Off to school - see ya!

"I'm off to daycare - bye! Did you remember my coffee thermos?" :)

Doesn't Cam look like he's got a briefcase (its his lunchbag) and is on his way to work? He's all "business casual", so he'll be in a creative field like mom ;)

Dear Auntie Sherry and Mr. Keogh,

Mommy and daddy say you both love soccer and will coach me someday :) So far I like to carry the soccer ball - is that allowed? I also keep smacking it with my face but it hurts - what am I doing wrong?

Love,
Cam

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!

Sorry for the lack of posts

Life has gotten in the way of blogging the last week or so! But we're slowly getting caught back up (although never on laundry, it seems). Everyone is healthy again (K and I got food poisoning the day after Cam got the stomach flu). Cam is sleeping better at night now that he's getting more and more mobile.

Walking is two steps forward and one back - some days he's more confident about walking on his own than others. His level of tiredness definitely plays into it!! We think that he'll be walking more on his own by the time of his First Birthday party on September 6 :)

Big smiles

Cam's stomach flu was slow in going away, but he's on the mend. It was 5 days before he could keep anything other than bread and formula down! But he never gets tired of "walking" around the house...as long as he has some fingers to hold on to :)

And we're off!

Cam has been cruising along the couch for a while, and has loved to walk holding onto our fingers (thanks for teaching him that, Uncle Pat!) but today....today all the pieces for actually walking fell into place. Enjoy!

ps
seriously - we need childproofing tips! What's worth worrying about and what's good to just let be. Please share!!!

Mello weekend

We had a pretty quiet weekend over here. Cam is still not sleeping well since we got back from Willow Glen (and also stopped the antibiotics, so the concern is that the ear infection is back), so we're all a bit zombie-like.

On Saturday afternoon we did head down to SLO to visit with Auntie Tishy (my former colleague from the Bay area) and her husband Scott in their beautifully renovated Craftsman near Cal Poly. Its a gorgeous property and they did everything so right; the main bathroom is truly to die for (they did this cool alcove into the wall so that the towels hang flush with the wall, it so simple but beautiful!).

They are also big baby people and after Cam did his "judging" thing, he totally warmed up to them both and had a great time. He especially loved being able to crawl in a circle (going through the kitchen, small bath, Tishy's office, then end up in the kitchen again), which he did over and over. For some reason, Cam also seemed to fall in love with Scott's boots. He did really well with their dogs too, although he was a bit unsure at first. It was a super visit and hopefully we'll have them up here in toasty Paso soon.

One very BIG deal that happened at Auntie Tishy's - Cam took his first solo steps! He was doing the finger-walking with daddy (you all know that one; grownup is bent over and Junior holds onto two of your fingers to steady himself while walking) and Tishy crouched down about a foot away and encouraged him to come to her. He did let go of Daddy's fingers and after a bit of uncertainty, he took two steps to reach her :) It was so cool! And WAY too soon to encourage again, although Kevin now holds out hope Cam will really walk for his 40th birthday (just less than two weeks, folks!!). We'll see - he's barely 10 months old and that seems way too young to be walking (for mommy, at least. Yeesh, my baby is barely a baby any more)

Sunday was chore day and we got as much done as possible. The list is still long but we got quite a dent in there; lots of laundry, dog baths, garage cleaning out, vacuuming and floor dusting got done. Sadly there is still much to do, but the good thing about being sleep-deprived is that you really do care less than you did aprés baby :)

No really good photos to post right now, but my girlfriend Sarah did give me some advice on a better camera to get so I can capture Cam's moments a bit faster than the one we currently have. I've been purusing Craigslist and eBay for a bargin; hope to find one soon!

ps
the girls at daycare keeping giving Cam a "faux-hawk" during the day; we've got to get a photo of it up as its pretty funny

The Walk-in-ator

Cam has been practicing getting down after pulling himself up, and last week discovered how much fun it was to "chase" a toy with wheels. This morning while we were getting his food/bottles together for daycare, he figured out how to walk with the walker/scooter toy my cousin Chris sent Cam. We're using the term "walking" in its loosest definition here!

Don't worry - K was right there w/Cam the whole time :)

Da Da for Father's Day :)

Cam's "walking" is coming along quite well, as you can see in the video. So are his vocals; on Sunday he clearly said "Da da" for the first time :) K was thrilled! We also think he says "doggie" and "daddy" but its probably wishful thinking.

We had a busy weekend; Grandpa and Grandma Janice visited with us on Saturday and stayed the night, and on Sunday we got to go see Uncle Steve, Auntie MA and Loretta. Cam was invited to play in the pool, but the water was a bit too cold for him, so he declined - he had more fun getting passed around to everyone sitting outside enjoying margaritas and then had a blast playing down on the patio with Loretta and the dogs.

We did find out that the "Little Swimmer's" diapers don't really hold that much #1; mommy ended up drenched! Fingers crossed we don't find out about #2 the hard way :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!

Love,
M + K = C

Not-so-drunken-sailor

Well, its just been 24 hours and Cam is already "walking" better :) See our not-so-drunken-sailor.

Our drunken sailor

Cam has discovered that he can "walk" with some help from mommy and daddy :) He's started scooting along furniture (if there's something he really wants to grab, like the remotes) and every once in a while is bold enough to stand next to the couch, armchair or coffee table and hold on with just one hand. I get a grey hair every time he does it.

Hop, skip and a jump

Cam is getting better with the walker, although it looks more like he jumps instead of anything resembling walking :) He's getting faster too; we're going to have to babyproof here pretty quick! Those little hands are good at grabbing just about anything, from laptop power cables to plants to folders to dogs who run when they see him go into his walker to mommies holding cameras recording video :)

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 :)