Maybe this might work as a weekend catchup kind of blog. We'll see. I started today a bit earlier, I woke around 5:28 and then realized it was the weekend and went back to sleep but not for long, Caleb woke us up around 6ish with a nightmare. I got him back in bed but tossed and turned mostly. Cameron called for Daddy around 7ish and he went but said Cameron was still sleeping. Not long after he called out again. Despite Carey's offer to get him, I went ahead and got up.


Good thing I guess, I've already tidied up the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning dishes, made a pot of coffee and a batch of iced tea. I lit a yummy Yankee Candle tart and the house smells even more like coffee now. Now to jot down a few quick thoughts and get my grocery list planning started. If I'm lucky, I can knock it out fairly early this morning and get some hang out time with the family this afternoon. Tonight Carey and I have a Date Night planned to go see a movie.


This week marked the start of school for Caleb. I took off half the Friday before last and Monday to go meet his teacher and just be home for the first day. He did fairly well with a few write ups so far. Hopefully it's just the adjustment of getting back and not a sign of how this school year will go.

On Tuesday I woke up bummed that I wasn't going to be off again. But a thought occurred to me before my feet hit the floor, this is my day to day life. Going to work is my day to day life. I shouldn't really be wishing it away and only looking forward to the few days off that come occasionally. I know, not rocket science, not an amazing discovery. But, it helped me get my mind in the day.

The juggle of everything just seems so overwhelming at times. But, as I pondered these thoughts more that same morning, I thought of some guy action movies of all things. The Matrix and Men in Black came to mind. You know the part where Neo gets the matrix at the end and taps into it and becomes super fast and invicible? Somehow I often think of that on those days when you get in the zone and approach the realm of "Super Mom". Or, how about Will Smith saying, "The difference between me and you is that I make this look good." Through this week I still kind of strived to be in the zone and make this look good. Of course along the way I was heading to a dentist appointment that I totally remembered and had posted on my calendar but realized I was within a day or so of our car bills being due and I had totally forgotten to schedule those! Thank goodness for Online Banking and fast turnaround time. Anytime I miss the process of sticking on stamps and licking envelopes to tend to my bills, one of these last minute dashes reminds me of the huge benefit for tapping into technology.


Speaking of, I added a reminder on my online Cozi calendar to let it help me remember the car bills going forward since they are a book of payment coupons and so nothing arrives in the mail to trigger my memory. That should help if I don't ignore the reminder and neglect to write it down!


So, another weekend is starting. I'm sipping my coffee, the rest of the family has awoken in the time I've been writing. I got Caleb his breakfast and gave him one of his favorite shows on the tv. Cameron is starting to do his usual Dennis the Menace impression as he wanders the house seeking out trouble and mischief. This is it folks, real life so I guess we embrace it and make the most of it. Savor the treasures within the days. Got a little more of a cup of coffee, still warm but soon to turn too cold. Time to plan some menus and that grocery list.


Be well and maybe I'll check in again this time next Saturday. :)

Let's see, it's been close to almost three years since I posted last to this blog. Why today to start again? I don't know, lots of thoughts crossed my mind this morning since I've been up. It's amazing the amount of things that can happen in about an hour and a half in a household with still fairly young children.

At age 6, Caleb has mellowed a bit and can have moments where he likes to relax and chill out. He enjoys to sit and watch tv and play video game but at the same time he spends plenty of time creating drawings, collections, forts and various experiments with mixed success.

At age 3, Cameron seems to spend his day in contstant action with the thought of stopping being a dirty word. One moment he is busy with the oopses that seem to follow him around with sippy cups, open boxes of cereal and such. At others he seems to relish the moments of making a huge mess of Legos after dumping out the whole container and running through them. Why? I just don't know.

In the midst of all this, I seem to have this really strong craving for a peaceful, zen existence. Why, again I don't know. But how is the bigger questions plaguing me. How can a busy working mom find a true peace aside from stolen moments to the bathroom with the fan running. How do I quiet the outside and inside noise in my mind?

As I pondered this, this morning, I poured my morning cup of coffee. The sound a cartoon was blazing out of the tv and my spirit was wishing for one of my Aura tunes on one of the satellite stations. I would have loved to go sit in a quiet corner to savor my sips of French Vanilla goodness. And yet, the scent wafted up to me and I knew that even in the midst of the messy chaotic house, I could at least savor a little cup of zen and peace. Something just for me to give me a little treat to carry forward through my morning. And I had this idea to write.

