What's been going on lately...

My little Angel!

Last week was a busy week. On Monday Camden had his first cereal experience! I call it an experience because the cereal got on his chin, bib, fingers, and his high chair... but I don't think that any actually made it down his throat. With every bite he would roll it around with his tongue and spit it back out. Aaron and I had a lot of fun even if he didn't swallow one bite! I think we took about 50 pictures of him playing with the cereal! He did the same thing on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By Thursday, he had learned that he could scoop it out of his mouth with his fingers. He decided to rub his eyes right after this, so he got cereal stuck in his eyelashes. I thought he would get upset, but he didn't... he just stuck his fingers back in his mouth to scoop out the rest. He's not a fan of the cereal apparently. We decided to give him a break over the weekend, and we tried it again last night. I think he even swallowed a bite! He gives this hilarious face though! He scrunches his face up just like his daddy does when he doesn't like something! Little man loves to eat, so I know that he'll get the hang of it pretty soon. If he is like me, he will just need to do it in his own time. The same thing goes with his "going to bed" habits. I'm realizing how much patience my parents must have had to deal with me!

I've tried to find a way around walking him to sleep. The rocking thing works 1 out of 10 times, so I'm looking to try something else. The rocking seems to put me to sleep before he even begins to drift off. The last couple of days I have tried to "Ferberize" him by letting him cry it out for a little bit. This doesn't seem to be working but making the problem worse. The normal baby would get tired of crying and fall asleep, right? Mine doesn't... he just continues to cry. Since I've been trying to do this, he starts to cry right when he gets sleepy, and it is even more difficult to put him down than before. This is a child who can cry all the way from Bville to OKC and not fall asleep from exhaustion. I have seen the "cry it out" method work, but I don't think it's for Camden. Walking him to sleep is extra bonding time with him, so I don't mind it besides the fact that he is out of control heavy.

We had a great Easter weekend. Camden made it through most of the church service, and we only had to step out once! The child just needs some wiggle time every now and then. It was good getting to see my family on Easter because it seemed like I hadn't seen them in forever! On Christmas I had the stomach flu, and I was stuck in a back room the whole day, so it was fun spending time with everyone on Sunday, and Camden loved being passed around and given lots of hugs and kisses. He was definitely a spoiled little man by the time we got home. When I would put him down, he would look around like he was saying, "Okay... whose turn is it to come love on me now?"

It has been so much fun seeing his personality develop! I can make one little face at him and he will throw his head back and laugh and laugh. I will laugh back at him, and he will keep on laughing because he seems to know that he is funny too. He is trying so hard to communicate right now, and I can't wait until I can actually understand what he is saying! I could just sit their for hours and talk and laugh with him. I can't get over how amazing he is... The other day another teacher asked me what it was like to be a parent, and I could not think of the words to describe how much I love Camden. When my students would write in their essays "word cannot describe..." I would always mark it out in red ink and write Words can ALWAYS describe, you just need to find the RIGHT ones! I stand corrected because I don't think there are words pure enough to describe how I feel about Camden. The word "love" doesn't even cut the surface of the depth of feelings I have for him. When you become a parent, I think you really get a glimpse of how much God loves us, His children. It's overwhelming!

By the way, Don't think you got out of seeing Camden's pics of his first cereal experience. Like most parents, I feel it necessary to post pictures of my child with nasty food all over his face; I just need to get Aaron to download the pics from the camera. It's icky and gross, but he's still precious.