The strike continues...

No, I'm not on blog-strike, though I'm sure all 7 of my loyal readers have come to that conclusion.  The C-Monster is STILL on his napping strike!  We have yet to come to an agreement and we're currently in a stand-off on this whole nap thing.  I'm not really sure what to do at this point, as I have tried every strategy outlined by every "expert" out there (I'm convinced that none of them know what they are talking about).  So.  We've developed our own strategy.  As predicted, it is going just as well as all of the "expert" strategies, so I'm going to just label myself a "sleep expert" as well.  But. That aside, I have totally neglected my blog.  Again.  Most of my loyal followers (again, all 7 of you, and I think that includes myself) are moms too.  So I think you get it.  If not at this stage, at some point, you have probably had to prioritize your lives yourself, and something likely got dropped.  My blog is my thing that gets dropped.
The good news is that I'm going to catch you up now!  I'm not going to give you any grand sweeping promises that I'll do better, because we see how that's worked out in the past.  Just know that I INTEND to do better.  I always do.  Enough about that, you didn't come here to hear me blog about not blogging.  You didn't come here to see what I have NOT been doing, but rather what I HAVE been doing.  So here you go.  Just remember it's been a while, so we've got some catching up to do...Let's start with Christmas.

    I have no idea why he looks like he's showing off his cleavage, but aside from that, he's just darn cute.

 One of the many faces of the C-Monster.  He really looks like an old man here. 

He has my "snooping" gene, I'm afraid.  And YES, it IS a gene!

One of my favorite little shirts. 

Mimi came to town for Christmas!  She stayed with my aunt and cousins, so we had her over for lunch one day.  I really want Cameron to spend as much time as possible with his great grandmothers.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care... (Note:  these are not the stockings I wand Cameron to grow up knowing as "our" stockings.  But as you well know, I haven't had much time to make the stockings that I want.  So see.. it's not just the blog that gets neglected.)

Happy Baby!

This is Santa's loot.  I'm glad we took this picture, because Christmas morning, it was CHAOS, and we totally wouldn't have gotten a picture of everything all laid out.  We took this right after Santa came on Christmas Eve.

Grammy came over on Christmas day!  We started this year having Christmas at home- that's how we want to do it ongoing, so why not start now?  Grammy (Ryan's mom) came over, and so did Uncle Russ and Aunt Mikka (Ryan's brother and his wife). 

I didn't even realize this until later, but there's not a single picture of Grammy looking at the camera.  She's always got her eye on her super sweet grandbaby.

IT SNOWED!!!!  I've always dreamt of a White Christmas, and the only one I got that I know of was the Christmas I spent in Colorado a few years ago.  This was a HUGE deal to us!  But little did we know, this would turn out to be nothing.  (See?  Another advantage to being way behind on my blog... I can make foreshadowing comments like that.)

The day after Christmas, we went to my Aunt's house to see my extended family.  Here are two of my cousins, Christy, and Carly. 

Which one of these things is not like the others, which one of these things does not belong?  (Remember that song?)

December 26th, we actually took C out to "play" in the snow. 

You know, I wasn't sure about asking Santa for this chair.  I mean really, how much use can you really get out of it?  But this giant smile made me realize what a good idea it really is.

On New Year's Day we met up with my side of the family to do family Christmas. What?  You don't celebrate holidays on the wrong day?  Well we do.  We stretch them out as long as possible.  Here Uncle Alex (my brother) is showing Cameron how to be Superman.  No, not the Soulja Boy Superman. But as a side note, my father knows that entire dance. 

As usual, I was in charge of desserts.  And as usual, I don't just do normal desserts.  I mean come on- it's New Year's Day!  We had to set something on fire!  So these are my champagne cupcakes.  I saw the idea on Oprah, and knew I HAD to do it.  One thing they failed to mention on Oprah though- the dust from the sparklers gets all over the top layer of dessert.  That "dust" is actually tiny bits of metal, and is toxic when ingested in large quantities.  So be prepared to scrape it off, or just don't go back for 2nds.  Or, now that I've told you this, you can use those sparkling candles instead of actual sparklers.  Too bad Oprah didn't mention that... thanks a lot Oprah.