I've thought about re-starting a blog for a while but I didn't know what I could possibly write that would be unique or any different than every other mommy blog out there. We all have kids that say and do the darndest things. Our stories of our kids are all sweet and wonderful. We all juggle an amazing amount of things. We all load ourselves up like pack mules to zip around to errands, school, work and such. We all have our skills and stengths. Some make it look so easy and they are always dressed so nice and serve their children organic meals from their backyard gardens.

Sigh, I am not one of those moms. I am so in love with being a Mom and yet I have the moments of doubt, overwhelming stress and so many feelings that seem out of place. And then, Cameron came to me as I started to write and he proudly told me that he had cleaned up all of the Legos. And he had, all nice and neat. I gave him a big hug and a kiss. And for just a moment, all was right in the world.

And now, my coffee mug is empty. I guess it's time to roll up my sleeves and set out to tackle changing sheets on beds. A mundane task but one I wanted to do this weekend. Everyone can start back in the school routine with clean sheets and pillow cases. Maybe even I can get to hubby's and mine to savor an extra nice welcome when we go "off duty" tonight and can climb into bed and unwind from another busy day in the trenches. Calls of "Mommy!" are awaiting me so off I go, who knows what I will find awaiting....another adventure around every corner....

Christine

Where has the time gone?

My goodness, early November was my last post? Oy! Last month zoomed by. One work trip, some sickies and there a month goes. Thank goodness for some fun times in between. The boys love playing together for good and for bad. Can't seem to get Caleb to understand that his little brother is still little! Wish he could just behave for one evening.

My work has continued to be quite crazy busy and makes the days go by quick during the week as well.

Cameron has his two bottom teeth in front and is maybe working on a top one now. Although I thought one was coming a few weeks ago. Guess it was a return ear infection instead. Caleb had a wonderful 4th birthday party. Can't believe he's four already!

Anywho, can't think of more to say for now. Better finish up as there are baths to give and things to do before bedtime.

All the best of the holidays to all of you!!!

CC

Two teeth coming!

Yes, the second bottom tooth is trying to pop out as well. I'm sure it will be awhile before I can capture a good toothy grin of Cameron's. The first tooth hasn't fully come in yet. Considering the teething, Cameron has been pretty good. We've had a few longer stretches of sleep at night. Again we had to try and up his bottles and meals during the day. Maybe it is now working, we'll see.

Now is kind of a lull after Halloween is done and before we really gear up for Christmas. But, I am already thinking and planning. Before that though, we have Caleb's fourth birthday coming up in December! Four years!!! Wow! I think this weekend I will start gearing up for the Scooby Doo party and get at least the invitations going.

I've been re-assigned to a new client at work so that is giving me a fresh start and a new challenge. I've had a few weeks to peek at things and I'm starting to feel a little more confident. Of course next week I start to move more closer to the front line on the titles. Maybe then I'll start to feel differently. We'll see. I'll take each day as it comes. Always good to keep learning something new though!

Well, hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to get some more shots of the boys and upload them soon.

Take care and be well,

CC

Halloween Fun

I'm trying to snatch a few minutes of Cameron sitting in his play seat to upload some recent pics from Halloween and such. He's not really keen on sitting through since he's discovered all the fun of exploring the house and getting into EVERYTHING!!!! Big Brother Caleb is "helping" Dad organize in the garage. That's lasted longer than usual. Even so my time is probably short.

We did take the boys out for fun trick or treating at a very nice neighborhood in our town. They are so used to welcoming trick or treating that local cops direct traffic for parking and bicycle cops patrol through the neighborhood amongst the trick or treaters. It was all worth it as the homeowners really were ready and waiting with their beautiful homes decorated nice. We wound up going with some neighbor friends and so Caleb really enjoyed himself. We of course had to tell the older boys to wait for the neighbor's younger son. Cameron hung out in the stroller for a good.

Actually Cameron was quite good considering that he is working his first tooth. The tip of it is showing now. Not sure if the neighbor tooth is coming soon too. Guess we'll see.

Well, guess I'll keep this post short since I can't think straight right now. I'll get to uploading the pictures!!! The good stuff!

Hope everyone is well.

