10 Months Old

Ok I'm just happy with myself for posting this before Cameron turns 11 months.  My where is the time going?  This is crazy!  Only a couple more of these posts and he'll be 1 year old!

It feels like the milestones and development are coming at us at warp speed now.  Cameron is doing so many new and wonderful things all the time.  And his sweet little personality is coming out more and more and I'm just loving it.  He really is such a happy, snuggly kid.  Who is ALWAYS on the move.  Here are the highlights at 10 months:

*Cameron is so close to walking (and actually as I write this he is fully walking now at 10.5 months--but I don't want to get ahead of myself.  More on the walking in the 11 month post).  At 10 months he's holding on to furniture and walking all around it and he's even taken 3-4 steps on his own.  Can't believe this is starting at 10 months!  Too early!  He's pretty ecstatic about his new skills and being able to keep up with big brother easier.
*Cameron is officially sleeping through the night.  Hooray!  The extra 30 min every night is heavenly for me.  Now if I could just get to bed earlier...
*2 teeth have come in!  The two bottom ones.  I love seeing them peek through when he smiles.
*Cameron is all about the real food.  We did baby food with him for a couple months.  But now that he has the hang of gumming finger foods, he's all about it.  He'll push away the spoon of baby food and reach for the real food.  And so far he likes just about anything!  Even vegetables!  His favorite finger foods are fruit, beans, puffs, mum mums, peas, green beans, deli turkey, ham or chicken, avocado, and yogurt.
*He is a fearless kid.  He's not very hesitant when exploring, trying new things, getting around, getting into things, etc.  Case in point the other day I was in the kitchen and I went into the living room to check on the kids.  I found Cameron up on the 6th step heading upstairs.  Oh oh--time to put a barrier or a gate up!
*Favorite toys and activities: whatever Nathan is playing with, kitchen play area, trucks/trains on the train table, plastic golf clubs, Elmo doll, shape blocks, magnets from the fridge, books, playing peek-a-boo, taking baths with brother, playing with tupperware, riding in the stroller, and getting into the pantry to wreak havoc.

Happy 10 Months Cameron.  You bring us so much joy!!

Nathan got in on the photography action

Alway so happy!

Ha Ha you're so funny Cameron!

Brothers!

Brotherly love..at least for a brief moment until they start arguing over a toy

Summertime Part I: May & June

This summer has been very busy so far....and hot!  Crazy weather--being in the 90's without any rain most all of June.  Weird!  What happened to June gloom?  I'm not complaining really because we've gotten to do so many fun activities outside.  I am hoping for a small break of cooler weather soon though.  Our house has been pretty toasty.

I thought I would capture our fun summer memories through photo recaps.  Below is some of the highlights of our May and June this year:

May

We took a fun family hike to Franklin Falls near Denny Creek over Memorial Day weekend.  Nathan loved it!  We helped him find a hiking stick that he used the whole time.  Reminded me of our family hikes when I was a kid.

One of the first nights the weather started to be really nice, we got Ezell's friend chicken and took it to Madison Park for a picnic.  The boys played on the swings and Nathan even got a popsicle from the ice cream man.  Summer officially has begun!

We attended the Touch a Truck event put on by the Seattle Junior League.  Talk about Nathan's version of heaven!  Dump truck, firetruck, garbage truck, ambulance, army trucks, semi, etc. all in one place!  Plus the kids could go inside them and honk the horn!

June

Our wonderful friends, the Lapours visited from Oregon for the long weekend.  Annie is my dear friend from Missouri who luckily ended up marrying an Oregon boy so they live only about 5 hours away.  It's our goal to get together every year.  Sadly we missed last year, but from here on out we are determined to make our family get togethers an annual tradition.  Her girls, Lucy and Molly are adorable.  And thankfully our husbands have a lot in common so they enjoy hanging out together talking about guy things.  We had so much fun watching our kids play, catching up and doing a day trip to Remlinger Farm!  Nathan was brave and rode his very first roller coaster at Remlinger!

Next up my cousin Chris and his wife Karen and two girls Mia and Alex came to visit Seattle!  I hadn't seen Chris since our wedding so it was such a treat to spend time with them.  We took them on the whirlwind tour of Seattle--Space Needle, Pike Place, Ballard, etc.  Nathan and Cam's first trip to the Space Needle!

Such a cute family!

Father's Day weekend was especially fun and busy this year.  On Friday the boys, my parents and I did our annual visit to the Edmonds Art Festival which is always a great time.  Then Saturday to celebrate my dad we rented an electric boat for the evening and sailed around Lake Union.  Ryan captured some great family shots.  Love the colors in these photos!

Love this shot of my dad

Sunday we celebrated James and his dad at the Mariners Game!  One of the highlights was visiting the Mariners Moose.  Nathan was very scared of him last year and was determined this year to be brave and not cry when he saw the moose.  He did great!  In fact he cried when we had to leave because he wanted to hang out with the moose longer!

