cam's 4 months old!

Happy 4-month day!

Cam's 4 months old! And he seems to be on track with his development. Here's a few of his recent milestones:

• Grab, suck. Grab, suck. Just in the last few days, I've noticed Cam grabbing objects a lot more and of course, most of them now end up in his mouth. Last week I noticed him sucking on my forearm. Yesterday, he found a new squishy nemo toy from Grammy Mats that went straight into his mouth and pretty much stayed there. Today, he grabbed his big plastic toy that we've been playing with for weeks and decided he wanted to see what the edge of it tasted like. Teething perhaps? I've been checking his mouth but don't think he is. He's just exploring!
  
  
• I've got the power! This morning, Cam realized that he has control of his bottle. He's been "holding" his bottle for awhile now but always with the help of mommy. But this morning when I pulled his bottle away, he grabbed it with both hands and pulled it back to his mouth! Once he figured out he could do that, he started taking the bottle out of his mouth on his own for a couple of seconds and then pulling it back in, I think, just to see if he could do it. What a smart boy!! (Yeah, yeah. I can't help but think he's a genius.)
  
  
• All I wanna do is, talk, talk, talk! Cam's also been talking up a storm the last couple of days when he's in his jumper (which he loves, btw). I'm not sure if he's telling us what he's doing, seeing, or just complaining that he's tired and wants out. I'm guessing it's all three depending on the moment. Here he is earlier today, definitely telling us something!

"i love you!"

My little talker. At the end of the video you can hear Camden's "I love you!"

Camden updates

Since leaving Seattle, Camden has...

1. Found his feet! Now that it's 80 degrees every day he's barefoot practically 24-7. On the car ride home from the airport, I swear he stared at his feet like, "Hey, those things are always there!" Now, he grabs his feet all the time and enjoys that they're free.

2. Learned to roll over from back to front. He doesn't do it often but I know he can since I find him on his tummy in the middle of the night. A couple times, still swaddled! Scary, I tell you.

3. Thrown up all over me and the sofa. I was feeding him one night and after he took down 5 oz, he choked on his spit (which he does quite often), and started coughing. I made the mistake of lifting him up to burp him and out came a stream of milk!! I don't mean just spit up. I mean a thick, projectile milk waterfall. Ah, the joys of mommyhood.

4. Been out and about! We took him to Costco, Target, Wal-mart, Pearlridge mall, and various friends and relatives homes. No beach yet but he'll get there someday for sure.

5. Upgraded to 6 month outfits. This kid is a serious chunker and couldn't be happier about it!

6. Heard grandma sing Momotaro san and Chi Chi Papa like 50 times. He loves it though!

7. Gotten over Patty Cake and now thinks Itsy Bitsy Spider is hilarious. If only I knew what he was thinking when he laughs at these songs.

8. Decided tummy time sucks but mommy keeps making him do it. Just in the last couple of days he seems to want to crawl! Or so I think...

9. Been taking naps in his pack and play during the day. I decided he needed to learn to nap without being held and after a couple of times he took to it quickly. Only thing is, he'll only sleep swaddled. I tried putting him down unswaddled but he only stays down like that for a half hour or so. He's not quite ready for the unswaddling yet but him napping on his own gives me time to nap myself, do laundry, wash bottles etc without him attached to me. And that's a great thing now that he's 14+ pounds!

10. Decided he loves it when we sing him to sleep. Water faucet is no more! Singing gets the job done. Even when daddy "sings." ;)

We're baaaaack.

Oh blog, how I've missed you.

Here we are, finally in Hawaii and I'd say 80% settled in. We arrived Jan. 5 and spent the last couple of weeks getting half of our stuff out of the shipping container and into my parents' house (Yes, I'm living with my folks again temporarily. Not ideal for us nor them!), the other half into storage. That was a process and a half. Brian worked his little butt off getting the boxes unpacked and moving furniture around to create a semi-private, livable space for the three of us. We have our oh-so-comfy brown couch, a hutch that now holds all of Camden's books and toys, a table that's been converted to a desk for this computer, all surrounded by a bunch of Camden's stuff.

We bought a new tv and Brian found a $16 tv stand that's actually pretty nice. I had to wash ALL of my clothes that were packed in boxes because they came out smelling like cigarette smoke. Bleh. We ran errands and got things like shampoo, trash bags, baby wipes, etc. We changed our WA license plates for HI ones (they only give you 30 days to change them) and did our safety checks. Brian got his Hawaii driver's license but I still need to find time to go and stand in the long dmv line to do the same.

Then, just as we were really getting things unpacked an in its place, Brian threw his back out! He moved heavy box after heavy box for DAYS and then one morning, he was reaching for a blanket, a blanket, and wham! He heard a pop and was crippled. He couldn't walk or move for 24 hours and then was walking really crooked for the next few days. He went the the chiropractor and that helped, but it came at a hefty price. His back is better now but he needs to get in shape before it happens again. I so don't want to have to take care of two babies all over again. Ha.

Brian started work on Tuesday. He's enjoying it so far and loves that he can leave work at 3pm. It sure must be different though. I imagine it's another world on base. I know he has to be able to identify people's ranks when he encounters them and address them properly -- major, lieutenant, general. All this change doesn't seem to phase him though. Either that or he hides it well.

Me, I'm more open about what a huge change this has been. Some days, I'm completely overwhelmed with it all. Other days, I'm much more calm and optimistic. I think it's just gonna take all of us awhile to get our feet planted here again.

All the while, Camden's his usual happy self! He didn't cry once on the plane (thank goodness!) and adjusted quickly to the 2 hour time difference. I wonder how much he understands. Like, does he realize that we've moved out of our old house? Is he waiting for the day we go back to his familiar Seattle surroundings or could he really care less? They say babies don't have long memories at this age so I'm guessing it's the latter.

So, here we are and here we'll stay. Unless we really are crazy and want to move somewhere else. Japan? ;)