*blows dust off of blog site*

Hmm, I never claimed to be good in the blogging dept. But I thought I would oblige two of Chunker's biggest fans, Nicole & Brenda. Nicole demanded an update.

Cameron's new "thing" is going down the stairs by himself. He's been doing it for awhile, but once they're in sight the word "PEAZ!" comes out of his mouth, begging us to let him walk up/down them.

If we're lucky he'll usually mutters "oh shit, oh shit". Ok, maybe it's not actually "oh shit", but to us it's beyond hilarious. I would promise a video, but I can almost guarantee the audio would be Paul & I laughing.

And B Dawg, demanded a taping of Chunker saying "banana" & "cheese".

All while eating a bowl of fruit salad, true Chunker style. ;)

Chunker fall down, go boom.

Last Thursday was um, eventful. Paul was at work so I played “beat the clock” alone. Beat the clock is an oh, so fun game.

The object is to:

Walk the dogs: Tote around Cameron where he pleases. Then you may name off everything he points to. “Yes mama, that is a tree. You would never have seen the 23 trees we just passed without my eagle eyes. Oh and ROCKS! Pick those 2 up & hand them to me. No, NOT those 2. The other two that look just like those 2. Ay yi yi mama, you need to listen.” Up until he’s had enough & demands to be put down. “oh that’s right. I CAN walk mama. You may put me down. I’ll let you know by pointing to the floor squealing DAAAAA!! Then fling my body toward the ground.” Only to get extremely upset if you try to “help” guide him back home. You will know when this happens by the stiffness of his body while standing still, all while swinging his arms & shaking his head no.

Put together dinner: Tell Chunker not to throw food at least 30 times. Play “guess what I want” while offering every cracker, fruit & drink possible. Ask what’s “uh-oh”? only later to find Oscar with a half eaten corn on the cob. “Not sure how he got that mama.”

Bath time: Which will only begin when the tub is full of bubbles & his Muno & Gatorman are in plain sight. Then you may stand them up so he can knock them down. While applauding his remarkable BOOM!ing talents (knocking over Muno & Gatorman) you may then & only then put him inside the tub. “Did you just sit down to wash my hair mama? Because I see my toothbrush & I don’t understand why we’re not brushing my teeth. LOOK! LOOOOOOOOK do you see it?! Thank goodness you have me to point these things out mama. Wait, what? Bathtime is over? NOOOO!!! I’ve only been in here for 3 hrs, I’m not ready to leave yet!” *lays down to gather all of the drop of water left*

Bedtime stories: Now that Chunker walks he more or less escapes after bath time. In fear that Oscar or Sadie are trying to take over his toys he needs to rush & make sure that they’re all accounted for by playing with his legos, cars, blocks & push car. Luckily this is a form of cardio so not only do I get to sing, dance, poke myself with something dangerous to make him laugh, but I now get to chase him. “Do you have my water mama? I can’t read books with my water.” *GULP* *GULP* “Hmm, I’m not feeling the Big Book of Animals tonight mama. I know you don’t understand me so I’ll help you better understand by slapping it out of your hand.”

The moment Chunker rubs his eyes that’s my cue to ask if he’s tired. He then wraps his arms around my neck & lays his head on my shoulder.

Love.

Ok so this mama gig is pretty awesome.

Then we turn the lights off, mobile music & fan are turned on & we say our prayers with Tiger, Kitty Cat, Bear & blanket.

All before 7:15, 7:30 the latest. ;)

So when something doesn’t go quite as planned, it throws our “game” out of whack.

Which is just what happened last Thursday.

The thrown food was picked up & it was bath time. As I turned on the water & washed down the tub Cameron, who was walking right behind me & fell.

HARD.

Chin first onto the outside of the tub.

Cameron instantly cried, I scooped him up & saw it.

Blood.

Screaming child + Blood + First time mom = Instant Fear.

I grabbed his ducky towel & headed to the living room. I flipped on the tv & turned on Yo Gabba Gabba. As I held the towel to his chin, the crying stopped, Magic Mark appeared & Cameron wiggled away to join MM & color along. So I sat there fighting back the tears not really knowing what to do. I called Paul, the dr., my aunt, even had our next door neighbor’s husband Chris (who’s a dr.) look at his chin & tell me what to do.

