Sickee sickee sickee

No idea where this came from but Cam woke up at 4am super hot. He tossed and turned for a couple of hours and was up for good at 6am, still hot, so we gave him Tylenol and kept him home with us today. He's been in a good mood, still running a bit warm but overall his typical self.

He and daddy were watching "Its a Big Big World" (we're PBS freaks here, except for our beloved Bunnytown) when Cam actually fell asleep on the couch! He hasn't done this since he was a couple of months old! We let him snooze about 15-20 mins, then tried to wake him up. He was having none of that, so we moved him back to his crib and he's still sleeping. Gave him another does of Tylenol as he was really warm again. His little body is fighting something today. If he's still feverish when he wakes up, we'll call the doc.

That's it, although it has been raining pretty good on and off - about time! More soon...

ps
Mom, glad to hear you are feeling better!!

More new shoes

We picked up a cute pair of Elmo slippers for Cam today at Target (but forgot the Nyquil mommy acutally went there for - darn!). He's totally fascinated with them. They are slowing down a little bit right now, but we figure that's temporary.














We also found the adorable froggie rainboots but sadly, the only size they had is too big for Cam - he needed help to walk b/c his feet slid so far out of them, lol. I'll try to exchange them up in the Bay area next week for a smaller size. We've gotten a fair amount of rain today, and will only be able to keep Cam inside for so long :) Maybe these will keep his feet and pants a bit drier.

Now to find a raincoat!

New (old) shoes

With the new room at daycare, Cam gets to spend more time outside playing and they asked that he get some actual shoes, not the leather slipper-like shoes he's been wearing since learning how to walk a few months back. Our doctor wants us to put off hard-soled shoes as long as possible, so we've been looking for some new shoes for Cam that had more sole than the Robeez but not as hard as most kids shoes.

My good friend Evelyn has a son about 6 months older than Cam and she gave us a pair of her son's outgrown shoes to try out - SeeKaiRun. We like them a lot - there is some sole but its very flexible - and Cam, of course, is in love with his feet now. He likes the noise he can make with them - like he was so quiet before, lol!!

ps
Aunt Lolly - Cam discovered the backpack you gave him at the baby shower a couple of months ago in his room and loves to carry it all over the house. He can't work the zipper yet, but when its open, he will put all kinds of different toys in it, bring them to another room and take them out. :) It was such a thoughtful gift; thank you!!

Halloween party fun

Our next door neighbour's Katherine, Jason and Ryan had a great Halloween party this afternoon we were invited too. Lots of food, fun games (a piñata!), more food and running around. Cam fell in love with one of the pumpkin pillow decorations, but also with part of Jason's costume, a Nerf sword. Then there were all of Ryan's toys to play with - it was a busy time for him, lol. Kevin and I got to relax in a very kid-proofed home and enjoy ourselves too with a bunch of other parents (Cam ISN'T the only kid that doesn't sleep through the night!! So nice to hear that!!)

Cam did get to wear his costume (which was a giraffe, like George, natch) but it turns out the 18-24 month size was too small!! His torso was longer than it allowed for the hood, with the really cute giraffe head, to come up over his head, although the sleeves and legs were long enough. Bummer!! I'll try to find something else before Friday for him but we're so disappointed this one doesn't fit. :( Cam was still freakin' adorable in it, hood or not!

The highlight of the night for everyone was the piñata, of course :) Cam was allowed to take a few swings at it (we feared for Jason and Katherine's windows but all is well there!) - he loved being able to participate with the "big kids" and joined in when the piñata was cracked open, although he didn't notice when we stuck the candy he collected in the other kids bags (phew!). We all had a blast and are so grateful to live next door to such wonderful people! (Mommy's streak of fantastic neighbours' continues - Charles and Sarah used to be neighbours too!)

Crazy daycare girls!

Now that Cam's hair has grown out a bit from his scalping back in July, the girls at daycare like to give Cam a mohawk at least twice a week. He's still adorable so its okey dokey with us!

He's also getting good at keeping George close by (in his mouth) while his hands are used for exploring all the stuff in the house. All his toys are gathering dust as he checks out empty boxes, stuff on mommy's desk, pots and pans under the stove, and anything else he can get open :)

How do I get out of here?

Our little man is now climbing *into* anything he can, including, but not limited to: the pantry, the fridge, the laundry basket, the box his birthday present from The Browns (Derek, Evelyn, Adrianna and Garrett) came from, and also his wagon from Grandpa and Grandma (with a little help from mommy or daddy).

Sometimes getting back out isn't quite as easy!

Fun with Grandpa and Grandma!

Cousin Loretta's birthday party was yesterday (of course the first day in MONTHS that we got rain! But it cleared up and ended up being a gorgeous day.) and Grandpa Dick and Grandma Janice were up visiting. They came by on Sunday morning to have coffee and donuts, and play with the blocks that Uncle Steve, Auntie MA and Loretta got for Cam for his birthday.

It was nice to get to see them! We're hoping to see them again in a couple of weeks, when they are on their way back from Oregon, after they get their motor home from up there down to CA for the winter. :)

Timber!

Cam knocking down another tower of blocks that daddy built for him to do that very thing :)

How to sit on a stool

Last year our friends the Siripokes (Charles, Sarah, James and Grant) got Cam this amazing wooden stool that has his name spelled in these cool blocks that can come out of the chair for him to play with. He realized this week that he could move the stool around, and also turn it upside down and *presto*, Cam-sized seat for watching "BunnyTown" :) With George, of course.

