Weekly Wednesday (Because what else am I going to call this?)

As of tomorrow my little man has been ONE for a whole week!  And I'm pleased to say that every day since his first birthday has been better than his actual first birthday.  I have some making up to do.  

I don't even want to talk about it.  But now that I've got you wondering, I'll tell you.  

Cameron's birthday started off great.  He slept so well all night and then he even slept in until almost 10!  This gave me time to get everything going and I had breakfast ready when he woke up.  We had special birthday pancakes with fresh fruit.  They were a hit.  We did a whole bunch of playing with toys, went out for a swing, checked on the garden.  Cameron was WILD.  I was convinced he was going to take his first independent steps because he was using his toy box to transfer himself to his walker and zooming back and forth on his own.  

And then mommy made the mistake of letting Cameron out of her sight for a few seconds.  :(  He zipped (or tried to zip) right up the stairs and had a big tumble down.  I can't imagine that he made it up more than a few steps.  I'm sure he was so excited to show me what he did that he turned around to see if I was watching him.  Cameron cried.  I cried.  I called the clinic.  No pediatricians.  I called the walk-in clinic.  I decided to go to the ER.  The walk-in nurse called me back and told me that's where they would've sent me anyway.  Thank goodness Aunt LuAnn was available to drive us there (I didn't want Cameron alone in the back seat!)  And I think know she was excited for the opportunity to drive our car. 

We made it to the ER on gas fumes.  Lesson as to why you should NEVER let your tank go empty.  And when I say empty, I mean the gauge said "0" miles remaining.  LuAnn was nice enough not to mention it to me until we were safely inside the doors of the ER.   

Approximately 4 hours and lots of x-rays and tears later they told us that nothing is broken.  YAY!  I was surprised at how many people told me their children had also fallen down the stairs.  It didn't make me feel any less guilty.  Who wants to spend their birthday in the ER?  :(  On Monday he finally started to feel better.  Every once in a while it seems like something still bothers him, but I try to distract him with a toy and that seems to take care of it.  

I'm so happy he didn't break anything.  I definitely learned a lesson.   

On Saturday we had a fun little first birthday party!  The only thing that would've made it better is if he would've been feeling better.  He didn't get to do any running around with the other kids.  But he got a bunch of awesome new toys and we have been BUSY with those! 

    

Since we won't be doing our weekly photos any more I thought I would share my 52 week project.  I printed it out on a canvas for his party.  Who knew WalMart does same day canvas prints?!  It's so handy, although the canvas is not sealed so there is some ink transfer if you touch it.  I might have to work on a DIY canvas protectant.  

Weekly Wednesday: 51!

We are almost to the end of our weekly pictures!  Honestly it's probably the only year long photo project I've actually completed.  I was telling Hubby that we only have ONE Weekly Wednesday left and he said

"So that's the end of Littlest Cookie?!"  

No need to worry!  I still plan to update, although I might need some reminders so I don't completely forget about it.  

Cameron is really getting the hang of using his walker.  He gets the happiest look when he realizes he can zoom around without my help.  He's starting to get a bit of attitude when I take things away from him.  We've gotten much better about having a bedtime routine for him.  Every night Daddy gives him a bath in the sink.  I think that's his favorite part of the day!

On Thursday we had a big day!  We spent the whole day at a quilt show!  Cameron did really well and only complained when he was hungry or wet.  I wore him in the Tula, there is no room at quilt shows for strollers!  We usually take a group photo in front of our favorite quilt at the show, but Cameron was a little too restless by the time we were going to look at the displays and I forgot all about it!  One thing is for sure, I saved a lot of money having a baby with me.  I only bought one kit!  I was hoping to have it finished for his birthday, but I think it's more realistic to hope that I have it finished for his second or third birthday.  :)

Pepper had her appointment at the vet today and we found out that she got bit by a deer tick.  :(  She doesn't have lyme disease but something called anaplasmosis.  Poor girl.  She didn't have any symptoms (apparently some dogs don't, but often the symptoms are similar to lyme disease) and was just due for her check up so we could get her heartguard.  She has to be on medicine for 30 days and hopefully that clears everything up!


This week was a hard week to decide which pictures I liked the best.  So I'm just going to show you all of them!

Weekly Wednesday: 50

This past week we were extra busy with a visit from Grandma Carol.  They had had lots of fun and Hubby and I even got to go on a date!  Although with a sick baby it's hard to be gone for very long, so we just went for supper and came home again.  Cameron and Pepper were so sad when she left.  