Take care,

CC

Standing baby!!!

Well, I guess I should mark it down that Cameron is definitely standing up with help on a regular basis! He just loves to pull up and stand. Even has let go a few times to stand alone for a second or two. So far no big boo boos, yay! Caleb is enjoying this new step too, he points out with such surprise, "Look! He's standing!" And had lots of fun the other morning when Cameron crawled over to the couch and was pulling up to look at him sitting on it. Gotta get the camera next time he does that.

Of course they both move so fast that it's tough to catch things quickly enough. :)

We're hoping to have a garage sale this week and sell some of the little baby gear and clothes that we are done using. I am okay with this and yet I may have a little twinge of sadness to see some of the things go. Last night I savored the moment after Cameron had drifted off to sleep and was sleeping on my shoulder still. I looked over at big boy Caleb and remembered that he used to do that. And I thought back to the point when he started to get bigger and I knew our rocking chair days were numbered. We still could fit but it just wouldn't be quite the same.

But there are other wonderful things to share. Like when he made me some "treats" to help me feel better from my headache last night. He made some toy part into a little plate and loaded it up with a variety of play food. Let's see, there was an orange, a lemon, an ice cream cone, some french fries and a cardboard orange juice container. The perfect headache remedy!

Well, hope everyone is doing well. Have a wonderful weekend! I will try to update some newer pictures between now and Monday!

CC

Lots of shots!

Oh my, I had to take both boys to the doctor on Tuesday afternoon. Cameron was due for his six month checkup and so he was due for three shots. Turned out that the doctor's office had flu shots available too. So I requested them for both boys. I feel almost a bit bad that I CHOOSE for them to have to get a shot. But I know that getting the flu would be much worse for everyone. Poor Caleb especially has gotten used to not having anything done at Cameron's checkups. He was quite upset that he had to get a shot too. I pointed out to him that his brother got three more than him! Both boys were screaming and crying by the time it was over but thankfully calmed down after a minute or two of a group hug.

On the way home, I told Caleb that I would be getting my own flu shot later in the week. He asked if I would cry and I said no that I wouldn't. That I knew getting the shot was much better than getting the flu bug. I tried to tell him about how it's a bad bug that makes you feel really awful. That the shot will help keep him healthy. By the next day he wanted to show a friend at daycare where he had gotten his shot!

Cameron is doing well and growing at a healthy pace. He's right in the middle for his range so doing well. I barely got to tell the doctor about all the things he's already doing. He asked if he was sitting up and I said that he's been doing that for awhile. He weighed in at 16 pounds which is a little less than I was thinking. I think the onesies that go to 18 pounds still seem a little bit snug and small on him!!!

Soon we'll be getting ready for Halloween. Caleb wants to be a ghost. Cameron was going to wear a hand me down Tigger outfit but I'm now realizing the outfit that was a little big for Caleb at his first Halloween might be way big for Cameron for his! That three month gap might make a bigger difference on the one year outfit. Might have to find him his own thing.

Well, mostly just the same old same old around our place. The sleeping through seems to be sticking. Of course we still get some 4am wakeups. I still walk around a bit sleepy and loopy headed so I'm amazed I functioned at all when he was getting up more often! Perhaps the damage is still not gone. Or it's just the busy pace that leaves me sometimes spinning in circles not sure what to do next.

Hope everyone is doing well! Take care and talk to you soon.

CC

New look

Well, I think I've finally decided on a new look here for the blog. I've been playing around with some free templates from "cutestblogontheblock". I had a design picked out but "someone" stole it from me. (Kidding!!!) As I played around with other options, I kept coming back to ones similar to the same look. Of course a few in the middle had some backgrounds that were too dark or page elements that were creeping into my text of my posts. I guess this one has the best of all worlds. For now.

So, the boys have been quite busy. Caleb has graduated out of his Thomas the Train shoes. For the last few years his new shoes had to be a bigger size of the same Thomas shoes. But now he wanted Batman ones. Sigh, a small silly thing but to me shows how he's becoming a big boy already.

Cameron will go through being a baby at hyper speed I think. He's into full blown crawling and now has also started to pull himself up on things. He pulled himself all the way to standing in his crib the other night. The first few times he let go and fell back. The third time he bent his knees and landed on his butt. He does not like to sit still in his seat anymore but to let him out requires close watching to keep him from bumping into things or falling down. That phase of staying where I put him really went by fast!!!

