like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives...

Right now, Brian is out galavanting somewhere on his "boys night out" doing who knows what. And meanwhile, I'm here with time on my hands, which is why I've posted like 4 blog posts in the last hour. I probably should be cleaning up the house, or even better, sleeping! But instead, here I am putting up cute photos and videos of my little man. :)

But there's much more to our lives these days than smiling at Cam's cuteness (although that does take up a good chunk of our time). Most of our days are spent coordinating the last part of our move, selling stuff on craiglist, scheduling our carpet cleaning, finding a food bank to pick up stuff from our pantry that we never used, organizing the rest of our crap to donate somewhere, closing up our utilities and other bills...the list is endless! We're living out of our suitcases and we have like 5 forks, 5 spoons and 4 plates in the kitchen. And oh yeah, there's that small thing of taking care of a 3-month old and still getting up at 1am and 6am for feedings.

It's definitely a stressful time. Add in our emotions around leaving Seattle and the result is heightened emotions all around. Brian and I have been arguing more these days mainly because we're both stressed and are handling the move in different ways. Just today I started to get sad about leaving. It's only a week away and it finally seems real. Don't get me wrong, there are positives to moving home and I'm excited about it, but I'm going to miss my friends up here as well as our house and the lifestyle we've become accustomed to.

All the while, Cam continues to grow and learn new things! He LOVES to stand up. That's his number one favorite thing. He kicks and stretches his legs out, fusses a bit and then when you stand him up, voila! All smiles. His second favorite thing is to roll over. And recently, I've noticed he's much more interested in colors and patterns. He stares at his burp cloth that has red, blue, and yellow cars on it. He also likes to look at the pictures on the fridge. And just in the last couple of days, I've started to try and sing him to sleep (both for naps and before putting him down) and he just loves it! I used to sing to him when he was younger and he wasn't so into it. The white noise worked better. But now, he just looks at me, calms down and eventually shuts his eyes and goes to sleep. How I love that.

I try my best to spend just as much time interacting with him as I have in the past, but being so busy, it's been tough. I think we're doing a pretty good job but I'm sure he must feel some of the stress from us. Then I feel guilty about that which stresses me out more! Not to mention my anxiety around having a 3-month old on a 5 1/2 hour flight to Hawaii. Please oh please let Camden handle the flight okay. I just envision him overtired and screaming his head off for half the flight. But that will be what it will be, so we just have to wait and see.

Anyway, that's a glimpse into our lives these days. Moving with a 3-month old. I don't recommend it.

happy 3-month day!

Woops. I forgot to post Cam's 3-month pic. Mind you, his 3-month day fell on the day the movers came so we couldn't spend too much time trying to get this pic taken. Needless to say, Cam didn't feel like sitting still and we didn't have enough time to keep trying.

rollin', rollin', rollin' on a river

Nowadays when we put Camden on his tummy, he immediately rolls over. Either he got too big of a "good job!" reaction from us so he thinks this is what he's supposed to do, or more likely, his head is so heavy that rolling onto his back just makes good sense.

cam's first christmas

Camden's first Christmas sort of just came and went. With the stress of moving and a house 3/4 empty by the the time Christmas rolled around, we just did what we could to have some holiday cheer and took comfort in the fact that Cam won't remember this Christmas anyway.

Sad to say, Brian and I didn't even buy Camden a Christmas present. But again, not like he knows the difference. To make sure we don't seem like the worst parents in the world, we didn't get each other Christmas presents either. In fact, I still need to get presents for a few people back home but still haven't gotten around to it! I guess that just makes us bad Christmas celebrators?

We did have Christmas dinner here at the house though and it was yummy. Cam also go to open his very first present! Well, sort of. He enjoyed it as much as a 3-month old could.

Now, on to New Years! I expect it to be much of the same: some celebration amidst moving stress. Holidays? More like Movingdays. But here's some pics to prove that we didn't completely ignore good 'ole Dec. 25.

Christmas lights in bellevue

The xmas dinner gang

one of my many presents

yes, i opened it (with the help of mommy)

of course the paper is the best part!

camden's first laugh!

He's laughing! He's laughing! A few days ago, I was playing pat-a-cake with Camden and for some reason he thought it was just hilarious! I've played it with him before and usually get smiles out of it, but this was the first time he's found it funny. Luckily, we had a camera around and caught it all on tape. Camden's very first laugh! It really is the cutest thing ever.

my little singer

Maybe he's singing along? I like to think so!

holiday madness

This holiday season is hectic. With an almost 3-month old, packing, selling some of our stuff before the move, coordinating the move, plus all the holiday festivities, it's a bit crazy. Not to mention Christmas shopping and wrapping. I'm more behind than ever and needless to say, many of you will be getting gift cards because there is just no time! But, we're trying our best to get through it all and have some fun while we're at it.

On Friday, we went to Brian's work holiday kiddie gathering. They have it every year but this is the first year we've gone. Didn't interest us before having Camden. There are a TON of office babies now, kids running all over the place! Camden was totally chill and subdued through it all. He got fussy just when we leaving but that's it. He went to Santa, no problem and really could care less about it all. What a good boy. :)



On Sunday, it was our 3rd annual cookie day! The girls bake, the boys hang out and it's always a blast. Unfortunately, I forgot how much work it is. I usually make a holiday cocktail for the girls to enjoy while baking and I like to have a nice set up with a holiday feel. But this year, none of that really came together. With Camden, things were more haphazard. I was only able to make 2 out of my 4 planned cookies (Kainoa helped to get a 3rd one done -- thanks, Kainoa!), my cocktail took FOREVER to make cause I didn't read the directions close enough, plus it needed more bubbly which I didn't have. The punch turned out just okay.

The entire time, I felt so disorganized and pulled in too many directions. I wanted to bake my cookies, be a good host and have a good time like I have years prior, but I had one eye and ear on Camden the whole time. Even if Brian was "manning" the baby, I felt the need to make sure he was okay. Part of that is just mommy guilt, another part was of course wanting to be with Camden, and yet another part was mommy wanting daddy to do things the way mommy does it. This is a constant struggle! I need to let Brian parent his way, but it's so hard sometimes. Brian's a great dad, but men in general let babies cry longer and don't anticipate as much as women, I think. So, I end up trying to think a step ahead -- he's gonna be hungry soon, or need a nap, etc -- trying to meet Cam's needs before he becomes OVER tired and has a fit.

So, I had a mini meltdown with Brian upstairs and then had to have a couple cocktails to take the edge off. But even with that, it's impossible for me to let myself loose with Cam around. I just can't do it. I made an effort though and did have some champagne punch to try and retrieve some part of holiday cheer. I'd say I was somewhat successful.

In the end, cookie day turned out alright. Everyone seemed to have a good time, although it's hard to tell what the boys thought through their cloud of drunkeness! I'm still not quite clear on how cookie day became "drinking day" for the boys. Haha.

Anyway, here's some pics from the festivities:


the beginning of the end...lol


bake, bake, bake!


daddy duty


the final products


I'm gonna miss cookie day with you girls!