For posterity

At one year, Cameron...

• has this "ha ha ha" laugh, which is totally adorable and he will mimic you if you do it.
• is walking around when holding adult fingers, or on his own when holding onto objects like chairs or the coffee table.
• is very proficient at pulling up to stand, squatting down, and standing back up again.
• is wearing 12m clothes, but not for very much longer. Gotta go wash those 18m ones!
• is wearing size 4 diapers, size 5 at night, but still in cloth most days.
• has 6 teeth (2 bottom, 4 top).
• is in between 1 and 2 naps per day; we've been going back and forth.
• is not saying any real words...will make a hard C (or K) sound when he sees the cats, and for other objects whose names have that sound (like duck, clock, book, etc.) but otherwise it's really just pointing with a very emphatic "mmmm!" for whatever he wants.
• understands a lot, though, and will correctly point things out when we say "Where's the butterfly? monkey? ball?" etc.
• just learned how to properly use a straw, instead of just chewing on the end. Straw sippy cups, here we come!

Growing up

Happy Birthday!

I can't believe my little man is one already. This year has flown by so fast!

His party was a success, if I do say so myself. Above you see the "smash cake" that I made for him: a dairy-free banana cake with dairy-free frosting. He didn't eat more than a bite of the cake, but got a few mouthfuls of the frosting. It was pretty amusing to watch, actually. He didn't really want to get his hands messy, so he just dove in, face first. Hey, whatever works! I didn't even have to change his shirt afterward.

The kiddos in attendance had fun playing with balloons, toys, and many of the garden decorations in the backyard (sorry Karen!). Then, after cupcakes and presents, it was time to call it a day.

Cameron says, "I had a good time, but I'm pooped!"

Winding down

I had this inexplicable feeling that when I nursed Cameron on Friday morning that it was my last nursing session. I made sure to soak in the details.

Saturday morning, for various reasons, I ended up pumping and giving him some formula. But then today, when I tried to nurse him, he said "no thank you" in his own little way. I moved to a different room, and again he said "no thank you". So I went and got some formula, and he gobbled it down.

So I guess that's it. I really wanted to make it to his first birthday, and that is only 6 days away at this point. I'm pretty happy with where we are, given the circumstances. I told myself that I would continue pumping as long as he was still interested in nursing. And since the number of pumping sessions has been tapering off over the past few months (last week was the first time I did not tote my pump to work with me), this seems to be the nod of approval I needed to really let things wind down.

It's a happy/sad day for me. I was going to stop using the label "baby" on my blog posts about him after his first birthday, but, this may be the last one!

First step

Cameron is getting quite good at squatting down and standing back up again (while holding onto something). Either just because, or to pick up a toy on the ground. He is also much more coordinated when it comes to sitting down from standing. He no longer lands on his butt with a big thud that leaves me wondering if the momentum will carry him all the way backward and have his head hit the ground.

Well, today he attempted to take his first unassisted step. It was a spectacular disaster, but at least he tried! He has this habit of reaching out for your hand when he wants assistance. He was holding onto the edge of the coffee table, and he wanted his little piano toy on the ground. He let go of the table with one hand and reached out for my mom's hand, but then he retracted it. We both thought he was going to put that hand back on the edge of the table, but no, he just left it hanging in mid-air and took a step toward that piano.

He ended up falling down, on his face (which hit the little piano). :( Fortunately though, the crying didn't last too long, and he doesn't seem to be scarred from the episode.

Movin' on up

We're fast approaching Cameron's first birthday, and we figured it was about time to say goodbye to the infant carseat. The Graco Snugride 32 was supposed to be good to either 32 inches or 32 pounds (whichever came first), and while Cameron is neither of those yet (the latest stats are 28.5 inches and 25 pounds), he was looking a little cramped in there.

Quite the difference from when he was 3 weeks old, huh? (This was on Halloween, in case you're wondering about the outfit.)

In any case, we finally made the switch to convertible car seats. I thought they were big when they arrived; I thought Cameron would look much smaller in the seat than he actually does. I'm sure it won't be too much longer until we turn him to face forward.

