Fun Mama and Kiddo Weekend

This past weekend, Tim was out of town for a hockey tournament. Cameron, Leah and I had a really fun weekend together. We started out Saturday at Cameron's last soccer game. Poppa came with us to watch and hang out with Leah. It was a fun game, Parents Vs Kids. Can you guess who won? We all had fun though. After the game, the kids all got medals for trying hard, having fun and following the rules. Cam was pretty excited about getting it. Cameron getting his medal from his coach Cam's "excited" face, showing off his soccer medal Right after soccer we headed out to drive to Ithaca. We went to the Sciencenter, where we were meeting a bunch of cousins. It was an awesome place, so cool! We definitely recommend it to anyone with kids. Both Cam and Leah loved it. There was lots to do for kids of all ages, most of it 100% hands on. So much fun!! Leah was happy (even when she was strapped in her stroller) because there was so much to look at. Poppa and Cameron working on making stable buildings. You use the blocks to make your building, then turn on the shaker table (the dark brown square), which simulates an earthquake. It was interesting to see how quickly the buildings fell over depending on how you stacked the blocks. In this display, you put balls into a hole (Cam is doing it in the picture) and they went flying around through a bunch of tubes over to the other side of the room, where someone else could get them and send them back over to you. Both Cam and Leah really liked it. This was probably the favorite - a water table! Cam put on the smock to cover his clothes and went to town. I think he could have stayed for hours playing in the water. The water table was low enough that Leah could play too! She LOVED it!!! Cameron and Poppa working hard to fill up the tippy bucket, to send a wave down the water table. Trying to get a picture of Cam and Leah together - this is the best I got. They were both too busy playing to actually look at me. Cam and Joe give some duckies a bath Leah looking fabulous in her full length smock and obviously enjoying herself! Here is a video of the kids playing in the water table.

After a long time at the water table, we convinced Cameron to go check out other stuff. One of the things he found (and loved) was six other Camerons!

There were lots of Leahs too. She didn't know what to think about her twins. She liked this twin a bit more, and decided to show off some acrobatics. They had a touch table where kids could hold some underwater animals. Here is Cameron holding one of them... ... a starfish! It was actually called a Chocolate Chip Sea Star. Pretty cool! Cameron and Leah riding on a triceratops - very cool! After spending a few hours at the Sciencenter, we headed up to a hotel in Auburn where everyone was staying over night. There was an indoor pool at the hotel so we went swimming and had a lot of fun. We went to dinner with everyone and then headed home. It was a great, really fun day!

Leah Lovely: Daddy's Girl

Leah has become very vocal and expressive lately, and we are definitely starting to recognize words and sign language that she is doing. She is definitely insistent in getting her point across!

Yesterday Tim was out working in the yard and Leah and I were in sitting on the couch. She and I were playing when all of a sudden she started craning her neck to see around me. I asked her, "Leah, what are you looking at?" and she answered "Dada, Dada, Dada" and pointed. Sure enough, Tim was out there in the yard within her line of sight.

I showed her how she could stand at the window and watch him, and boy was she excited. She "jumped" up and down and called out to him "Dadadadadaadaaaaaa!!", all the while banging on the window, until she got his attention. She got the biggest smile on her face when he walked over and banged excitedly on the window. He waved and headed over to another part of the yard.

She squawked and got down from the window and crawled as quickly as she could the way that Daddy was headed and stood up at the window to look for him again. No luck, so she went to another window. I figured out what she was doing when she stood up at another window yelling "Dada, Dada, Dada!!!!", so I scooped her up and we walked around looking for him. Once we found him, she was so happy and excited and stood at the window watching him work. She loves her daddy!!

