Campbell’s Blog

Campbell has been going to The Little Gym, just like his big sister had. So he has been learning some new skills to show everyone. In this video he does some of them, like jumping and acting like a frog. But we cannot convince him to do others, like swimming on the floor. It also took a little bribing at the end to get him to officially do a bear crawl by taking the blocks away with which he likes to “stamp” people. This gets him a little upset, so you also get to see his crying and pouting on the floor. Classic.

Skills Video

20.8 MB / Time 4:16

It would be an understatement to say that we were slow to get this little boy a haircut. It was the endless debate of Dad saying that “I can do it” and Mom saying “No, I’ll do it.” Well, neither of us got it done. So last Thursday became a big day for Campbell. Piggybacking on Mom’s haircut, Lisa brought Campbell over to get his haircut too.

It wasn’t an easy endeavor. Campbell is a little stranger phobic right now regardless, much less some person holding some shears over his head. He was VERY upset about it. It didn’t help to forget giving him a lollipop at the beginning before the haircut started. By the time he got it he was already upset. Later he calmed down and started eating the lollipop and forgot all about what was happenning. It turned out pretty good!

Click through one of the pictures below to see more.

BEFORE

AFTER

Seeing as the summer is going away here, I thought it would be good to get something up on the website before it totally takes a hiatus for the year. This is a cute video of Campbell and Mara playing in the driveway with some big balloons that were bought at the dollar store. These were the surprise of the summer and a hit with the kids. They loved playing with them. Although, Mara kept touching them to something that would eventually pop them within about a day of buying them. This was one toy that Campbell seemed to handle pretty well. The kids are also in some of their favorite outfits. The pink skirt was Mara’s uniform. These are a few of the things that make this video represent this summer pretty well.

Balloons Video

3.1 MB / Time 0:59

I’ve been meaning to post this video for a little while, but needed to think through some of the logistics since it was taken on my mobile phone and I wasn’t too sure what I would need to do to post it. Even still, you might have trouble viewing the file, and if you do you will need to right click the picture and download it to your computer. Watching it then in Quicktime should do the trick.

Its never too early to get the little man working on his physique. I’m not sure what it is with little kids, but they just love to try and pick things up that are bigger than they are. With Mara it was the weighted exercise ball that we have. Its not more than 5 pounds or so, and relatively small, but to a little person that is only 30 pounds, 5 pounds is a big deal.

In this case, Campbell is enamored with the diaper trash. Whenever it gets pulled out of the can he wants to get all over it while you’re trying to replace it with another bag. The morning that I took the video he was all about helping me. Take a look at him trying to drag it around. That is until it became a game of trying to tease me that he was going to continue to help.

Strength Video

5.9 MB / Time 1:18

This whole episode reminded me of another little person I know.

Campbell has been a little more fearful than his sister of the water. I think this a result of us not introducing him to the pool at as young an age and frequenting a pool as much as with her. Last week both Campbell and Mara got a chance to run around and play in the Elmo sprinkler. This was the first time that they gave it a try. He loved it! Lisa said that he just loved riding his corn popper through the water back and forth. Its not to say that he doesn’t like the pool, but he just isn’t very relaxed. Here with the sprinkler he really enjoyed it.

What… I’m not doing anything.

Beep beep!

You can click either of the pictures to get through to the album of photos.

Earlier this month Campbell took his first trip to the Caribbean. What a lucky little guy! And lucky for us he flies free. He let the rest of the family tag along. Aunt Jen and Uncle Conan were kind enough to let us continue on a planned trip together even when they couldn’t go. The Westin Resort on St. John was the destination. To give you an idea about our trip I have posted about eighty pictures or so to the gallery. Here are a few.

We arrived in St. Thomas in Charlotte Amalie on Saturday around noon. From there it was a short bus trip to the dock to catch a ferry to St. John.

On the inter island ferry (still at the dock).

Mara and Campbell both loved the ride. Although after a long flight Campbell was getting a little restless since he didn’t sleep much. The ferry ride takes about forty minutes. And the next thing we knew we were looking at the white sandy beach of the Westin resort.

Welcome to Paradise.

We stayed in a villa that is located on the hill of the resort across one of the streets dividing the resort in half. They had golf carts that provided transportation and were on a schedule. The schedule aspect wasn’t very convenient. Even when you called a cart it sometimes took a while for it to arrive. The best thing to do was to walk and work off some of the calories of the food we shouldn’t have been eating except for that it was a vacation. If we caught a cart on the way that was fine. However, in this mode it meant that Daddy was a pack mule. If you haven’t been to St. John, it is rather hilly. And you tend to build residences wherever possible since land is relatively scarce and hills provided the most beautiful views. So walking for the kids could be tiring. How the tiring part didn’t apply to Dad, we don’t know. Maybe that is why I wasn’t smiling. Pack ’em up!

This is the way to travel.

Believe it or not, there were still times we found ourselves hanging out in the room. While there, one of Campbell’s favorite things to do was to climb in the suitcases for some reason. Here he is hanging out in Mommy’s carry on for the plane.

Is this what we came to St. John to do?

One night we made reservations to eat at Asolare, as they were accommodating to the kids where Zozo’s was not (we later had a date night at Zozo’s, just Mom and Dad while the kids were babysat for). We tried to time it early so it wasn’t as crowded and if the kids got out of hand it would be less disturbing. The nice part was it was at sunset. Mara and Campbell ate a shrimp appetizer and LOVED it. They both did very well until the waitress scared Campbell. Hey, at least at that point we had someone to blame for him being noisy! It worked out well. Some might remember that this is the restaurant we had our rehearsal dinner at the night before the wedding.

