We're back!!

Ok, to say I've been lax with the blog is an understatement :) Over the next couple of nights (barring work stuff coming up) I am going to update the blog for the last 4 months. There are several videos that need to be uploaded too, so check back for those as well. Plenty of entries for your reading pleasure!

Awesome trip to San Francisco!

For my 40th birthday, Kevin got us tickets to the King Tut exhibit that is currently in SF. (If you have a chance to go, tickets are half price right now). We decided to make a weekend out of it and contacted my good friend Eric to find out the most kid-friendly area in SF. Turns out he and his family would be in Sweden (Anna is Swedish) for a long vacation and they very kindly offered us their home for our weekend. We can't thank them enough for their generosity. Having a place to put Cam down for naps and bedtime was so wonderful (without having to pay for 2 hotel rooms!) Their home was amazing! Gorgeous turn-of-the-century home, beautifully renovated, typical San Francisco. They were super close to a ton of fun stuff, and we took advantage of it all that weekend!

Cam had a blast running down the hallway of their home! He "played" soccer a lot that weekend. He also had a great time with all of Lucas + Holly's toys - totally different than his stuff at home. :)

We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, and it was like we were in another world! It was soooooo cold up in SF. It was triple digits in Paso when we left; mid-60s in SF! Luckily we'd planned ahead and brough long pants and sweaters with us :) After boiling at home, it was a nice change.

Saturday morning we got ready and went to the King Tut exhibit. Luckily Eric + Anna's place was really close to the Museum of Science, so it was a quick trip with easy parking. Cam did really well in the exhibit, which was super crowded. No strollers were allowed, so Cam and Daddy did a quick tour then waited outside in the awesome park inbetween the 2 museums while I took a little more time. We unfortunately didn't have our camera with us for this outing, and we missed some great shots of Cam watching a large group of people doing Tai Chi. He also loved watching a group of people practicing being a Chinese dragon but he had the most fun running around inside of an emtpy water fountain with some other kids.

After King Tut, we explored the area a little bit and came across this amazing carousel. Cam loved it! He rode it three times AND WE DIDN'T HAVE A CAMERA! So bummed! We'll have one next time. :)

Later, after Cam's nap, we explored the Haight and took a walk back to the park we'd been at in the morning (the carousel was closed, we were all so bummed). Note the wool sweater and that Cam was totally wrapped up in a blanket :) We had a blast - Cam ran around and totally wore himself out.

On Sunday morning we walked around the park by Eric + Anna's - the sun was out and it was gorgeous! We started our drive south around Cam's naptime but he didn't sleep well, and we decided to stop at a park in Willow Glen to have a picinic lunch and play for a bit before the rest of the drive back to Paso. It was a terrific weekend away from home and THANK YOU again to Eric, Anna, Lucas and Holly for letting us stay at their fabulous home!

Ball explosion :)

Cam having a blast throwing balls out his his playpen/ball bit. And he helped pick them all up too!

Cam's first Emergency Room visit - whee

Who knew "Ring Around the Rosie" could cause so much grief??

Cam was playing at daycare today, the aforementioned "Ring Around the Rosie" when he tripped, fell, and hit his head on some concrete at the base of a fence post, that for some insane reason was NOT buried underground like all the *other* fence posts in the yard. It was a pretty good gash, and like head wounds tend to be, quite bloody.

The ladies at daycare called us right away (thank gosh we live 2 mins from daycare!) and we dashed over. The gash was still bleeding, and it looked deep, so we ended up at the Emergency Room in Templeton. Ninty minutes, many tears, many under-the-breath curses by the parents at the ER staff for making a little kid wait, one staple later, we headed home.

Luckily for Cam (and us), there was no loss of consciousness, no vomiting, so the ER doc could rule out concussion quickly (plus not make us wait around even longer for an MRI). Cam got a surgical glove balloon for his troubles :) The scar will be hidden by his hair, and if he ever decides to go the "bald and sexy" look, I'm sure the scar will just make him more handsome :)

The staple came out 10 days later at a local doc's office, with few tears. Brave boy!!!

We figured we had a couple more years before christening the ER but that's our boy - doing stuff ahead of the curve :)

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!

Best buddies :)

We met Cam's best buddy from daycare, Sebastian, and his mom, at Sherwood Park this mornig for some fun before it got too hot. We had a great time!!! :)

Happy 4th of July

We were invited to spend the 4th of July up in San Jose with our friends Derek, Evelyn, Adrianna and Garret. It was a gorgeous day up there - mid 80s - their friends Mark, Cherry, and their two daughters joined the fun too.

Cam's 4th of July was all about food and fun :)

After some time playing in the pool with the kids (without getting wet, natch), it was popscicle time.





Next: back to the pool.







Then it was time for a 4th of July themed Jello bowl! (no alcohol :) )









After Jello, it was time to play house with all the kids running in and out. Amazingly, no fingers were smooshed in all the excitement.




The kids' sugar was low, so cupcakes were brought out for everyone to enjoy.






Hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July!!!

Just for Cousin Isley :)

All your hard work paid off: Cam now has a new parlour trick - animal noises :)

Family BBQ!

Since this is Cam's first trip to the East Coast ever, Auntie Trina + Grammie put together a family gathering so that Kevin and Cam could get to meet some of the family. Dave + Danielle generously offered to have it at their beach house (right across the street from where we are staying) that is literally on the beach, so we all hoped for some good weather :)

Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate - the day dawned grey and raining, and it stayed that way :) C'est la vie! The party got moved inside (thank you again, Dave + Danielle!!) and about 40 great aunts, great uncles, cousins (first, second, removed, etc :) all arrived despite the awful weather.

