Dear Daddy: Weekend at the Cottage

Dear Daddy,
This past weekend I went to the cottage with Mama, Grandma and Grandpa. Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma were there too. We had so much fun! I did a lot of neat new things, like swimming in the lake, playing with a million new toys and taking a nap in a hammock. I was a really good boy during the day, playing and having fun, taking good naps, and behaving myself at the restaurants. At night, well, that was a different matter... but we won't talk about that! Here are lots of great pictures of me and all the fun I had.
I love you Daddy!!!
Love, Cameron

Playing in the cottage - check out my shoes!
Working on sharing with Grandpa. I did really good sharing my blocks with him!
Go Red Sox!
I loved sitting on the milk can stools.
I took a nap outside on Saturday.
It was in the hammock!!
Mama and Grandpa took a nap on either side of me, to make sure I was safe when I woke up.
After I woke up, I played in the hammock. It was so fun!!
Hello!!
After the hammock, I was really warm so I played in the pool for a while.
I had enough of the pool and was ready to swim in the lake. I LOVED it!
There was a little boat that I could swim all around in, it was so cool.After swimming, I relaxed for a while in the playpen while everyone else had Happy Hour.

Playing inside on Sunday morning. You should have seen me walking around and around the coffee table!
And I also loved playing on the bunk beds. I had so much fun being so high up. I was laughing and laughing, it was so fun!

Dear Daddy: Day Three and Four

Dear Daddy,
On Tuesday I slept all the way through the night!! From 8:30 until 5:30 - am I a good boy or what? So I was really happy when I woke up in the morning at 7:30. I had a good day at school, although I didn't eat my bottles very good. I did have some food from the big kids menu though! At breakfast time, I tried a few Rice Krispies, but i didn't like them. I tried them both try and in milk, but it didn't matter, I just didn't like them. Then for snack, I had a bit of blueberry muffin! First I had a few small crumbles of muffin, and then I had them mushed up and mixed in with a bit of my milk. I liked it both ways, especially the blueberries!! Also today at school I got a Boo Boo Gram - I was rolling around on the floor and I rolled into the rocking chair and bumped my head. I got a ice pack on my head and some hugs from Miss Terese.

After school we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. I showed off all my tricks, like High Five, walking along the couch, and climbing up the stairs. Grandma and Grandpa's stairs are a lot longer than ours at home - they have 13 steps! But I climbed all the way up myself, with a few breaks along the way. After dinner we went home and i took a bath and then went to bed. I was a bit of a stinker because I didn't want to go to sleep and it was hard for Mama to get me to bed. I woke up a couple times during the night, and i pooped during the night and made my whole room stinky.

On Thursday I woke up in a great mood. I was really happy to get into school and play with my friends. I had a good day at school, taking a few naps and trying lots of new food! At breakfast, I tried a few bits of waffle but I didn't really like it. At lunch I tried some cooked carrots and some cubed tropical fruit. I LOVED LOVED LOVED my carrots and gobbled them all up. I HATED the cubed fruit and spit out every piece that my teachers tried to give me! Mama came and picked me up and we went home and played. We had fun playing with my toys. Mama noticed that I was a bit warm and took my temperature and it was 100.2. :( Mama gave me Tylenol and I felt better. I ate my dinner like a good boy, chowing down on cereal and a big jar of fruit. After dinner I was really sleepy so I went to bed. I was so tired that I went right to sleep.




I love you Daddy, and I miss you lots. Thanks for the picture of the camel for me, he is cute!
Love, Cam Cam

P.S. Here is a video of me getting ready for bed on Wednesday night, brushing my teeth and just generally being disagreeable. I'm sure you will recognize that I was being my usual wildman self, right before bed!!

Tim's Pictures from Egypt

Tim has been sending out a few pictures from Egypt to me, so I thought I would post them here for everyone to see. They are really great! Tim is having fun in Egypt - the government has decided that they aren't allowed on the site until Saturday, so Tim and person he is traveling with have been site seeing all week!