Of course we have the trade off in that many nights now he is sleeping through. This morning had a 4am wakeup but he did go back to sleep. I had to wake him up to get ready to go to daycare. He was happy and smiling though.

I'm still feeling tired at times and scatter brained. So I'm just amazed at how long I did function with the more severe sleep deprivation. Thank goodness perhaps the worst of it is behind us. I know there will be times of sleepless nights but ideally the constant routine of them is mostly gone. We'll see.

So it's a Friday and so the weekend is almost upon us. Maybe we will take out fall decorations and bake something yummy with pumpkin and spices in it. Make it feel like fall for us.

Hope everyone is doing well. Take care,

CC

Breezy Fall Day

Ah, the years in Florida must be starting to affect me. Carey and I both commented that it was starting to feel like fall today! The morning temp is all of....77 degrees. With a nice breeze and a decrease in the humidity, there is a slight coolness that to us is the promise of the summer heat going away for at least a few months. It is probably so small that anyone from elsewhere would not even notice.

With equal amazement, I'm getting a kick out of watching Cameron crawling and exploring his world now. I know that every child crawls at some point but I feel so proud of the little guy. It is really amazing how all of a sudden one day they take off and move those little hands and knees to take themselves around the room. It also makes me appreciate again how far Caleb has come from the little baby he once was too. And even more amazing that I have not aged at all while this was happening! (Ha ha ha!) Sure makes you more aware of the passing of time.

I'm again having to go through Cameron's clothes and remove outgrown items. I'm remembering now too that this early stage of eating baby food means more destroyed items that get stained beyond saving. So, I may have to get out and buy Cameron some new things. Maybe even some more pants for this cool fall weather!

Well, maybe I'll try and get outside again today to enjoy the nice breezy day. It reminds me that it's almost time for pumpkins, leaves and Halloween fun.

Take care and talk to you soon!

CC

Shhhhh, we might be on a roll

I do not want to jinx it but I think we might be on a roll with Cameron for sleeping (insert happy dance!). He's not actually had a bottle in the middle of the night for about 5-6 nights. He's slept all the way through two nights. He's woken up less and less other nights. I know we will likely backslide back a few times. But, today is a nice day after sleeping a nice stretch of time. I did of course do the 4:30 ish wake up, the "Wait a minute, is he still sleeping??? Is he okay? Should I check on him?" Crazy how you almost get used to getting up.

So, one thing that probably helped the good sleeping for Cameron was a long day for everyone on Saturday. We headed down to Disney. I spent much of Friday making a list of things to bring. I dashed about Saturday morning packing bottles, spoons, baby food, bib, etc, etc. I had about 4 bags of stuff. Even ponchos and a raincoat for if it rained! We were about 20-30 minutes in when we realized that we had both forgotten the biggest, most important and most difficult to replace item......the stroller. I confess we did a bad thing in that moment. We went to Walmart and bought a stroller with the intent to return it the next day. We stopped at a friend's house for a brief visit as planned and Carey assembled the stroller quickly.

The replacement stroller worked out okay although it was a single and so we could only put one boy in it. Although we had fun joking we were going to sit Cameron on Caleb's lap. Caleb was very tired later in the day from all of the walking and I think he's almost outgrown his shoes too. Thankfully he could fit in the stroller for at least some breaks from the walking.

We almost packed it in and went back home when we stopped at the Contemporary Resort to try and feed Cameron some baby food. In looking bad, if it had been on a sitcom, I probably would have been laughing hysterically. Target practice on a squirmy baby with squash is not an activity I would highly recommend. And doing this so close to the escalators was of course asking for trouble with too much temptation for Caleb. Thank goodness for the guardian angel that watched over him as he wandered off and took a solo trip up and down the escalator. My heart still jumps into my throat at the thought of him doing this.

The balance came later on when we sat on a boat and rode around the waterway to Epcot and some of the hotels. Cameron was hanging over my arm, laughing and giggling as he played with Caleb's hair. Caleb of course ate it up and was egging him on. It would have been a great picture if we could have found the camera in time. But at least I can think about it and remember that we did have wonderful moments like that. Plus some great pizza and funnel cake. Just enough of a break from the ordinary and everyday. And a good practice run for the next time we head down there. With our stroller!!!!