Cam and Daddy chillin'

Cam and daddy hung out and watched a little "Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland" before Cam's nap today. With George, of course :)

A Boy and his Giraffe :)

Cam will semi-wake up at night because he can't find George in his immediate vicinity. I have no idea how George ended up across his bottom tonight!!

Swinger

Cam was never totally into swings until he got to try the outside, sitting upright version at the playground. But last night, when he was winding down for bed after his bath, he saw the swing cousin Chris, her husband Mike and son Tyler got for him last year, and let Kevin know he wanted to get into it. He swang in there for a good 10+ minutes, just chilling out w/George. A bit out of character, as usually at night he's chasing the dogs around the house. We figured he was off b/c of the new ear infection.

Well, tonight he wanted back into the swing! He loves the mirror, and will lay there and stare at himself; loves the toys, loves the music and loves to just hang out and swing. He took his first bottle (we're putting his meds into his first bottle of just a couple ounces) in there - amazing!

Cam is feeling better today, not quite himself totally but on his way. We've decided to spend an extra day at home and head up to house/dog sit on Sunday, to get a few things done around here and give Cam an extra day to recouperate. We might try to get him a haircut tomorrow too - that will depend on how the night goes and if mommy is up for it tomorrow (we'll go to a place here in Paso that specializes w/kids - no bowl haircuts for this kid!) - we'll let you know!

Cam and George

His eyes are glowing red (Cam's, not George), but we finally got a shot of Cam carrying George in his mouth like the dogs carry their toys. We're pretty sure that's where Cam learned this. Hopefully having two dogs for brothers won't be a detriment :)


ps
the George's have been separated :)

Uh oh - we've been found out!

Cam has this funky little blanket/toy we call George (the Giraffe - yes, original, we know), that he looks for when he's tired to snuggle up with. We realized that we should have a second George in the diaper bag in case the first one got barfed on, or dirty or, God forbid, we were out and about and George was needed to calm a cranky Cam!

We've done a pretty good job of keeping the two separate, only letting Cam see one at a time. Sadly, the jig is up as of today. I did laundry last night and somehow both of the George's ended up out today. When Cam got up from his nap, he had one, and then spied the other one where he'd left it in the living room. Right now he's happily dragging them both through the living room but we'll try to separate them later on :)

ps
He's taken to carrying George in his mouth when he crawls (at least less dog hair ends up on George!), so we'll try to get a photo of that up here soon :)

Trip to Bay Area - with (almost) no crying!!

Yesterday we finally did a trip up to the Bay area with the new carseat. Overall, it went GREAT!!

A key ingredient was to leave Paso right around Cam's typical naptime, so he slept almost the entire way up to Morgan Hill (about 2 hours) where our first stop was to visit Auntie Sherry who was playing in a soccer tournament there. Cam got an opportunity to say hello to Mr. Keogh (insider's joke) and he was FASCINATED with him; we're thinking its the beard :) See photo at left: mommy and Cam along with Mr. Keogh. Who, by the way, is Auntie Sherry's husband and is coaching her soccer team. The gals on the soccer team were super nice to Cam, although he was overwhelmed to be the center of attention for the entire team for a bit!

We got there in between games and it was super duper windy, so by the time her last game started, Cam was giving us his "I'm done" signals and we got him back in the car so he could take another short nap while we headed up north to San Jose to visit with Sarah, Charles and their boys, James and Grant, who is just about Cam's age.

Grant is such an easy-going, good natured, happy baby! I'm convinced the two of them will enjoy playing together as they get older. They were both very interested in each other and started to "baby wrestle" when we put them down on a blanket in the backyard - too funny! Each of the boy's bit the other's behind (on the diaper) to keep him from crawling away, which was freakin' hysterical.
It was really nice to visit with Sarah, Charles and their friend Johnny; we all hadn't seen each other since Sarah and I were both pregnant late last summer. We fed Cam some carrots and turkey with veggies, and almost stayed for dinner with everyone, but Cam hit his wall and it was time to get in the car to head south again (thanks again for the invite; next time we'll plan our visit better!!). We battled the setting sun for about an hour (it kept going right into his eyes and we don't have the shade on the Britax that we had on the Graco carseat) but he eventually fell asleep and slept the entire way home, until we had to slow down to turn left onto Rte 46, when he woke up very ticked off. It took a while to settle him down once we got home, but he ended sleeping okay overall last night - woke up around 6:30am, which is a nice change from the 5:15am he's been doing the last few days. We think his ears are still bugging him; we're halfway through the antibiotics, but he's still waking up a lot at night, we think due to the pain, but we're not sure. Hopefully this double ear infection will get cleared up this week.

We're just waking him up from an 1.5 hour nap right now: as you can see he's very happily snuggled up with his buddy George (the Giraffe) and oblivious to the open curtains and bright room. If he doesn't wake up in the next 5 mins, I'll just close the blinds and let him sleep until he does wake up. We're going to see Uncle Steve, Auntie MA and cousin Loretta to give them 3 rose trees from our yard, but that's about all that's planned for today. We'll let you know if we have any other adventures today! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Love,
M + K = C

The incentive Cam really needed...

Turns out mommy and daddy weren't what he *really* wanted when he was figuring out how to crawl forward...

Cameron went on safari…

…this morning. After being attacked by a giraffe (see the scratch on the side of his cheek), he wrested the unwieldly giraffe down by the ear while a zebra, bunny and chicken looked on. He's a scrapper!! :)

After the safari…

Cam took a nap on his favourite pillow, our golden retriever Charlie, with his safari prize, the giraffe.