The view from Tim's hotel room, overlooking the pool and hotel grounds.
Pyramids at night
Laser light show at the pyramids
More laser lights on the pyramids
Sphinx laser image on the pyramid
View of Cairo with pyramids in the background
The Great Pyramid - Tim went inside, but you can't take your camera in
A picture for Cameron - a camel
Who said you can't jump over the Pyramids (or climb on them)?

Dear Daddy: Day One and Two

Hi Daddy,
This is my first blog post so I hope I do a good job! It takes me a long time to type because I am so busy trying to grab the keys off the keyboard.


On Monday I did okay at daycare, but I didn't sleep very well. I only took a few short naps. When Mama got there to pick me up, I was playing with the big kids. Then we went to swimming lessons. There was a new teacher and we sang lots of fun songs. One was about a motorboat and Mama zoomed me around the pool. I really had a good time at swimming lessons!! That night, Mama had to mow the lawn so Grandma came over to watch me. We went to Wegmans and I had a lot of fun - I was being my usual charming self and the cashier wanted to take me home! Then I came home and ate my dinner. I gave Mama a hard time when she was trying to put me to sleep - I just did not want to sleep. I was afraid I would miss something... you know how that is. I used my most powerful tactic: I pooped just as I was falling asleep so Mama had to come get me!!


On Tuesday morning Mama and I got ready for school and work. I played with my music table. I really love that toy!! I have even figured out how to walk all the way around it, so I can play with all of the instruments. It didn't take me too long to figure that one out. I had an okay day at school today. I did not eat very good, but I did take one long nap (and two short ones). I was in a good mood though. There was a new walker toy to play with at school and I like it! Tonight Mama and I had dinner. I had sweet potatoes and cereal for dinner, and I also tried a new food. I had elbow noodles!! Check out the video that we made for you below, of me trying them. After dinner Mama and I played for a while, then we went out for a walk. We stopped over at the Schickling's house to visit for a while. Leah was cute but she kept trying to steal Mama away from me and I got upset. We came home and I took a bath. It was fun playing in the bathtub, I was swimming all around.



I love you Daddy, and I miss you!! Say hi to a camel from me.
Love, Cameron

Tim on travel

Tim is on business travel to Egypt for the next two weeks - he left this morning and will be back on Monday July 21st. He has requested lots of blog updates, since he will be away from us for so long. Actually, this will be the longest that Tim and I have ever been apart, since we started dating. So anyway, Cam will be posting blog entries when he gets a chance (we are aiming for every day but are realistic that he won't have the time to type every single day!). It is waaaay past bedtime right now (and Cam is sleeping), so for tonight, just a cute picture!

Cameron: Style Icon

As I'm sure you have seen in the many pictures we post on this website, Cameron is quite the stylish baby. This is due completely to Cam's cousin Jack and his buddy Owen, whose hand-me-downs have kept Cameron looking good for his entire eight months. Sometimes though, Cam doesn't feel like being a Gap or Old Navy baby, and he digs a bit farther back in his closet.

A couple of Cam's most awesome outfits are waaaaay-hand-me-downs from his Uncle Paul and Uncle Matt. These outfits are complements of the 1980s, and you can definitely tell that is where they came from. Check out two of our favorites below: the sailor outfit and the baseball outfit. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of Uncle Paul or Uncle Matt in the same outfits.

Cameron's New Trick

About a week and a half ago, Cameron learned to pull himself up to a standing position. At first he was a bit shaky but now he is a pro at it. The only problem is that he hasn't figured out how to sit back down. During the day this is fine, but during the night.... he just stands there in his crib and cries. We are working on it, but so far he hasn't figured out how to get back down!!

We took this video of him last weekend at Omi and Opa's house - it was one of Cameron's first time pulling himself and we think it is pretty cute!

Seven months old!!

At the beginning of the month, Cameron turned seven months old. I always have great intentions to write the post on the day of or a few days later, but here I am two weeks later and I am just writing it. Oh well... I'll try to be better next month (or should i say, in two days).