One of my favorite pictures... this was just a plain old boring non-holiday kind of day, and both my boys were looking at the camera.  Now THAT'S worth remembering.

Do you see them?  Oh I failed to mention this... we made HUGE progress in Cameron's sleep from Thanksgiving to December.  HUGE.  He was sleeping through the night (from 7pm-7am, not that stupid 5-hour stretch definition of "sleeping through the night") right up until Christmas.  On Christmas night, he completely stopped.  On December 29th, I found out why.  His gums were HUGE- swollen and inflamed.  The very next day, two tiny teeth broke through on the bottom.  You can barely see them here, but they sure made a grand entrance.

Since it was C's first Christmas and he was so young, we decided to do something fun for us for his gifts.  He would have no idea what he got anyway, so Ryan and I each picked out something for Cameron, from us, that the other person didn't know about.  I picked out this floor gym, affectionately known as "Monkey Island."  Ryan got him a Charlie Brown t-shirt.  I'll have to find a picture of that, because it is SO cute with his big bald head!

No fun story here.  I just like the big goofy grin.

So you saw our Christmas snow, right?  It was a BIG deal in Georgia.  BIG.  HUGE.  It made the news for 10 days.  But this is what followed.  It hit mid-January, and shut the whole city down for an entire week!  We measured it with our very unofficial tape measure, and it was 8 inches in our backyard!  Even if that measurement is slightly off, that's a ridiculous amount of snow for Georgia.  Ryan worked from home all week, which was fun, actually.  It was like a mini-vacation.

And we dragged him out in it again...

And again. 

More smiles on Monkey Island!  I'm not sure who loves this gift more- C or me.  (You can totally tell it's a mom gift... I just needed more places to put him where he could occupy himself.)

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures.  Could that smile be any bigger?  Seriously.  If the whole world made a New Year's resolution to smile this big just once a day, there would be no war.  Well, there would at least be no road rage. 

And he found his feet.  Perhaps it was because they had monkey heads on them, or maybe it's just time for that particular milestone.. but either way, it's been the cheapest entertainment we've had in a long long time.

Many of my friends have asked about our coping strategy during our sleep "challenges".  I believe the old adage that "A picture's worth 1,000 words," so consider this picture my 1,000 word photographic essay.

I know he's not supposed to sleep on us, but when he's that stinking cute, how am I supposed to resist? 

"Well hello ladies..."  Sweet Jesus, is this how Hugh Heffner started out?  Oh I hope not. 

This picture was taken right before we left C with Uncle Russ and Aunt Mikka so we could go look at cars for the afternoon.  They are expecting their first child in July, so they were dying to practice with Cameron.  I would have loved to have taken a picture of their faces when we got home, but they ran out the door the second we got there, absolutely terrified of what was in store for them.  (In their defense he WAS in the middle of his napping strike, and can be so terrifying even a Navy SEAL couldn't handle the insanity.  Oh and I rarely exaggerate.)

That's right folks, I'm an aunt! Cameron's first cousin was born in January.  My brother Andrew, and his wife Carrie were due in early February, but miss Katherine made her grand entrance a tad early.  Everyone is happy and healthy, and that girl has got some HAIR, which is pretty funny in contrast to my little Charlie Brown baby here.

I actually liked this picture better, but you couldn't read all of the words on the sign, which was the whole point of the stinking picture.

So there you go... you're caught up through the end of January.  We had several holidays, lots of smiles, and a new cousin/niece keeping us busy, so again, no excuses, but this is one of those things that has been neglected, sadly.  Another thing is my photo uploads.  These are the last ones I have updated, so I'm about 3 weeks behind in uploading them!  I got Photoshop for Christmas, and am DYING to sit down and just play with it (add that to the list of neglected tasks).  Hopefully this nap business will settle in soon enough and I can do all of my catching up during naps.  So far, it's not sounding good though. 

I also plan on changing my blog background to be a little less Christmassy, so if you're reading this before I get around to it, I know, I know.  It's on the never-ending list.  So hey, I'm on a roll.  I can at least do updates every 2 months!  Which means that if I keep this up, my next update will be when spring is here!  Haha, just kidding.  As usual, I have every intention of updating sooner.  But you know,  we'll see how that goes.

