Two Years Old

This entry is about a week late, as I was hoping to get a video montage up. It's obviously not happening very quickly, but I will get to it soon. In the meantime....

Well, Doppie (or dabbie - we're not sure how to spell it), you are officially two years old. It is hard to believe two years have gone by. The days remain long, and the years go by fast. You are not our baby anymore, and we can hardly call you a toddler, as you don't toddle. You run and look more and more like a regular old boy every day. You hardly even call yourself 'Baby' anymore. It used to be if we said, "say Camden". You would say, "Baby". Now you say, "doppie". When we say, "Say Cam", you say, "Cam". When we say, "Say den", you say, "den". When we say, "Say Camden", you say, "doppie". What is that and where did that come from?



You are turning into your own unique little person and are developing some very distinct likes and dislikes and have ways about you that are strictly, 'Camden'. You entered the 'two's' a couple months ago and have given me some whopper tantrums. They are usually short-lived, but you've had a couple where you worked yourself into such a frenzy, you couldn't stop. I think they stem from your new desire and ability to make decisions - usually you do quite well, and it is productive for us all to let you make the decision, but sometimes the wires are frayed and you don't know what to do with yourself. "I want Bingo, no Jack Johnson, no Bingo, no Jack Johnson, ahhhhhhh!!!!" And then it progresses to upstairs, downstairs, outside, inside, nothing can make you happy. Even though I have times where I am not convinced the tempter tantrum will end, they always do and you eventually collapse in my arms and we carry on with our day.

But like I said, those are not the norm. You have mini-fits every day, but they are largely manageable and easily redirected. In some ways you are becoming more independent and will play on your own for up to 30 minutes if you are in the right mood and have found the right toy. You have an impressive collection of toys thanks to granmom and her garage sale shopping. Your favorites at the moment are your massive collection of hot wheels, your box of mini animals and your train track. You will always come back to the cars because they work well with any new toy you get. A new dump truck? "Put cars in there!". A book resting on a pillow? "Car goes down!".

The real life cars and trucks are pretty top notch as well. You have a play structure at daycare that faces 18th street (a busy street), and you spend a large chunk of your outdoor time standing on the top of it and watching the "cars and trucks and buses" go by. Every outing in "Mama's gray car" or Daddy's "big truck", is sure to be exciting because there are "so many cars and trucks". This is not something we have pushed on you because you are a boy, it has always been something that has fascinated you. One of your first words was "guck".

As you can see from all my quotation marks, you are talking a LOT. We are amazed every day by what you say. Every single day, we say to each other, "I cannot believe his language". You know the whole alphabet (while you won't recite it on command, we've caught you doing it on the monitor as you are putting yourself to sleep, or in the morning as you are still groggy) and have been able to recognize all the letters for some time now, you can almost count to 20 (you skip 14 and 15), and you form complete sentences and use verbs (present participles - I had to look that up - to be precise) appropriately. "I am running." "I want to go read a book." "Play with daddy for a while". You still struggle with pronouns. When you want to be carried, you say to me, "Mama carry you?". Because I say to you, "Do you want me to carry you?". That is a particularly confusing thing to teach because even I end up all mixed up. You'll just have to figure that one out over time and on your own.



About a month ago, you started the make believe thing. You talk a lot to your animals, "Good night pig. Goodnight bear. Are you OK pig?". And you tuck all your animals into bed or make a new bed for them where they can be "warm and cozy" on the couch, yarding them one by one out of your crib. We caught you once reading your truck book to Pig - picking him up and making him look at every page, and asking him, "What's that pig?". And you have started talking to other kids a little bit. Mostly Bea of course. You bring her a piece of food from her plastic fridge, and ask her, "Bea, what's this?" And she tells you, and you say, "That's right!" with your little sideways nod. Way too cute.

You still love books. And you have an incredible memory (or else you are reading). We can read a new book to you, not even five times, and you are practically reciting the whole thing back to us as we turn the pages. There is one book in particular called, "I'm Sorry", in which you 'read' every page perfectly. Of course you are not looking at the words, which clearly means it is just memorization, but it shocks us everytime nonetheless. Quite a little brain you have in there my boy. Now I am slightly biased, and you may get a more subdued opinion from a neutral party, but still, I think you are a genius.