Cameron is working so hard at walking.  He still thinks he needs to hold on with both hands so I've been trying to challenge him a bit and only let him hold one hand.  Every once in a while he will let go completely and stand for a (very) short time all on his own!  I am not sure if he will be walking unassisted by his birthday.  It's hard to tell, but it's incredible how much he grows every week.  At first it seemed easy to mark the different milestones, but now everything has been happening so fast!  I did a very unofficial weigh in last week and he was somewhere around 23 pounds.  He's wearing a mixture of 12 month and 18 month clothes.  We've also had success at teaching him the sign for "milk" (although it's getting harder and harder to keep him interested in nursing unless he is tired) and he has adapted his own version of "all done" by waving his arms like crazy and pushing any food from his tray onto the floor.  Or at least that's when we tell him he is all done. ;)

He's also been pointing at things he wants.  This is one of the milestones that happened and I didn't even realize that it had started.  He shakes his head "no" and thinks it's hilarious.  I think I will probably have to try a bit harder to be more serious when I tell him no.  Telling him something is icky seems to be more effective at getting him to stop doing something.  

"Don't put that stick in your mouth.  Icky."  

"That's Pepper's bone.  Icky." 

"Don't eat that bug.  Icky."

Too bad he doesn't believe me that Pepper's water dish is icky.  That's way too much fun to be icky. :)

Weekly Wednesday: 49

Pepper was not interested in pictures this week.  Cameron was not interested in pants.  

We had a busy week last week and I actually forgot to post this!  We had company Memorial Day weekend and got to start up our fire pit for the first time this year!  

It was finally nice enough to get out and get the garden planted (and get a sun burn!!). We are hoping to have better luck this year than we did last year.  Hubby put in a lot of time digging a ditch around the garden so hopefully the runoff from the driveway/garage doesn't wash it all away again!  I checked today and saw a few sprouts coming up! 

Cameron had his last swimming lesson.  He even got a report card.  We were a little sad, but hopefully the lake will be ready for us soon! 

My poor baby has been feeling a little under the weather so this mommy had her first experience cleaning throw up out of the car seat.  Not fun.  Today we had lots of rocking and snuggles.  It was amazing how good he felt when Hubby walked in the door though.  Like a completely different baby.  It was really cute watching Cameron and Pepper both race to the door when they heard him come home!  But after a little daddy time he was back to not feeling so good for bedtime snuggles with mommy.  I guess we are lucky that besides having colds, this is the first time he's been sick!  I hope he feels better in the morning.     

Weekly Wednesday:48

We have been loving this weather!! 

The dogs approve but I think the lake is still too cold.  Burr!  :)

Weekly Wednesday: 47

I know what you're thinking. 

Wow, she's a day early! 

Haha, not quite.  More like one day short of being a whole week late!  Anyway, week 47 photos were a huge struggle.  I think it's actually lucky he sat on the giraffe chair at all! 

And judging by those pants, I'd say it's time for the next size up.  :)  I finally went through his drawers today and switched everything out for 12 and 18 month sizes.  He was mostly in 12 month already, but the different brands have sizing all over the place!  

My poor baby has been having a bit of a rough patch the last week learning his new tricks.  First he tried to pull himself up on my pants, slipped, and hit his face on my knee.  So sad.  Gave himself a bloody lip.  Then Hubby had him upstairs and he launched himself off the bed.  Another bloody lip.  And now a couple days ago he was zooming really fast in his walker, got a wheel caught and tipped it over.  That poor lip split right back open.  It healed up really fast, but I'm not sure if it was more traumatic for him or me when he was bleeding.  I know bumps and bruises are part of the whole process, but I still feel really bad about it. So it's time to rotate out the baby gear and put away the walker and focus on the ride-on and walk behind toys.  

He seems ok with that. 

I scored that gem at a garage sale for $0.50.  It was a great find!  I love that it is low enough to the ground that I don't have to worry about my wobbly baby bumping his face.  

And since I haven't updated in a while, here's a fun photo of Cameron meeting a new furry friend!  My grandma had two calves in her garage while it was so cold and rainy.  They had to move back out to the barn, but Cameron thought they were pretty neat!

