Bad Week -> Good Week

So Cameron was sick this week. She got her first cold which started on Friday and escalated through the weekend. She missed three days of school and her fever reached 103.9. It was tough to see her sick but she stayed in a pretty good mood except for when her fever was at its highest or we plunged her nose with the aspirator. Lucky Cameron got a new froggy friend to sleep with her. She got the Mr Frog vaporizer to help keep her sinus' clear.


Luckily when the fever broke her nose had stopped leaking and she went back to school. She was happy to be back with her teachers and immediately wanted to show them how she practices sitting up. She can't do it unassisted yet but she works hard trying. Daddy helped Cameron work on her sitting and tummy time while they were home together. It was great quality time even if they were both under the weather.



It was difficult for us to stay home with Cameron since the daycare won't take her sick. I think it must be even more difficult for parents that don't have flexible jobs like Jeff and I. On Monday we both stayed home and traded baby duties while the other worked. Since this was Cameron's first bad fever we took her to Dr. Li's office where he diagnosed a cold. Her weight was 13lb 12oz. She is almost doubled her birth weight! On Tuesday-Wednesday Jeff stayed home with her during the day and went to work when I came home.


What turned out to be such a bad week for us, got a lot better on Friday. Jeff got the promotion he had been working so hard for. He is now a GS14. To celebrate Cameron and I bought him a new TV. On top of that the weather was great and on Saturday we all went to the park to play. This was really great for PJ who had been missing his family walks that we skipped due to Cameron's cold. We met up with Ellie which is always PJ's favorite thing to do.

Cameron & PJ - BFF

Cameron and PJ have become best friends again. PJ wants to lick her all the time, but he is still not keen on Cameron grabbing him. She on the other hand loves to get him. She will roll over and start going for him, but she still can't go forward. So PJ is still safe. I got a video her trying to get him, and I think from the video you can see she is probably going to start moving soon. (This is not from the new camera, stay tuned for those)



In the video you might have noticed that Cameron has a bit of a cold. Even with a cold she has been in a very good mood so we got her dressed up in her Halloween costume and went and had her 4mo pictures taken. I actually bought the tutu and tights to make her a fairy costume but I could only find wings at the Build a Bear store. I bought the whole costume thinking I would just take the wings off, but turns out the costume fit her perfectly. So we got pictures in both. Its so funny that one day we'll dress up her teddy bear in the same costume and tell her she wore it first for Halloween.



It was another good week at school. The class got a fish tank with a spotted goldfish named "floppy." And they have been working on Halloween art projects. Cameron made a blue spider which she hung on a giant spiderweb above the beds, and she painted a pumpkin picture with her feet. I love her teachers, they always come up with such great activites for the babies. This photo is Cameron with Miss Shelby and Mrs Nicole.

All things new...Yummy!

Cameron has had several new experiences this week, and she thinks that anything new should be tasted first. So she tasted rice cereal, a puppet, uncle Nicho, new bowl and spoon, our new video camera, new teacher at school, and just about everything else that came in close proximity to her. She can now grab her toys and pull them to her, and she has quite a grip. She can finally grab those toys that have pull strings and cause them to sing, giggle, or vibrate back to position.


The big milestone was to start her on rice cereal. This was especially hard for me because I feel this is the first step to weaning. Up until now I've been her her only source of anything and now I have to share that with Gerber, its hard. But on the flip side she didn't seem to like it that much ;-). She loved her spoon and bowl but we were unsure if she actually swallowed any of the cereal. I was sure I was getting more back than I put in. We even watched the video (yes we took video of it) and still were unsure how much was consumed.


Uncle Nicho came to town for Uncle Greg's birthday so Cameron got to see both of her uncles. She especially liked Greg and spent a lot of time staring at him. We all went to dinner and even though Cameron was very tired she stayed awake the whole time because she didn't want to miss anything. She was very good except of course for the car ride home. She hates to be strapped down. We are going to put the other carseat in the LR3 because it keeps her sitting upright. She does much better in a similiar carseat in Jeff's car.


Cameron tries so hard to sit up. She can lift her head and shoulders up but can't quite sit up by herself. She will pull herself up if you hold her hands. I can't wait until she reaches this milestone because it will make her so happy. Its a lot like the toes in the mouth. Cameron discovered her feet a few weeks ago but couldn't get the toes to her mouth without some help. Thank goodness for yoga because she is now able to get her left big toe in her mouth where she happily sucks it until she gets too excited and kicks it away.


We also got a visit from Grandma Cindy who brought Cameron an old witch puppet. Cameron has no fear and was really interested in it. She laughed and then tried to get a good lick in but daddy held her back. We also took Cameron to the halloween store and she didn't mind any of the scary masks or animals.

She ended the weekend with a long hike with daddy and PJ. PJ has been much better the past few days. He went to doggie daycare on Wednesday which I think helped break up the week. He liked all the visitors and was glad to go on a run with mommy and a hike with daddy and Cameron. During the hike would run ahead and check out all the smells then run back to Cameron in the stoller. Hopefully this week won't bee too hard on him.