Oopsie Daisy!

So much for getting back on track with the blogging!  I just realized it's been a LONG time since I've posted.  Yeah, I've been a little busy, but why bother typing about it when I can show you some of our recent adventures? 

Grandma's 60th Birthday, and the first birthday party Cameron was invited to!  It was October 30, so we previewed the Halloween costume here.

I attempted the impossible, and staged a Halloween/fall photo shoot with Cameron and Bella.  This is about as good as it gets, sadly.

More Halloween fun!

We voted!

Making silly faces.

More exercises.

We've gotten creative with Tummy Time, since Cameron can only stand so much of it. 

A few naps.  We're still a little bit on the napping strike, but we may be reaching an agreement, as there has been some improvement on that front.  We still have a ways to go though.

Just about the cutest sad face ever.  I know he wants me to scoop him up and get him whatever he wants at the first hint of the "fuss face" but I just find it so darn cute!

We hosted our 2nd Annual Fakesgiving Celebration.  It was about 2 weeks before the real Thanksgiving, and it was just a bunch of friends getting together for a Thanksgiving feast.  It's the best non-holiday EVER.  You have all the fun and food of a holiday, but with none of the pressure! 

(Note that Bonnie, the blonde on the left in the red shirt, gave birth less than a week after this!)

This is the "tough guy" face.  He's been making this one more and more lately, but I'm not quite sure what it means.

He will still fall asleep in our arms, or on one of our chests.  It is the sweetest thing in the whole world.

Hey if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

At Thanksgiving, the extended family on my mom's side got together to also celebrate Mimi's 85th birthday.  This was also the first time Cameron got to meet his great-grandmothers.

The whole crew at Thanksgiving.  You can't tell in this picture, because she's so darn cute, but Carrie (Andrew's wife) is pregnant with Cameron's baby cousin!  It's a little girl due in February.  In just a few short years I'm sure they will be running around causing all sorts of mayhem, and I can't WAIT for that fun.

We've been propping C up more and more because he likes to see what's going on in the room.  Unfortunately, the best way to do it is to break the cardinal rule:  "nobody puts baby in the corner." 

We met Vince Dooley!  I heard he was going to be at Kroger (random, I know) doing a book signing, and hey- we've got nothing better to do.  So we went!  The best part of the whole thing was when I handed Cameron to Coach Dooley.  He looked at me like I was nuts (and let's face it, I am) and said "Oh you want ME to hold him??"  And sometimes things just fall out of my mouth before I really think about them.  Today was one of those days because my immediate response was "Sure!  Why not?  I mean, I'd trust you with my football team, why wouldn't I trust you with my child?"  We had to book it out of there before security could call for a psychiatric evaluation. 

Cameron is discovering his toys!  For the longest time, he was only interested in people and completely ignored all of the wonderful toys we had for him.  But suddenly, one day it was like they started to glow in the dark or something because the things that we had been showing him for months now magically seemed interesting to him. 

Dad is having fun letting C be a "blimp" like in a parade.  I'm not sure what calling him a "blimp" will do for his self-esteem in future years, but he seems to enjoy the ride right now.

Looky who we found!  We went to get our Christmas tree and miraculously, there was no line for Santa!  We had not planned on doing Santa pictures that day, but figured this would allow us the chance to test the waters before standing in line for hours just to have our baby scream when handed off to a stranger.  And guess what- he did great!!  We also got to take as many pictures as we want (taboo with Mall Santa) so we have about 30 pictures of this experience.

Cameron went on his first date!  Less than a week after Fakesgiving, baby Cora was born!  We had joked that she would be born at Fakesgiving, but she wasn't due for several more weeks, so we though it was one of those ridiculous things you just say... joke's on us though, I guess!

Cameron is not quite sure about the presents.  So far he's tried to eat them.  Which I guess is all you can really expect at this point.

Cameron also loves the "baby in the mirror".  He laughs and smiles at his "friend" all day long. 

Clear the roads!  Look who is driving!  He's not quite sturdy enough to sit completely upright, but it's nothing a strategically placed rolled-up blanket can't fix.  I'm SO excited about this stage for him.  He's just fascinated by everything he sees.  We got this walker from some friends who have a little boy turning 2 soon.  So far, it's a hit!

