September in Pictures

Playing at a new park with Mimi & Papa.

Doing crafts with Mimi!

Our first carousel ride! (Same outfits about 2 weeks later.)

Captain Connor!


Evening reading with Daddy.


Sharing!

A green bath - what every boy needs!

Labor Day in San Antonio

We took a short trip to visit family in San Antonio over Labor Day weekend and have a few pictures to share!

Cam was ready for fun at the zoo!

Connor and Daddy were too!

We saw some GIANT tortoises:

They had some fake tortoise eggs that Connor was interested in.

Jake and Connor climbed on the sloth bench.

The boys played in the toddler area where they got to crawl through tree trunks:

drive boats:

and see eye to eye with gophers:

.

Cam got the best ride & view from Uncle Jake's shoulders!

We checked out some black bears before we left.

Cameron crashed before we made it to the car!

Anybody remember this picture?

Well here is round 2, about 15 months older:

Cameron 15 months

Cameron is just a few days away from being 16 months old so I better get this out pronto! We saw his doctor yesterday and he weighs 29.10 lbs and is 33.25 in. He is in the 93 percentile overall which makes him about 20% bigger than Connor was at this age. Go here to see Connor's 15 month stats.

Cam's words: Mama, nana (banana), Eeeee (Avery), ha (hot), bu-bu (bye bye)

He climbs anything and everything. He wants to do EVERYTHING his brother does. He does NOT like being told no. While he has never taken a pacifier he has what we call, a lovee. It's a little snuggley blanket with a giraffe head and he sucks on the ears and the corners. That thing is so gross & boy will be ever be in trouble if we lose it! He can identify his nose and hair. He roars when you point to a bear or lion. He is trying desperately to eat with utensils and his pride is severely wounded when you try to help.

This sweet boy has had a rough time lately. Last week he fell going up a steep driveway and had a deep bruise on his cheekbone and brow bone. Then, since this weekend he has had a terrible diaper rash which caused us to put him in some training underwear so his bottom could air out a little more than a diaper allows. There have been times that he wouldn't even sit down. It was so sad!

Plus he needs his hair trimmed pretty badly!

But I still think he's pretty cute!

Sometimes 1 spoon isn't enough...

He enjoys the playroom quite a bit too!

And he loves dress up just like his big brother!

But no costume beats wearing Daddy's hat!

The big trauma drama came Monday night. We were planning to attend a fundraiser dinner for the Cove House Homeless Shelter, which Matt sits on the board for. However Cameron's diaper rash had been so bad that changing his diapers (which were frequent because he had a stomach bug too) was just miserable for all parties involved. I had to put him in the bath and let fresh water rinse him off at one point. Therefore I was really debating leaving him with a sitter for his sake and her's!

As I was on the phone with her telling her that I just wasn't sure what to do, Cameron fell and began to cry. He was about 6' away from me and in plain sight. He had a sippy cup and a toy drill. He was sitting and began to get up when he stepped on his shirt or lost his balance somehow and cam crashing back down onto his cup. I hung up the phone immediatley and began to coax him to calm down. I think my words were "You're fine. Shake it off." And then I saw the blood!

Now, we've had a few mouth injuries at our house and I know that mouths bleed A LOT so I scooped him up and ran to the kitchen sink where I began flushing his mouth with water so I could get a better look. The water wasn't changing anything so I turned him over to face up and saw that the blood was gushing from his chin/jaw area. So then I tried flushing that but when I did I saw that it was pretty wide - too wide for a band-aid. I grabbed a towel and started applying pressure (all the while crying too and no, I have no idea where Connor was during all of this.) I sat down and called Matt frantically telling him that Cam needed stitches and I needed help NOW! I was doing my best not to panic but you have to understand - it was a lot of blood. And Cameron just continued to scream. I felt so helpless and panicked. After Matt said he was on his way I began to switch into a more clear frame of mind. I started throwing things in my big "mom bag." I got shoes for Cam, some books to read while waiting, my wallet. I wanted to change clothes because I was in this flimsy sundress that I either just wear around the house or as a swimsuit cover up but Cameron was having no part of being put down. I convinced myself that I would be more covered than most of the women I see in Wal-Mart, slipped on my Reef's and about that time Matt walked in the door. This was all about 4:15 and Matt was scheduled to speak at the dinner which began at 6:30.

I knew I couldn't take Connor with me so I just left without really having a plan for the evening. My hope was that the medical clinic in town could patch him up with that glue stuff and we would be back home in an hour. So we headed there first. They got us in, the doctor cleaned Cam out, the bleeding (which had subsided greatly) resumed in full force and after over an hour they decided that we needed to go to the ER. Apparently they don't do stitches or Dermabond there. I would have appreciated being told that when I walked in. So we go back in the car and began the drive to the hospital. This is when I noticed my phone was about to die.

As I drove I talked to Matt and told him which friend to call to watch Connor. Most of our friends were attending the dinner so the selection was limited. I told him to drop Connor off, go do his thing & eat dinner and then whoever finished first would go get Connor. Thank the Lord we have an extra car seat!

We arrived at the ER around 5:45, filled out all that same paper work we'd done at the clinic and endured Judge Joe Brown on the waiting room tv. During all of this Cam was quiet, calm and very clingy. He was clearly in pain and completely overwhelmed by all that was going on around him but he didn't cry. Eventually we went into triage where they took temp, bp and whatever else in addition to quizzing me and looking rather scornfully at me when I told them that no, he was not up to date on all of his vaccines. We chose the 3 we wanted and only began them at 12 months. Not really a fun moment to explain my philosophical reasoning for my mothering choices. We were returned to the waiting room, this time to endure SpongeBob.

Eventually (I have no idea what time) we were called back to a room. I sent Matt a text to tell him our status and then my phone completely died. There were more nurses, record keeping and even a custodian. His little wound was cleaned out and stirred up again. He screamed and sobbed again. Then the boredom and no dinner set in. Dinner time is usually about 5pm at our house. I'd say around 7 is when he hit full on crazy mode. He kept trying to launch himself backwards off the hospital bed. We made paper towel balls and kicked them around. He studied the eye sight chart. We danced and sang and read our 3 books.

The irony is that I had the presence of mind to grab books but no cup or snacks. Thankfully one of the nurses brought us some water and graham crackers and I found peanut butter crackers in the bottom of my bag. That was at least enough to curb the crazies. About 10 till 8 the doctor finally came it. She cleaned the would for a third time and asked me to hold him and apply pressure for a third time - which he hated and kicked and screamed about.

Eventually she came back, swaddled him up tight and glued his skin closed. I am very thankful that we didn't have to do actual stitches. This stuff was bad enough. He was being held down by a nurse and had his chin in a death grip by the doctor. We made it home about a quarter till nine and he of course was out like a light before we even hit the highway.

As we were leaving they told me to schedule a follow up with our pedi in 2 days and thankfully we already had an appointment for him. She said it looks like it's healing fine. There's a mound of dried blood a the tip because we never could get it to stop bleeding completely. The glue should dissolve in about 10 days.

Here are a couple of pictures from about 24 hours after the fact.

The bruising is just a dark yellow color now.

This one shows how swollen his chin and neck are on that side.