You are still eating well. I'm still waiting for the phase to hit where you become disinterested in food, but given your genes, I don't think that is too likely. 'Orange cheese' may have surpassed crackers as your favorite. You discovered ketchup and how wonderful it is to dip things in it - especially meat. Pasta, cottage cheese, waffles, yogurt and cereal all remain at the top of your list, with broccoli and avocados being the most nutritious things you eat. We haven't gone to your two year appointment yet, but I will not be surprised if you come close to 35 pounds. Luckily we are able to provide you with wholesome and healthy foods - whole wheats and most of your fruit and veggies are organic. So you may eat a lot, but it is usually good stuff. You have discovered cookies and ice cream, and while we haven't made a habit of it, we give in once in a while.



We've also given in to the TV. You're not watching a lot, but your first DVD that you fell in love with was "Goodnight Moon". You watched it just about every night until we had to return it to the library. Then Granmom bought you a series of Classical Baby DVD's. The only one you will watch is Baby Art, and you watch it now just about every night after bath. It is harmless and has some lovely music and pictures to it, so it sucks us all in. You also still have a love for watching our own home pictures and videos on the computer. It is often my saving grace for getting meals prepared when you are being needy.

You know how to load and unload CD's and DVD's from the DVD player. You can turn it on, open it, load your choice and turn on the TV if necessary. You don't abuse this, you just do it when you want to listen to your music. For a while you would only listen to the 'Bingo' CD which we thought might send us to the nut house, but we have since talked you into some Jack Johnson and last week you reintroduced "Patty Whack" (I'm pretty sure that is not the right spelling). Often you will start your music, then start pulling books out and sit quietly for a while reading and listening. Enough to warm a mother's heart.

You remain a timid boy when with anyone else. You have your mama's shyness with new activities or places and always take a while to warm up and are leery of new people. I suppose this is good (as you are unlikely to go quietly with a stranger), but it is hard on my back, "I want mama, I want mama, I want mama!" (escalating in pitch and volume). Thank goodness you have eased off on the hitting and pushing of other children. Only if they really get in your face, and you're not in the mood, do you give a little shove.


Your physical abilities are expanding as well. You have not been the most aggressive climber, but you're getting more daring. You love to jump and are really enjoying the tumbling class we are doing. You can jump off surprisingly high things and often will not let me help you. We have a bed set up in the back bedroom for jumping, and that has been a hit with you and all the friends that come over. You can do a real, full blown somersault. And you and Daddy spend at least one night a week at the pool, and you LOVE it. You jump in over and over and submerge your head willingly.

Sleeping is going fine. You often still wake up between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM. We had a stretch where you were waking up at 1:00 AM and would not put yourself back to sleep and were even having trouble putting yourself to sleep at the initial bedtime (this has always been the easiest - we put you in your crib, say goodnight, and you are out). So we started sleeping on a pad in your room until you put yourself back to sleep. This became a crutch that we had to break, and now we are just back to early morning wake ups where you invariably end up snuggling with me and hopefully we all get back to sleep for a while.



Potty training? Not so much. You will occasionally sit on your potty chair with all your clothes on and make a straining noise, but that's about it. You sort of tell us when you are pooping, but don't really want us to know because that means we have to go change your diaper. Although you will NOT ride in the car with poopy pants. That is when you do tell us. And today you were trying to nap, and we thought you were asleep, when you called out, "Mama! You downstairs? What doing? Change my diaper!". And sure enough, you had poop in your pants. So, some small signs that you might be potty trained someday, but I fear we are a ways off.

Man, what else? You are just an amazing little boy and we are constantly in awe of all that you do and are. You are a world of dichotomies. You are fiercely independent, but you can't let mama leave your side. You laugh at the drop of the hat, but can fall apart in a matter of seconds. You are physical and 'all boy', but will never turn me down for a snuggle or a hug. You want to go this way. No, No NO, you want to go that way. You are TWO. And I have to remind myself of that every day when my nerves and patience are rattled. Because you are a perfect two, my boy, in every way, and I wouldn't give you up for the world. Happy Birthday my little man!

