Children's Museum

We've been meaning to visit the New Children's Museum for a few months now... finally we made it out there. Both Daddy and I took a Friday off and made a fun day out of it.

It was full of fun things for Sascha to do and explore. She had a great time, and we'll definitely come back again! Her favorite was probably the bouncy, she kept wanting to take us into it with her. She really had a great time doing all sorts of things, arts & crafts, blowing bubbles, climbing up the wall, rain house, painting a big whale and sculpting out of clay. Once we were done withe the museum, we had a nice lunch at a Greek place just around the corner.

Cameron was a perfect little baby, happy to look around and observe while Sascha ran all over the place.

I wish we had more Friday's like this one!

Cameron - 6 Months

Half a year flew by. You're eating solids and doing much better with digesting them. Most of the time you start demanding more as we are feeding you, as in we are not fast enough... hopefully Sascha will learn from you and become a better eater. I am once again making most of the baby food myself. I'll be buying a few things that I don't normally cook or things that are not in season at the moment, otherwise I love buying organic fruits and veggies and steaming them. We have 2 great blenders that do a good job of pureeing the food. One that's for smaller portions and a Vita - Mix for the large portions. So far you have tried sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, bananas, apple, peaches, prunes and different cereals. What's not so great is that you stopped drinking your 5 oz bottle of milk that you usually drank. I haven't figured out what it is yet, do you not like the frozen milk? Do you not like the bottle any more? Our nanny is having a really hard time having you finish your bottle. I've even tried to give it to you and sure enough after 2 oz, you refused it. So I tried nursing right after and sure enough you nursed, so clearly you weren't completely full. I've even tried a faster Level 3 nipple and you don't seem to be ready for it yet, since it makes you choke on the milk. At this point I am not really sure how much you are getting since I am nursing 2-3 times a day and you usually get 2 bottle feedings while I am at work. I am hoping that you get at least 20-24 oz a day, but I am really not sure if that's the case.

You hold conversations... in baby talk of course, but none the less they seem to be full sentences of whatever it is your talking about. Your squeals have gotten louder too, seems like you are really starting to discover your voice. You've learned how to make funny noises with your lips which also makes you spit, almost like a horse sound... pretty entertaining since you will repeatedly do especially after we start mimicking it. A day after you turned 6 month we heard your first "DADA" sounds, I am working very hard on the "MAMA" sounds since feeling a little left out. Just Kidding!

I think you're pretty close to almost be sitting on your own. You are definitely getting stronger and stronger. You roll but not too often, usually on softer surfaces like the couch (yes... I do supervise) and inside the crib. We still swaddle you for naps and night time. It worked for Sascha and it seems to work for you as well. However lately I see your arms creep out of the swaddle. Not sure if that wakes you up or not... but I think pretty soon we may have to stop swaddling you.

You have mastered the happy baby yoga pose where you hold your feet with your hands laying on your back and roll back and forth. Very often the feet end up in your mouth. Actually everything you grab or I give to you ends up in your mouth, which of course means you are drooling a ton.

Generally you are a super happy and smiley baby, but there have been a few incidents where you get spooked by someone and start crying. Sometimes they are really upset cries and other time your lower lip starts to quiver and you get this sad look on your face.

Your visit to the doctor was pretty uneventful. I complained about your itchy cradle cap (mentioning how you clawed your head a few weeks ago), but since I was already doing something about it, there wasn't much else to say, and about some eczema under your chin and around the neck as well as behind your knees which I also keep under control with a cream once I see that it's getting really red. You were super smiley and happy the whole time we were there. Of course that changed as soon as the evil nurse came back and gave you shots. You cried after the second shot, but composed yourself quickly after I picked you up and comforted you.

Your stats:
Weight: 15 lbs. 12 oz (16%)
Height: 27 inches (67%)
Head circ: 16.75 inches (16%)

Looks like your weight percentile dropped down, but the pediatrician didn't seem too concerned. I of course was wishing it didn't. :) Your height is keeping steady.

Your wake up times have been anywhere between 5 am to 7am. I think the 7am happened once or twice and I was soo thankful. Your bedtime has been earlier and earlier lately, it's been hard to keep you up past 9pm, so that's pretty much your norm now. I nurse you and also give you a bottle and put you to bed shortly after Sascha is down for the night. Sometimes you guys will get a shared story time which is just so cute! Sascha holds you in her lap and Daddy reads a story. It's so sweet.

A few times you have ended up in our bed when you wake up early morning. Also when I get ready for work and you're up, I put you on the bed next to daddy and you play there for a little bit. You're usually in such a good mood in the morning, I love it... sometimes I just hold you for a few extra minutes after you eat. I treasure our morning snuggles on the rocking chair. How quickly this baby phase passes, I know I will surely miss it once you'll be on the go in another few months.

