Back to the real world

Yesterday was a depressing day because I had to return to the real world. =( Luckily for us, Cameron has been able to stay home with his dad during the day so we haven't had to put him into day care. I think if I had to drop him off at daycare I would have been a mess!

My first day back David wanted to pull his hair out because Cameron cried most of the day. I said it was just because he missed me...but seeing as how he likes to cry a lot these days when he wants attention it probably had nothing to do with me not being there.

Today was much better for them because Cameron got his new toy...well the toy we stole from Ava when we were home (in our defense Ava was done with it and Lynn said she never really cared for it anyways). It got mailed back and so the box arrived today. David pulled it out and emailed me after lunch saying Cameron LOVED it! He layed on floor laughing and screaming for the longest time.

He has also really gotten the hang of eating baby food. We kind of cheated though and gave in to giving him the sweet stuff. He seems to love applesauce & bananas. The squash not so much...carrots were just ok. I guess we need to practice more with the boring veggies though so he won't be picky. It's just the last time we did veggies, I ended up with a carrot shower. Fun!

Fun with Videos

Here are a few new videos. There is one of him sitting up on his own...kind of. He kept leaning really far forward. Then a funny one of him talking to me after he found the camera. Whenever he sees the camera he stops doing whatever he was doing and just stares at it...unless we are playing back one of his videos then he laughs as he hears himself. The next one is him being a screamer this morning. He actually screamed on command. Then one of him making a lot of noise. Finally, one of him fake crying. When I played this one back for him he thought it was so funny.

Just for fun.

Cameron had his first taste of baby food yesterday...aside from rice cereal. He's still not sure he really likes eating off a spoon. Sometimes he does really well...and other times he acts like we're torturing him because he's hungry and we just keep sticking this weird stuff in his mouth. Here is a video (kind of dark & fuzzy...we couldn't do more to get a better one because we ran out of room on our camera card). More to follow I'm sure...

Also, now that he is wanting to sit up more we are trying to get him used to his Bumbo seat. He's really not that fond of it...unless we put him in front of the mirror. We took this video this morning. He was checking himself out and seemed to be pretty interested in looking at either his feet...or the stripes on his sleeper. Not really sure which one.

Vegas Christmas fun!

Cameron attended his first Christmas party before leaving for PA. It was our annual PJ Christmas party with all the girls. We missed Caroline & Jacob 1st this year. However, we had lots of fun with Jen & Jacob 2nd, Katya & Karina, Bella, and Monica. playing Dirty Santa for our ornament exchange, watching movies, and eating lots of goodies. Little Serafina (Cameron's future wife) was present in spirit...but wasn't born until December 17th.

On Christmas Eve, we went to our friend Jose's Christmas party. Lots of Mexican food to eat...plus we were visited by Santa! This was Cameron's first time sitting on Santa's lap.

On Christmas morning, Cameron got up at 7 AM and jumped into bed with us...ok so maybe we put him there. But I'm sure someday soon he will be jumping in on his own. His first Christmas was pretty standard for us. We opened gifts then cooked some breakfast. Next we started putting together toys. The difference this year is that the toys were Cameron's not David's. We watched a movie and later cooked our traditional Christmas dinner. It was basically a day of being lazy and staying in our PJs all day long.

Cameron got a Jumperoo for Christmas...and below is a video of him figuring it out. He loves it! Otherwise, he got an entire new wardrobe. That is no joke! I had to borrow a second suitcase before leaving PA. Plus I had to mail home a huge box to fit everything. Then Grandma Donna mailed a huge box of clothes and toys. Spoiled is an understatement!!

Here is a video of Cameron trying to sit up on his own...he was practicing on Christmas. The first time he did this was on Christmas Eve. He is not content just sitting there with something behind him...he continues to try pulling himself up (even when laying down).

Finally, some Christmas pictures.

Cameron's Latest

Let's see, since the last post Cameron has started taking his baths in the big tub. He actually started that while in PA because that's all we had. He loves it. He just splashes and laughs...well laughs until it's time to put clothes on afterwards. Then it's like we're torturing him.