When does it end?

And now he has roseola. FABulous!

Cam wasn't feeling like himself toward the end of last week; his teeth were bugging him and he had had a fever since Wednesday. By Friday, each time the medicine wore off the fever was up past 103 degrees, so we took him to the doctor on Saturday morning just to be sure it wasn't an ear infection or something we couldn't see. They couldn't find anything, so they chalked it up to a virus. The fever had broken by that point, so he was acting pretty normal.

But today was a cranky day;  he napped for more than 4 hours (which was great, but pretty unusual). He didn't have his usual appetite. And tonight, just as Cam was getting dressed in his PJs, Chris saw the telltale rash on his chest. Uuuuugggghhhhhhh. He's through the worst of it, apparently, but still ugh.

This has to be the end of it for awhile right? I'm sure ready for a little break!

Allergies

Chris and I took Cameron to the allergist this morning. We sat and chatted about why were there, the foods Cameron has already tried, and his home environment. He was then tested for wheat, egg, peanut, cat, milk, soy, and dust mites.

He tested positive for milk, but we pretty much expected that due to his reactions to the yogurt and formula. The doctor said that most kids will outgrow it by the time they are 5 or 6 (!!!), and that we can have him tested again when he's around 3 years old. It's too bad, but I'm still hopeful that he will outgrow it eventually. In the meantime, we still have to be vigilant about all milk, cheese, butter, etc., and we'll have to read labels or ask at restaurants once he starts eating more table foods. We also got a prescription for an epi pen, as a "just in case". Yikes. It's hard for me to imagine stabbing my baby in the thigh with a needle.

The other thing he tested positive for was cats. :( He has a cat allergy! This makes me very sad. The doctor said that kids who show signs of cat allergies and are exposed to cats at a young age can actually develop more severe cat allergies later in life. He really doesn't show any signs of being allergic (trouble breathing, etc.), but I don't want to be dooming him to a miserable, cat-allergy-ridden adult life. :( We are going to be more vigilant about laying down towels where the cats sit most, and washing those towels more frequently. Not that the cats hang out in Cameron's room, but we'll keep them out of there as well. We'll just be paying attention for any signs of respiratory distress that are not linked to illness. Hopefully he just continues to tolerate them as he has been; I don't really want to think about having to find a new home for them!

11 months!

Tonight I brought a meal to a new mom in my mother's group; she and her husband have 2-week old twins. They were so tiny and helpless, and my boy is now so big in comparison! It seems like eons ago that he was that small, and yet I can't believe there is only one month left until his first birthday.

He is actively teething again; one of the top teeth has broken through, another is right there on the surface, and two others are not far behind. This makes him pretty grouchy sometimes. But otherwise, he's a happy little guy who really enjoys playing with mylar balloons and walking around while holding onto our hands.

I often look at him in the morning before I leave for work and just reflect on the wonderful little man that he is. He brings me such happiness...I am so smitten. <3 Happy 11 months!

Six ounces

Six ounces is all that I have left of my freezer stash. It is enough for just one bottle: a fraction of what he eats in a day. And it will be gone tomorrow.

I have mixed emotions. Part of me feels fine about it, because I knew it would not last forever. But even though he does fine with the formula, part of me is still sad that I will no longer be able to give him 100% breastmilk on any given day if I so choose. (A small part, though. I'm more fine than sad.)

We have an appointment with the allergist next week, and hopefully we will shed some light on the hives that popped up from the yogurt and the regular formula. I'm still hoping that it's a reaction that he'll outgrow!

Yoga baby

I was laying on the living room floor with Cameron chatting it up before bedtime tonight.

I instantly recognized the "happy baby" yoga pose he struck when he reached down to grab his feet and pull them up toward his chest, rocking side to side. And as he stretches forward from a sitting position, his "pigeon" puts mine to shame.

Clearly, this boy is very advanced and needs no classes to tell him how to do yoga. ;)

Recent growth

Cameron is so much more mobile these days. If he's sitting on his butt, he can pick up his heels and rotate himself around in a circle. He's rocking forward from sitting to grab at whatever he's interested in. He's pulling up to stand on his superyard gate. He's rolling around on the floor. He's scooting backward when on his belly. And he's extremely interested in pulling up to stand on your hands and then walking around EVERYwhere.