If I can’t be quiet at dinner, at least I’m cute.

On Tuesday we made a pilgrimage to Hawksnest Beach right after breakfast. It was beautiful and we were the third set of people on the beach. One woman sunbathing, and a couple getting married on the east end. The beach was beautiful and the snorkeling was pretty good. Mom and dad each took a turn watching the kids so the other could snorkel a little. Campbell loved the sand (when he wasn’t eating it) and Mara liked watering the plants with ocean water. The west end of the beach is the portion on Caneel Bay‘s resort. After arriving this time and seeing it again we realized that we saw some rays off of this beach back in 2003.

Playing on Hawksnest Beach.

Even though Campbell was in a strange place, he was able to adjust pretty well. Mara slept in a bed and Campbell in a crib provided by the resort. They were in one room and Mom and Dad in another.

Vacation is exhausting!

The resort had a shared, large pool on the main side. It was really nice and a place of a lot of activity every day. Each villa building on the hill also had its own shared pool that was smaller, but convenient for short jaunts. It even had a barbecue, but we didn’t end up cooking out there like we thought we would. No particular reason other than never making the final plans to get the meat, etc. to do so. One day at the main pool we also rented a cabana for the day which worked out pretty well for an all day at the pool. Campbell was able to sleep in the crib inside, but Mara was too restless and went back to the room for her nap. It was a little expensive, but we paid for it with the timeshare speech that they gave us. HA.

Pool time.

One day was spent on the island of St. Thomas. On the bus ride from the dock to Charlotte Amalie another resort goer from Texas let us know about Cuzzin’s restaurant to eat. That was pretty good. The rest of the time we walked around and visited different shops. Mara was well behaved, so we allowed her to buy her first jibbitz in one of the shops.

What could be more fun, no car seats, and showing off the jibbitz.

There were a few times we were able to get a family photo in. This was was taken by our tour guide for the timeshare spiel.

Family fun.

The resort had a bunch of activities. From “Name that tune” at the pool, to the crabman who allowed everyone to pick a crab to race it, and tried to give away as many coupons to local stuff as possible as prizes. Mara’s crab, Crab, won a race and got a coupon for a sailing trip (she really tried to name him something else, but was misheard). The coupon went unused. Another activity was the iguana feeding every day at 3:30 that brought them out of every nook and cranny.

Attack of the iguanas!

Alas, it couldn’t last forever, and we were on another set of planes the following Saturday. What a trip!

Going home…

Can’t wait to go back again when the kids are older!

I think it would not be in my best interest to try and load all of our pictures to the site, it would take too long. We took 388 pictures. Even when I tried to just select a few, it was still too many at 200+. So, if you would like to see more of what we took you can download this zip file by clicking on the palm tree. But mind you it is 16.5MB in size.

Also, Steph was doing some editing of the photos to make them look nicer. She hopes to get them posted to Picasa at some point. Whew! Who knew the trip would be so much work!

He was a fast walker, and the talking would come later. Campbell has been making a lot of changes in the last month or so and part of that has been picking up a lot of signs, animal sounds, and also starting to talk most of the common words he hears every day. He mumbles quite a bit (imagine!) so you need to hear him often to know what he is saying. Or… just listen to what I am saying and he will typically repeat it.

I don’t know if others experience it differently, but with both children it has seemed that the signing thing has worked pretty well. The only thing with it is that as soon as they start to sign, it seems that they start to talk. So they don’t get a lot of time use out of it. But it does help. Realistically Campbell isn’t saying words too clearly. And the words he does say, he uses them for more than just one thing. When he accompanies the word with a sign it is easier to interpret what he needs.

Signs Video

15.8 MB / Time 3:16

I don’t have a lot of time to post pictures right now but I still wanted to get atleast a couple up on the site wishing our sweet “little man” the happiest of birthdays! He had so much fun enjoying his first cake as you can tell by the pictures. Stay tuned for some more shots from his first birthday.

Campbell, you bring more love, laughter and fun to our family every day!

Campbell might not be as far along as Mara yet in terms of words or signing, but he is beginning to get there. The only things he says at this point are dada, mama, and he just started to say uh-oh and Mara. This last week though he made the connection between a sound he can make and a certain animal. This was one of Mara’s favorites as well. Now when you ask him, Campbell is able to imitate an elephants sound. It does help that he was going around making this noise on his own before we taught him about the elephant.

This video catches him doing it, along with some other things, like walking a little and dancing. But of course, he was doing it PLENTY before I picked up the camera. Then it took him a while to do it again once I had the camera in hand. I remember this time with Mara, there seemed to be an avalanche of skills picked up around now.

Elephant Video

18.3 MB / Time 3:46

Lisa was determined to have the little man walk before his first birthday. With her regiment of calisthenics, core exercise, and proper dieting, Campbell has shown lots of progress. This past week he had demonstrated a step or two with enough stick and carrot prompting. Like holding out his favorite book or stuffed animal. This weekend Mara attended her best buddy Anslee’s birthday at The Young Chef’s Academy with Mom, so that left Campbell and Dad some quality time on Saturday together.

Not knowing how much progress had really been made during the week, Campbell and I just worked on whatever he was willing to do. At one point he felt confident enough to walk from the ottoman to me a little ways away. He was able to do it quite a few times. It’s only a matter of time before he really takes off. Here is some video I was able to shoot.

Walk Video

9.0 MB / Time 1:54