Hand-Made Gifts

The other day our neighbor Irina came by to give Cameron a gift. She knitted her this beautiful blanket. She made one when Carter was born that I have always used in the babies cribs, but it's green and she said Cammie needed a pink one. It is so beautiful and soft and it got me thinking about all of the hand-made gifts that Cammie has gotten.

My sister Allie made her this awesome blanket, burp clothes, cute bibs, and this little sign that we have on a shelf in Cammie's room. I have to brag on my little sister a bit. She got a sewing machine for Christmas last year and made all of this stuff in her first round of sewing ever. She also made a bunch of hair bows and flower hair clips.


Grammie Chrissie, (my step mom) made all of these blankets and burp clothes. Theses are big fleece and flannel blankets that are great for laying on the floor or out on the grass. We use them all the time.

Grammie really spoils us and all of her grand kids with hand made gifts. She currently has 15 grand kids and she is always making stuff for them. She has also made us wash clothes, these hooded towels and all of the boys pillow cases. (Carter and Kyle won't let me put a store bought pillow case on their beds, it has to be a "Grammie" pillow case.)

She knitted Cameron this cute little beanie that she wore all winter. Auntie Carroll made the flower hair clip that I clipped on the side.

Auntie Carroll, (my step-sister in-law) made Cameron this ingenious car seat cover. It has come in handy in not only keeping the baby covered from cold, sunshine, and rain drops, but also keeping her covered and hidden from people who want to touch her and stick their faces in her car seat when we are in a public place like the doctors office. (I have had so many more people try to touch my newborn baby girl than I ever had with the boys.) It's also pretty darn cute!

Carroll also made Cammie a personalized bow holder and a bunch of headbands and hair bows. You can see from pretty much any picture I post of Cam that I love hair bows!

My Grandma Wardle makes receiving blankets for all of her grand kids and great grand kids. They are awesome. She crochets the edges of these soft flannel blankets. They are perfect and something else we use ALL the time. The boys still carry around the ones she made for them.

A friend of my Mom's made this quilt. It matches Cammie's room. I think it's so pretty.

We love and appreciate all of the gifts and hand-me-downs that we've gotten for Cammie. I just wanted to do a little something to showcase the hand-made stuff because it amazes me. I can't do more that sew a button on and even that's not great, so to see all of the things that other people have made makes me sit back and say Wow! Thank you to everyone!

Carter and Cammie

Carter and Cameron are total buddies. It is so much fun to watch them interact. Cammie just adores Carter! She lights up when he gets close to her and starts looking around for him when she hears his voice. If she's sitting in her little chair or laying on the floor you can usually find Carter curled up next to her. They talk to each other all the time.

If someone is holding her and gets too close to the front door Carter starts getting very uncomfortable and usually asks them to "give the baby back to my Mommy now." He yelled at his uncle Chris one night when he jokingly mentioned that he'd like to take her home. Carter was less than thrilled about that and watched uncle Chris like a hawk until Cammie was "safe" in Mommy's arms again. I don't think we'll have to worry about anyone bullying our little girl as long as her big brother Carter is around.

Cameron 3 Months

Cameron is 3 months old. She is doing so well. When she went to the doctor a few weeks ago she was just shy of 8lbs and gaining weight quickly, (about 20% faster than most babies her age,)finally! After that I was able to ween her off of the breast milk/formula mixture. Now we guess she's about 9lbs. She goes back to the doctor for her next round of shots next month.

She is doing all the things a baby her age should. She smiles all the time and talks and giggles. She has started to grab for things a little bit too. She sleeps through the night almost every night now, from about 9pm - 6:30am. It's great!

She has excellent head control. She likes to sit in the "Bumbo" seat and watch the boys play or look at the t.v. Most of the time I carry her around with her facing outward. I sit her little tush on my hip and support her torso with my hand on her belly. She looks around and talks to the boys and watches everything everyone is doing.

She has lots of nicknames; Cammie, Cam Cam, Camster, Cammie Lou, Little Miss, Little Peanut, and Baby Sissy. Believe it or not those are all commonly heard in our house. We talk to her and about her all the time so their are lots of opportunities to use different nicknames. :-)

She is so so so sweet. We just can't get enough of her!

Carters Broken Arm

Well unfortunately Carter broke his arm last night. He was playing with his brother, (when they should have been going to sleep) and fell off the top bunk. It was about 8:30 and they had only been in bed for about 5 minutes. We heard him start to cry and ran in to see what had happened. He was holding his wrist and when I checked it out it was very obviously broken. Gregg took him to Children's Hospital right away. They were gone until about 11:30. Carter was SO good! Gregg said he only had one little melt down and started asking for me, but other than that he was an angel. He didn't complain about the pain or anything. They took and xray, gave him a temporary cast, and sent him home for the night. He told me later that he didn't like the "squeeze" (the blood pressure cuff,) but didn't have anything else negative to say about going to the "hostipal" as he called it. We had to go back today to see the orthopedist and get his permanent cast. I took him today. He was fine about going as long as I didn't make him see the "poke doctor". (The last time he saw the pediatrician he got shots.) Again he was an angel. He didn't complain about anything. They gave him some Tylenol with Codeine before they did the cast and it made him kind of loopy. It was funny. He cried when the doctor squeezed the cast tight to his arm but was fine once that was over. He wasn't allowed to eat until after he got his cast in case he needed surgery, so we went to McDonald's after we left the hospital at 4pm. He was very excited about that. Now it's just going to take him a little bit of learning how to do things left handed, but I think he'll be fine!