So here's what I've learned:  it takes MUCH longer to do a "catch-up" post than to just do a quick update.  I know I've said this 1,000 times before, but I'm going to try to do one a week.  With the holidays coming up I know it will be tough sometimes, but I'm going to TRY. 

As for me, you can see that my days pretty much revolve around Cameron.  In late October I decided not to return to work after my maternity leave was up, so I'm a full-time stay-at-home mom now.  Some days it's awesome, and some days it's the hardest thing I've ever done.  I'm still getting the hang of things though.  On my best of days, I can do laundry, clean something (bathroom, kitchen, etc.), keep Cameron fairly close to his schedules, watch the Martha Stewart show, get out and run some errands, and have dinner ready when hubs gets home.  But then other days, like yesterday, I survey my surroundings at the end of the day, only to be met with the fact that the only reason I took time to shower was because the baby managed to poop MY pants (true story- through his diaper, and his pants, and completely ruined mine.  Luckily I'm still in those yoga pants we talked about so long ago), the garbage disposal is broken, and now has a bent wire hanger sticking out of it, my laundry is 1/2 done, half in the hallway,  and we had "appetizer night" for dinner because I didn't have time to throw together a full nutritious meal. 
Most days, thankfully, I fall somewhere in between.  I'd pull my hair out if all of my days were like the last example, and I'd probably drop dead of exhaustion if I kept up the pace of the first example.  So as long as my average is somewhere in the middle, I'm happy.

Top 10 at 10

Today Cameron is 10 weeks old, and in honor of this milestone, I give you the Top 10 at 10 (weeks).

10. Number of weeks old baby Cameron is today: 10

9. Number of fingers that baby Cameron can choose to suck on: 10 (but he only actually will suck on 2- his thumbs!)

8. Average number of diapers baby Cameron goes through in one day: 10

7. The number of minutes baby Cameron will stay down for a nap before crying out: 10

6. Number of outfits baby Cameron has referencing Mommy: 10 (Mommy’s Hero, Mommy’s Snugglesaurous, I love my Mummy, Mommy loves me, etc.)

5. Number of t-shirts mommy goes through in a 3 day period (due to spit up, spilled drinks as the result of doing everything one-handed, etc.): 10

4. Number of times baby Cameron passes gas of some form after a feeding: 10 (I know you think I included this one to be cute, but I promise I counted.)

3. Number of burp cloths floating around this house somewhere: 10. They came in a 10 pack, so I know this number is accurate, but I can’t prove it because I never seem to be able to locate them when I need them.

2. Average number of times a day baby Cameron ends up in his bouncer (because that will actually stop the crying): 10

1. Number of hours baby Cameron went between feedings last night: 9. Oooh I almost had you! OK well here you go: the number of times mommy got up to check on baby Cameron between 3 and 6 am to make sure he was still alive: 10.

That’s right folks: last night was a MAJOR milestone in the sleep department. Let’s just hope it wasn’t a once in a lifetime occurrence and will become more of a regular thing.   Mommy is MUCH happier when she gets her sleep.  Trust me.

                                 

The Great Trade-Off

I always knew that motherhood would change me. That was no surprise. In fact, when I was pregnant, people would often say “Oh your life is about to change FOREVER” with this ominous tone, like I had no idea what I had signed up for. And I would think “I sure hope so!” Can you imagine living your pre-baby life post-baby? I sure can’t. But for me, that was a good thing. I always knew I wanted children, and at the ripe (almost rotten) age of 33, I had done enough of the childless things to know that I wanted to do more of the child-full things. And so it began. Here are just a few of the many ways my life has changed. As a disclaimer, this is not a complaint list at all. I intend to print these blog posts out and include them in my scrapbook so I can forever remember my thoughts about this time. So with that… I have traded the following:

1) Cute little handbags, for black bags under my eyes. On the upside, black goes with everything.

Check out those bags!

2) The little black dress, for the giant black yoga pants. I seriously thank God every single day for the stretchability of spandex. And no, I haven’t actually had time to do any yoga since he was born.

