4 Months Old

Cameron is 4 months old!  Now we're officially into my favorite time period--from about 4 months until 2 years old.  I feel like this time period with Nathan just got better and better and now I'm excited to experience it with Cameron.  So much development and personality is coming out every week.  Here are the things about this time that I don't want to forget:

*Cameron rolled over!  It just happened yesterday for the first time as far as we know.  And then it happened again today.  Unfortunately the roll over is still elusive though.  No one has actually witnessed the act in person.  Yesterday Gramma and Grampa went to hang something on the wall and when they turned around, Cameron was on his tummy all by himself on the play mat.  Then this morning Nathan and I were in the kitchen and when I went to check on Cameron in the living room, he was on his tummy!  Hopefully we'll get to see him in action soon.  Such a big milestone!
*He's also started to grasp on to things.  He can now hold on to his rattles or play toys.  He doesn't hold on to them very long, but it makes him happy to get a few noises or shakes out.
*Cameron's temperament is still great.  His smile just lights up our days and he is such a joyful boy.  He's starting laughing a little too which is so sweet.
*What a mover!  His legs never stop.  And now that he can roll over, he goes over to his side all the time.  I'm sure he's so anxious to just get up and walk already after observing his brother all the time.  It's all I can do to get a diaper on the boy!
*The challenging part about this time so far is that Cameron's sleep habits have really changed.  He's waking up quite a bit at night--every 1-2 hours.  He just needs help soothing and getting back to sleep when he wakes up and he's not up for very long.  But I'm exhausted getting up so many times during the night and having my sleep broken up so much.  I've read that this is common.  I feel funny about starting any kind of sleep training because he feels too young.  But I've resulted to giving him the binkie every time he needs to be soothed and I might need to start moving away from that so he doesn't get too dependent on it.  Oh the neverending change of babies' sleep patterns!
*Cameron is "talking" quite a bit.  He loves to make squealing and cooing noises like he's talking to us and definitely always wants to be part of the conversation.  Poor James--I think he's gonna have 3 extroverts on his hands!

Happy 4 months Cameron!!

This looks like 2 little old men having a chat :)

Christmas Moments and Memories

Now that I'm back to work full time it's tough to find time to blog.  But I'm committed to doing it even if it means the entries might be shorter.  This is one such entry.  I want to capture our Christmas moments for this year and I'm mostly going to do it through images.  So here is a look back at Christmas 2014:

James and his little "elf" decorating the Christmas tree

Our annual trip to Molbaks and the traditional photo in front of the poinsettia tree

Seeing Santa was a success....no meltdowns!

Visiting the Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel

Our annual tradition of making Christmas cut-out cookies at Nana and Pops' house!

Riding the Santa Train in Snoqualmie

Christmas morning at our house--the boys in their Christmas pj's

Love this shot of Nathan going through his stocking and pulling out the traditional orange from the toe

Our sweet little candy cane.  Happy 1st Christmas Cameron!

One of Nathan's favorite gifts--he's an official "worker man" now

Look at all that loot!  Legos, puzzles, books, etc.

And the grand finale gift from Santa....a train table!

Every year Christmas gets more and more magical because of our kids.  Unfortunately because James was kind of out of it from his surgery, we didn't get many photos from our time with our families.  But we had wonderful Christmases with both the Spauldings/Antis' and the Warners as always.  Can't believe it's already over and we're into 2015 already.  Happy New Year!

Surgery Round 2

A little over a year later and here we are going through another surgery.  For the last 2 years or so James has been dealing with pain and irritation in his right shoulder.  After seeing the doctor and getting x-rays he determined that he had a calcium deposit in his shoulder.  Strange I know.  They're not entirely sure why calcium collects in one spot--maybe something is rubbing inside or something is off with the bone structure.  But nonetheless James developed a chunk of calcium that has been irritating his shoulder area for a long time.  After a cortisone shot did nothing to relieve the pain, he decided it was time to remove it through surgery.

Based on conversations with the doc, I think we thought this wouldn't be that big of a deal. Definitely nothing like his ACL surgery last year.  And so far it's been easier than the ACL surgery, but it's been far from easy.  My assumption was that it would get removed, there would be a little bit of recovery and then James would finally feel relief.  We're now into week 3 of James being in a sling and he's suffering with a lot of pain at night and not able to sleep well.  He's sleeping downstairs on our chair with the ottoman because it's the only comfortable position.  And he found out yesterday at his post-op that he has at last 3 more weeks left in the sling.  And probably 4 more weeks or so until he can start PT.  So needless to say--definitely not a "minor" surgery.  Part of the reason is because removing the calcium deposit left a hole in his rotator cuff.  So his injury is similar to a rotator cuff tear which is pretty major.  James did the surgery on the 23rd right before Christmas because he had the whole week off and didn't have to take sick time.  So our Christmas was a little off this year because he felt pretty loopy from his meds and we mostly stayed home and were low key during break.  But it was still a nice holiday....more later on that.

I've been able to be pretty patient and positive about it so far.  But James and I looked at each other the other day and said "No more surgeries for a LONG TIME."  We're looking forward to getting back to normal again soon--especially him so he can have full use of his arm and not have annoying pain from the calcium deposit.  I'm looking forward to having a partner in crime again for diaper changing and taking care of the kiddos.  :)

Deja vu with this photo.  Looks a little similar to this.  James we love the hat!  Feel better soon honey!!