This is what his arm looked like after we took the splint off this morning. Last night it looked even worse before it started to swell. I literally couldn't even look at it without starting to cry.

This is a picture of a photocopy of the xray so it's not so great, but you get the idea. He broke both bones. The top bone broke 3 or so inches from the wrist. The lower bone broke about an inch back from the wrist.


Here we are waiting for the cast. This was about the time the Codeine was starting to kick in. He was so giggly.


Here he is all casted up. He chose the color. He didn't like the sling and made me take it off as soon as we got outside.
Gregg and I are still amazed at how good he has been about the whole thing. My poor baby is broken, but it could be worse. A few weeks and it will all be a memory.

Kyle

Two weeks ago Kyle turned two. I can't believe it. In some ways I can't believe it's only been two years since he was born. On the other hand I can't believe he is growing so fast.

Kyle was born two weeks early on April 29th, 2008. He was a difficult infant because he had colic and reflux for almost 5 months. Once he got passed that, he was a healthy, happy, wonderful little baby.

He earned the nickname "Beaker" because of the way he cried as a baby. Gregg always said he sounded like a bird beaking, (whatever that means.) We would say thing to each other like, "the beaker is beaking again." After that it just stuck. He also goes by; Beak-man Beak-tastic, and simply Beak. It's a strange nickname I know, but it suits him.

Kyle has always been our snuggler. Even now one of his favorite things to do is sit on either Gregg's or My lap wrapped in a blanket. (The only time he gets jealous of Cameron is when she is on a lap that he thinks should be his.) He loves to crawl in bed with us and have us crawl in bed with him. At bed time he often asks me to "lay down and snuggle Mommy, right here" pointing to his pillow. He has always loved kisses and hugs. I LOVE to snuggle with him.

Kyle wants to run with the big boys so bad. He would get very frustrated even as an infant and I could see in his eyes that he just wanted to do so much more than his little body would let him. He learned how to pedal his bike on his own about a month ago. That was a very proud day for him. Now he can keep up with Carter and ride up and down the driveway and sidewalk in front of our house. As he gets bigger and more capable his frustration level goes down. That has been nice for Mom and Dad. He is still very stubborn and wants things done his way, but now that he can speak so well we finally know what his way is and can try to help.


Here are some things about Kyle:

He hates it when he spills anything, even a drop of milk. He is very protective of his pillow. He's a very good helper and like to get things for me, (like diapers or Kleenex,) and can feed the dogs and the cat with very little assistance. He is very inquisitive and wants to know what everything is, especially noises.

Some of his favorite things are; motorcycles, wrestling on the floor with dad, trains, bubbles, anything outdoors, and his rain boots.

Some of his favorite foods are; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit snacks, french fries, pretzels, mac and cheese, and green beans.

We just love him so much! I can't imagine life without Kyle. He is a wonderful part of our family and we just wouldn't be complete without him!

My Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. It's my 4th year as an actual Mom. I LOVE being a Mom, so for me this is always a day of refection on my beautiful children. My kids are to young to know what today is but somehow every year I get a special little gift from each of them. This year it was that all of my kids, including my 2 1/2 month old baby, slept until 8:00 AM. I can't remember the last time I slept in that late, it was awesome. The kids were all really good today. Kyle was very snugly, (he and I both have a bit of a cold,) which was nice. He kept whispering "love you Mommy," to me periodically all day. Cameron gave me lots of smiles and little baby loves. Carter brought me flowers from his grocery store trip with Daddy.

Gregg did a pool job yesterday and used a little of the money from that to get me beautiful flowers, and a very nice dinner; petite fillet minion and lobster tail with a slice of cheese cake for dessert. (Lobster tails were on sale for $5 a piece! otherwise it would have just been the steak.) For those of you who don't know my husband is practically a gourmet cook, so this really was a treat. He even cleared the table and bathed the kids after dinner. It was so nice. :-)
Other than that we just hung out together today. It was very nice and laid back, my favorite kind of day. I hope all of the Mother's out there were able to have their own great Mother's Day.
To my Mother, Step-Mother, and Mother-in-law: I love each of you very much! Thank you for all that you do for me and my family and for being such shining examples to me of what Mothers should be!

Me and my kiddo's, (obviously). SO hard to get a picture of all of us together. I had to bribe Kyle with a jellybean just to get him to take the picture. Carter wouldn't stop picking his nose, (typical), and Cammie wouldn't stop crying until Gregg took her after the picture was taken. Oh well, Happy Mother's Day 2010!

More Party Pictures

Well for some reason Blogger didn't like that I was trying to put these pictures in my last post. It kept removing them. I got sick of fighting with it and decided to give them their own little post. :-)

Here is Kyle taking his turn with the Pinata!

Kyle is giving the Pirate the "Evil Eye" in hopes of cracking him!

The Birthday boy playing with Courtney and Uncle Chris on one of the Big Kid toys.
Here is Cameron just hanging out before the party. She slept through most of the action! Keep scrolling down to see thr rest of the party!