Cam Cutes: Two Funny and One Serious

Cam has been saying really cute things lately. The way he thinks about things and puts them together always keeps us amused and/or on our toes. Here are a few stories...
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In the bathtub a few weeks ago, Cameron was playing with three rubber duckies. He was pushing them around the tub in a line.
Cam: Oh no Mama, the duckies are lost!
Mama: Okay, we will help them find their way home.
Cam: Don't worry, they have a GPS!
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A few nights ago, Cameron woke up around 11:30 PM and came into our room. He woke me up and told me that he was afraid of the monsters in his room. I took him back into his room and put him into bed. He kept saying he was afraid of the monsters. I told him not to worry because monsters were not real. He sighed and said, "I know Mama, but you tell the monsters that!"
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Cameron was sitting on the potty going poop and he called out, "Mama, come in here, I need to talk to you." I went in there to see what was going on and he looked up at me with very serious eyes and said, "Mama, are you going to die?" I sank down to his level (yes, his level sitting on the potty) and had a very involved discussion with my sweet boy. I think I answered all of his questions to his satisfaction, but yikes, it made me think about how smart he is getting and how difficult questions like this are going to quickly become the norm.

Poor Leah!

On Monday, I got a call from daycare. It was the director, asking me if Leah had hurt her finger over the weekend. She said that Leah's finger was purplish and swollen. I told her that Leah had not hurt it over the weekend and to watch Leah to see if she got worse. About an hour later, daycare called back to say that Leah was being fussy and was not bending the finger, and was whining whenever she put weight on that hand. Tim and I rushed over to take a look at it. It was indeed quite swollen and purple both on the nail and the underside of her right hand pinkie. We called the doctor and got an appointment.

The nail - a bit purple

We headed over to Leah's pediatrician's office. The doctor looked at her finger. The first thing she said was "Oh wow, that is swollen." We said, "Well, compare it to her other hand... Leah has fat fingers." The doctor looked at the two hands compared to each other and said "Oh yea, not so swollen - just pudgy baby fingers!" After a bit more examination, the doctor said that it could just be a pinch, or it could be broken. She sent us to a radiologist office to get an x-ray taken. We headed over to that office and waited for a bit. One funny thing there was that the radiologists office had way more toys to play with than the pediatrician's office.

The other side of her finger - purplish

When they called Leah's name, they said that only one parent could go in with her and they preferred it to be Dad. I was a bit miffed but let Tim take her in. It turned out that they prefer the father to go in on the chance that the mother could be pregnant. They also find that the fathers are more easily able to hold the kid down while they get the x-ray! Either way, Leah was very easy and sat like a good girl while they x-rayed her hand. Here is her x-ray (along with Tim's finger!):
They called us in to talk to the pediatrician on the phone. She said that Leah had indeed broken her finger - the top bone of her pinkie finger. They said for babies Leah's age, they don't bother to splint it because it really wouldn't do any good. The baby would pull it off, and it really isn't needed anyway. We are just supposed to watch her and make sure that she is feeling okay and not in pain.

Do I look like I am unhappy or in pain?

Jack's Sixth Birthday Party

The last weekend in February, we headed to Massachusetts for Jack's birthday. The party was on Saturday and all of the usual folks were invited. Cameron and Leah had so much fun with their cousins and all of the other kids.

Most of the kiddos - Madelyn, Jake, Brian, Jack, Cam, Ella, Leah and Emily. The only one that was missing was Andrew, but he was not in the least bit interested in getting into the picture.

Time to open presents - it was the usual craziness. All of the kids really wanted to help Jack open his gifts.

Well, everyone except Leah. She was very interested by a beer bottle instead.

Cutie amongst the presents.

Opening more presents

Cameron and Brian especially liked to "help" Jack

Cousins! Cam, Jack and Leah

My handsome boy

After gifts it was time for lunch. The kids decided to have a picnic on the floor. Cam really enjoyed eating there with all of the big kids.

Then it was dessert time. Jack chose to have ice cream sundaes rather than a cake. They were delicious and a fun change for a birthday party. Here is Jack and Kim

Blowing out his candles, after a loooooong pause to think about his wish.

Cam with his sundae

Jack tries to make Cameron laugh (and succeeds, of course)

Happy Birthday Jack!!!