What's Been Goin On?

I just created another blog about our chickens (one less thing to talk about on this blog), but then began to wonder, what the heck am I doing creating another blog, if I can't even keep this one up? So why not a quick update?


We got back from Hawaii and made every effort to get some things done around here. Problem was, Keith was busy with work. I work four days a week. And we work opposite schedules, so even if one of us is home, we have a very demanding little guy keeping us busy. So it has been slow going around here. Not to mention the sale of our other house has been slow coming. We finally signed a contract last week and we can only hope this one will make it all the way to closing.

The summer flew by. We really didn't do anything too exciting. Weekends we had free we either were tending to chicken stuff or trying to accomplish something on this house. In fact summer was so late in coming (such a wet, cold spring we had!) it almost feels we didn't have one at all. We didn't go anywhere at all, but we had some lovely visits from friends, and a nice visit by my entire family back in the end of July that involved a chicken hunt, a pig roast (clearly we are not vegetarians), a neighborhood party and a lovely camping trip to the Illinois River.






We had a time of profound sadness, in that Keith lost his uncle to esophageal cancer. He was diagnosed in May and after a hard battle, succumbed to the disease on September 7. He lived a full life of love and adventure and will be missed dearly.

What have we done to this house? Nothing that most would notice from the outside. We (Keith) did some gutter repair, chopped a LOT of firewood, did some backhoe work to fix some major drainage issues, and we installed a new wood stove. That's about it, and until we sell our other house, that's where we will sit for now. The stove is doing a great job keeping us warm so far, but we do hope to supplement with something else here soon.





Camden is thriving and continues to surprise and amaze and frustrate us. He will be two in one more month and while he remains a good kid, he is definitely having some very "two" moments. I had the honor of bearing witness to a twenty minute temper tantrum yesterday, where everything I did to try and help only made things worse. Yes, no. Inside, outside. Upstairs, no downstairs. And on and on, shrouded in tears. We made it through, and today he is the polar opposite. Sweet as can be, playing quietly by himself and talking up a storm (although he did skip his nap). The other day he started saying "No mas!" to us. I guess the bilingual stuff at his daycare is working. So very cool. I would rattle off all the cute things he says and does, but you all have kids and know what it's like (besides, I would never leave this chair!).





My favorite, I have to say, is how he has started talking to other kids, "Bea, what's this? That's right! Want some apple?" and to his stuffed animals. SO cute.


Please visit my Flickr page for more pics from the summer if you are interested!

More Than a Dog

Warning: This is a very long entry about a DOG, so if you are not really a dog person, you might think I've gone a little looney....but I did love her so.

You may remember that over a year and a half ago, Gracie was diagnosed with cancer. At the time, I thought I would lose her within three months, six at the most as we had decided not to treat it. With a few minor moments where we thought, "this is surely the beginning of her decline", she would bounce back within the week and be fine. Well, she is an impressive dog, but not invincible. The cancer caught up with her very quickly and very suddenly, and we had to have her put down yesterday (June 10th).


She had a type of lymphoma that had metastasized to the skin, and the vet had told us it was usually a very aggressive type of cancer. She did show signs in that she had chronic sores on her skin. Mostly small, scabby ones, but she had a doozy on her leg that kept opening up. It was that sore that gave me my biggest fear - would I have to euthanize my dog because a sore got too big and was getting too inconvenient for my daily life? I just couldn't fathom putting her down when she obviously felt fine physically. But we also weren't willing to fork out $600 for every sore that needed to be removed, because there were plenty more brewing. This is where the amazing healing comes in - that sore would be open and yucky, and then I would convince myself it was getting smaller, and then one day, sure enough, she would have intact skin again. I think that happened two or three times. That's my girl.


