Cam and the doggies

Every once in a while Cam comes home from daycare full of vim and vigour :) Tonight was one of those nights! After racing around inside, he went outside to chase the dogs - sans shoes as he went out the doggie door - and had a blast. Funnily enough, it only wound him up instead of tiring him out - c'est la vie!

ps
Happy Birthday, Grampie!

Cam and the doggie door

Going out :)


Coming in :)

You reap what you sow

Cam and both doggies are all still trying to come to terms with each other. Its a love/moderate dislike relationship for all. Once Cam can talk better, I think that will change. But for now, unless Cam has food, Charlie and Chance seem to want to keep a bit of distance between themselves and Cam. Much to Cam's chagrin. Listen to the very end of the video :)

Don't call the ASPCA :)

We *think* that eventually Cam and Charlie will be best of friends. Right now, Charlie tolerates Cam but seems much more fond of him when Cam's got food :) Like any good golden retriever!!

Rocks, rocks and more rocks

Cam's love affair with the small rocks in the back yard continue! So far he hasn't swallowed any but we have to keep a close eye on him.

Got this fabulous shot with the wonderful new lens my folks got me for Christmas (and also my 40th birthday in April - had to be a double-holiday gift b/c its just too much for one!) and we are looooooving it. The zoom now goes to 105mm, which is double what we had before, but the biggest difference is the vibration reduction - its really helping us get some great shots that would have been blurry with the other lens.

This is probably the BEST photo of Chance we've ever gotten - typically his ears are back (he's very submissive with us, we suspect abuse from his former owners) and we got lucky with the light :) We're betting we get some great photos this year courtesy of this wonderful lens. Thank you so much, mom and dad!!!!

Cam and Pumpkin :)

Our awesome next door neighbours' adopted a golden retriever/poodle puppy a couple of weeks ago and today we all got to meet her. It was love at first sight for Cam and Pumpkin (the puppy). High jinks ensued :)

ps
Excuse the dark video; it was after 4pm and about to rain, so very overcast.

Gigglepalooza 2008

Charlie and Chance bring out the giggles in Cam; especially when he's 1) chasing them, or 2) getting wacked in the face by their tails. :)

Cam's walking is getting better and more confident every day. We're not sure if all kids do this, but he likes to walk with his arms up, like we're holding his fingers - too funny! He does have moments where he's a bit OVER confident - that's typically about 3 seconds before a face plant.

ps
please ignore mommy's giant bottom in this video!

Auntie Sherry visited!!

Auntie Sherry had a day off from her crazy consulting schedule and she came down to Paso to visit us! Cam loooooooved having a new person to play with and "walk" him around :) Buster-dog also came down; Chance was thrilled to have someone to play with, although their game seemed to be who could mark more plants, etc. in the yard. At least they didn't pee on any of our legs :)

It was a very quick visit but so nice to see them both!!

Cam found the doggie door ;)

Charlie's tail and Cam

Golden retrievers are truly family pets. Not only is Charlie wonderful with the Caminator, his tail cracks Cam up. Until he's done, of course!

Cam blowing raspberries to Charlie

Charlie has been such a sport with Cam; he's had almost as much fur pulled out as I've lost hair to Cam's two little fists. We caught Cam and Charlie on either side of the patio door; Charlie seems a tiny bit relived to have something in between them :) Know how Cam has been torturing Charlie, we can't blame him!

What's yours is mine

Big surprise; as soon as Cam figures out how to crawl forward, he starts torturing the dogs :) He decided it was the funniest thing ever to take away one of Charlie's chew toys - luckily Charlie is a champ about it. Until he steals it back, of course! This went on for a good 15 minutes but we won't bore anyone with all of it; just a minute :)

Cam chasing Chance

Cam loooooooooves the dogs and squeals like mad whenever he sees them. They've become quite the distraction anytime he eats, so we have to separate them or Cam won't eat!

Cam is mobile!

Continuing to be the indulgent parents that we are, we found this really cute walker on Amazon.com and got it for Cam. It arrived today and after his nap, we let him try it out. He loves it! Totally doesn't get he's in control of it, but loves moving around. We're realizing that the dogs are probably going to be chased soon :)

Happy Weekend!

Hello folks :) Happy weekend to everyone! Cam is almost recovered from his cold (as are his parents!) and doing better and better at daycare. He really likes one of the gals inparticular and will actually EAT for her, which is a huge step forward. The daycare has been super about working with us to try to get Cam settled in there, sleeping well and eating while there, which has been terrific.

While I still have some slight disgruntledness (with myself) about not being able to take care of Cam and work fulltime, this does seem like a good situation for him; he's around other people and kids, and loves watching everything. Ironically, starting daycare coincided with a slowdown at work for me, so Cam is still doing half days and acclimating nicely. Mommy is too :)

We're racing towards his 5-month birthday and he's changing every day. This week he's been trying hard to pull his knees up under him, which we're positive he saw this at daycare and is trying to mimic one of the other kids crawling. He continues to like to stand up on his own, with us providing a little balance, and survey the world from this different perspective. Its only been a month, but he's almost completely outgrown most of the clothes Grammie sent for Christmas. Grandma sent stuff for 12 months+, which we'll be trying on soon - someone has quite the baby belly and needs some extra room in his pants :)

He's sleeping much better at night, about 7 hours at a stretch - woohoo! He loves loves loves the dogs and they sends him into fits of "banguage" when they come up to sniff him. We're trying to teach him "gentle" with them b/c he loves to grab their fur, which both Charlie and Chance have been incredibly patient with. They both seem to adore him too, Chance more than Charlie, but Charlie will come around once Cam starts solids, most of which we're sure will end up on the floor.

Cam's mastering the "Pfffft" or "Bfffft" and drooling like a fiend while doing so - this kid has things to say :) His hair is coming in nicely and he only has half of his previous "Friar Tuck" look going in the back of his head. Eyes are still blue, but we have time for them to turn green still - I am holding out hope! Not that blue aren't wonderful, but it would be nice for him to end up with mommy's green eyes and daddy's super long curly dark eyelashes - he'll be a ladykiller!!

Love to everyone - enjoy your weekend!! More photos soon!

Auntie Sherry came to visit

Auntie Sherry came to visit us this week for a couple of days from the Bay area. Cam looooooooved her - he had so much fun playing with her, there was lots of laughs, giggles and shrieks coming from the living room while I got caught up with end-of-year work stuff.

We loved having her visit; the dogs got some much needed attention (Charlie is still checking the doors in the house looking for her), plus she did a ton of cooking again and our fridge is full of yummy food for the next week (yay, no cooking for mommy!). Big kisses to Mr. Keogh for loaning her to us, and we'll keep an eye out for the invoice :)

After the safari…

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