My Early Works -- by Cameron O

Cameron wanted to post her artwork along with some commentary. She has been very vocal these days so she had a lot to say about her art. I'm not sure that I got everything down but I believe this is mostly what she was trying to convey. Enjoy :-)

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As many of you may already know I'm a big fan of art, but really was unsure if I wanted to start producing my own work. My first experience painting was not such a pleasant one. Here you see my first ever piece. In this early work, I tried experimenting with mixing vegetable paint in various colors while still leaving the original colors intact. I was not completely satisfied with the final outcome but still allowed it to be shown for a limited engagement on the class bulletin board. I call this "Fall Leaf I."

My second piece, "Fall Leaf II" was an expression of my mood at the time. I was becoming more familiar with my surroundings and learning more about myself. I began to spend more time with other young artists and learned that the paint was a good medium to communicate my feelings. This piece was shown as part of a young non-mobile artist show. Here you see I used much cooler colors, green and yellow, and really used more of the paper plate canvas.


I've always been interested in wildlife. My work began to drift towards animal subjects and I chose a happy squirrel as my first ever animal painting. I call this painting "Yellow Happy Squirrel." I had it laminated and attached to a string of construction paper acorns which was then suspended from above, representing the natural environment of squirrels living high in trees, protected from those on the ground.


Next I was invited to participate in a collaborative mural inspired by "Old Mac Donald." At first I was unsure what farm animal would inspire me to create something worthy of this work since it was going to be put on a highly visible window. I finally chose an animal with special meaning to someone very close to me. I created the "Pink Duck" which I dedicated to my mother for many reasons.

After all the acclaim my paintings received, I really felt that I needed to express myself in another medium. So I started to work with sculptures. My first sculpture painting was featured in a young artist profile of the day. You can see the published work closer by clicking on the article below.

This particular sculpture, "Corn Husk Man I" was the first part of a two piece work, which also included "Painted Pumpkin." Several of my fellow non-mobile artists worked on similiar pieces, but I feel my interpretation really gets to the heart of the subject matter. With the contrast of the dark colors on the pumpkin signifying the death of millions of pumpkins for the short-lived enjoyment of man, represented by the light colors of the Corn Husk Man, celebrating the tradition of jack-o-lanterns.

I believe there will be much more art in my future. I hope to have an annual art show that will feature all my work and hope you will be regular attendees to witness how my work matures as I do. Thank you.

Not such a good dog anymore

My wonderful dog PJ is not so wonderful these days. He looks the same but he is not acting the same. PJ is really having a rough time of it. I'm back at work, Daddy has been too busy for long hikes, Cameron pulls his hair, and on top of all that, his dog walker Gini hurt her back and has been unable to visit for several weeks. So PJ has decided that in order to get attention he will have to start misbehaving.

His disobedience has been escalating, but this week he really outdid himself. I had an exceptionally bad week and have been very stressed out trying to acclimate back to work with a new manager as well as that great new project turning out not so great. This week after our family walk, we all try and take a walk after work and after Cameron has been fed, PJ spotted a dog. We were just getting back to our house, and I was holding PJ tight since I spotted the dog before PJ. The dog walked past the house and there were no issues, PJ just watched. But as soon as I relaxed and the dog got to the next house, PJ lunged for the dog. This caught me by surprised and down I went landing on my already sore wrist. Since I was down PJ was able to drag me down the driveway. Normally I would have let go, but I didn't want him to get the dog so I held on tight, not such a good idea.


On the worst day of the week so far (Tuesday), we ended up in the emergency room. The x-rays did not show a break, but the pain was in an area that is known to not show the fracture right away. They put my wrist in a splint with orders to go see another doctor next week. PJ got punished, which has only added to his woes. Jeff has refused to let PJ upstairs so he is only that much more upset about his current situation. I've tried to do obedience training with him in the mornings, but with the pain in my wrist its almost impossible.

Cameron still thinks PJ is the coolest thing in the house. She will now reach out for him and grab is jowls and try and get his nose in her mouth. PJ is not really that amused by this.



Cameron really thinks she is grown up now. She is getting really strong and thinks she should be allowed to stand all the time. She continues to get better with her hands and can now pull all her toys off the bouncy seat bar and throw them on the floor (this is a great game to play with Daddy because he always brings them back). She is getting very vocal and I've tried to record her but she gets very distracted by the LCD on my phone and laptop.


Cameron is also very interested in food. She gets so excited watching us eat. She has started to grab at my plate if its close enough to her, but this week she also tried to grab my hamburger. I was eating and In&Out burger and she was definitely trying to take it away. She was on my lap and each time I took a bite she started to jump and squeal as she tried to grab the burger. It was really funny and I wished the new video camera was here already.

I love School!

It was a great week for Cameron at school. The class continues to decorate the room for fall, so this week they painted corn-husk dolls and pumpkins! Cameron has come a long way with her painting. She will now allow the teachers to take off her shirt in order to have the most fun possible. She has also discovered, like the other babies that the vegetable paint can be very yummy. Thank goodness that her poo did not turn blue.

Cameron also continued to make friends. I didn't think she minded being the only girl in class, but apparently when she caught a glimpse of another baby in pink, she ignored the boys and spent the morning gabbing with this beautiful baby who shared her taste in pink clothing. The teachers reported that Cameron completely lost interest in her favorite turtle toy and enjoyed the company of this girl who is obviously very funny and witty.

This week was also school pictures. Cameron looked like Chef Boyardee in her new red outfit. She wore her red beret that is a little too big for her, so it looks more chef-like than french. We should get the pictures back next week so I'll post them next week.