So I feel lucky that it was so obvious in the end. Four days ago I came home from a shopping trip after leaving her in her normal state of health, and she was suddenly extremely lethargic, would not move, and would not eat. I eventually got her to take a pain pill and prepared for the worst, but by morning she was back to normal, chasing her ball, and running out to the mailbox with me - so I wrote it off to a stomach bug. But then the next day she showed all of those ominous signs again. When she would try to walk, bless her heart, she would barely put weight on her back legs, and would give me the saddest look, like "What is going on, mom?" I started making calls about in-home euthanasia, as I couldn't stand the thought of taking her to the "back room" at the vet. As I was walking into work, I talked to Keith on the phone about what the vet said (about needing to have an exam first, not sure if they can come out, etc.). And he said, "we just need to do it, Em. Don't schedule an exam, we just need to schedule THE appointment". And even though I have been preparing for this moment for almost two years, and had myself convinced I was ready, the moment he said that, I broke down. He was so right and it was so real.


The vet called me back later in the day and said they could come to our house and no, we would not need to have an exam first. They couldn't come until 3:30 in the afternoon, so I called in sick, got Cam off to daycare and spent the time watching and waiting. Gracie was clearly uncomfortable, but she remained oh, so tolerant and stoic. Bless her heart, she made it down our three deck stairs (barely) went out for a poop and pee and even walked down the hill to go lay down in her favorite puddle. Every time she would walk out into the grass I would fear she was walking off to die and I wouldn't get to be with her for those last moments. But she always came back.


Finally they came. Very compassionate and appropriate professionals. Keith and I sat at her head, me sobbing into her ear, both of us stroking her the whole time, while the injection was given (an overdose of a barbituate which is the same med used for their anesthesia - so she assured me they just fall asleep - no paralyzing sensations or pain), and 20 seconds later she was gone. She moved her head for the needle poke, then she let out a big sigh and relaxed. The vet said it best, "You can rest now, Gracie". Their eyes don't close, so it was really hard to believe she was dead for a long time. She just looked like she was resting on her blanket as always. I laid with her for a while, stroking her beautiful, soft golden hair for the last time, then we wrapped her up and buried her in the middle of an oak tree patch, next to some big rocks. The deer bed down in this area most nights, so I like to think of her frolicking and chasing them all into eternity. Weirdly, actually placing her in the hole and throwing the dirt over her body was the hardest thing. It felt so final, and I spent the rest of the evening gazing out there thinking of her sweet body under all that dirt, when she should be behind me on her blanket.

Ah well, dogs just don't live as long as humans, and I had way more time with her than I ever expected after that diagnosis. She has been the best dog. More than a dog at times, a true companion and friend that brought us frustration at times for sure, but so many laughs and times of joy and times of pride. And I don't care what anyone says about Goldens, she was faithful to us.


I have many favorite things about her, but one of the best was the way she could read emotion. If I was visibly sad or crying, she would march right up to me and nose her way in, until I would pet her and assure her I was going to be OK. If I was mad at something and yelling and carrying on (like the first time our car was stolen), she would walk to the nearest desk, table or chair and hunker down and wait out the storm. If Keith and I would play fight, she would bark and jump and generally attack Keith until he stopped. And if we were happy and excited and dancing around or doing something silly, she would join in with her front paw prance and bark in joy.


Rocks. What started as a cute thing she would do in streams once in a while at about age 2, turned into a pathological obsession, bordering on psychosis. She got good at diving for rocks over the years, being able to completely submerge herself and stay under for impressive lengths of time to retrieve that one special rock. And she couldn't pass a stream or river without nosing around and getting one out. And while on hikes, especially familiar ones like Spencer Butte, once at the top, she would pick out a rock and carry it ALL THE WAY back to the car, only to deposit it on the ground by the door before jumping in.




She knew when we were leaving for anywhere, and didn't like being left behind. But she could especially tell the long trips as she would watch us pack up the car and thus park herself right by the car, not to move until she got to go in too.