I know common sense would be to take him into urgent care but I was afraid to. I didn’t want to admit he was hurt that bad & questioned whether I was over reacting or not. It stopped bleeding. He was happy, he was laughing & playing. The only fussy one was me. So after hearing a definite yes from Chris, I called Paul & told him to meet us there. As I packed his bag I realized I was shaking. I couldn’t help fear that they would give him stitches. My poor baby. :(

On our way to the children’s urgent care Cameron fell asleep. Great, not only may my child needs stitches but now I have to wake him up. Guilt was making itself nice & cozy.

I didn’t feel guilt from not preventing what happened. Honestly, there’s nothing I could have done to prevent his fall. Maybe stick him in a bubble? But the guilt of dragging him around & knowing how miserable this was for him, made me full of guilt.

Even with the staff being extra sweet & accommodating Cameron was not buying into it. He was tired, injured & just wanted his own bed. Guilt was wearing me down & I think the dr. knew it. He walked into the room & before even telling us his name looked right at me & said, “ this is the most common accident. Let me look at his chin.......Not bad at all. He won’t even need stitches, dermabond should do the trick.”

I could have danced a little jig right there & then. Weight lifted, thank Jebus!

DB added, stickers & puppy given as a peace offering, then we were out of there!

The DB application wasn’t fun, but at least Cameron wasn’t screaming from pain. Just pissed that people were touching him when he should have been in bed. There are two things you don't mess with in Cameron's world.

His sleep.

And of course, his food. ;)

Happy Baby, FAIL

It's that time of year again, school pics! I was actually looking forward since Cameron just started walking & I pictured him standing with a huge smile. Plus for whatever reason I thought the ugly fake woodsy background was saved just for infants. Thinking so, I was looking forward to a solid blue background.

So imagine my surprise when I opened Cameron's picture packet.

My initial reaction? "Aww, he was crying. omg, is that?....THERE'S A LEG, A LEG THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO MY BABY IN THE PICTURE!!!!!!!! A LEGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!! Omg & mocos! MOCOS?!! Really, they couldn't wipe the mocos before taking the picture?!"

Ahem.

Thankfully not only were we not obligated to buy the horrid pic (which I scanned & plan to use to my full advantage during C's teen years), but our sweet, funny & very talented friend Angelina rushed to our rescue & offered to take Cameron's picture.

Love.

Not only did she capture my baby the way we see him, but she insisted on letting him play. He was oh, so happy the entire session. From the pictures she did share before we left, I can already see I will be an oh, so very happy mama.

Silly face!

For awhile now Cameron has been making an adorable, goofy, silly face. We would just laugh & ask what he was doing. Sometimes he would just laugh or look at us like we were crazy. "What is this silly face you speak of?! I was stretching my mouth." But we would make the same face back & he would imitate us. So we knew, he knew what he was doing. But since neither of us really knew where he got the idea to initially do it.

Every morning he eats breakfast while watching an episode of Yo Gabba, Gabba! Today was no different. As he was enjoying his daily dose, I was in the kitchen washing the blender when I heard "Silly Faces!" said over the tv. They have a portion of the show where Dj Lance Rock & all the kids make their own silly face. And what did I catch Cameron doing? His famous silly face! It was the cutest thing in the world. One because, ppsshh, hello, he's Cameron, THE chunker. He just oozes cuteness from his double chin to his stubby little toes. But on top of all that, the fact that he understood what/how to make a silly face blew me away. I motioned for Paul to come see Cameron in action. We couldn't help but smile & say, "YAY! You did it!"

So of course I had to brag (it's my mommy duty) to any & everyone today. Plus, I just had to catch it on video to share w/his loyal fans.

Enjoy!



Now let's see YOUR silly face! ;)

Side note: The loud smacking you hear my son doing is from finishing off an Aunnies bunny. ;) They don't call him chunker for nothin'.

Making his walking debut. :)

So, when we go to pick up Cameron from daycare, Miss Ruth raves about how he walked all day. Naturally his legs turn to noodles once we arrive. :/ He insist on being held & I willingly oblige. I know one day soon, he's going to refuse my arms & I'm in no rush.

We got home & it was time to take the dogs out for a walk.

Apparently that sounded like a FANTASTIC idea to Cameron.

Betcha can't watch just once. ;)

So I was having a pretty sad day today. I guess stress from every direction can do that to you.

Then I went to pick up Cameron.

*sigh*

How did I survive before him? He's my constant.

Constant reminder that I am loved far more than I will ever realize.

Blessed with many people in my life that are happy, healthy & cute as a button.
Who share my same fashion sense,
People who are willing to lend a hand (such as, putting away groceries),

Important people that fill my world with laughter, the same laughter that fills my heart with love.

If you give a chunker 20 bucks...