3) Bottles of wine for bottles, and whine. No explanation necessary.

4) Pumping Iron (yes, even the 5 pound weights count) for pumping milk. One day I really will do a blog post entitled “The many similarities between me and a cow”. Seriously. I’ll do it.



5) Abs of steel for abs of flab. (For the record, the abs in my head match those on the cover of any ab video you see advertised. The mirror tells a very different story, but we all know mirrors lie. Rolling your eyes at me? OK fine. Go try on bathing suits in department store lighting in the dead of winter. See? Now you think mirrors lie too.)

Uh-huh... totally my body.  I promise.

6) The occasional indulgence of a blow-out by my hair-stylist, for the daily blow-out of my child’s diaper. Don’t worry- I won’t post pictures of that one. Most of you have enough mental images of your own diaper days that will suffice.

Oh the good old hair days... back when I had time to do more than just wash it.

7) Rocking my skinny jeans for rocking my baby to sleep. In another 20 years skinny jeans will be cool again. I’ll just pick up the trend then… when I’m 53. Yikes! As a side note, I really do wish I had a picture of me in my pre-baby skinny jeans. Then again, it just might make me cry.

8) My own urge to party all night, for my son’s urge to potty all night. In truth, I haven’t “partied” in a long, long time. Longer than I care to admit, actually. But should I feel the urge to again, I’m already conditioned for surviving without any sleep. So feel free to invite me to your next all-nighter. I can totally hang with the 8 week-olds.

This was actually the first day he switched from Newborn size diapers to Size 1's.  It's obviously not night, but you get the idea.

9) My favorite fragrance (Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue) for the scent of spit-up. I have a reflux baby. Enough said. Along with this, I’ve traded the scarf as the accessory of the season for the burp cloth. If you ever see me without a burp cloth, just know, it’s laundry day.

This is the new uniform.  Note the yoga pants, the burp cloth, and the hair clip that are now all staples in my very sad little wardrobe.

10) Singing along at a concert, for singing lullabyes. Actually, I’m pretty lucky in that regard. My child does not like the traditional “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and you can FORGET “Row Row Row Your Boat.” He does, however, quiet instantly when I sing Janis Joplin, Johnny Cash, or for some strange reason, the Love Boat theme song. (Please don’t ask how we discovered that last one. I’m begging you. Just don’t.)

I’m sure you’ve noticed that a lot of those “changes” have to do with my appearance. So I’ll just put it out there- I’m vain. So there. I like to feel good about myself, and a lot of that is evident in my appearance. No, I don’t wear fancy designer clothes, but I do like to take care of myself, and that is something I haven’t had time for lately. I know I’ll never have time to care for myself like I did pre-baby, and that’s OK. But I definitely miss some of those things- like the exercise.  There are, however some things that I can manage right now. So today begins Operation Motivation. I don’t have the energy to work out like I used to, but I can manage what I eat better. And that’s where we’re starting. God Bless my sweet husband- I adore him, and I can’t tell you how very much I appreciate all of the things he’s picked up while I focused on caring for our child. But the sweet man actually thinks mac-n-cheese is a vegetable. So I think it’s time for me to take over meal planning again. At least some of the time.

Now keep your eyes peeled for that cow post, because some of the topics will likely be the same.

  

Just a typical day...

 Just in case you're wondering what Cameron does all day, here's a sneak peak into the life of a sweet baby.

I stare at Mommy

I nap.

I flirt.

I do my exercises (and practice posing for pictures- that's multitasking!)

I play with Bella.

I practice laughing at how ridiculous my mommy is.

I help mommy bake (now THAT'S what I call a cookie sheet!)

I try not to get caught sucking my thumb... 

Yeah that's the latest news in Cameron's world- thumb sucking.  I thought it was a fluke at first, but I have repeatedly caught him sucking away on this little thumbkin.  I was never a thumb-sucker, but Ryan was, so I know who gets credit for this little bad habit.  Other than that we're just hanging in there.  We've had a rough couple of weeks- I guess this is the peak in crying that "they" talked about.  Hopefully we're on the home stretch of that though.  And any time Mr. Buddy wants to start sleeping longer stretches, Mommy would welcome the break.  (Hint hint).