She had a great memory. There are a few places we go every year if not more than once a year, and those places generally have water. As soon as we are out of the car at the destination, she starts to the water, knowing exactly which way, even if it involves a lengthy trail or a trot down a stretch of road. Usually she would turn and look at us and wait, but if we took too long (especially on hot days), she would take off without us, returning shortly....with a rock in her mouth. One of her funniest stories: For a while we rented a house on a regular city block in Eugene. We were about three blocks from a very 'Eugene' corner market that we would frequent regularly for milk, coffee, etc. Most times when we would go, we would emerge with a biscuit for Gracie. And most days there was an old man that hung out on the benches outside that had a bottomless bag of dog treats (the BIG ones), that he would feed like a chain smoker to our dog while we were inside. This house had a back yard that we shared and one day the gate must have been left open, because I received a phone call from the corner market informing us that our dog was there! It doesn't sound that funny as I write it, but we just chuckle at the image of her trotting down the street, knowing exactly where she is going and the rewards that lay at the end. I just wonder what triggered her brain to head on down to the store for a biscuit rather than vegging at the back door as usual.

This is the return trip....she remembered this watering hole, and wanted back in.

She was not much of a barker, so when she did bark at night, we usually paid attention. The second time our car was stolen, she let us know someone was out there that shouldn't be and although we brushed her off, she was right. And had we listened to her, we might have saved ourselves some time recovering our car and the bad guys might have been caught.


She hated and loved fireworks. In her younger days she would bark and try to bite them. In her older days, she would just bark. She also became a nervous wreck with thunder and lightening. She had to be close to us while the storm carried on.

Her best quality was her tolerance. Whether it was Keith's wrastling, Wiley's (the pug's) attempted fornication, or Camden's poking, prodding and hair pulling, she generally just sat back and tolerated it all. She very rarely showed any annoyance, and never showed any aggression.






She was a trooper, but was of course rewarded with many, many fun outings and a truly great life.


I could go on and on. She was a great dog. Loved to snuggle. I will admit she spent many a year sleeping with us in our bed, and many a year with her territory on the couch. This bad habit was broken when we left her for a year to travel and left her with people who didn't necessarily appreciate big hairy dogs on couches. She was easy to train and listened to us for the most part. We didn't do a lot of training, but she would heel, would go to her blanket when we told her, and could learn boundaries very quickly (when we moved to our new house she was no longer allowed upstairs on the new carpet, and it took her less than a day to figure that out).


She never failed to give me an ecstatic greeting when I got home, always with something in her mouth. She could not greet a person without first finding something to bring you, preferably a sock. She would talk when really excited, and shake that butt and whip that tail like nothing else.


Above all else, that is what I will miss the most - her unconditional love. There is nothing quite like it and it is what dogs are best at. I regret all the times I yelled at her and was annoyed at her for being underfoot (especially after Camden's arrival, bless her heart she got knocked way down the totem pole!). And I am so grateful that she was able to forgive me each and every time. Rest in peace my sweet girl. You will be missed, but never forgotten.

18 Months

Camden turned 18 months old on May 12. Needless to say I cannot believe he is that old already. Since I am a hopeless case on making timely blog entries and my journal and baby book are about as current, I thought I should at least document some of his milestones. So I apologize in advance for inundating you with boring baby details, but I must document somewhere!!

He is officially a little boy/toddler now and is no longer a baby although he calls himself (and every other kid) 'baby'. He is a towhead who has not had one stitch of his hair cut yet. It is definitely time. He has an impressive set of curls that he got from his dad that can appear quite unruly at times (a bit of a mad scientist look about him). His eyes are still blue and he still has the dimples. He runs everywhere and just recently was able to get both feet off the ground while jumping. Still slow to climb up on things, but now makes his way easily on and off couches, chairs and coffee tables (if we let him). He can go down our stairs at our new house without help (they are wide and not as high) – I'm sure we'll regret letting him do it himself the first time he falls, but you have to let go sometime right? The novelty of the stairs is running out, but when we first moved in, he would spend 20 minutes just walking up and down.