Man, I still need a nap from this weekend....hope everyone is doing well.

CC

Trying for sleep

Well, I am trying to see if Cameron can sleep through the night. We made a change in his bottles and he's eating a lot more during the day at daycare. This week we had one night with a 3am feeding and one night he slept through. Last night I was up with him again around 1:30. I got him back to sleep without a bottle. He cried a bit when I left the room. He stayed calm if I sat in a chair by his crib so I did that until he fell off asleep to some lullaby music. Even this second time around I find that I am trying to feel out how to best navigate this transition. Of course with Caleb trying to sleep in the other room, if we can minimize the full blown crying, that would be best.

Wanted to update that the day after my last post I felt much better. I had my day of mourning and the next day dawned bright and new.

We've had a nice cool front come through recently and so last night we enjoyed a nice long walk in the evening with Caleb riding his bicycle. With Cameron eating better during the day at daycare, he's happier and not needing to eat quite as much in the evening. It's nice getting a little bit of time back in between "dinner" and "bedtime" snack for him. We can use it to pop out to a store, go for a walk or just give him some playtime.

Cameron is sitting up really well and is creeping around now. We have to watch carefully he doesn't explore the gliding ottoman or bump his head on the wood table. And no paper is safe near him. I let him tear up and crumple an ad one Sunday and since then he's eager to play with paper. Thank goodness for a crinkly book.

Well I guess that's about it. Still just tired and hopeful that soon we'll achieve full night's of sleep.

Hope everyone is doing well.

CC

Remembering Mom

I knew that today was the anniversary of my Mom's passing. I was reminded of it recently as I heard the news that a former manager had passed away after a battle with cancer. In a small way she was always a bit of a mother figure, giving me my first break of a real solid job after college.

I had thought about today's anniversary but it had kind of been pushed back in my mind behind thoughts of my sleep quest with Cameron, concerns about my work closing and all the many thoughts that dash through my head on a daily basis.

Of all things I was in the car on my way to Walmart (how suburban of me) when I realized the song on the radio. It was one that I first heard in the days after Mom passed, "Calling all angels". The lyrics hit home then and still do. In the five years that have passed, when the song pops up on the radio, I always kind of feel like it's a little sign she's watching over me.

I still can't believe that it's been five years since she left us. I still can't believe that she's not here to see my boys and to know them in person. And yet I have faith that she does know them, I'm sure she's the force that has protected Caleb through his "danger boy" years. And I have high hopes that she is going to do the same for Cameron who is so intent on following in his big brother's footsteps, already crawling and trying to pull himself up on things.

I miss you today Mom. I wish you were here but I am grateful that you are in a better place. I'm glad that you are not trapped in a body that might have restricted you and kept you alive but miserable.

CC

Sitting up!!!

Well, over the weekend, Cameron got himself sitting up a few times. He got better and better at it and was enjoying banging a rattle and such on the floor. He toppled over a few times but did good about getting back up. That's good considering he either had a cold or was teething since Saturday. Runny nose, drooling and kind of cranky. I kind of kept watching for crawling that I didn't think about him sitting up soon.

And he slept even worse than before. So tired. But, Carey has a good perspective that this will probably continue through at least the first year. So, I guess I should keep that idea in mind and than I will be VERY pleasantly surprised if we luck out before then.

Fingers crossed that the dear one does not sleep all day at daycare and get his patterns mixed up. May have to call today and check to encourage daycare provider not to slack off and be lazy. Hopefully I won't have to threaten to call her house all night if Cameron keeps us up. Kidding!

Caleb had a fun weekend with going to a daycare friend's birthday party. He was a good boy at it and I was grateful as another mom had her hands full with a toddler who kept wanting to run away from the swimming activity and into the street! Yikes!!! It was nice to sit and relax for a bit. The calm before the storm of Cameron being a toddler.

Well, hope everyone is doing well. Take care,

CC

Will I EVER sleep again????

Oy, I am so tired of being tired. I know that a good friend of mine said that establishing a sleep schedule with a baby is an ongoing thing and not a one time goal. Man, that is true in our house. The routine still varies widely. Some nights some peace can be bought with the pacifier, other nights not. In the wee hours of the night, it's just easier many times to provide a bottle and get back to bed sooner. And ensure that the whole house isn't awakened with a crying baby.