As of Christmas Eve, he started trying to sit up on his own. He just tucks his little chin and lifts his head trying so hard to sit up. We have been holding onto his hands so he can pull himself up all the way. Sometimes he will surprise us and go all the way up to a standing position. He'll sit there for a little bit holding onto our hands for balance...then wants us to let him back down before doing it again. Won't be long and he'll be sitting on his own I'm sure.

Well, we finally got a video of a little bit of his fake screaming. It's not one of the best. Usually when no one is around he will give a really high pitched scream and get pretty loud. This one was a little weak because he knew we were right there watching.

Oh, and we're starting to get the hang of sleeping at night for more than 3-4 hours at a time. Last night was the first night he actually slept for 7-hours straight!! Went down around 10:15 PM and didn't get up for a feeding until 5 AM! We had been hitting the 5-hour mark...followed by another 3-hour stint, but we're hoping this 6-7 hour thing sticks around. I guess at this age we consider that sleeping through the night (only being up 1 time during the night). I miss my sleep. =)

New Cute Videos

Well, I had to do a sad thing today...move up the shoulder straps on Cameron's car seat. He's getting so big now. I know it's a good thing, but it's kind of sad that he's growing so fast. He is getting very vocal and turning into quite the talker. Here are a couple of new videos. He loves the camera!! The first one is him talking to his daddy...the second is of him talking to the new blanket from Aunt Lynn. He spent a good 30-minutes downstairs on the floor with that blanket...was so loud I could hear him upstairs. He also apparently learned some bad tricks from his cousin Ava while we were gone. He has started fake screaming to get attention. It's so funny, but I haven't been able to catch it on video. He tends to stop as soon as he knows someone is paying attention.

First trip to PA - Dec 9-18.

What I've discovered is that traveling alone with a baby is really hard to do! On the flight there, Cameron was a trooper. He mostly slept during our 2 flights (we had a layover in DC). When he was awake he stayed pretty quiet...looking at the lights and new people. He did start to get bored though at the end, which made him a little antsy. I was so glad to have a seat open next to us because I had to change a dirty diaper in the air...planes are not very infant friendly.

The flight back was direct. We ended up with a 2.5 hour delay leaving Pittsburgh and Cameron was really fussy & restless. I think a lot of it was due to the amount of time he had to be in the carseat before we got there...then in his sling or on my lap. When we finally took off, he settled down a little more. Slept most of the 5 hour flight. Maybe awake 1.5 hours total of it. During that time he was smiling and looking around. We had a bit of a rough ride for a while. During that time Cameron kept his eyes glued to me. I could tell he would start getting scared and was looking at me to see if it was ok...right about the time you see the fear creeping in, he would stop and get this huge grin on his face. I have to say the flight back was the worst part because it was a full plane and we were so cramped in our seat.

While there we did lots of visiting! He got to meet lots of new people and got passed around constantly! It was so cold there, his hands were constant ice cubes. Because of that he got spoiled and slept in bed with me and Grandma Beth every night. He was completely in awe of Ava! When she made any noises he would just grin (she is all about making noise and trying to get people to do it back to her). The last night at dinner he wouldn't take his eyes off of her sitting in a high chair eating french fries. I think he even got one thrown into his car seat.

Talking to Great Grandma Ann:



With Great Grandma Barb:



With Papa, Lisa & the kids:



With Grandma Beth & the Girls at our Christmas:



We had a snow storm the day we went up to Erie with Grandma Beth. It was a complete white out...caused us to head home earlier than we had planned. When we got home it was still snowing a bit so we had to take pictures. Cameron was not thrilled with the fact we bundled him up to go outside.

Overall, we had fun in spite of the trauma. On the way home from the airport we almost hit a deer. Then the day of the snow storm we nearly missed being in an accident (fishtailed around the car in the ditch in front of us...then back around the car that was stopped coming from the other direction). Oh, and Grandma Beth's bad knee started to give out and I think she tried to ram his head into the fireplace. =) We're hoping daddy let's him visit again.

A few videos of the slumber party fun: