Month / September 2017

by Kelsey

Camden Cruz is 3 Years Old!

A Portrait of the Boy as a 3 Year Old

He knows his ABCs, although when he sings it, ‘S’ is ‘X’ so there are two Xs (exes? X’? Exi’?). He has recognized “C” on the computer keyboard for a while as well as a few other letters like J for Joe and X (I’m realizing his favorite letter is X). He also has said, “Look at that stop sign! It has an O next to a P and a T and an S!” He can count to 20ish pretty consistently but when there are a lot of things in one place he says there are a hundred or a million of them. He recognizes many numbers like 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8. He knows his shapes including spheres (pronounced ‘spears’) and cylinders and semicircles.

He has been able to get his bottom half undressed for a while and recently started pulling off his shirt. He can get his pants on now and it’s fun to watch him concentrate as he does it. He is not potty trained but he wants to be. He’s excited about his Paw Patrol underwear and would prefer to wear them though he’s often too absorbed in what he’s doing to recognize he has to go to the bathroom. I think that being at school makes him want to ditch the diapers too because it’s the cool thing to do.

He just started getting into music. Usually after the bath he dances around his room and asks to hear certain songs. He always has another dance move (“Did you see my new dance move?!”).

Favorite books:

  • Goodnight Moon
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  • Give a Mouse a Cookie series
  • Clifford

Favorite color: red
Favorite show: Blaze and the Monster Machines
Favorite school supply: tie between scissors and glue
Favorite activities:

  • Going swimming
  • Going on “the cation“
  • Building and smashing everything
  • Playing store with a giant box in the garage or in the toy box in the playhouse at Poppy and Inny’s
  • Filling buckets, moving buckets, emptying buckets, repeat
  • Chasing imaginary monsters on our night walks
  • Pretend picnics in the yard or the house
  • Blowing and chasing bubbles
  • Wasting water disguised as washing his hands or watering plants or filling buckets or cleaning dishes etc

Favorite toys:

  • His hammer
  • Hot Wheels racecar track
  • Marble Maze
  • Blocks
  • Anything that lights up. His flashlight, “beary,” his elephant that projects stars on the ceiling
  • Dad’s tools

Favorite movie: none. I’ve discovered that every Pixar, Disney and classic starts with something dramatic. He’s typically in tears within the first 15 minutes and we shut it off.

Favorite foods:

  • Peanut butter and jelly toast, not toasted
  • Every fruit on the planet including loquats, pomegranates and persimmons which all grow in the neighborhood
  • Pizza
  • Cupcakes
  • Salad (this video cracks me up, he’s so excited)

Low points from the last year:

  • Going to the dentist
  • Staying overnight at the hospital when he had his infection
  • When he ate _____________ (fill in the blank with your favorite item below):
    • floss (twice)
    • Chapstick cap
    • licorice from the Vons parking lot
    • hunks of grass
    • sea snail eggs (yes, we called poison control) … sorta can’t blame him. They look like candy.
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    • a stranger’s gum off the ground (this was followed by croup and a trip to the ER… I swear it was the germs from the gum)
  • Tantrums, 50% of the time over milk, 25% of the time over wanting something sugary and the last 25% misc. Even though it’s normal at this age, that doesn’t make them easier or less sad.
  • Starting preschool

High points from the last year:

  • Vacation in Palm Desert
  • Bringing home sister–he had a little gray bunny ready as a gift to her
  • Starting preschool
  • Gymnastics and pool time at the YMCA
  • Going kayaking and paddleboarding and paddleboating
  • Going to Disneyland
  • Riding the train to Oxnard
  • Moving into a new bedroom with a big boy bed

Cam's Big Boy Room & Bed

  • His birthday! If the point of celebrating a birthday is to make someone feel special, then we nailed it! On Saturday, he had a Paw Patrol-themed party with his best buddy Morgan. On Sunday, we went apple picking. On Monday, I took the day off, we went to the lake in the morning, to Urban Jungle in the afternoon and had a BBQ at Poppy and Inny’s house with all his favorite people and all his favorite food. He was genuinely having the best day ever. As a mom, this is all I can hope for.

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by Kelsey

Half a Trip Around the Sun

My sweet little poonum pie is 6 months old! She is just a delightful little lady showing off her chubby smile any chance she gets. In fact, she’s so charming I almost lost her to a Home Depot employee who wanted to babysit her “forever.”