Anyway, on to my big seven month old boy! We just can't get over how fast he is growing up and how much he learns every day. His crawling has gotten really good, although it is still more like an Army crawl, with his belly on the ground. He can move really quickly and this past month has discovered that a world exists outside of our living room. He has been exploring every where on the first floor that he can get to, and is enamored with banging drawers in and out in the kitchen.

He has been eating really well too, and has tried all of the main fruits and veggies that are available in baby food form. He has definite favorites, which are applesauce, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes. He eats most everything really well though. He started eating Cheerios and puffs this month, but is still not real good with picking them up. If we place a Cheerio right into his fingers in a pincher grasp, he can get it into his mouth. He doesn't have much success with picking them up off the tray and getting them into his mouth though. Maybe 1 in 20 makes it all the way into his mouth. It is cute to watch him try though.
This month Cameron's first two teeth have come in! At first, they were quite elusive - well, we couldn't get a good picture of them, but sure felt them a lot! - but since then Cam has discovered that a toothy grin is the way to go. It is very cute. Not quite so cute is when Cameron bites down on our fingers - those tiny teeth are sharp! Since he has the teeth, we have tried a few big boy foods with him. So far he has eaten small pieces of apple, banana, kiwi and melon. We either smush them up or give him really small pieces. By far his favorite was the apple, but that wasn't too surprising since he loves applesauce so much.In the last month, Cameron has been to two more weddings (in addition to the one in April) - Marissa's at the end of May and Meredith's at the start of June. That brings his total up to three weddings in seven months - lots of adults haven't even been to three weddings in their lives! He was very good at all of them, either sleeping through them or playing quietly. I was really proud of him.As for sleeping through the night... well, let's not go there. Every once in a while we get lucky and he sleeps through from 8pm til 5 or 6am, but for the most part he wakes up at least once during the night and cries. We are working on it, but it is hard because Tim and I are both so tired!

Daycare is going so well. He is really happy there and just loves his teachers. They always tell us what a good boy he is (which they might say to everyone, but it makes us feel good!). They told us the other day that he is becoming an escape artist though, and has realized that a world exists outside of his classroom. More than once they turn around and see his little feet going around the corner of the classroom and out into the hallway! He is so quick, especially when there is something or someplace he wants like that!!

Another big milestone of the last month has been starting swimming lessons. Tim and I take turns going in the pool with Cameron. It has been a blast, we are just loving it (and I think Cam is too!!). They don't really teach the babies how to swim or anything, it is more playing games and singing songs. Some of the games or songs teach the basic building blocks that the babies will use to learn to swim later. For example, we play a game where there are a bunch of squishy toys in the middle of the circle and the babies have to reach their arms forward to get the toys - this teaches them to reach forward, which will one day turn into the arm movements they need to swim. We also recite this rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall (sit baby on edge of pool wall)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (have the baby "fall" into the pool)
Humpty Dumpty swam back to the wall (baby swims back to edge of pool wall)

That is supposed to teach them that if they fall into the pool, swim back to the side. I don't know if it does or not, but it is fun. Below is a video of Cameron going underwater. We try to do it a couple times every class, and although he sputters a bit when he comes up, he does really well with it.

New Link

Just a quick post to mention the new link area that has been added to the sidebar. Over there ------------>

It is a listing of our latest photo galleries, both the new ones and the updated ones. We will update the links whenever we update the photo gallery. That way you can see whether or not we are being slackers. We feel that the public humiliation might motivate us to put pictures online faster than we do now.

Weekly Pictures Updated

Finally, I took the time to sit down and update Cam's weekly pictures. I have been meaning to do it for ages, but it takes quite a while to process the pictures so I have been putting it off. Anyway, Cam's weekly pictures with his Pooh bear and sign are up to date as of last week's pictures. Check them out!!

Cam and Pooh
Cam and his sign

Also, Cam turned seven months old last week, so I am also working on a post about all of his accomplishments in the last month. He is growing up so fast!