Cam the Soccer Star

Cameron started playing soccer a few weeks ago. His team is the Huskies and his jersey number is 8 (Perhaps fortuitous? That was also Cam Neely's number!). The first two weeks were practices and then games started. These pictures were taken at his first game.

Before the game started the team warmed up - here is Cam lined on the black line waiting for stretches to start.

First the stretch up SO HIGH to the ceiling, then they reach down and touch their toes.

Then they stretch both ways and touch their toes.

Race time - waiting on the line for the coach to say go.

They run so fast!

Then they take turns kicking the ball into the goal. Cam really likes this part.

Hi Daddy, I scored a goal!

Then they run around dribbling the ball. Cam practices stopping the ball with his foot.

Time for a talk with the coach. He goes over the rules: "No Hands", "No Pushing", "No Falling on the Ground" and "Stop Running When the Whistle Blows".

The game starts! Here is Cam going after the ball. The child on the orange team is one of his friends from school. They kept stopping during the game and hugging each other.

Cam gets the ball!

Going for the goal!

After scoring a goal, Cam has a dramatic fall. He does not like to pay attention to the "No Falling on the Ground" rule.

After the game is over, Cam's team does a little "Go Huskies!" cheer.

One happy soccer player

Since this game, Cam has had a few others. He really likes them. He especially likes scoring goals, and the snack he gets at the end of each game. The games themselves are chaotic - as organized as they can get with three year olds, I guess. They just run around chasing the ball. There are no positions, no out-of-bounds, no score kept. It has been a fun experience for his first team sport though.

Leah: Ten Months Old!

Last week Leah turned 10 months old. Lazy Mama missed the post by a week. Sorry Leah!

Leah happened to have a doctor's appointment on her 10 month birthday, so we have a weight update - she weighs 17 pounds, 10 ounces. She also had a double ear infection and a possible strep throat. Poor little monkey! In fact, we knew there had to be something wrong because our usually sunny baby was a bit cranky and woke up a few times at night. Once we took her to the doctor and got some antibiotics into her system, she was good as new.


Leah has been eating like a champ this month and has added more foods to her repertoire. She eats cheese now, along with fish. She likes both. She also continues to do a good job on all other foods - she likes meat, veggies, fruits, and breads. She has been going through a bit of a phase lately where she only wants to be in her high chair for a few minutes before she starts to whine and cry. The minute we take her out, she is happy as a clam and wants to eat off her tray. As long as she is sitting on Mama's lap, she wants to eat and eat and eat. We are glad she is eating, but we need to get her to stay sitting in her high chair!

Leah's first mac and cheese - talk about a gourmet meal!

One of her favorite snacks, baby cheesy puffs. She can eat a can of these if we let her!

Leah has become so mobile over the last month. She crawls like a champ, on her hands and knees now. She is so quick, scrambling around the floor going after Cameron. She can also pull herself up onto things and has started moving around, taking little steps to creep along them. One of her favorite activities is emptying off her entire floor shelf, pulling each toy off individually. She hasn't quite learned to clean up her messes yet, but luckily she has an older brother to take care of that for her (sometimes).

One thing Leah will not be trying for at least a few more years - beer!

In daycare, Leah has moved up to the next class. She is now in Infant 2. She has a new head teacher but the two helper teachers switch back and forth between her old class, Infant 1. They have "big kid" toys in the room and a big table with six seats built into it that all of the babies sit in. At first Leah wasn't eating very well, leaving most of her bottles. She is also taking really short naps - there is just too much excitement going on for her to sleep. She is getting better about the bottles but still takes a 45 minute or an hour nap at the most. She just takes time to adjust, so we aren't too worried.

What are you looking at?

Leah had a fun trip to Canada this month, for her first Winterlude. She got to spend lots of fun time outside and enjoyed checking out the festivities.


Bundled up and ready to "skate" on the canal

As for sleeping through the night, Leah is getting better about it. She doesn't sleep through every night, but since she has been feeling well she goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up to eat at 5:30 or 6am. After she eats, she goes back to sleep for another hour or so.

It has been another wonderful month with our sweet Leah girl!