He still loves reading his books, and often will prefer to flip through the big adult books with lots of thin pages (like Keith's How to Fix Anything book). He just loves flipping the pages. I once caught him licking his finger to turn a page when he couldn't get it the first time. It is so funny what kids pick up from us.His other favorite toys are his fish puzzle (he is learning his colors – can say blue, purple and pink and correctly identifies them), his toy with the balls that run down the track, his coasters (as always), and just recently the magnetic letters on the fridge. He blew us away the other day when he started identifying letters. It's been a week since he started doing this, and now can identify A, B, E, T, S, O, N, M, P, D, Y and X. For some of them he says the letter (Y, X), for some he makes the sound (S), and for some he says the word we associate with it (truck, papa, nana, dada, mama, etc.).


He had a bout of RSV early in the year, followed by a nasty ear infection and pink eye in March. Since then his nose runs just about all the time. I think we can thank daycare (and the rain) for a lot of that. Daycare is going really well. He goes for half days 2-3 days a week. It is nap time when I drop him off and he now just grabs his blanket and lays down immediately. He used to still cry when I left, but the last three times, he has been silent and just goes right to sleep. When we pick him up, he looks at us, smiles and keeps on playing. So we know he is well taken care of and has fun.

He is a huge momma's boy. I try not to complain, because I know I would not prefer the alternative, but man, give a gal a break. In the morning when he makes his way into our bed (9 out of 10 mornings lately he is up too early for us, so we let him in), and he will scream bloody murder unless he is in my arms. There is to be no snuggling with dad. And most of the time when we're both home, unless Keith removes him from the room we are in, he will want to cling to me, or be picked up by me, and no alternative is acceptable. Of course this is not always the case, more so if he hasn't seen me in a while. He has lots of time during his day where he contentedly plays by himself interacting with us minimally while he draws, reads, or plays with blocks or balls.

Sleep is generally fine. We were on a real nice stretch until we went to Hawaii (in early May). At that point he was sleeping completely on his own from 8:00 PM until 7:00AM. He did good in Hawaii, but since we've been back, we've moved to our new place. So not only was he adjusting back to our time zone, but also to a new house (and there always seems to be a new tooth coming in). So we're back to early morning wake ups with no self soothing capabilities. The line for us is about 4:00 AM. If we wakes before that, we make him try and fall back asleep in his crib. Anything after that, I generally bring him in bed with me and hope he falls back asleep. Usually he does, but we had a run of days where he was up at 5:00 and didn't go back to sleep for anything. Ouch.

Food. Ah, my man can eat. Favorites continue to be carbs, cottage cheese and applesauce. Broccoli is probably his favorite vegetable if you can believe it. I had to hold my nose to finish my broccoli until I was about 10. And his liking for fruit depends on the day. Some days he'll wolf stuff down, other days he'll pass. We were worried that maybe he eats too much, but he continues to grow proportionately. At his 18 month check up he weighed in at 30 pounds and 34 inches tall. 85th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for height. We're OK with that.

His comforts are his blanket and his Raggedy Andy doll, and when snuggling (he LOVES to snuggle), his habit is to reach for my hair and play with it. Unfortunately, when he's excited, he also grabs my hair and yanks with all his might. The more I yell in pain or admonish him, the funnier he thinks it is. He's getting better around other kids. He still pushes Bea a lot, but usually follows it up with a hug. We've started time outs, and they seem to work for a while. I was surprised how quickly he understood that he had to sit there and couldn't get up until I say so. Today when he felt he was done with his time out, he looked at me and blew me a kiss.

And I guess that's about it. He is a fun kid. His vocabulary grows daily, and it blows me away every time he remembers or says a new word. He has the best smile and the best laugh that melt my heart every time, even at the end of a long and frazzled day.



In other news, we have purchased a new home out in the country, took a trip to Hawaii and placed our old house on the market. Oh yeah, and we purchased 22 chickens. (However, we are down to 21 already thanks to Gracie....and my carelessness). Needless to say we have been busy.


The house we bought is a foreclosure property that sits on 6 acres and neighbors a 4 acre parcel we bought several years ago as an investment. We put in a low-ball offer and here we are. It is a dream come true in that the land is gorgeous and the house has more space than we'll ever need (we went from 1200 sq ft to 3700 sq ft! Yikes!). The reason we were able to afford it is because we have amazing parents and the house needs a bit of work. To say it needs a lot of work is almost an understatement. It needs pretty much everything. It has a fun/interesting layout, and lots of potential, and someday will be a beautiful place. It will take time, however, and I must practice patience.


