H-Dawg

In thinking of things that have happened in the past year since my self imposed blog sabbatical, I realized that most of you haven't met the newest member of our family.  No, I don't mean baby #2, I'm talking about doggy #1 - Hurley!  Or as he's more affectionately known as, Hurley Dawg, Doggy boy, or (on the mean streets of Tacoma) H-Dawg. 

Hurley is a 75 pound Labradoodle that seems more like a mini horse in our small house.  We got him as a 3 month old puppy when the people that bought him from the breeder had to give him up because they lived in a condo in Seattle that only allowed dogs up to 30 pounds; Hurley was 20 pounds at 3 months!  In any case, most people honestly asked if we were crazy for getting a puppy when we had an 18 month old human and, for the first few weeks, I was starting to think that we were.

It wasn't too long though, until we started to get into a rhythm.  Hurley figured out the idea of going outside to do his business and we got used to his needs to and now we're a big, happy family.  The cats have even learned the art of tolerance and now live in peace.  As long as Hurley gets his daily exercise and doesn't look to burn off some energey by playing a game of kitty tag.

I loved having a dog growing up and the whole point of this was that I wanted the same thing for Cameron.  I also just wanted to have a dog for myself, but that's just between us.  Cameron and Hurley were instant friends and as they both grow older, the bond continues to grow stronger.  He follows her around - usually because she has the leash on him walking him around the house - and she will often go over to him when he's sleeping and lay her head on him.  He's even become part of the night time routine and she usually wants him to sit at my feet as I read her a story.  He happily puts of with all of her kisses, pats, and grabs and always comes back for more. 

We realized that he was the perfect dog one time last year when he was still pretty young.  Sara was sitting on the couch and he was in his usual position of lying between the couch and the coffee table under Sara's legs sound asleep.  Cameron walked over and starting talking to Sara and after a few minutes, Sara realized that Cameron was using Hurley's head as a stepping stool!  She was standing directly on his head with all of her weight (not much really, but still....) and he didn't so much as bat an eye.  Once Sara moved Cameron, Hurley just got up and moved to another spot.  What a good doggie boy!

Hurley at 3 months - how could we not take him home?

BFF's

In need of a haircut!

We're back!

It's been quite a while, but the blog is back with some big news!

Baby Green #2 is on it's way - ETA is July 6, 2011!

I've been thinking lately that I wanted to start the blog again, and this is as good a time as any.  I'll try to do updates every week or so, but we'll see how that goes.  Cameron is two and a half now and very loquatious and full of curiosity, so that takes up quite a bit of time. 

It's pretty refreshing to see the world through her innocence.  She couldn't be more excited that Mommy "has a baby in her tummy" and often tries to pull up Sara's shirt to show it off.  Last night she asked me if I had a baby in my tummy too and seemed pretty disappointed when I explained that only Mommies get babies in their tummies.  I asked her if Mommy's baby was a girl or a boy and she said confidently that it was a girl that that it was two like her.  I can't wait to hear what names she has picked out!

Sara recently ran her first marathon and is feeling pretty good in these early weeks of pregnancy; just a little extra sleepiness, but nothing that a 7pm nap can't fix.  She's continued running 4-5 times per week - nothing to the marathon level but she still leaves me in the dust - so I think that will help her to feel great as things progress.

Take care and stay tuned!

-Jesse  

I'm taking over this show

Hi everyone-

I've noticed that my Daddy has been getting a little lazy with the blog, so I've decided to take over this show to keep you updated on how fast I'm growing! After all, I'm a big girl now so I should be able to handle it.

As most of you know, I turned 1 on April 28th and had a great party with my Parents, both Aunties, all of my Grandparents, and even some of my Great-Grandparents! It was kind of strange though, because everyone just sat around and looked at me as I played with my new toys and just generally tried to be as cute as possible. I did get a million kisses so I think I was doing something right. Great-Grandma Bert gave me a new doll that my Mom and Dad named "Baby" (they're pretty creative) and she goes everywhere with me! She sleeps with me, goes with me in the car, eats with me, and always seems to be following me throughout the house. I love her!