Perhaps I would not be so frustrated if it were not for my new arch nemesis. There is a woman at work who in many ways is lovely. But, her baby who is younger than Cameron is sleeping through the night. Which she has bragged about several times. I've done my best to graciously congratulate her.

It's getting to the point that helpful advice like "you should feed him more" is not very welcome. Every evening the boy is a chowhound and puts away quite a feast. I figure each night, "There, that should buy us more hours". But nope, the last few nights I'm seeing the little stinkerbutt earlier and earlier. He's lucky he's so cute.

Well, I suppose I've vented enough about my ongoing sleep obsession. I do remind myself that at just around 5 months, Cameron is still young and he's doing pretty good. I still have faith that we'll get there eventually. At some point we will be sleeping more and this will start to fade into a fuzzy, sleepy memory. And don't anybody tell me otherwise because I don't want to know!!!

Hope everyone is doing well. Best wishes and good rest to all,

CC

Creep, creep, creep and going backwards

Well, Cameron is still working on his moving. He almost tries to sit up as well. He have a tendency to move backwards in his efforts as so many babies do. But it is enough to get from place to place. If you put a new toy down on the floor, he is eager to get to it. I did start one bad thing in that I let him crumple up a newspaper ad which he enjoyed a lot. Now though he wants to grab all paper and crumble it up.

Yesterday when I went to get the boys at daycare, Caleb ran to me for a hug. Little Cameron was hanging out on the floor doing some exploring and he looked up and cried a bit. I felt like he wanted to run to Mommy too. Poor little sweetie.

Caleb has been really testing the limits lately. Trying out some sassing and back talking. He lost his favorite tv show last night. We'll see if it was enough of a wake up call to have a better evening today.

In other news of course we are watching Weather Channel more often with all the storm activity. Fay went overhead and caused some power outages but thankfully that was about all. Hopefully the other storms stay far away!!!

Well, hope everyone is doing well. Take care and talk to you soon.

CC

P.S. Will post new pictures soon!

Rocking 'n rolling baby

Cameron is a boy on a mission. Just about whenever he is put down on the floor for some playtime, he rolls over and pulls himself up on his knees and starts rocking. Sometimes he stays up for a few minutes. Sometimes he topples forward onto his face. Other times he winds up flipping back over to his back. Which is usually followed by a startled expression of "What happened?!?!?" Even without being fully mobile yet with crawling, he's still turning and creeping and getting into things. It will be extra challenging trying to keep him out of the toys and things that have been left out by his older brother.

Caleb has taken to one of my favorite childhood story books, "The Monster at the End of this Book" with Grover. I've read it to him a few times and now he'll sometimes take out the book and flip through it "reading" it to himself, remembering many of the words from the pages. Dad is a bit more creative and will make up stories to tell him at bedtime. Those get remembered and recited back too.

In other news, we currently have the storm Fay in the area and she's trying to figure out where she's going to go and what she's going to do. We'll just be trying to employ some of the best rainy day activities to keep the boys busy. Should be interesting!

Well, take care and will write more soon.

CC

The sweet boys

Let's see, what's new? Not too much. We still have not reached full night sleeping on a regular basis. But, we have the one wee hours waking and he is usually going until after 5 the next time. (I have totally just jinxed us for the weekend and he'll be up at all hours.)

Cameron is starting to expect his cereal in the evening and is eating it better and better. He seems to be cutting teeth off and on all the time. Chewing two of his fingers is a new favorite move. Oh, and pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and playing with it or throwing it on the floor. He will not stay where I put him on the floor and so I have to be careful and watch that he doesn't crash into the very heavy legs of the coffee table. He'll turn and creep and scoot his way around to look at things. The other day he wanted to explore a plastic train of big brother's.

Big brother Caleb was especially sweet the other day. He was offering Cameron's burp cloth to him and called it his "blankie" but I said it wasn't really his blankie. That he doesn't actually have one. (He's got lots of quilts and blankets so what was I thinking?) But, Caleb promptly said that he had a blankie for him and ran and got his own treasured Cars blanket. He brought it back and gently covered up his brother with it. Did a very good job too. It was the sweetest moment.