View into the back yard from the living room.


We got to decompress and relax in Kauai with Jenn, John and Bea which was amazing. My only regret is not making it a longer stay. The weather was gorgeous, the fruity rum drinks delicious and the water was warm. Cam did pretty good on the plane. We did not pay for a seat for him, but got lucky both ways is getting an open seat, so we sat three across for the long haul. Our luck did run out on the way home when we missed our connecting flight in SFO and had to stay the night....but if that's the worst thing that happened, I have nothing to complain about.

Movin Along

Man time is flying by.....probably time to update life in the blogosphere. I left you with a tribute to Cam's one year birthday, but I never did post pictures of his actual day. It was pretty low key. We elected to bypass the formal birthday party, as it seemed like more work than I was willing to do for someone who doesn't know what's going on, and there will be PLENTY of birthdays where he will be fully aware of the situation and will require a party. I'm taking it easy while I can. Needless to say we (or, I should say the grandparents) gave him some presents and we let him eat chocolate cake. He was slightly interested by the presents and VERY interested in the cake.





He got some really cool shoes fresh from Italy. He loves them and wears them all the time now.


The celebration was done the week after his birthday, so these two pics were taken on the actual day.




The weekend after his birthday, we took a trip up to Washington and visited a bunch of friends. The main deal was a girls' night out with all my old high school cronies. What a lovely group of ladies and what a fun night. I miss them all and had a wonderful time catching up.


My brother and his girlfriend Heidi were in WA that weekend as well, so we all gathered for a day at the folks' house.


So, then it was off to Coos Bay for Thanksgiving. A pretty low key weekend, which was strong on eating and socializing, but pretty weak on the adventure front - no midnight mussel gathering or crabbing in the torrential rain and winds. In fact no crabbing at all, if you can believe it. It started out a very rainy weekend, but we ended it with some very sunny days. We were able to do the normal cliff walk with some moderately impressive wave crashing and a great day out at the dunes. Fun in the backyard. This kid is going to be an adrenaline junkie. We'll take him bungee jumping next year.






Gracie can't get enough of the dunes. She reverts to puppydom while there.


Cam couldn't get enough of them either. He cried so hard when we had to leave.


At the bay down the road. What a gorgeous day.


The week after Thanksgiving, we took off again, this time to Colorado. Carl's family-in-law had a week at a condo in Steamboat Springs (aka fancy ski resort) that they could not use and was going to expire, so he and Tory generously invited the Bauer clan to use it with them. So we ventured once again to the skies with a young one. This time a walking, much more active kid. We were leery about the trip (the getting there and home part), but excited for some potential Colorado powder and time with the fam.

We had a ridiculously early flight out of Portland, so we stayed the night with a friend who lives close to the airport. Everything went smoothly. We were hoping with the early flight, Cam would crash once on the plane, but not so. He was awake and way too alert for way too long. Thank God for food and books as distractions. He only had a few grouchy moments and only got a couple annoyed looks from surrounding passengers, but eventually did sleep a bit.

On the way to the baggage claim in Denver, he had his first moving walkway experience:


We met up with my brother, sister-in-law, and mom on route to Colorado Springs (about 3 hours away from Boulder and Denver), and caravaned the rest of the way. Paul and Heidi showed up later that night driving all the way from Utah. The condo was great. Spacious and cozy at the same time and literally in the back yard of the slopes. The bummer part was the weather. It hadn't snowed in a while, and the hills were void of practically anything but man-made snow. Of the 30 or so lifts only 4 were open and of the 300 or so runs only 30 were open (I have no idea the real numbers, but it was pathetically barren). Needless to say we did not ski - just couldn't fork out that kind of money for ice packed slopes. Also, this was the week the entire Western half of the country was in a wicked cold snap. So while it was in the 20's back home, it was in the 0's and 10's here in Colorado. Crazy cold.

