Monday, September 22, 2008

You're never too young...or too old...

Camden and I spent the morning at the Boston Children's Museum. Camden enjoyed it a lot more than I thought he would - I feared it would be a little too "old" for him, but the temperature is only 59 here today so we were looking for something to do indoors. I was pleasantly surprised with the museum. There were several "exhibits" that catered to the "younger crowd" and he really got into a few things. Besides, I loved playing in the bubble room just about as much as he enjoyed seeing all those bubbles. Here are a few pictures from our day...unfortunately, I am not talented enough to make the bubbles and take pictures at the same time, but there are shots from some other exhibits we enjoyed.

We're still in Boston, so the post with all the info about this exciting journey will come later. I just had a spare moment while Ryan's at a conference session and Camden naps to post these...

Enjoy!!!






On our way in to have some fun!!!










Camden enjoying a pinwheel at
the wind station.










Playing with a puzzle...he's really good at getting the pieces out of the puzzle, but he wanted to put them in his mouth, not back in the puzzle! :o)







Tummy time on the "city map"

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Through the lips and over the tongue...watch out tummy, here it comes!!!

Today marks a momentous occasion in Camden's otherwise short life...solid foods!!!

Camden really started showing signs this week that he was ready for foods...reaching for my fork while I was eating, wanting to hold his own bottle, watching my every move as I ate, etc. But I wanted to wait until we were back in Dallas so that Daddy could participate. After I returned from NC late last night, we began to prepare ourselves for the big event:

High chair...check
Cute little bowl...check
Ergonomically correct spoon...check
Box o' rice cereal...check
Warm formula to mix in...check
Video camera charged and ready...check
Millie on standby to clean up messes...check and double check...

By the time we got everything set up and ready, Camden was beyond waiting on us. As soon as I tried to start feeding him, he wanted to wrestle the spoon away from me and do it himself...Mr. Independent rears his little head!

I held on to the spoon for the most part and he actually did a pretty good job. Most of the food went in his mouth. What didn't make it there was mainly b/c I did give in and let him have the spoon every now and then - when I did, he would bang it on the high chair tray to notify me that he would like something more on that spoon, and what little cereal that remained on it would go flying...but, as you can see from the checklist, we did have Millie on standby and luckily she seems to like rice cereal almost as much as Camden does.

Here are a couple of videos to show how things went. The first gives you a taste of what we heard from Camden if I didn't get the spoon reloaded quick enough...

Yummy yum!!! from Mandy Jo on Vimeo.

The second is a little clip of Millie getting in on the action. She was more than willing to clean up those hands for him - which he thoroughly enjoyed. I think she would have been thrilled if we let her clean up his face...but I should probably draw the line somewhere.

Millie gets in on the action from Mandy Jo on Vimeo.

Since taking the video and getting it set up to post, we've now had lunch and Daddy did that feeding. He did a better job than I did of getting it all in Cam-man's mouth and Camden became a member of the "clean plate club" - although one look at our little chunk-a-muffin and you'll see why we didn't anticipate eating being a problem for him!

We are family...I've got all my COUSINS with me!

Since this one is about Jay too, I thought it would be appropriate to use Jen's "song lyrics as post title" idea for the post - with a little necessary adaptation, of course... =)

Camden and I (Mandy) left Dallas on the 3rd for a 10 day trip to NC. On Sunday of last week, Camden was able to celebrate his first Grandparent's Day with his Oma and Papa and his Granna Jane.

We also wanted to see Uncle Derek, Aunt Jen and Cousin Jay but the trip from Elkin to Raleigh was just a little too far... Lucky for us, Uncle Matt and Auntie Anne live halfway between in Greensboro and we were able to meet there - along with Cousin Jay's other grandma, LaLa (Laura). It was a wonderful afternoon spent by most playing a fun game called "pass the baby" while Jen and I were able to get some rest for our aching arms and have some meaningful, uninterrupted, adult and way overdue SILIL (sister-in-law-in-law) conversation.

As time to leave neared, we decided to get the boys together for a little impromptu photo shoot. I just wanted to share a couple of those with you...


Jay isn't usually interested in his own pacifier...but he sure was into in Camden's! Lucky for us, Camden doesn't mind sharing. Let's just hope it stays that way when it's time to share toys!!!




Quite possibly the most adorable picture of cousins ever! I just keep hearing that song from Toy Story, "You've Got a Friend in Me" over and over in my head when I look at this picture!




I'm pretty certain that just before I snapped this picture, they were just scheming about all they plan to get into during our beach trip coming up next month!!! We can't wait!!!