On your actual 6 month birthday I was determined to get some pictures of you. So when I got home from work, I quickly set a few things up and started shooting. Sascha was on her way to swim class, so I only got a few shots of you together before daddy took her, but that just meant I had more uninterrupted time of the two of us together to try different things. I did get some really cute pictures of you before you got tired and fussy. I only wish I had more time to play around with this awesome camera and really learn how to use it!

A little blurry but the only decent picture I captured of the two kiddos

I finally figured out how to make collages. Much better than posting a ton of full sized pictures.

Sascha - almost 3 and 1/2

Lately you have been asking me ahead of time who are we going to see today? And what are we going to do? You seem to really enjoy being out and about and rarely want to go home. Very often when I pick you up from preschool and we get in the car, you will ask the same 2 questions. And if I say we are going home, you start whining in disappointment. One weekend morning I told you we would see your buddy Sebastian. Later when we came back upstairs to get dressed and you and I were picking out your outfit. You rejected a few that I pulled out and then went ahead and picked a pretty pink dress and said: "I wanna wear this one... for Sebastian... to look at"

I was speechless. Does this boy stuff really start this early? Most of your friends that you play with in preschool are girls, even though the class is 70% boys. But most of our friends have boys your age, and not girls so very often you are the only girl in the mix.

The other funny thing I heard you do is you talk before you go to bed. I stood by the door listening and there was no surprise... you were pretending to talk to Mr. Josh - your swim instructor. You talked about where the pool is, and an octopus toy and then you started describing your day and how your saw your friend Sebastian. I walked into your room and asked you to close your eyes and go to sleep, but you answered with "But I am talking to Mr. Josh". haha Very often you wake up and point to an empty corner and tell us that there is a princess there and you pretend to carry her on the palm of your hand. You have quite an imagination. :)

Your friends at preschool are Vivian, Sadie and Sammy. You finally started to tell us about your day once we pick you up. You started to say "so and so is not my friend" and I ask why? and I don't usually get an answer that makes sense. You make up some random thing...

A few times you have told us that we are not your friends... usually it's after we didn't let you do something and this is your way to be mad at us. You also say "I don't like that" if we give you a hurry up push, pick you up when you are not cooperating or raise our voices.

On Mothers day Daddy got me a pretty bracelet and you gave me a bag that held pretty charms to put on the bracelet with the letter "S" and "C". Sascha knows her letter very well and she wanted to keep the charm too. Now she looks at my bracelet and says that's mine and I keep having to explain to her that it's her letter "S" and I get to wear it on the bracelet and it reminds me of her every time I look at it. It was a very sweet and thoughtful present from Daddy!

You still love giving your baby brother hugs and kisses. Another thing you love doing is getting into his stuff. I am sure it's just a phase (which may last a long time), but all of the sudden you decide to sit in his bumbo chair (funny enough that you actually still fit into it) or climb into his car seat carrier. The other day I found you sitting in his activity go around thing... I had to pick you up out of it which was pretty funny. Or sometimes you'll go and lay on his little floor mat and even put your head where I sometimes lay him into a cushy head pillow. Also when he cries, you often start crying or whining too probably for the same kind of attention. Another thing we noticed is when you talk to Cameron, your voice changes and it becomes super high which is pretty cute.

This picture is from a very fun Friday morning at the Quail Botanical Gardens. I tried to take a lot of pictures there with our camera because it's such a pretty place to walk around. It also has a fun tree house, a water stream and a railroad track which we enjoyed.

I really liked this one where you're standing on the bench looking at a waterfall coming down. Looks like you are concentrating pretty hard.

Did I mention that I love taking Fridays off!?

The next one is of you and your 2 friends Kingston and Troy.

And the last one is you standing on a rock taking a brake from playing in the water stream.

Egg Hunts Galore

I have lost count of the number of easter egg hunts we've done this past week. You had one at the Del Sur community, another in Preschool, then we were invited to 2 other ones that we couldn't make, and of course we had one for you at home. Cameron is way to small to realize what's going on, but next year I think he will be all over it.

Since both of the kids were not 100% healthy, we decided we didn't want to go anywhere and had the cousins Angelina & Carolyn over for an egg hunt at our house. Of course both my family and J's dad's family came over as well, and we had a nice brunch feast at the house with Baba, Deda, Inna, Gregory and Aaron too. The girls played in the back yard until we told them to go inside so that we could hide the eggs. Cameron hung out with my mom, while Jeromey, Aaron and I walked around the back yard hiding all the eggs. You were super excited to run out there and start looking. The look on your face was priceless when you would see and egg and go after it. Once all done, all the girls sat down and counted their eggs and looked inside for the treats.

It was a wonderful morning! You loved your easter basket too! I got some fun goodies in it for you.

A trying week

The kids have been a bit under the weather again. This time around Cameron's cold is much worse and he coughs for a while and can't seem to clear it up. He is still a happy baby during the day, however we had 2 nights which have been pretty difficult.

From about 8:30 to 11:30, we couldn't put you down. You were so exhausted and up since 4:30pm. I tried to feed you around 8:30 and then off to bed, but you weren't having it. I had to pick you up and rock you, after about 10 minutes I would try to put you down in the crib and you start crying again. I didn't know if it was the breathing that bothered you or it could also be your tummy. Once we started solids, you haven't been pooping regularly like you used to. I even stopped doing the rice cereal and went to oatmeal and made prune puree, which seemed to help, but then you stopped for a couple of days again. So may be it was your tummy that hurt. We really couldn't tell, but the only time you would stop crying was when we held you. So we ended up taking you into the our bed, but every 45 minutes you would wake up and start crying again. I ended up nursing you, and once you ate you were happy as a clam. It was such a difference, almost like out baby got switched with another one at 8:30 pm and then returned back to us at 11:30.

The next night was similar, except for we were out for a friends birthday in the evening and I found my mom holding you in your room at 11:30pm. You were perfectly happy sleeping in her arms and as soon as I took you and tried to re swaddle you since you came out of it, you were mad. It took over an hour to get you back to sleep and once again I ended up nursing you, which I normally do not do this late anymore. Hopefully you'll be feeling better soon, especially since daddy is going to Florida this week to visit his grandparents, aunt/uncle and cousins.

Sascha has a similar cold too and on top of that has been a total hand full the last week or so. We've had so many frustrated nights. One in particular where she ended up in the shower and then sent to bed before 8pm bedtime. Not sure what happened this week, but she has gotten particularly stubborn and just don't want to listen and do anything that we ask of her, sometimes flailing to the floor. Getting you to do anything has been a challenge, putting on clothes, bedtime, and of course our usual mealtime where you refuse to eat just about everything unless it's your 5 favorite items (mac n' cheese, cheese quesadilla, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese & spaghetti). Good luck to anyone trying to feed you anything else. I really hope this behavior is temporary! You are still our cute little munchkin, I just wish you didn't test us the way you have been lately.

I know it's just a stage, and before I know it, we'll be moving on to something else, another challenge. Oh the joys of parenting! I sometimes think kids teach us, more than we teach them... for example I am finding patience that I never knew I had... :)

Cameron's first solid food - 5 months

Well I decided Cameron was ready to try some rice cereal. It also happened to be that you turned 5 months on that day. Sascha's first rice cereal experience was a bit earlier but I don't think she took to it right away. You on the other hand were totally excited about it. You opened your mouth and swallowed it all up, hardly spitting any of it out. I guess you really were ready. Aaah... another stage is upon us, solid feeding! I know I say this a lot, but I can't believe how fast you're growing.

At 5 months you are now starting to grab your feet, and you pick up toys and put them in your mouth. You drool a lot, especially while sitting down.

You are still such an good baby. You hardly fuss, unless you're tired or hungry or bored. Nights have been pretty steady at this point. You usually eat your last meal sometime around 9pm and by 10pm you are asleep. Most of the time you don't wake up till about 5:30 or 6am, but there has been a few times where you woke up at 4am and refused the pacifier so I had to feed you. I think it was because you didn't get enough to eat during the day. So you've been sleeping about 8-9 hours during the night. According to babywise you should be sleeping 10-11, and I think Sascha was doing that by this time, but I will take 8 or 9 and be happy about it. Of course it would help if I went to sleep when you go down, but that's my only time to clean up, do laundry, unwind, post to the blog, upload pictures and etc. Somehow before I know it it's midnight and I am up at 5:30! Oh well, there is never enough time to do everything.

I love this stage, where you are still stationary and you just love to cuddle. I just want to hold you all evening long. You are such a little sweetie. Even Sascha comes over and calls you "my sweetie boy!". The other day she came over dragging my boppy pillow on the floor, sat down next to the swing and started feeding her baby with a toy bottle of milk on top of the pillow... just like when I feed you. I had to snap a little picture, it was just the cutest little thing and she did it completely on her own.

You love to talk and giggle too. One night daddy would scare you with a "boo" sound and you would just be cracking up. Sascha joined in with her boos as well and you laughed and laughed. You love people, you smile at Baba, Deda, Inna, Grandpa... just about everyone who comes in contact with you.