Here we are shopping with Mommy

My language skills are getting better and I can now say Momma and Dada and actually know who I'm talking about. I'm also getting really good with my sign language and can use 5 signs really well - more, all done, food, milk, and help. I'm also learning to point at what I want so I can sign "more" and point at the strawberries (0ne of my new favorites) on the counter. Mom and Dad are very happy that since we can communicate, I don't get frustrated and scream. "Help" works the same way - I'll usually try something myself first, but if I can't do it, I'll ask for help and they're right there to get my book down or grab my toy.

I'm getting better at walking too. I'm starting to get much more brave and worked my way up to a max of about nine steps. I'm sure I'll be running around soon enough!

Love, Cameron Elyse

Helping Aunt Katie and Uncle Mark blow up balloons


Look at my pretty Birthday dress!


Bring on the cake!


mmmmmmm

Look who is ticklish!

Like a lot of things, allergies have a tendency to run in the family. If one or both parents have allergies, a baby has a good shot of having them too. Luckily, Sara and I don't have any allergies and so far, it doesn't look like Cameron has any either. Being ticklish might not be something that's passed down genetically, but Sara and I are both ticklish and after watching the videos, you can decide if Cameron is too.

Cameron at 11 months!

I can't believe that Cameron is almost a year old already, and I also can't believe how fast she's changing these days. She can't walk on her own yet (although every now and again she gets daring enough to take a step or two by herself) but she motors like crazy around the house on her walker/cart and she's figured out exactly how far she can get hanging on to the coffee table, couch, and everything else within reach.

She's eating very well and is always willing to try new things. She likes pesto ravioli, meatloaf, sweet potatoes, cheese, prunes, pears, chicken, and turkey, just to name a few. She's still on formula, although we think that she's starting to ween herself off of the bottles all together. She used to drink 6oz pretty consistently, but now she usually pushes the bottle away after 4-5oz and fills up on solid foods. That makes for very interesting diapers!

Sara and I have been working pretty hard on teaching her the basics of sign language and she's starting to act like she's figuring things out. She's got the "more" sign down pretty well....especially when she's asking for more prunes. She's also started clapping whenever something happens that she really likes. Just last week she's started clapping whenever Sara walks in the door from work. It's pretty stinking cute and Sara is pretty sure that there's no better way to get welcomed home from work.

All in all, things are going very well. She's still on the small side as far as height and weight, but that's nothing new and she keeps trucking right along. She has four teeth now and #5 is just poking through - I'm sure #6 isn't far behind. She continues to amaze us with all of her new tricks and we look forward to year #2!

getting dressed for a ride in the bike trailer

pushing her cart around on the patio

Cameron loves the kitties

just being cute

Cameron's four-legged friend

As many of you know, Sara and I adopted a couple of children (cats named Soda and Seven) long before we brought Cameron home. We were a little unsure of how they would react to her, but they've both taken to her quite well...in their own unique ways, at least.

At first, it was pretty easy since she really didn't do much, but now that she can get from one side of the house to the other in as long as it takes us to turn around, it's a different story. She's taken to showing affection by laying her head down on things (as if she's laying it on our shoulder) and if she happens to sneak up on them, they'll usually put up with it for about 10 seconds before deciding that there's something more interesting in the next room. We'll see if that continues as she gets more and more mobile in the coming months. (I've got my money on the "no" side)

playing peek-a-boo with Soda

On the other hand, our neighbors have a beagle mix named Stubby (sidebar: both of our next-door neighbors have beagles and both are named Stubby...how crazy is that?) that absolutely loves Cameron! Everytime we come out of the house, he runs to the fence to get some good petting/sniffing in. I think he likes Sara and I just fine, but Cameron is his real buddy. It was semi-sunny the other day so we took Cameron outside so they could get some face to face time. Here's the pictures.

It starts with a look, then a sniff, then a kiss.

She's mobile!

So Cameron has been semi-crawling for a few months now, but she's really taken it to a new level lately. Plus, she's getting very good at walking around as long as she can hold onto something sturdy - usually our fingers or a piece of furniture. She's even figured out how to move from one piece to the next to get as far as she can before she has to sit down and crawl.

Auntie Kristen (Sara's sister) bought her a cool push-around cart that she's really getting into. As you can see, she's not too good at the steering, but she's got the going part down really well.