She had her 6-month check-up scheduled for this afternoon and so, when I finished up with work, I grabbed a couple diapers and wipes and ran out the door with her. Well, shame on me for thinking that’s all I’d need. When I got there, I took her out of her car seat and discovered a slimy trail going up her back. She blew out her diaper and had poop all over her back and onesie. What’s a mom to do?

I changed her diaper, bagged the onesie and wiped her down. Then I put her shorts back on because they were in good shape and then I made a baby blanket halter shirt for her so she didn’t have to show up naked. Très chic! You can get your own soon when I open my Etsy store.

As for the check-up itself, she got 4 shots and 1 oral vaccination. She cried for about a minute and then was back to her happy self. She also got weighed and measured and, let’s just say if it were a competition (which it isn’t, I know), she’d be winning.

Weight: 21 lbs, 98%ile
Length: 27.5″, 96%ile
Head Circumference: 17.7″, 98%ile

At least she’s proportionate!

For the sake of comparing my babies, I looked up Cam’s 6-month numbers. Here they are:

Weight: 21.87 lbs. 96%ile
Length: 27.8″, 85%ile
Head Circumference: 18.1″, 94%ile

I think because Cam didn’t have a neck he looked a lot bigger, but according to the numbers, they’re practically the same!

Other fun things about my Demi Grey:

  • She went from sitting up assisted to sitting up unassisted in about 2 days. She has a nice sturdy base. She also sits and plays with toys for up to a half hour perfectly content.
  • She can wave and say “hi”… she even did this for Dr. Vu today who made a note in her chart. “Hi” by the way, is officially her first word.
  • She also says “blah blah blah” (typically when adults are talking) and “dadadadada” but not in reference to Joe (yet).
  • She rotates her hands and feet vigorously throughout the day.
  • She’s eating a few solids: avocados, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes. She loved sweet potato the most.

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  • She loves beer.

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  • She loves baths now that she can sit up (hated laying in the sling).

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  • She absolutely loves watching her brother. He still makes her laugh the most.

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  • She goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up twice for a little milk. Then she wakes up in the morning smiling and waving hi.
  • She’s wearing 12-18 month clothing… and got to wear my childhood bathing suit a couple weeks ago. Farrah Fawcett eat your heart out.

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  • And she’s recently discovered her furry sister. She’s curious but not too curious. Mila on the other hand wants to protect the littlest member of her wolfpack.

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  • And finally, she shows us her determination daily. She knows what she wants and will work hard to get it.
by Kelsey

Dinner with my Monkeys

Since Demi hasn’t really been into solid foods we haven’t had a dinner where all of us were eating at the same time. She’s usually on my lap lunging, grunting and reaching for every bite that bypasses her on its way to me.

But she’s starting to get into it and her gag reflex is getting better, so last night I set Demi up with some avocado while Cam and I had burritos with avocado.

It was more like dinner and a show. Highly entertaining.

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by Kelsey

Cam Says, Part III

Here we go again…

Joe put some rubber/spongy tiles in the garage, the kind that go together like a puzzle, and the edges are kind of useless in my opinion. We don’t need the edges to be flush and they are skinny and flimsy and always coming apart. They’re basically a tripping hazard. So, I placed a few of the loose ones in the small trashcan by the side door.

Well, a couple days later we were in the house making dinner and Cam turns to me and says, “You know, mom, it’s not nice to throw things away that other people are still using.”

Mini Joe.

We’ve gone through the Starbucks drive-through enough times that Cam gets the concept of saying your order through the window of the car and then pulling forward to pick up the order.

Some days I order him ice water, some days we splurge on lemonade. He enjoys asking for his drink through the window and getting it from the cashier.

Today after I picked him up I decided to go to the Mexican food drive through for lunch. He asked me for lemonade, but they don’t have any. So I told him I would get a horchata to share. But then, as I was trying to tell the woman my order over a very crackly speaker, he spotted a picture of flan on the menu, which looked just like an unfrosted cupcake.

He started shouting “..A CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE!”

“AND A CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE!”

I laughed and tried to repeat the end of my order because she couldn’t hear me. And he yelled again “A CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE!”

I gave up and pulled ahead to the window to place my order because he kept shouting, not wanting to give up on that dream.

Luckily, she found it funny and Cam loved the horchata. But my goodness, this kid loves cupcakes.

Aaaaaand a totally unrelated video of Cam enjoying a mid-summer squall.