Norvis?

We celebrated Grandma's birthday tonight with ice cream and cake at home. Everyone except Cameron sang "happy birthday" to her. He declared that he didn't want to sing because "I'm a little bit norvis, mama. I'm a little bit norvis...but not too much."

We had been practicing singing the song, and he's actually quite good at it, but I guess he got stage fright. He probably told us 10 times that he was "norvis" and that's why he didn't sing.

What a character, I don't know where he picks this stuff up!

And it's also noteworthy that this was Cameron's first time having REAL ice cream and cake. "Mmm, yummy!" he said more than once. This moment has been long overdue; I'm really glad that we can share simple stuff like this without worry. Makes me happy.

The lasts

An article has been circulating on Facebook by a mommy blogger and the topic is not forgetting to live in the moment. Often parents get so focused on the next baby milestone that we look forward and forget to look around at what is going on now. This leads to overlooking what may well be the baby's lasts: last nap taken on mom's or dad's chest, last night spent in a swaddle, last night with a pacifier, last anything.

So, it made me think of all the sweet little things that happened in the past few months or are happening now that I don't want to forget.

• Back when I was still on maternity leave, my mom would still spend a few mornings a week with Cameron. When she would bring him home for nap time, he would always run in the door and ask me "Norah's awake?" (Because he knows that when she's sleeping he's supposed to use quiet footsteps in the house.)
• Cameron is very loving with Norah 98% of the time. He says stuff like "Hi Norah!", "Good morning my sweet girl," "That's my baby sister Norah, I love her," and "Awww, she's so cute!" The other 2% of the time he's telling her something like "No Norah, that's my truck! Don't touch it!" But then he'll also say something like "I'll go get you a soft toy." So maybe it's like 99%/1%. :)
• Norah is still eating once per night, usually between 2-3 a.m. In the past month or so, after feeding her at that hour, I would lay her down to re-swaddle her and she would just make the most content little sighs and babbling sounds. So sweet!
• I adore the few moments I share with Norah before putting her down to sleep, whether it's at night or for a nap. When truly tired, she is so content to lay her head down on my shoulder and let me rock her for a few minutes. I get to kiss her forehead and nuzzle her nose as she lays there looking at me. 
• Cameron likes to play with words and sounds lately. One of his favorites is to change the endings of our names and quite frequently he will say mommy, daddy, Cammy, Norry. 
• Cameron also has become quite the singer lately. ABCs, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Thomas songs, and lots more. He'll request songs for us to sing and then sing along. He even dances while singing sometimes, or just while listening to music. He bobs his head and taps his feet to the beat. So adorable. Even if the song is Ozzy's "Crazy Train" played in Dada's car, it's still adorable.

I'm sure there are a lot more that I'm not accounting for at the moment, but I'm going to try to be better about documenting them (really!).

7 months

Norah is talking a lot these days; she enjoys cooing, babbling, and chatting us up. And I, for one, love to listen. (She says a lot more "da"s than "ma"s, but I don't hold it against her.)

We are also officially done with the swaddle now that she is able to roll over while still in it. We ditched the swaddle in favor of sleepsacks much earlier for Cameron, around 4 months I believe, but with Norah we have been trying to transition for months now. She will just drift off so much more peacefully when all wrapped up tight! Often I would try to put her down for the night in a sleepsack only to give up on it just to get her to fall asleep already. But now there's no going back. Hopefully it'll just be a few rough(er) nights and she'll be over the transition.

Milk, yogurt, and cheese, oh my!

Cameron passed his milk challenge at the allergist's office today. PASSED! I'm so thrilled that we can stop reading labels like hawks and he can now try all sorts of new foods. THRILLED!

I brought some 2% milk and some chocolate milk as a backup. I worried that he wouldn't want to drink the milk simply because we wanted him to, and what do you know, that's what happened. The nurse tried all sorts of things: a little plastic cup, a dixie cup, a syringe...no go. But he was very polite about it. "Oh, no thank you," he said over and over.

So the doctor finally relented and said he could drink the chocolate milk. It took a little more coaxing, but he finally took a swig. Which led to him smiling a big smile and asking "Can I have the whole thing?"

It was so cute to see him with his first milk mustache. :)

Switching schools

Next week will be Cameron's trial period at a new preschool. A few months ago, he had been wait-listed everywhere that I applied. Then, 3 weeks after he started at the school we found, I was contacted and told there was an opening at what was my top-choice school back when I was touring and applying.

I struggled with the decision to have him switch schools after only 2 months (since we had to give 30 days notice to the current school), but ultimately decided that my gut still said "yes" about the place with the opening. And Cameron has proven himself to be so adaptable, that I thought he would likely roll with it just like he has for all other other major changes in his life lately (new house, new sister, new bed, no pacifier, new school...man we've really thrown a lot at him!).

Plus, since he was placed with the older class at the old school (so he would only have to get used to one set of teachers), he would be getting a new set of peers anyway in September as the younger kids moved up to the room he was in. So...new school + new peers, or just new peers. I feel pretty good about the decision we made; hopefully he likes it at the new school too!