I'm not sure if you noticed but the common denominator in all these photos is sunshine!! Unbelievable!  Definitely doesn't look like typical Seattle. But we'll take it.   Such a fun summer so far.  More to come!

Sweet Moments

Just wanted to share these sweet moments I had with Nathan the past 24 hours before I forget. This morning I had gotten him all ready for the day and I still had a few things to do before going downstairs.  He asked if he could go downstairs to play and I told him "Sure" and I'd be down in a minute.  As I was letting him through the baby gate he said "God will be with me so I won't be alone."  I had to double check what he said and yes that's exactly what he said.  I said "You're right bud!  God is with us all the time so we're never really alone."

It was so sweet and special.  Especially because lately he's been telling me that he doesn't like to be alone--when he has to take a nap, when he goes to bed, or when he has to play by himself.  So I'm glad he's learned and realized that God is always with him so being alone doesn't feel so scary.

I'm learning that sometimes my best conversations and sweetest moments with Nathan come right before he goes to sleep as I'm doing the final "turn out the light, sing 1-2 more songs, and say goodnight" routine.  I've really been trying to be a good listener during these times because he lets me in on things he's thinking about, worrying about, wants to know about, etc.  Last night we were talking about courage and being brave.  It came up because he was brave when he saw the Mariners moose yesterday.  Last year he cried the whole time and he was determined to be brave and say hi to the moose this year and he did great!  He was asking me other times when he's been brave and I started rattling off a long list--riding the roller coaster, swimming, riding his new bike, going to school, meeting new friends, swinging on the big boy swing, going down the slide, playing by himself, trying new foods, etc.  Then he asked me when I'm brave.  And I had to think a minute and really couldn't come up with too many things.  It was a good challenging moment of thinking about my life and am I stretching myself enough and doing new things or expanding my horizons?  I guess being a parent is pretty brave every day huh?  Anyway it was really late and it was the hardest thing to stop the conversation so he could go to bed.  In these moments this great quote keeps going through my head:

“Listen earnestly to anything [your children] want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”

​  -Catherine Wallace

9 Months Old

And here we are at the 9 months old milestone already!  What a fun time this is!  Cameron is so cute and so fun right now.  And growing up way too fast.  He makes us smile many times a day and really brings so much joy to our household.  His smile is the best thing to come home to after a long day.

*Cameron is crawling all over the place.  And also pulls himself up and holds on to furniture.  He can walk all the way around the coffee table holding on.  This morning I held one of his hands and helped him walk so I'm thinking he might be an early walker.  We'll see.  He's had a lot more falls and bruises with his new mobility, but he's a pretty tough kid.
*He started clapping this month!
*Still no teeth
*Unfortunately he had his first ear infection this month--and it was a double one.  Being a day care kid it feels like he's constantly been sick with some kind of cold or another.  He's pretty resilient though and hangs in there.  Hopefully this summer will be a nice break from sickness.
*He weighs about 18 lbs and 12 oz.
*Cameron's been a little slower taking to solids than Nate.  He eats 3 baby food containers a day--at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And is slowly taking to little pieces of solids, but it takes him awhile.  He loves the mum mum crackers and puffs.  And so far has really enjoyed strawberries, crackers/bread, chicken deli meat, etc.
*He started swimming lessons.  I'll have to do a separate post about swimming lessons because both boys are doing them at the same time.  He loves the water.  Nothing phases him--he's not scared of it and when we dunk him under it's like nothing happened!
*Speaking of water he can take regular baths now and the boys frequently take baths together which is both fun and way more efficient.
*One of his favorite toys is our play kitchen.  He loves to get into the plastic utensils and plates.  And he stands up at the kitchen "cooking" for us very often.

Ok stop growing up Cameron--it's happening too fast!  Please can you stay this cute always?  We love you!  (sorry not many photos--it was kind of dark when we took these so not many turned out)

8 Months Old

Playing catch up again on baby updates.  I wanted to try and capture Cameron's 8 month development before he turns 9 months. Fail.  Seems that I'm always a month behind.  Oh well. It's still fun to go back through these and remember what was happening every month.