A few days ago I found him sitting up in his crib in the morning when I went to feed him. I've never seen him go from laying down to sitting up by himself, but now I know he can do it, somehow!

Here's a picture showing one of the ways he enjoys spending time lately: pulling empty CD jewel cases off the shelves and making a big mess. It's lots of fun!

With the increased mobility, I've started to notice that he's beginning to lose his cankles. He still has arm rolls, though they are not quite as pronounced. But for now, he still has those cheeks. :)

There are other signs that he's growing up, too. He's showing less interest in bottles lately, and more interest in solid foods. He's very good at picking up foods and feeding himself now. He is especially into blueberries; he practically shovels them into his mouth. You can tell that he likes something by the sounds he makes while chewing. It's pretty cute. ;)

Rough week: update

So, the cough got worse before it got better. I took him to see the pedi a week ago Friday so she could listen to him breathe. What she heard was the cough coupled with the tiniest bit of wheezing, so she wanted to try using a nebulizer and some albuterol to get his bronchial tubes to dilate a bit and make breathing easier.

That seemed to work for the wheeze, so she sent us home with a nebulizer rental and instructions to do it 3 times per day for 10 minutes per treatment. We would put Cameron in his high chair and sit in front of him holding the breathing tube (since he can't hold it in his mouth, we held it near his mouth so he would inhale the medication as it left the end of the tube). He was a pretty good sport about it, really. We'd give him some toys to play with and he didn't complain at all. And I'm happy to report that after a week, the cough is finally on its way out. :)

We're still doing the antibiotics for the tick bite: only 1 more day to go. He's been really good about taking that medicine too; he's such a trooper!!

Rough week

Can we have a do-over? I think we need it.

On Sunday, Cameron woke up from his afternoon nap blazing hot. This boy had a fever and was a cranky mess! We took his temperature and at its highest, it was 102 degrees. After a call to the advice nurse, we headed to the after-hours clinic. The pedi that saw him said that his throat was red, so it was probably just an illness that he had picked up somewhere. Fortunately he showed no signs of an ear infection, which we were a bit concerned about. Cameron has been pulling at his ears more frequently lately, but it's most likely due to the teething (those top teeth are *so* close to breaking through!).

So, we gave him some Motrin and by that evening his fever was better. Whew! Then, on Monday, we discovered that what we thought was a small scab on his scalp was actually a tick! Eeeew! My baby had a tick in his head! Chris pulled it out, and we put in another call to the advice nurse. We then had to make the decision to put Cam on antibiotics to squelch out the remote possibility of Lyme disease, or do nothing. After debating it and talking to some of Chris's coworkers, we decided to go with the antibiotics. We can't be sure they are necessary, but the benefits outweigh the risks. But medicine twice per day for 2 weeks is no walk in the park.

And now, just today, Cam has started to develop a cough. His breathing is raspy at times, kinda like when you have a frog in your throat, but it doesn't go away when he does actually cough. Which he is doing with increasing frequency. Poor little guy. :(

Think healthy thoughts for him, would you?

10 months!

Cameron is becoming quite the young man! I can't believe he's 10 months already. (Nor that it's August and he has to wear long sleeves and pants, but that's another story.)

The top two teeth have *almost* broken through, and he's been feeling pretty icky for the past few days. Poor guy. He can be seen gnawing on his hand a lot.

And then quite often he gags himself. :::shudder:::

But despite the teething, he is very happy most of the time and continues to charm strangers when we're out and about. I know he charms me on a daily basis. :) Love you, Mr. Man!

Haircut, take 2

Cameron's hair was getting long again, so we decided to take him to the Panda Room for a trim. I don't think he was very happy about about it this time, though!

He tolerated the scissors, but started crying and yelling when the electric clippers came out. :( I don't know how those people cut hair when the clients are so upset and wiggly! Despite all the drama, though, the cut turned out pretty well, and he looks pretty cute.