it that the first teeth hurt, but when you grow your permanent teeth it's not painful?

So weird.

There is some teething going on at our house. Lots of biting of our arm, chewing on all things and fussiness. The kind of fussy where he wants to be held, but then he doesn't. And he wants to eat, but then he doesn't. Poor thing.

He also has been pulling at his ears, but I am 99% sure there is no ear infection involved. Especially since he's sleeping fairly well through the night besides the teeth. Last time I think he was only up because of his ears. I think pulling at the ears has become somewhat of a habit when things are hurting, like when we are teething.

This reminds me of when I was in 6th grade. I would go in to see the orthodontist and they would tighten my braces and I would weigh five pounds less than six months earlier in the school year. I mean, why eat when your teeth hurt so bad? That was truly the pits.

It doesn't matter if Camden takes after me or after Chris regarding teeth. He's screwed either way. Chris had to have a separator that would spread his palette. It had to be cranked every so often to widen it. I had two rows of teeth and the works. I'll go further into detail in another post sometime.

The point is, teething is no fun, and I must go now as little man is fussing about that as I type!

sneak peak

What do ya think? I think that blue is really going to pop.

Initially, I was not a fan. It just looked so ABC123 teacher-ish blue. I felt like it needed to have a green leg and a red leg and a yellow leg. You know what I mean? I was regretting not picking the turquoise-ish blue. But - I was afraid the turquoise-ish color would remind me too much of an old lady. That it wouldn't look like I(read:Chris) updated the chair at all, and I wanted it to look fresh.

But the more I look at the way this color photographs, I think it will make Little C's eyes really pop. I think I will get the effect I want in my pictures. I can't wait to finish it up and get snap happy. Hopefully a teething little monkey will cooperate!

14 days.

Yes, that's it. Only 14 days.

14 days until I leave my baby for almost two weeks!

OH EM GEE WHAT? I'm leaving my baby for the first time but for weekS with a CAPITAL S?!? Momentary freak out!

I know he'll be fine. I know he is going to be in good hands. But the thought of being without him for that long? Freaks me out a little lot. Maybe it is because he has just so seamlessly joined our lives that being without him will feel like a part of me is missing? Oh WAIT! That is exactly it.

He's close to walking. He takes little steps here and there. I have told him he has 14 days to figure it out, or else I'm going to request that Grandma and CiCi go ahead and push him down discourage walking. In the nicest way of course. Because, hello? Shouldn't I be there to witness/video it?

Chris' solution: "Don't worry honey, we will probably have another baby and you can watch them take their first steps in person. And when we get back Camden will still be walking, it's not like he'll quit, so you'll still get to see it!" (he thinks my first time to see it will be just as exciting as his first time to do it - we will see!)

Men. ::shakes head::

All walking aside, packing for a two week trip halfway across the world is stressful enough, but having to pack enough of Camden's stuff to be in the two places he is staying doesn't sound super easy either. I have all sorts of to do lists!

Something I am SUPER looking forward to? It's their winter there. And winter? Sounds like a refreshing breath of cool air after all of this 100+ temps.

There is always silver lining.

Oz

Husband has not only been busy prepping my steal-of-a-deal high chair for paint, but he has been meticulously planning out our upcoming vacation.

We are SO excited to be going on this trip, and still can't believe we are going as it draws near. We have most of our time all booked up, and can't wait for Missy to show us around and tell us what is important to see. We are somehow going to manage to see quite a bit of Australia - we plan to see the Barrier Reef, Sydney and Melbourne. We have whale watching tours planned, harbor cruises and an overnight snorkel trip planned on the reef. It should be gorgeous, and a once in a lifetime trip.

All of this wouldn't be possible if it weren't for my amazing friend Missy, and her letting us crash at her place! So generous of her!

Watch out Oz - we are coming for ya!

The current project..

As you know, Husband and I usually have some sort of project going on at our house. I use the word I loosely, it's not like I actually have any claim to these projects. They are more often than not husband's bright idea brought to fruition. These bright ideas have ranged from our gorgeous new master bath, to our very handy homemade babygate. Note: I like running the word 'babygate' together, it sounds like 'Watergate' or something equally as political that always has "-gate" attached to it.

The example of the babygate. Someone can't make it to Pearl's water bowl anymore. Bummmmmmer.

Our current project (Read: My idea, husband's labor. Who are we kidding, we all know he needs something to do..) My awesome friend Malissa does fantastic furniture refinishing work and can craft just about anything under the sun. She is multi-talented, but is most awesome for scoring me this fantastic wood high chair for the sweet price of FIVE DOLLARS. Woot! This high chair is gorgeous, the perfect size and even better the perfect price. We (Read: Husband) has been spending his time and money (did I mention that the paint stripper and lead paint tester has cost us already twice as much as what we paid for the chair??) to completely sand this bad boy down.

That's it - in all of it's original glory.

This is the first round of paint stripping.

And this is when we brought out the big guns. That's right, the power washer. This power washer is such a beast that if it was set to high they noticed they were carving streaks into the wood. Oops! It also did a pretty good job of tearing up the grass. We had the paint about all peeled off, and we were doing some finishing sanding on it when husband decided using the monstrous power washer actually made the chair too "wobbly". (Read: you could jiggle it a little. Those of you that know my husband know this is NOT acceptable). So he has proceeded to take it completely apart, sand all the little pieces and he wants to glue it back together nice and sturdy.

I am so excited about all of the progress on this cute little photo prop of mine. So, this leads me to the final question...what color? We are thinking blues. A bright blue? The other option is of course, orange. Suggestions??

Our weekend...

I had planned to use this weekend and especially Saturday to blog and update on some recent events, also to start working on Camden's ELEVENTH month post. (Eleven?? Seriously??) But the Husband went out of town spur of the moment to go to a weekend long bachelor party. Therefore, it's just Mommy chasing around

This monkey. Good thing he's cute, that makes up for all the trouble he manages to get into!! :)

(I love how pathetic Pearl looks in the background here...I think Camden and I better go take her for a walk! Furbaby needs some attention..)





Look for more updates....soonish!

Happy 4th!!

I am working today but we spent most of Sunday the 3rd celebrating the holiday. Here are a few pictures!

Swimming. Daddy is so funny! Plus, the baby rear end is too cute.

Water to the face. He did this multiple times. And kicked and splashed all over the place while in the pool.

Snackin' on some Goldfish

Dinner. He was obviously done in this picture.

Time for some fireworks shots. The ones that turned out the best are on here. We watched the fireworks at Rockets over Rhema. Rather, we watched them from a parking lot nearby. We had awesome seats, it was perfect.

Waiting for the show to start with Daddy. Pardon Husband's drunk look. He doesn't do well with a flash. EVER.

Watching the show. And Mommy. He enjoyed the fireworks but because we had kept him up so late he was done about halfway through. All he wanted was to go to bed. The paci prevented the fussing but we still left before the finale. Overall we enjoyed our first firework show as a family of three!

God Bless America!