8 months

So much has happened with Cam in the last week! At 8 months, Cam:
-Naps for 1.5 hours twice a day most days (sometimes a 3rd afternoon nap but most days only 2)
-Still wears size 3 diapers
-Wears 6-12 month clothes and will probably soon fit into 12-18 month tops
-Has 2 teeth- both of his bottom front ones. The second one came in 2 weeks ago -May be close to getting another tooth- the drooling and hands in mouth started again a couple of days ago
-Is getting thicker hair on top of his head but the sides are still really short. He looks like he's got a military-do
-Still HATES going in his room for his nap but generally falls asleep within 15 minutes for his morning nap. It takes awhile to fall asleep in the afternoon.
-Is SO sensitive
-Is STUBBORN! Possibly more stubborn than Kaden....
-Is starting to wave hi. Right now it mostly consists of him raising his whole arm up and down
-Understands the sign for "more" although has never initiated it on his own. When I push his hands together he helps a little and then stares at the food
-Has tried all veggies
-Has tried pears and peaches. He eats solids once a day and nurses every 4 hours.
-Is CRAWLING!! Hands and Knees!!
-Can get from his back to sitting EASILY!
-Has got the strongest abs in the history of abs
-Can get from sitting to his hands and knees EASILY
-Can get from his belly up to his hands and knees but it takes more effort
-Can pull himself standing occasionally
-Understands the concept of cruising and initiates cruising. He has gone from an activity table pushed up against the ottoman to the ottoman without help but is VERY wobbly.
-Loves to stand
-Can walk forward in the walker
-Doesn't like to jump nearly as much as he used to
-Spends most of the time in the car staring at Kaden and laughing with him
-Is spoiled- gets carried around often
-Is ticklish on his neck, belly and shoulders
-LOVES to be outside and is rarely fussy if we are outside
-Enjoys putting paper in his mouth...
-Has a pretty serious looking face but when he smiles it melts your heart!
-Babbles when Kaden isn't around but is much more quiet than Kaden was
-Sticks out his tongue occasionally when he's concentrating
-Wants me to hold him if he sees that I am around. In fact, he screams until I pick him up.
-Will go to anybody but always looks around to see where I am
-Rubs his eyes when he's tired. He will also lay his head on my shoulder for just one second... I think it's his way of telling me to put him to bed without completely giving in.

He's such a sweet baby and we have been so blessed. Enjoy the pictures of my 8 month old boy!

Crawling

Hooray!

On Tuesday, Cam started to crawl. He went from sitting up to his hands and knees and then... moved his legs forward, and then his hands!

On Wednesday, he was able to move legs, arms, legs, arms...

And today, he's moving quite a bit! He actually seems SO much happier too.... Maybe it's just the fact that he knows now how to do it and how to get to what he wants that he seems more content. This evening he got from his belly up to his hands and knees for the first time. I am proud of this little guy!

Here's a video I took on my phone. It's not a great example, but I got a good one with our real video camera. Actually, as I was recording, he got from his belly to his hands and knees for the first time!

Ya know....

when you need the baby to go to sleep right away so they can take a long enough nap before you have to pack up and go again?? And then it NEVER EVER works out the way you plan it!!!

Here's a VERY awake baby on the montior this morning... Maybe we'll take a better nap this afternoon?!?

Oh, but by watching the monitor, I realized the Cam can actually get up on to his knees without help... what a stinker!

Frustrated... but starting to get it

Cam has been FRUSTRATED lately! And so have I! It's so hard to watch a little guy who wants to move so bad just lay there and squirm about, not moving an inch.

In that past month, Cam has really wanted to move. He started to roll to his side and scoot a bit awhile back but stopped doing that completely. I'm not sure why, maybe because he's spoiled, but he would just lay there and cry until someone couldn't stand it anymore and got him what he wanted. He is completely strong enough to at least army crawl, if not crawl the right way.

However, in that past week, Cam made a great deal of progress in a few areas and has seemed slightly less frustrated.
-He has better balance in sitting
-He can get from sitting to his hands and knees
-He can get from his hands and knees back to sitting
-He can get from his back to sitting 50% of the time (abs of steel)
-He has taken one or two little scoots forward on his hands and knees -He can cruise on his toys and on the ottoman with someone supporting him (but not helping him)

Here's a video of him from yesterday... yes, it's a dog toy... but whatever works, right??


Sometime when I go get him from his nap, he is either sitting or on his knees looking out of the crib. He gives the BIGGEST grin when he sees me!

I just feel bad for him. I see how badly he wants to move and can't quite figure it out. Hopefully soon!

Cute kid

Random cute comments from Kaden:

Nic was unloading the dishwasher and Kaden said, "I want to help. All these things are breakable?" pointing to the dishes on the top rack. Nic tells him they are breakable and walks away. Kaden says, "I wait for you to come back and I be extra careful." He then picks up a glass bowl and hands it to Nic (carefully).

"I want to go to Home Depot and get spray for the ants."

On the way home from school he said, "I a good boy after I get in trouble from Miss Kathey and Miss Suzi." I asked him what he did and he said, "I poked Gunnar with a fork." When I asked him why he did that, he said, "I don't want to talk about that anymore."

"Mimi, where's your pink bag?" Mimi told him she left it at home. "I'm going to call you Monday and tell you to bring the pink bag next time."

Guess who's got his first tooth!?

Yep... this guy does!


