Milestones (mostly so I don't forget when they happened)

1. Pulls himself up to stand! He likes to "crawl" up people but has recently moved onto to pulling himself up on furniture, boxes, etc.

2. Has found his pee pee. Sigh. I was hoping this would wait until he was a bit older, but nope! He plays with his pee pee in the bath tub every night and when I change his diaper. Such a boy.

3. Can crawl up a step! There's a small step from the patio to the living room and he figured out how to get himself up the step today. So great, but also kinda scary!

4. Has 7 teeth! The two bottoms now have 5 friends -- 4 on the top and a new one on the bottom that I just saw today. Crazy.

5. He loves saying "ba ba." No "da da" or "ma ma" yet, but I keep trying.

6. He knows what his binky is. The last few days, when I get him out of his crib I ask him, "Where's your binky?" At first, he didn't know what I was talking about but today when I asked, he reached over to grab it and put it in his mouth! Then I asked him to give mommy the binky and he put it in my hand. Then, I thought I'd test it to make sure he really knew what his binky was. So, I lined it up next to his vaseline bottle and aquaphor bottle (both he loves to play with while I change his diaper). I asked him where his binky was, putting the items in a different order 3 times and EVERY time, he grabbed the binky! What a smart boy. :)

holy moly, teether!

Camden got his first set of bottom teeth at 5 months. Today, I found FOUR top teeth that broke the surface! His two middle teeth and then the teeth on either side of those. Wow, kid. You are growing up so fast!!

Cam's new tricks

• Talking, talking and more talking.
  
  
• Standing up by himself! Well, sort of. He's taken to climbing up me (grabbing my clothes, etc), getting his feet under him and then standing up practically all by himself. He hasn't pulled himself up on furniture or anything on his own yet. But I think that's right around the corner.
  
  
• Progressing to half scoot/half crawl. He gets on his knees more.
  
  
• He LOVES scoot/crawling on the hard wood floor. He likes the sound it makes when he slaps the floor with his hands.
  
  
• He knows what a fan is and loves watching it spin.
  
  
• He knows "kawai kawai" which in Japanese loosely means "to dote on." We use it more like "cuddle" or "kiss kiss." Grandma taught him that one and he loves to "make kawai kawai" on his stuffed duckie! haha. He also does it to people once in awhile when he's in the mood. :)
  
  
• He knows he's not allowed to crawl to cords or to our shoe rack because whenever he does I tell him, "no no!" and then pick him up and take him somewhere else. So, now whenever he wants to get to either, he stops and looks back at me to see if I'm watching. I look at him and tell him, "No no...come back here." He smirks and then proceeds to make a beeline for the cords/shoes like it's a race to see if he can get there before I stop him. What a little rascal.
  

i miss my daddy.

So, daddy's been on a business trip and although he had a "daddy-son" talk before he left, telling Cam to "be nice to mommy," "take good naps," and "be a good boy," Cam has decided to give mommy a run for her money.

In all fairness, my son is never really bad. In fact, he's a pretty easy, mellow baby and is always a good boy. But, since daddy's been gone he hasn't been making my temporary single motherhood easy by any means.

I was sick all last week (just getting over it now) so that didn't help much. I recovered slower, I think, cause Cam decided that he was going to start getting up no later than 5:30am EVERY MORNING from the day Brian left. Usually, he gets up around 7am so I had no idea what was going on. I am not a morning person at all and sleep is very important to me. So, this new habit was a huge pain in my behind.

To add to my tiredness, Cam hasn't been napping very long since B's been gone either. Usually I could catch up on sleep by napping when he naps. Long naps just weren't in the cards.

Luckily, my folks were great and helped to watch Cam while I took a nap here and there throughout the week so I could get rid of my stupid cold. I don't know what I'd do without them. This cold would have lingered longer and I would have been miserable.

Cam also threw up on me after his bedtime feeding one night last week. THAT was lovely. Again, grandparents around are great for such things. Puke all on Camden, down my leg, on the couch and on the floor. Cleaning everything up is not a one-man job. Well, it could be...but it would take 10 times longer and by the time I got to cleaning up the vomit it would have soaked into the furniture and carpet, never getting out.

Then today, Cam seems to be finally catching my cold. :( He's congested and has been sneezing/coughing some. Yesterday, he felt hot but when I took his temp he didn't have a fever. But he's been more fussy and not himself so I think he's not feeling well. I'm hoping I'm just being paranoid and he's actually just fine and dandy. Please don't be sick, Camden!!

What I do think though is that Camden misses his daddy. I think he knows something's different, even if maybe he can't necessarily recognize that daddy's missing. I can't wait for Cam to see Brian again. Both parties will be so happy!! And mommy will be happy too. I miss Brian as well, not just as daddy but as husband. But I ain't gonna lie. I'm mostly looking forward to taking an entire day to myself once B is back. Daddy duty will be in FULL FORCE.

I'm talking to YOU!

Cam's had a lot to say the last couple of days. Unusual for my son who's all about crawling around and doesn't care much if he's mute.

This video's great cause in the middle it sounds like he's really trying to say words, like "Where'd it go?" or something. And he waves "bye bye" at the end! Although, I don't think he knows what that means yet and it was just a coincidence. But still, it's cute.

spit up and more spit up

This is life with child! Cam apparently spit up and I think what happened is I thought it was just a little bit of spit up, wiped his mouth with the bib and then picked him up and carried him. Little did I know there was A LOT of spit up and it ended up on my top in four different places. This is what I looked like after I wiped all the spit up off and was waiting for it to dry.



If I didn't go to the mirror to do my hair, I seriously wouldn't have been any the wiser and would have walked out the door completely unaware. Ah, the joys of motherhood. :)

Cam's "canvas"

I know I can only be the best mom I can be. And I know I will make mistakes -- nobody's perfect. But every action, every word, everything you say, do or even don't say or do throughout your child's life will have a huge, lasting impact. The grand design of things is that you, in large part, shape your child into who they become. While Camden's canvas is "blank" (for lack of a better word) at the moment, soon it will be colored with bright, happy memories mixed with dark, troubling ones. That's a very scary thought. So, it makes me wonder...what balance of colors will decorate Cam's canvas when he's an adult? Just HOW much am I going to inevitably screw up my child?