Watching the two boys together is such a delight because they really do already enjoy each other in a special way. I know that sibling rivalry will come but at the same time I cannot wait for them to be old enough to really play together more. I know my sister and I had such great adventures playing together over the years. I can't even imagine what these two boys will do. I am hoping that they will settle down and play and NOT always jump on the couch and climb on things like a jungle gym. I swear Caleb is part monkey and watching "Curious George" all the time is of course no help. But, I hope that they continue to enjoy each other and want to be friends.

I guess we'll see what the future holds over time. For now, just trying to find simple moments in the day to slow down and savor.

Hope everyone is doing well!!! Talk to you soon.

CC

Four month checkup

Yesterday Cameron had his four month checkup and another round of shots. Poor baby, four shots and a vaccine by mouth. Of course he cried a lot and fell asleep for a bit on the ride home. He also took a little evening nap after a bottle. But, he actually woke up for a bit and played and was pretty happy.

Over the weekend we made more attempts at eating rice cereal. Later on Sunday, I took a chance and mixed it with just a bit of apple/prune juice as I was afraid the little guy was having "tummy issues". He really loved the cereal with the juice in it. He gobbled it down very well. We didn't get a full night's sleep but a nice stretch until 3:30.

Last night I did give him the rice cereal with juice again and he ate that well plus two good bottles at different times but all before bedtime. Not too surprisingly we had another restful night. I checked on him a few times when he made some noises but he never woke up fully wanting a bottle. We went all the way until 5:30 this morning. I think that is still more related to the shots but who knows.

Cameron weighed in good at 14 pounds and the doctor said that in the next few weeks we could start trying some stage 1 baby foods. Yay!

Cameron really enjoys spending at least some time on his belly. He'll grab for soft toys to chew on and will scoot a little bit to get to what he wants. He's working on rolling back onto his back but that gives him some trouble still and frustrates him sometimes.

Caleb meanwhile is doing well aside from being a challenging 3 1/2 year old whose "listening ears" don't work half the time. During the doctor appointment yesterday he would not leave the doctor's rolling seat alone and drew on his face and legs with the pen I had given him in hopes that he would draw in a little notebook until we were done. I am sure that I should have remembered to bring him the special markers he has that only work on the Crayola paper. That's the tough thing about an appointment on Monday.

All in all life is good although hectic. We're hoping to try harder to have more routine on our weekends. Easy to say today on Tuesday. We'll see come Saturday if we can focus our attentions and stick to it.

Hope everyone is doing well. Take care!

CC

Roly poly baby on the move

Cameron is really into rolling around and rolling over now. Makes for an added challenge during a diaper change. Last night and this morning, when I put him down on the floor, he rolled over to his belly. Also, he is managing to scoot around at least a little bit. He got on part of the wood floor that goes into the Florida Room this morning. I didn't expect him to get that far!!! Will have to remember to put him in a more open, carpeted area. Can't believe he's already moving around and not staying where I put him! We'll have to start baby proofing a lot better and making sure that Caleb does not leave hazards around.

Where did the month go?

Boy, I'm surprised I haven't posted in so long. Well, a few weeks ago we had both boys sick with a cold, Croup for Cameron. Last week was all about trying to get things back in order around the house. So, I guess that does bring us to the last week of another month.

In some ways it's busier as Cameron is a bit more active when he is awake and in other ways we now have the benefit of parking him in a "play center" for at least a few minutes of time. Over the weekend he took some real solid naps and so that let me take care of some things too. Totally forgot to upload new pics, oops!

We now have the green light to try cereal with Cameron. I have twice prepared rice cereal and enthusiastically offered it to the little guy. He has played with it on his tongue and grinned back at me so far. I don't know that he has really eaten any of though. So, it has not given us a breakthrough of sleeping through the night. At least we are back to one feeding in the wee hours and so that's good at least.

Caleb has taken to saying "How about me?" when conversation revolves around Cameron for too long. He's still feeling neglected some times but seems to be behaving a little bit better. And he is eager to talk to or play with Cameron. Cameron of course just watches everything he does with amazement and awe. He looks so eager to get down and play.

Our daycare will soon gear up for their "school year" to begin again and I think she will have desks for Caleb and his friends. So, he will get a taste of school and we'll see how that goes. Hoping maybe this time next summer to be getting ready for the voluntary pre-kindergarten for him. Can't believe and yet looking forward to maybe having a savings from paying for full time daycare!!!

Hope everyone is doing well. Take care.

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