It seems like it's been a long time since the drooling, hands in the mouth and fussing began.


And now, after 6 1/2 months, his bottom right tooth cut through. If he'd only let me look in there long enough to see if the other one is close!

Happy Halloween!!!

On Halloween our neighbor Maddie hosted a party for dinner and cake before heading out to go trick-or-treating! It's so wonderful to see all the kids in our neighborhood that are Kaden and Cam's ages. After the lighting of the ghost cake, we headed out with everyone to start trick-or-treating. Since Kaden is so shy, we practiced at home before Halloween and he thought knocking on the door and getting candy was hilarious. When it was finally time to head to the first house, he bolted down the sidewalk and was the first one up the steps to the front door... and then... in true Kaden style, he didn't want to say anything, didn't want candy and didn't want to do it again! After a couple of houses (and a cookie for bribery purposes), he got the hang of it. He hung out with the other kids for a little while and then ended up skipping a few houses and we got ahead of the pack. By the end, Kaden was saying trick-or-treat and getting candy by himself (but with Grammie near by).







Kaden picked out his costume himself after a month of saying he wanted to be a dragon. I'm diggin' the Superman and all his crazy poses!

The little monkey got tired during the party and came home to go to bed. But dang, he was a cute little monkey!!

Here are a couple of more shots from our neighbor Kelley... who's a much better photographer than I am! Kelley- can you photoshop Nic in to the last one?!? :)

Omaha, Questions and the Alarm

I haven't been good about blogging lately and A LOT has been going on. We spent last Wednesday through Sunday in Omaha visiting my Dad and all my family. I heart Omaha. There is something about my Dad's house that is just so calming and peaceful. He has a great deck outside and a pond right next to it. I look forward to sitting outside, having a glass of wine and listening to the sound of the water!

October is Nic and my favorite month. Ever since we were dating we have made a tradition out of going to a pumpkin patch (we even went to one in Lawrence, Kansas when he came to visit me), making caramel apples and carving pumpkins. Valla's is not your average patch... This is a link for the map and just to give you an idea, the corn maze in the top left corner is 3 acres. This place is massive! Kaden's favorite part was riding tricycles around the track and bouncing on these humongous bubbles.

Always slow to warm up...





We also had a lot of fun on the hay ride, drinking apple cider slushies, picking out pumpkins and seeing the animals! (Excuse Cam's outfit... We had a pooptastrophy when we got there and didn't bring a change of clothes!)


Our family of 5... Us plus Dolly Llama






Thank you to my Dad and Pam for taking us (and putting up with it 2 weeks in a row. Uncle Ben and Kate- thank you for coming with us!!

Friday night my Dad, Nic and I took Kaden to his first play! We went to see Go Dog Go. It was great to see Kaden sit and pay attention and really enjoy himself! It was 50 minutes and I don't think it could have been much longer for Kaden. The play followed right along with the book and Kaden had fun comparing the pages of the book with the scene from the play.

The rest of the trip was spent enjoying family, drinking wine... and making smores!












Kaden has asked some pretty great questions lately and I wanted to write them down so I don't forget:
* "I want to ask the Yellow Dog why he doesn't like the Pink Dog's hat." (Not really a question, I guess... but cute nonetheless)
* To my mom he asked, "When you were a little Mimi, did you have a Grammie?"
* "When I was a baby, did I eat Cam's carrots?"
* As we were about to drive past a Chic-Fil-A, "Where's Chicken Flay? Is the cow at Chicken Flay today?"

Kaden has been waking up EARLY lately and started waking up crying again. Right before we left for Omaha, we were desperately trying to find a toddler alarm clock that would tell Kaden when it was time to get out of bed. Unfortunately they were all online-only so we took a travel alarm clock with us and told him that we wouldn't come get him until the alarm beeped. He got used to the idea when we were in Omaha and we've been setting the clock a little bit later every couple of days. A few days ago Nic thought the alarm went off and went into his room. When he opened the door Kaden was still in bed and told him the alarm hadn't gone off yet. Nic told him he would lay down next to his bed until it went off. Kaden waited in his bed for another minute and got up when it beeped. Today I am happy to announce that his alarm clock woke him up at 7:00!! HOPEFULLY that will happen this weekend too. :)

6 month stats

I took Cam to the doctor yesterday and here are his 6 month stats:

Length: 29 inches- Greater than 95th percentile
Weight: 18 lbs, 12 oz- 75th percentile

Compared to Kaden at this age, Cam is 1 inch longer, and one pound lighter!

He did really well at the doctor and was a pretty happy boy. Although he's had a bit of a runny nose, the doctor said it's probably just a little bit of a lingering cold.

Cam has now been rolling where he wants to go... and started to try to scoot a little bit more than before!

Texas State Fair

Nic, Kaden and I along with my brother Eric and his girlfriend Sara went to the State Fair on Saturday!!

Between the 5 of us, we tried:
Fried frito pie, regular frito pie, fried cheesecake, fried snickers, fried beer, turkey leg, funnel cake, tornado fries and a fruit cup (Kaden requested it)... I think that's it!

Pretty good, huh?


My favorite picture of them all :)












Tired boy, headed home


Kaden's favorite part was the dog show. He loved watching the dogs run and long jump into the water. He also liked watching the "red" dog and "blue" dog race! I think that was my favorite part, too.

Cam stayed home with a babysitter for the first time! I was really nervous to leave him, but everything went great and he was a happy boy when we got home!