Here are the 8 month highlights:

*Cameron is very mobile.  It seemed like he started crawling, pulling himself up and walking around holding on to furniture all in the same week!  We think he's anxious to try and keep up with big brother.  He is squirmy too.  It's really hard to change his diaper right now because he wants to roll over and crawl on his merry way.  We've lowered his crib because who knows--this kid would probably crawl right over the railing if we weren't careful!
*Nathan and Cameron are significantly playing together more.  I can now walk away from the room and Nate will keep an eye on Cameron and very often they will actually play together either with the play kitchen or with some toys.  It's very sweet to watch.  Nathan is really good with Cameron, but occasionally I'll hear a request to take Cameron with me because he's "messing everything up."  I'm pretty sure that won't end any time soon.
*Here are Cameron's current interests/loves: balloons, the color red, his little mini toy bin of rattles and baby toys, the bouncy chair (although not as much because it's too restrictive), turning pages in books, cuddling with us and giving us open mouth kisses on our cheeks, mirrors, anything he can chew on, and the Rockativity toy that plays music.
*He is sleeping through the night occasionally but definitely not on a consistent basis yet.  I'm still feeing him 1 time in the night, but will probably start to wane that soon.  I'm hesitant though--I love those sweet cuddle times at night.
*No teeth yet!
*So far his favorite baby food purees are squash, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, and carrots.  He gets solid foods twice a day--at lunch and dinner
*Weighs about 18 lbs

Happy 8 months our sweet boy!!

Please ignore the spit up stain in these photos.  We didn't want to miss the moment he was actually lying still.  Real life captured here.  :)

Such a happy kid!

Love this one.  What a ham.

6th Wedding Anniversary

6 years.  6 happy, blessed, adventurous, stretching, learning, overwhelming, sweet years of marriage.  On the one hand it feels like I've known and been with James forever.  On the other hand it feels like 6 years has flown by and only just yesterday we were going on our first date.

This anniversary I've been reflecting a lot on how much I've learned and grown in our marriage.  James himself and my marriage to James continually helps me to be a better person.  I witness grace first hand every single day for my quirks and downfalls--being talkative, talking too much before I think, my tone, my tendency to overplan, my anxiety, my controlling nature, etc, etc, etc.  By some miracle James endures these every day and still loves me.  And not only that he helps and supports me through these areas for growth.  He is so patient, consistent, and leaves so much room for my authenticity.  James complements me in so many ways and I observe and learn from him.  I've grown leaps and bounds in showing respect for my husband, processing before I speak, working on my tone (but not always successfully), being mindful and empathetic of where James is and what he needs--when and how it's best to communicate or work on plans, partnering together on parenting, and identifying James' love languages and providing for those.  I see God molding me and working on my heart in so many ways through our marriage and through James' service and love to me.  Yes I would admit that marriage is hard--it's "raw, see me at my worst, life is overwhelming and you still have to love me" hard.  But man so so so worth it and so life giving and so rich.  I wouldn't want to be on this journey with any other person in the whole world.  I love you so much, James.

On a lighter side note, James and I have observed the traditional wedding gifts in all our years of marriage so far.  Here's a record of what we've given:

1st: Paper
    Wrote letters to each other

2nd: Cotton
     New sheets and pillows

3rd: Leather
     Black leather purse for Megs
     Leather slippers for James

4th: Flowers/fruit
     Flowers and hanging baskets for the yard

5th: Wood
     Megs put together a care package in a wood box for our trip to Victoria
     James took me to Butchart Gardens on our trip to Victoria

6th: Candy
     Assortment of candy and chocolate given to each other

Next year is Wool....hmmmm gonna have to start thinking on that one.  Any creative ideas?

Nathan's 3rd Birthday

Wow I can't believe our little boy is 3 years old already!  He officially turned 3 on May 10.  It's been a fun few weeks of celebrating.  On May 3 we had his birthday party with friends and family.  It was Construction Theme (his obsession love of trucks & machines continues) and we held it at the Si View Community Park in North Bend.

The day couldn't have been more beautiful.  Mid-70's and not a cloud in the sky.  All our family and several of Nate's little friends and our family friends were in attendance.  We had folks "build their own sandwich" for lunch.  The kids played at the park and then we had some fun activities planned.  We had a dump truck pinata which actually turned out to be an epic fail.  A hilarious epic fail though.  It was a pull string pinata. One of the dads went to help his daughter pull one of the strings that was being stubborn and the whole pinata came crashing to the ground.  All the kids burst into tears.  And then they realized that all the candy had poured out on the ground and they scurried to pick it up.  Amazingly they felt better after that...go figure.

The next activity was a relay race where the kids had to run down the grass, put on the
"workerman" hard hat, vest, tool belt and boots and then race back to the finish line.  This was pretty hilarious too.   And so much fun.

Next up was cake.  Grampa Jay made an amazing construction cake which Nathan loved.  And it was delicious.  He is so talented!

And then we finished out with presents and favors.  Nathan got some awesome gifts including some new machines, fun games, and a couple books.   Here are a few more shots (photos courtesy of my brother and mom)

The celebrations continued the next weekend when the four of us went to the zoo as a joint celebration for Nate's birthday and Mother's Day for me.  We haven't gone through those photos yet, but it was a really fun day as well.

Happy birthday Nathan!  You bring so much joy to our lives and we just love you so much!  Hope you have a fantastic year!!