For Cameron’s birthday, Grandma J sent a box of goodies. Inside his birthday card was $20 “to spend on whatever you want.” Well, for awhile I kept thinking of certain toys or books that the $20 could be put toward. Usually when I found something Cameron just needed the $20 was safe at home & I ended up forking out my own cash. ;)

Well, a little over a month ago Safeway put out these huge teddy bears in celebration of Valentine’s day. It never failed, we would pass by them & Cameron would stretch his arms out watching to “touch it!” They were usually displayed on the aisle corners on the very top. I would pretend it was too, too high & daddy would have to come help one day.

As V-day approached I thought of buying the bear & giving it to Cameron as a surprise. But then, I came up w/a better idea. I thought why don’t we make a fun trip down to the market & have him finally “touch it!” & bring it home.

Since that V-day present was nixed we headed to Target to look for all things Yo Gabba Gabba! Unfortunately, we weren’t the only one looking. Cameron spotted 1 (of the 2) YGG books. Um yeah, don’t mess w/this boy & his books. On top of that his YGG books. So, while Paul read to him in the store I snuck book #2 in the cart.

Don't Bite Your Friends! YGG book: $7.99 + tax

Oh no, Muno bit Foofa? What happens next?!Then we headed to Safeway! Trust me when I say the following pictures do not do justice for the experience. It was the sweetest moment when he realized he could finally touch his new friend.

There were 3 colored bears, white, chocolate & tan.

We avoided white all together so we walked up to the display of just chocolate & tan.

Would the chocolate bear go home with us? Or the tan bear? Let me see that Chocolate one again mama.
Who do you think won? ;)


Tan Teddy Bear: $14.99 + tax

Letting Cameron shop with his own money? Priceless.

Thank you Grandma J! Cameron wrestles his bear daily. ;)

Our little chatter box

I probably find more amusement out of it, but I just love hearing Cameron jibber jabbor the day away. Ok, ok I just like having someone that talks as much as I do. hehe

He's been getting better (or at least trying) to pronounce sounds other than D. He tends to only say Ma Ma when prompted (fine! I admit it, I beg. Are you happy?) but his expression following my squeals of glee is worth the beg. His smile widens ear to ear you can just see him thinking, "Ha! I did it!"

The other night bath time was over & it was time to get dressed. The video is super short & the quality sucks (cheap cell phone) but it's better than nothing. Again, you are more than welcome to visit AZ & see it live! ;)

Video upload, FAIL

Oops, let's try this again. Brusha, brusha, brusha, take 2!









If it doesn't work this time, I guess you'll have to visit us in AZ to see Chunker in action. ;)

Brusha, brusha, brusha...

Brusha, Brusha, Brusha

Let's forget the part where I shared my joy with Paul, only to have him burst my bubble.

"Oh, you didn't hear me last night? Yeah he let me brush his teeth too."

Well, let's remember long enough to hear "I'm sorry" in the form of something shiny.

So for the past month or so we've been abusing Cameron. At least you would think so by the sound of his cries when his toothbrush is in view.

We started off with a finger brush.

I was warned that I was asking for trouble. Thankfully we use to clean Cameron's mouth w/a washcloth & despite his plea for mercy, he never bit down.

Then we moved on to an actual toothbrush. If we thought the finger brush ticked him off, we were in for a real treat this time.

He would belt out huge sobs & would shake his head. I have to admit, at times we even had to hold his face in place. It was so sad to watch but the moment we were done, so were the crocodile tears.

We tried to sing.

FAIL.

We tried to brush our teeth with him.

FAIL.

We tried to let him hold the brush.

And watch it plummet into the dirty bath water instead of cleaning his mouth.

*sigh*

But we kept with it.

Then finally, he just let us.

I don't know if he realized that the flavor of toothpaste was actually pretty good or was just sick of screaming just as much as we were of listening. But for whatever reason, my bebe knocked off another milestone & took one step closer to being a big boy.





By the time I got the camera he was pretty much over having his tongue brushed. But you get the idea. :)

I am a good mother, I can (finally) cook rice!

Ok, so this may be 1 out of 533,124,643 times but that's neither here nor there. I was so thrilled at my Martha Stewart moment I could have screamed.

Ok, so I did. I screamed out toward Paul who was reading to Cameron, "Omg, my rice taste GOOD!"

Little did I know that feeling was worth squat over hearing Cameron's reaction to my edible rice.

*swoon*

His new favorite word is "that". I think the new found love comes from the power of pointing, saying "that" & getting whatever he wants (most of the time).