Outside the condo:


We made the most of it, and while we missed out on some of the grander adventures that my brothers and their girls went on, we still got out. It was a challenge with Cam and the cold. Babies don't exactly like mittens nor can they tell you if they are cold, so you spend a lot of time bundling to go out, and most of your time out fretting if baby is cold or not, then a lot of time consoling when the baby breaks down at the end of the outing.

He got better with each outing, but never loved the snow like we thought he might. At first he wouldn't even stand up out in it. He just crumpled, losing all muscle tone as his feet hit the snow. This was a nice, but brief moment of happiness.


Kids are a great source of entertainment.


Eating is always nice.


In video, a recap of the weekend at the condo:


The day before we were scheduled to leave and drive straight to the airport, we were checking the weather and saw many dire warnings about a massive storm about to hit and potentially close all roads out of the area for a day or so. So, we packed up and headed out a day early and crashed at Carl and Tory's place in Boulder. We left the babe with grandma for a while and took a nice day hike in the snowy hills on the edge of Boulder known as the Flatirons (same place we went in the summer). Another bone chillingly cold day, but a beautiful hike.





The rest of December, we laid low around home. Had a quiet Christmas at home with a couple potluck meals - one at Merv and Carolyn's and another at Melody and Dwayne's Eugene home. We were pretty skimpy on the whole Christmas Day celebration for Cam - again, he doesn't know any better. We gave him two simple gifts - the more expensive one he could care less about. Of course.

Our Christmas Card photo:


Would have been a great photo if it wasn't quite so bright.


Loves his books and blocks.




And his bus. A great find from Grandma.


Corrine and the kids have moved to the East side of the mountains so we hardly ever get to see them anymore. They did pay us a nice visit just before Christmas. I know I say this every time, but I can't believe how big her kids are getting!




For New Years we went out to the John and Jenn's place on the coast again. We've done this for the past three years. John was down in Pasadena this year though watching and photographing the Ducks in the Rosebowl, so they did not join us. We were ready for a weekend away, so we we went ahead without them. There were record high tides this particular weekend, as was evident by the roads as we approached Florence along the Siuslaw River.


It was mostly rainy, but we had some nice breaks from it and a few nice outings. Cam as usual, loved the times down at the beach and in the dunes.


The rain and tides left some crazy foam. And a broken ladder.




And since then, we've been carrying on with life. Work for me has been mostly good with only the occasional crisis. I've been able to get off early quite a bit lately which, as always, is good for tucking Cam in at night but bad on the paycheck. Keith and Pat have stayed busy with a couple substantial projects. Busy enough to warrant putting Cam back in daycare twice a week. We had to change daycare centers as our old one is no longer willing to work with flexible schedules. With Melody and Dwayne up here each week watching him on Tues and Wed, we only need two half days a week at daycare for now. We like our new place - the building is more spacious with better play areas for the kids, but man, dropping him off is the pits. Everyone assures me he does fine all day and Keith says he is perfectly happy when he picks him up, and get this - he naps longer there than he does at home! But man he cries when I let go of him and hand him over. It's that frantic, horrible I-can't-breathe cry that just breaks my heart each time. Granted, sometimes he stops crying before I can even get to the door. But still. I want to be the one that picks him up! Do kids ever get used to that and not cry when you leave?

Meanwhile, I've been able to get this blog posted and my house clean and my laundry done and a full night's of uninterrupted sleep because my sweet husband took my sweet boy to the coast with John and Bea for the weekend. I have had two days of quiet. I haven't changed a diaper in 24 hours. And I spent last evening sharing a bottle of wine with Jenn while we cooked, chatted and watched a movie. And I miss my boys and am ready for them to be home. Life's funny, isn't it?

A couple random pics from January. Until next time!


What a sweet face.


Oh the puddles!


Gracie is at her happiest when Camden is eating.


He is very proud of himself when he makes his way up onto the chair. Luckily he hasn't been tempted to climb up on anything else yet, and can get himself safely down.


Reading in his chair. He is such a talker now. He will try to imitate almost any word you say. His latest words are apple, mama (finally!), and boots.


Who couldn't love this face?




And a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure.