The sibling issues have begun. Now that Cameron is fully mobile (and FAST!) he can get into Lily’s things. She’s none too pleased about this development. The trickiest part is that Lily is only interested in playing with the ‘baby’ toys after Cam has started playing with them. Funny how that works! On the flip side, he is only interested in Lily’s toys… especially those with small pieces. She is constantly telling him “No, no, no, Cam. You can’t play with that” in a kind of sing-song voice! It’s pretty cute, really.
Cameron’s mobility is also forcing our hand with keeping dangerous items out of his reach. Not that we leave knives, fire and shards of glass laying around the house but he seems to have a knack for finding exactly the thing he’s not supposed to be playing with! In the past few days we have had to move him away from the hair dryer, plastic bags, the dogs, the View Master case and more pairs of shoes than I can even remember! He seems to have a thing for shoes and he REALLY loves Crocs. Kelly has suggested that we buy him a pair of Crocs as a chew toy! We may have to consider that before too much longer!
Published on
4/28/2008.
Tags: camper.
Jason had to put his handyman skills to the test this weekend and tackle some pretty involved camper repairs. We have a pop-up camper that we store at his grandparent’s house over the winter. We used to use the camper several times each year but lately we’ve only used it once or twice each summer. In about a month we are taking a two week vacation in the camper (we MUST be crazy) so on Saturday we went to open it up and get it ready for our trip. He discovered that the storage trunk had a crack in it which allowed water to leak in and rot the floor. Not only did part of the floor in the storage trunk rot but it spread into the camper as well. FANTASTIC! So, what should have been about a three hour job of de-winterizing the camper turned into a project that consumed the entire weekend. Poor guy was making multiple trips to Lowe’s to buy new saws, new wood, new vinyl flooring… But, his hard work paid off and the camper is ready for our trip! We still need to buy a new toilet for it since we decided to take out the old one to create more floor space. I think we’re going to spring for the fancy Thetford Porta Potti 465 Electric….ooooohhhhh!
Published on
4/24/2008.
Tags: summer.
We aren’t the most social people in that we don’t usually have exciting events booked up for months in advance and we don’t regularly have people over (although this is something I want to do more of!). Most of our weekends are spent running errands around town and playing with the kids at home. However, I’m amazed at how quickly our weekends fill up in the summer months. I just glanced through my calendar and from now until August we have a grand total of two weekends with nothing planned for either day. CRAZY! Some of the events are only afternoon affairs like birthday parties but we’re taking a long vacation this summer and also have a couple of weddings on back to back weekends. So, if you want to get in the action let me know and I’ll pencil you in for the end of June!
I tend to grab on to an idea and really obsess over it for awhile. Eventually the obsession fades and I can resume normal activities. My current obsession/paranoia is about my childrens’ safety outside or in public. Most specifically Lily. Cameron is still small enough that he is either confined to the stroller or lashed to my chest in a sling. Not much chance of losing him. Lily, on the other hand, is becoming more and more independent by the day it seems. She often wants to walk on her own rather than hold our hands or ride in the stroller. We usually let her walk on her own and she does a good job of staying with us and listening. Lately though I’ve been paranoid that she won’t listen when we tell her to stop running or stay on the sidewalk. I’m terrified that she’ll dart into the road when we’re out walking because she got scared by a bug or saw something interesting on the other side of the street. I’m also worried that we’ll take our eyes off of her for one second and she’ll wander off or be snatched up by someone. I’m telling you…I’m a worst case scenario type of person. While I think this can help me to prepare for and consider a number of possibilities it most often just makes me worry endlessly about things!
We’ll be visiting a number of amusement parks this summer and I want Lily to have fun and walk around and experience the parks on her own terms but I also want to keep her safe. And, I want to have fun too and not constantly worry about her! She’ll be LoJacked with an ID bracelet bearing our cell phone number and we plan to talk with her about staying with us and what to do if she gets lost but I don’t want to scare her into being afraid to be in a crowd or in new situations. Also, while I’m sure that she’s The Most Brilliant Child EVER, she’s not even 3 years old. How much can we really expect her to listen or understand? Obviously we expect her to listen to us but listening when we ask her to put her shoes on and listening when we’re talking about personal safety are two VERY different situations! We may institute a ‘hands on the stroller’ policy if she wants to walk when we’re in potentially dangerous situations.
How do you handle or plan to handle these types of situations?
…and what have you done with Cam?
So, I realize that I’ll totally be eating my words when I’m up with him for three straight hours in the middle of the night tonight but… YAHOO! I think Cameron might be getting the hang of this sleeping thing!
He actually fell asleep in the stroller yesterday evening during our post-dinner walk. He continued sleeping in the stroller even after we got home and parked it in the living room. He slept for 45 minutes that way! This is the same child who just six weeks ago had to be pretty much wrestled to sleep with a symphony of white noise machines, hair dryers and bouncing/rocking/swinging/swaddling.
I nursed him when he woke up around 8:00 and then just held him for awhile before putting him in his crib at 9:30. He didn’t make a peep all night until 5:30 this morning! Then, GET THIS, I nursed him and put him BACK in his bed at 6:15 and he slept until I had to WAKE HIM UP to leave at 7:30! My first thought was that maybe he didn’t feel well but he seems to be acting just fine so I’m sticking with the awesomeness that is a well rested baby!
I’m downright giddy with all of this rest I’ve been getting lately! In the last week I think he has pretty much slept through the night at least three or four times! Couple this decent sleep with the fact that I’m finishing up my Master’s degree in less than 2 weeks and I’m not going to know what to do with all of my free time…ya know, since I won’t be nodding off all the time!
Here is our new stroller! It’s a Tike Tech Trax360 double stroller. I love it! It’s so easy to push and turn and the kids both seem to really like it. It will be perfect for visiting amusement parks this summer!
In related news… We went for a walk on the trail yesterday afternoon. Cam hadn’t had a decent poop for a couple of days so we knew it was coming. In keeping with our luck lately (see dog puke post) he managed to fill his diaper on the way to the trail. I got him out of the car seat and sure enough he had pooped out of his diaper and on to his jeans and onesie. Being the experienced slacker parents that we are we didn’t have any extra clothes with us. So, we got him cleaned up and put his fleece on him and let him go sans pants for our walk. He didn’t seem to mind. We did cover his lap with a blanket but he kept putting his feet on the grab bar in front of him and giving oncoming walkers, joggers and bikers a nice shot of his diapered bum! That’s my boy!