But, I don't think "that" or any other word will ever replace his love for "cookie". ;)


I'm not bias, but isn't he the cutest chunker you've ever seen? Love.

Snip, snip, Whaaaaa!

We've been talking about getting Cameron's haircut for awhile now. No matter how much we talked, it never got done & his hair kept growing.

I was pretty excited for the big day & it reminded me of (one of my very many) favorite shows growing up. I was, ok I still am a huge fan of Rugrats. Before they grew into teenagers, then it just got weird.

Other than the weird creepy teenage approach it was a great show. I mean how can you go wrong with a ice skating, singing dinosaur? You can't. I'm almost sure if it still ran I would convert Cameron to a fan as well.

There is one episode in particular I have always loved. Chuckie, who was the cautious (read: crybaby) of the bunch was about to have his first haircut. Angelica, the oldest of the group (read: little shit) pulled out one strand of hair demonstrating what a haircut entailed, while scaring the bejesus out of poor ol' Chuckie.

Well, well we had quite the Chuckie day.

The girl wasn't even cutting his hair yet, just the feeling of the smock was upsetting.
I guess the cheeks are a dead giveaway because she knew how to stop the tears.

Then she sprayed him with the water bottle...So, then I pulled out the big guns. His animal book, "how does the cow go? Mooooo."
But even that didn't last for long. I guess he didn't like what he saw in the mirror. We're keeping it long baby, keeping the curls for the ladies. ;)

I don't have the heart to tell Cameron we'll have to do this again. However, I will say for the record we will not go to the happy water squinter girl again. Boo to her! But all in all, we survived!
After his Chuckie moment we headed over to the prize "dispenser." Why? Because what parent wouldn't want to stand their child against a machine that shoots out 35mph a sticker of a no name horse & gold cold that I'm pretty sure he could eat if he wanted too. :/

Hair cut style, approved!

Holy moly...

I am no bueno at this blogging thing. I could go on & on about how I'm sorry & it's never going to happen again, but let's move forward. Updates, complete with pics. Wheee!

So, back in december we headed out to Sacramento to visit the Jackson family. I won't leave the visit recap to just that, one day I will give it a proper post but for now just know it was equivalant to Disneyland in Cameron's eyes. He loved hanging out with his newfound cousins & I loved watching them care & include him in every game. There was even a day they asked to take him upstairs to play. After awhile I went to check in (read: make sure Cameron wasn't eating a dice or popping a barbies head off). Instead I found them in the middle of a project. Late I found out they were having Cameron color & make us a Christmas card.

Love.

On top of nonstop attention he also found his new obsession, a rocking chair. Not just any rocking chair, the rocking chair.

I wish I could have that much fun in a chair. :p


A few weeks back Gma J emailed asking if we thought he would enjoy one of his own.


Um, yeah. Especially since we were about to buy a non rocking chair, bor-ing.


So as I waited for the chair to arrive visions of Cameron welling up with tears of happiness & shriek "for ME mama?!" would excite me to no end. Hmm, maybe he would even take his first steps toward it...time continued to drag.


Then we arrived home last night to find a pretty little note from FED EX. Thinking the box was a pair of running shoes I ordered we headed to the office. I grabbed the dogs, Cameron's push car & off we went. Little did I know the box wasn't a teeny tiny shoe box, but a box bigger & heavier than Cameron.


Crap.


So, first I tried carrying the box but for whatever reason that freaked out Mr. Chunker & he began to scream. Change in plans, I tied the dogs to the push car, placed the box on top & carried Cameron.


Cameron continued to scream, the dogs continued to whimper from having to poop & not being able to move more than 1/2" from the car & I silently counted to 10 at least a dozen times.


As you can see my vision was slowly being crushed into teeny pieces.

:(


Since Cameron continued to be weary of the box I decided to wait until the next morning for the big reveal.


In the morning I found my regained hope of a big eyed, squeals of delight reaction coming from Cameron.

And you know what?


He could have cared less, wtf.


I suppose it's my fault. I'm the one who put on Yo Gabba, Gabba! before bringing him out for the big reveal. So try as I might he was too enthralled in the world of "Draw some magic with Mark" & "Cool tricks, cool tricks, yeah!". Boo.



After a few mins in his new chair he decided to get out & grab his breakfast.

By getting out, I mean fly out of the chair.

Oh, this is my favorite part, Cool tricks, yeah!

Don't be fooled. He wasn't smiling for me or my desperate plea for a reaction other than ignore. He was smiling at the guy & his cool trick, riding a skateboard. Oh well, at least he looks super cute in his new rocking chair.

Thanks Gma J!