Campbell's Blog

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

All parents know that toys are worthless, since kids only want to play with objects found around the house. How does the toy industry survive? I cannot get Campbell to play in his basket of stuff. Instead his favorite thing to do is go to the bottom drawer in the cabinets where we keep his bowls and spoons and cups.

However, none of that can compare to the best toy ever invented for children. The cardboard box. Yes, it was free. No more toys will be bought from now on (sure).

Two Peas In A Pod

Who Says Mom Never Makes The Blog?

In the last month or so, Campbell has been making a lot of progress with his physical skills. We already showed his attempts at waving. He has also been clapping up a storm, which Lisa taught him recently. And of course, since he started to crawl he has been pulling up on things all over the house.

Last week he started to have moments where he would get distracted after he had pulled himself up on something, and the next thing you know he’s standing without holding on without realizing it. One case was in Mom’s office where he went to grab some address labels off of her desk. Well, once he had them in hand he put both hands on the paper, and Wala! He was standing. But, the funnier moment is when he comes to the realization that he is NOT holding on and standing. Then he gets scared and plops down to his butt.

On Sunday he decided that it was time to start pushing around his lion walker and using it for what it was meant to do. He has tried this stunt with his high chair, and Lisa says that he made a couple laps around the kitchen island. Well, now we have it on tape. He is definitely on his way to walking soon. The only problem is heeding other walkers on this busily trafficked area he is practicing on. Watch out!

Walker Video

5.7 MB / Time 1:15

Today Campbell has cracked me up just about all day. So much so I couldn’t let the day slip by without sharing some of my laughs!
Mara, Campbell and myself went to Target. This was one of those rare occasions where Mara actually wanted to sit in the buggy. The only place she fits when we all go is the big back part. Campbell sits up front near me in the buggy. I guess what she was doing was so interesting that today Campbell has decided he no longer wants to sit facing forward with his legs out the holes. Instead he gradually over time got his legs out and then eventually decided he full fledged stand up facing backwards to see what was going on. It was hysterical. A guy in the store caught sight of him doing it and was watching him laugh just like me. I put my hands on him so he wouldn’t fall out. The only way he was happy for the rest of our time there was pretty much standing facing backward in the front part of the cart! What a sight to see. I held onto him the whole time so he wouldn’t fall out. Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of this to share. Who knew I’d need my camera at Target!

After we got home and ate lunch I put the kids down for nap. Campbell woke up earlier than Mara which is typical. He was crying for me to come get him which he does about 50% of the time upon waking from naps but usually it’s more like a whine than a cry. I went in and what a sight. He had some how maneuvered his one arm (right) out of his long sleeved shirt and was none to pleased about it. As you can see I was a bad mommy and took full advantage of the funny scene with the camera instead of immediately rescuing him. I also got some crocodile tears on film. Poor thing. This is not the first time he has gotten out of his clothes at nap either. Lisa, got him on film one day (12/12/07) out of his red long sleeved shirt. I’ll find that and post it here too!

Look what I’ve done, please help me now!

Didn’t bother me the first time I figured out to escape my shirt

Lastly, after I got the little stinker up from his nap I thought I’d plop him down on our laundry room floor to pull out and fold some clothes that just got finished drying. As you can see here the little guy is into helping out with the task at hand. He has been pulling up like crazy on anything he can and the dryer suited him quite well today to practice his new favorite skill. Why does he grab this of all things to help out with? I won’t explain who they belong to I’m sure you can guess.

Now that I pulled up here lets see what is in this thing

Let me see if mom sees what I’ve gotten hold of here

Look what I found mommy!

As usual you should be able to click on any of the pictures to see the full album of shots taken.

Campbell has a little strange thing going on in his mouth where the first two teeth coming in on the top are not the two in the middle. Rather, they are to the immediate right and left of the middle teeth. Who knows why this happens, but it is pretty funny to look at. It’s not exactly easy to catch him in a moment where you can see them, and even harder when you are trying to see them on purpose. Here is my attempt to show you what he’s got, by tickling him on the floor after giving him a bath and getting his clothes on. It was a task!

You want to see my teeth?

OK. Now what?

There they are.

I didn’t exactly catch them in the moment that I wanted. When he exposes them straight on they look extremely funny, and look like little fangs. And by the way… these pics were taken a few weeks ago. I am able to say that his other two teeth are now properly coming in and catching up so he no longer looks like a vampire.

As time goes on Campbell is much more interested in eating by feeding himself rather than Mom and Dad feeding him. It seems that there is limited time with which we will be able to use the baby food with him. He sometimes is just too hands on the spoon and getting food in his mouth is a problem.

The other item that is tough is that he doesn’t like sitting in his high chair too much. I don’t know what it is, but after a little while in it he just wants out.

Whenever Campbell is irritated, there is one thing that we can count on to calm him down. The Biter Biscuit. It might make him look like the messiest kid on the block, but he sure does love it. Click through the picture and see some more shots.

Soooey!

Campbell’s first Christmas has come and gone. It has taken us a little while longer than we might have hoped to get some material up on his blog for it. A couple years back for Mara’s first we had some stuff posted the same day. We are just not as quick as we used to be.

Family started arriving at the house on Sunday afternoon. So, the cousin’s got together to play a little, all three of them.

Cousin congregation.

The cooking started on Sunday, all to prepare for a dinner on Christmas Eve, which is the bigger meal for us on the holiday. For that we got dressed up and took a few pictures.

Which came first? The poke or the cry?

Not now. Can’t you see I’m concentrating?

There are many pictures in total. If you click on any of the ones on the post, it will take you to the picture as part of the album and you can cycle through them on that page. We will try to post video next, but it might be on Mara’s page.

Not to be left with crawling as his latest skill, Campbell is making a run at as many physical skills as he can. The latest this week was his wave. We have only been working with him a couple of weeks on this one, so I am a little surprised at how fast he has picked it up. According to Lisa he has been doing a full arm wave for a little bit this week, which is a modification of his double arm flap that he can be seen doing quite often during moments of excitement and happiness.

What we caught him doing yesterday was a first, and that was a simple hand wave just with his wrist and/or fingers. It was fun to see. Later in the day he did it at other times randomly without prompt. He is certainly practicing and beginning to associate it with the words “hi” and “bye.”

Wave Video

37.7 MB / Time 0:20