Dave gamely bbq'd outside in the rain with Lionel and I did a really crappy job of introducing Kevin + Cam to everyone (about half the family) as the gathering was a bit overwhelming for Cam, so he + K were outside quite a bit, despite the weather. Cam's never been around a group this large (and loud, lol) before, so he took it in small doses. He got a lot more comfortable much later in the afternoon when there were fewer people there and overall everyone had a lot of fun. It was so terrific to see everyone!! We were all really grateful that so many of the family were able to come see us in New Hampshire - thank you notes go out this week, I promise :)

Trina, Jamie + Isley stayed over again, as did Grammie + Grampie, but we had to say goodbye to Chris and Tyler :( So glad you could come visit us!! Now we just need to drag all of you out to CA :)



ps
just so everyone in the family knows: everyone has a standing, open invitation to visit us in California. Anytime! Just give us a couple of hours to clean up the house :)

East coast visit

We're here! After much planning, we are on the east coast in lovely Seabrook, New Hampshire, comfortably esconsed into Dave + Danielle's lovely beach house :)

Our red-eye from SFO was slightly delayed (typical SFO - fog so only 1 plane could land at a time) and Cam was awake waaaaay too late, but he eventually fell asleep on the plane. Keeping him asleep was a challenge as we apparently were traveling with a bunch of insomniacs, but we made it to Boston (on time, no less) and arrived to gorgeous sunshine and clear skies. We'd checked weather.com before the trip, so the sunshine was a nice surprise!

We made it to the beach house around 9:30am. By 1pm, Trina, Jamie + Isley had joined us, with Chris + Tyler shortly thereafter and there was *still* room at the beach house for more :)

Since this was the first nice weather for everyone else, we spent most of the afternoon either out in the backyard or down on the beach. It was so nice for Cam to meet Tyler for the first time, plus he seemed to remember Isley as well. They are all having fun together :) Both Tyler and Isley all were kind enough to bring toys from home for Cam to play with while he's visiting - so far the Baby Einstein flash cards are the biggest hit.

Looking forward to dinner with everyone and (once the kids go to bed) Chris brought champange for us all - yum!!!

Cam and the doggie door

Going out :)


Coming in :)

Momo kite

Cam is chattering up a storm and a lot of it is "mommy/daddy" decipherable, but he's getting better every day. He'll be paakin' the caa in no time :)

Elmo is still an object of great affection and Cam refers to him as "Momo". While at Walmart on Saturday (I know, I boycotted for over 3 months. Trying to boycott again.) I found an Elmo kite, total cheapo thing, for $1, and got it for the boys. I should have looked to see if I could find 2 of them because of 1) the learning curve to put it together, and 2) Cam's fascination with anything daddy touches - best to have 1 for each of them.

While daddy tried to get Momo up in the wind tunnel of our backyard, the long green streamers at the bottom proved to be a ton of fun for Cam as he chased them around. He eventually got a hold of one and got both himself and daddy tied up pretty good. After K got them both untied, Cam got a hold of the streamer (started w/2, down to 1 now) again they were both wound up again in 2 seconds flat. The last time Cam wrapped the streamer around his throat! (everyone is fine) Momo, of course, bounced around on the ground, stepped on and is in quite sad shape, but the 4th try got him up in the air.

I'll look for another one next month :) For a buck it provided a lot of entertainment, mostly good!

Things Cam learned in May

1. How to get in and out of his crib on his own (not gracefully but that will come)

2. How to open the refrigerator on his own (that is one heavy door!)

3. How to open the door to the garage on his own (repeat: that is one heavy door!)

4. How to use the doggie door to elude mommy and daddy after bathtime and go running around the yard in his bare feet. Once he figured out the doggie door, its now *his* door to use too :)

Video of the doggie door antics soon...

Goofball at dinner

Cam's learning to make the "Home Alone" face - that's what daddy taught him over Memorial Day weekend :)

He thinks he's pretty funny. (this refers to both of them)

Cam's wagon: multipurpose :)

Typically you'd see a photo of Cam in his wagon (which he can get in and out of on his own very nicely now :) ) but for our Memorial Day BBQ w/our wonderful neighbours, we had to repurpose it to bring over some goodies to share :) Cam had a blast playing with Ryan and we all enjoyed the boys antics (mostly a lot of chasing and yelling). Thanks for having us over, Awesome Neighbours! :)

ps
yes, that is Cam's butt sticking out of Ryan's toy drawer.

Boogie down, young man :)

Cam has learned when we get the video camera out that he can see himself on it. So once he sees the camera, he stops what he's doing (which is what we're filming, lol) and runs over to see himself in the monitor. While very cute, it makes it hard to catch those special moments, like him boogieing down while watching himself dance in the reflection of the tv. :)

Cam and the building blocks

Cam's teachers at daycare have mentioned how good Cam is with the building blocks there, and one has said that it can be an indication of excellent math skills (Cam definitely gets that from daddy but he gets his prolific artistic talent from mommy :) ).

At home, he's quite fond of building tall things, then knocking them down (that's the fun part!). What's so surprising is how tall he can already build stuff - just about as tall as himself, and on a couple of occasions *taller*.

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!!

Don't read anything into this

Cam playing with George in the hall closet. LOL about his "plumber's crack". We feed this kid a lot of food but he's still hovering around 30-30.5lbs. Must just be in a growing taller phase :)