Cameron also had his first multi-night stay with my parents while Hubby and I were away for a wedding.  It was nice to hang out with friends for an entire weekend!  At the rehearsal dinner Hubby tried to sneak a bite of my chicken and I realized that I hadn't been able to eat all of my own food since Cameron started real (my) food.  Seriously, the kid can eat a lot these days!

We had so much fun being baby-free at the wedding dance, too! 

With any luck I will get my posts back on track for tomorrow. (Week 48!!!)

Weekly Wednesday: 46

This week Cameron learned how to go from laying down to sitting all on his own.  I didn't realize how important that skill is. It makes his life so much better because he was really starting to get frustrated when he would be stuck on his belly.  He is a wild little monster in his walker.  Seriously, watch your toes!  He will run you over! 

We even travel with the walker now because he loves it so much.  The cats at my parent's house aren't so thrilled.  He was trying his hardest to get Betsy's tail when I took this picture.  :)  Poor kitty.  

We also started swimming lessons last week so that has been a lot of fun!  We've mostly been working on getting him used to being in the water but last time he even got to swim with a noodle!  

My dad was discharged from the hospital for the third time on Sunday.  He ended up with an infection in his back so they had to keep him there until it was gone.  Hopefully that was the last of the hospital stays, but he jokes that he almost has a service of 4 big water mugs.  I won't pretend that I don't LOVE the huge mug I got from the hospital, but I'd rather he didn't finish off his set.  

Oh, did I mention Cameron's new trick? Check this out 

He loves pushing this around, but he can't go as fast as he does in his walker.  I haven't really let him push it around on the wood floors yet since that would be a harder fall, but that will come soon!  He'll be walking on his own in no time!  

Weekly Wednesday: 45

A little too bright outside. :) 

We've had a crazy week!  Last weekend I took a mommy vacation and headed down to my longtime friend's bachelorette party.  It was a blast!  I am super excited for her wedding.  I suppose it has taken me all week to recover.  I thought I'd be good at staying awake until almost 4 am.  It turns out that even though I don't get much sleep normally, I still need to go to bed early.  I didn't get any photos of the action, but check out these sugar daddies... Rawr! 

Yesterday we started the day with a trip to the ER.  My dad had back surgery about 2 weeks ago and it was giving him a lot of trouble.  He ended up in emergency surgery where they removed two large bone fragments that were irritating the nerves in his spine. (I don't know how big "large" is when speaking in terms of bone fragments, but this is something that can happen with the kind of surgery he had and we knew this before he had the surgery.)  The doctor was confident that he removed any bone that could possibly turn into floaters, so hopefully he will be on track to heal up successfully this time.  His nerve is still irritated, so they are keeping him in the hospital until they figure out how to treat it.  I was so thankful for my Ergo carrier because a hospital is definitely not a baby's favorite place to be!  Cameron was even able to get in a couple of naps throughout the day.  

I am sure my dad wouldn't appreciate any hospital photos of him on the blog (no, I didn't even take one) so this will have to do.  This was a few minutes before nap number one and I would say it looks like I should've napped, too!  The super nice staff in the emergency room turned off the lights in the waiting room so the baby could sleep.  I guess I assumed that emergency rooms were always packed and busy, but we were the only ones in that part for the whole hour Cameron napped!  I think we were finally able to head for home around 6:00.  After putting in a 10 hour day at the hospital we were very happy to be home! 

We have all kinds of awesome plans coming up in May so I expect that I will either have a lot to blog about (I'm sure) or I will be so exhausted that I will forget to update (also sure).  My goal is more mini-posts throughout the week so I don't have to try remember everything on Wednesday (Friday).  

Happy weekend! 

Weekly Wednesday: 44

Well I certainly haven't been a loyal blogger lately.

Little man has been busy learning how to pull himself up onto things.  In fact, when he woke up from his nap yesterday he stood up in his crib!  Might be time to lower the mattress!  Other than that we've been busy hanging out with Auntie and making sure my dad is taking it easy so he can recover from back surgery!  I've also been working on painting the stairway and upstairs hallway.  It's a bit of a challenge painting during nap time, but that seems to be the only time I get a chance to work on it!  I have a quilt in the works as well, it was supposed to be part of Cameron's Easter basket but I sewed one of my squares wrong and it was discouraging enough to need a little break from it.

I've been having some computer troubles lately but I ordered a new battery so hopefully that helps!  I've had this computer for a while now so I suppose it is time for new parts.  :)