Cameron - Then and Now

Aunt Susan commented on a post that she couldn't believe how much Cameron had changed in the past month, and asked if we saw a difference or not. In the day to day, we don't really see a difference in what he looks like (what he does from day to day is another story all together!). When we go back and look at pictures from when he was first born - whoa, he doesn't even look like the same baby!! Here are a few examples:

Swing

Cameron Then: November 7th, 5 days old


Cameron Now: May 11th, 6 1/2 months old


Bath Tub

Cameron Then: November 29th, almost 4 weeks old


Cameron Now: May 4th, 6 months old


Bouncer Seat

Cameron Then: November 5th, 3 days old



Cameron Now: We still need to take this picture. I think this one will be the most dramatic change - in the picture above he looks like such a tiny little baby. When he sits in his bouncer seat now (which is pretty much never), he looks like a horse in it!!

Marissa's wedding

This past weekend, my good friend and college roommate, Marissa, got married in Buffalo. We headed there for the weekend. During the rehearsal dinner and reception, Matt watched Cameron, but Cam got to come to the ceremony. There are a few pictures below.

Cam and his buddy Braden, playing while the bridesmaids get ready

Cameron with Grandma and Grandpa in church - check out Cam's suit!

Close up of Cam

Kristin, Cam and Tim

Cam's last bath in the little tub.

Cam is getting so big so fast! We finally decided the other day that it was time to move him up to the big bath tub. The last few baths we gave him in the little tub resulted in Mama and Daddy getting almost as wet as Cam! We recorded a little bit of the last bath in the tub here it is.

Cameron waking up from his nap

We recently got a HD camcorder so we have been taking lots of videos of Cam. The videos are much larger than our digital camera videos, so we weren't sure if we could post them or not. The video below is from the camcorder, so it looks like it works!

Tim took the video about an hour ago of Cameron waking up from his afternoon nap. Make sure to watch the whole thing because the end is the cutest part.

Breaking News!

Breaking news (literally) at TravelingWalkers.com - Cameron's first tooth has finally popped through the surface! After months of drooling, chewing on everything in sight and exhibiting all the signs of teething, Cam's first tooth has finally arrived. It is his bottom, front, right tooth. We don't have a picture of it yet because he is very protective of it - squeezes his lips shut when you try to pry into his mouth, and if you actually get his mouth open then he sticks his tongue out. We catch glimpses of it when he smiles (and we can certainly feel it when he chomps down on our fingers) so we will have to try and get a picture that way.

Cameron's Nursery

We have had a long standing request from Emily to see pictures of Cameron's nursery... and now, finally, we can post some. In the past, we tried to get pictures of the room but just couldn't get anything good because his room is too small. A few weeks ago Tim got a new lens for his camera - a wide angle lens that can capture the entire side of a room.

The theme of his room is jungle animals. You can see his crib on the left and his dresser/changing table on the right. In the middle is our glider rocking chair, which we LOVE. Next to that is his toybox with a basket of books on top of it.


This pictures has a better shot of his crib. Hanging up on the top right side of the picture is a toy net that has a bunch of stuffed animals in it.

We are really happy with how it came out, and Cam seems to like it. He loves the animals on the border, rug and lamp. We talk about them while he is getting changed, since he looks right up at them. Cameron also loves the glider and it is where we spend time rocking, singing and reading together. When we are getting him ready for bed at night, we read a book or two as part of the night time routine. One of us sits in the rocker with him, the other sits on the footstool. We rock and read and tell stories. It is a great way to end the day.

Adventures in solid foods

What is this? Two posts in two days... crazy! Actually, we have lots of great pictures of Cameron that I want to get posted, so I will try to post something new every couple of days.

As I said in the last post, Cam has started eating real food. Here are a few pictures.

Mama, I don't think i like green beans so much...

Well, maybe they are okay - as long as Daddy makes funny faces while I eat.

Mr. Messy Face

The first cheerio starts with shock and surprise that I am allowing something so tiny near his mouth (usually I cover his mouth and take away the offending little object).

Why isn't this mushy like my other food?

Very interesting... I think I like it!
Where did my Cheerio go?

Six months old! (and Five months old!)

Wow, has it really been more than a month since we have posted?? Oops... we could give any number of excuses: vacation, nice weather, laziness. But we won't bother with that, nor with the fact that we completely missed the five month update. So here you go, the first in the line of a bunch of updates, combining Six Months Old! and Five Months Old!

