Shaking his head "no"!

I have some great photos from this past weekend that I have to post, but in the meantime I wanted to quickly post this silly video.  Cameron just learned to shake his head "no"!  Oh Lord!  

I make it a point to try and keep the "no's" to a minimum and focus more on redirection.  His "no's" are for the more egregious matters, mostly involving going after electrical outlets, the occasional hitting, the "not-so-occasional" biting, or throwing food and/or his sippy cup.  The other day he threw some peaches from his highchair and I didn't even say no, rather just shook my head "no", and he thought it was the funniest thing and started mimicking me.  While he definitely understands the word "no", he doesn't have a negative connotation with shaking your head "no".  He just thinks it is so funny!  Guess I am going to have my hands full!

Hands up! Baby, hands up!

Cameron's new thing is lifting his arms in the air and waiting for a reaction...us cheering for him, of course!  It's the funniest thing.  It's so fun to see how he's really understanding things now.  He's beginning to make a connection between actions and subsequent reactions.  He's loves to do things over and over and over again.  It never gets old. 

Some arms-up fun in the tub!

Pumpkin carving!

This weekend Cameron was still recovering from being sick with a virus and a double ear infection, but we still managed to have some fun.  We took Cameron to the park on Saturday and he enjoyed the swings and a nice walk on a path through the woods.  The weather was amazing!  

Cameron was very serious on the swings.

On Sunday night we carved the pumpkins we picked last week.  At first, Cameron was petrified of the pumpkins.  He refused to stand on the counter next to them for a picture and just clung to my neck.  After I drew on a Mickey Mouse face, he was a little more interested and was willing to check it out a bit.  

My plan was to draw Mickey on the pumpkin and then cut out all the dark areas...It didn't exactly turn out as I pictured, but not too terrible.

Pink eye...Aww Shucks

Despite tons of hand-washing, after not even 2 weeks at daycare...pink eye.  Poor baby woke up on Friday morning with his sweet little left eye puffy and crunchy.  We took pumpkin to the pediatrician, who confirmed that Cameron had pink eye in both eyes. 

My eyes were feeling a bit heavy as well and the pediatrician said it looked like I had pink eye too.  After waiting for Cameron's Rx at the pharmacy, my little buddy and I went to track down a minute clinic to get my own eyes checked out.  Not surprising, I too had pink eye in both eyes and was prescribed the same medicine as my poor baby!  Later in the day, Josh headed to a minute clinic as well and was prescribed an eye ointment...thank you, daycare.

On Saturday afternoon, we were all feeling much better (and had been on Rx's for 24 hrs) and decided to enjoy the perfect Fall weather and go pumpkin picking at a farm called "Awww Shucks!".  The farm was very fun and had all kinds of things to see and do.  There were hayrides, farm animals, tractors to climb on, and of course pumpkins. 

Ready for Fall...

Cameron, not really enjoying the tractor.

 Checking out the mini-horse, Charlie.

Cameron, grouchily slapping his baby pumpkin.

 A nice little snack of puffs to finish up the day!

Cameron goes to school!

Well, it's official...my big boy started school last week!  One good thing about being home right now is being able to transition him to day care, slowly.  The first 2 days, Cameron and I just played for a few hours and then came home.  He pretty much just clung to my neck, but was very interested in looking around at all the other babies and all the fun toys.  The last few days, I've been leaving him a little bit more each time.  He plays with toys, reads books, eats puffs at the table with his friends, does art projects, and does a ton of dancing. He's so cute to watch from the window when I go to pick him up.  He'll just be crawling around, or eating paper, or just doing something silly in the middle of his busy day.  Cameron has warmed up to his teachers and eats for them but has a very difficult time taking naps.  (Today was the first day he slept...a whopping 30 minutes...but it's a start!)  He'll play with his friends for hours at school, refuse to take a nap, and then he's dead asleep in the car, before I'm barely even out of the parking garage!

Snoozing after a busy day at school
P.S. I'm safely stopped at a red light while taking this picture.

Today, he did some painting at school and I got to take home his 1st piece of artwork!

It was surreal to hang it up on the fridge...such a big boy.  I'm so proud of him.

Another huge milestone is that Cameron says "cat".  Every time he sees the cats he gets so excited, races over to them and starts very roughly "petting" them and yelling "cat", "cat", "cat".  (He also "pets" his friends at school...eek.  We're working on "gentle" and "nice hands", but it's definitely taking some time.)

 Come here, Miles!!

Overall daycare has been a really good experience so far.  I know that the socialization aspect is wonderful and he's being exposed to so many different things.  Speaking of which...I was notified this afternoon of a "pink eye outbreak" in Cameron's class.  There will be lots of hand-washing in our future the next few days. 

Cameron loves bubbles!

Bye, Heather!

A great friend of mine is moving to Europe, so we got together to have lunch before she leaves.  Heather, I'm going to miss you so much!