Food:
During month five, Cameron tried each of the rest of the cereal options. He really likes all of them, but we haven't given him barley cereal in a while because it makes him very gassy and cranky. These days, he mainly eats rice or mixed grain cereal, but occasionally has oatmeal cereal.

Once he turned five months old, we started in on the veggies. Our plan was to go with green veggies first, since they are not as sweet as the orange ones. We figured that once he got a taste of the sweet stuff, he might not be so keen to go back to the green ones. Peas were the first non-cereal food he tried, and he liked them quite a bit, and did a great job eating them. It didn't take him too long to figure out how to open his mouth like a little bird, and then to swallow the cereal without pushing half of it out of his mouth. Since then, he has made it through the full veggie circuit: green beans (did NOT like, unless mixed with cereal), carrots (liked a lot, although they did scary things to his poop), squash (LOVED) and sweet potatoes (LOVED). He has been doing really well with eating, and has definitely figured out how to tell us that he wants more food (mouth WIDE open, or grabbing for the spoon) and how to tell us that he is done (lips clamped so tightly together there is no chance of sliding the spoon in there).

He also tried Cheerios for the first time a few days ago, but so far hasn't had too much success. He can't pick them up and get them all the way into his own mouth yet, so we have to feed them to him. He sits there with a funny look on his face, chewing and trying to figure out what the heck is in his mouth. The Cheerio usually falls out half way through, or a soggy half slips out of his mouth and sticks to his chin. Pretty funny and cute, since he has no idea it is stuck there, and can't figure out why Mama and Daddy are laughing at him! He gets better every time though and I am sure he will be chowing them down like a pro soon enough!

Mobility:
The beginning of month five, Cameron was a pretty immobile baby. He could roll over every once in a while, and move a little bit in a circle when on his tummy. That was about it. In the time frame of a week, he went from little motionless baby to the baby that couldn't stop moving. We went quickly from spinning in circles on his stomach to rolling all over creation to now full-fledged creeping that is so close to crawling. He can move pretty quickly when he wants to, which is usually when he spots something on the floor that he shouldn't have. He shows off his new skills all the time and is very proud of how he moves around. It is very cute, but we are in trouble and need to finish baby-proofing the house ASAP!

In addition to creeping, Cameron has also figured out his balance pretty well this past month. He can sit up pretty well on his own, only tipping over when he makes a grab for something far away (or sometimes just randomly tipping over). This has been nice because he can sit and play with the toys on his play gym, which gave him a whole new perspective and made the toys like new again.

And Cam has been using his jumperoo like a crazy man. He loves to jump and jump and jump some more. Sometimes we think his little legs are going to break, for how fast and hard he jumps all over creation. He really loves it.

Sleep:
Nope, Cam still isn't sleeping through the night. If you saw Tim or I in person, you would be able to figure that out from the size of the bags under our eyes!

Sign Language:
We are teaching Cameron some simple sign language, to try and alleviate frustration when he gets old enough to want to tell us things but can't talk yet. So far we try to only use five signs to keep confusion down. We do "more", "eat", "drink", "sleepy" and "all done". He hasn't used any himself, but he certainly watches us intently when we are doing the sign. We will see how it works!

Travel:
Of course, no month would be complete without some travel. In April, Cameron made his second plane trip and got another state. We went to Texas for our friend Emily's wedding. It was lots of fun and we had a great time there... and it will be a separate post. We also spent Easter in Massachusetts, as well as this past weekend.


Six Month Stats:
Cameron had his six month check-up today. He is healthy and strong, growing very well. The doctor said that he thinks Cam will be an athlete because of his build. He probably just said it to make us happy... and it worked! Here are Cam's stats for six months:
Weight: 17 pounds (50% percentile)
Length: 27 inches (75% percentile)
Head: 44 cm (50% percentile)

So we thought that we had a chunky monkey baby, and it turns out that he is tall and thin-ish. Most important though is that he is healthy, and we are thankful for that.

And we promise, it won't be another month between posts!!