Date with Grammy and Grampy

Cameron was soooo excited to spend a Saturday with Grammy and Grampy and go to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.  He has never been there and my parents knew he would love it.  They ate lunch in the restaurant there.  Cameron wanted dessert after his lunch....so they ordered this giant brownie hot fudge sunday and took a picture to make me jealous :)

He liked playing in the sand and water, but only for a little while....he doesn't really like when his hands get dirty.

He could have dug for dinosaur bones forever...

Cameron came home worn out and tired (and so did grammy and grampy lol).  He had so much fun and couldn't wait to show us the Triceratops they bought him.  He had to take a bath with it and sleep with it. The next day he kept talking about going with them to see the dinosaurs and about walking on a bridge in the dark with Grampy and singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  I am sure he will remember this day for a long time and talk about it even longer :)  That is one of my favorite things about Cameron, he gets so excited about things and has so much fun talking about them after he does them.

What's new?

Yay for nice weather and spring!!  We have gone outside and played the past few days.  

Mackenzie can sit up on her own for longer periods of time (even on ugly grass...and with the dog sneaking in the picture)

We put the swing up for Mackenzie and this was her first time in it.  She thought it was pretty fun and was smiling.  She was laughing too it was so cute.  When we stopped pushing her she started fussing.

 She is changing every day and learning so much....she even holds her own bottle now.  She continues to eat more and loves her real food/cereal.  Mackenzie is doing so awesome sleeping now!  She slept 9 straight hours last night!  That has never happened, but I hope it's a sign of things to come.  She usually naps 2 to 3 times a day about 1 hour each, and the best part about the naps is....they are in her crib!!  Wahooooo!!!

Potty training

I'm not so sure what I signed up for, but it's giving me a run for my money!!  Cameron has done so awesome with potty training.  He never has #1 accidents (unless he goes #2 and then with it usually comes #1).  He just doesn't seem to care about going #2 in the potty.  He did it once and earned a prize was totally excited, and every time he goes in his underwear he says "if I went in the potty I could have got a truck or candy".  I had a friend tell me it took awhile for her boys as well, but it really only took a few time going #2 in their pants...they didn't like the feeling of it.  I totally thought that would be Cameron....Mr. clean....but it actually doesn't seem to bother him!  He sometimes wont tell me he went in his pants for a long time.  I do lots of laundry every day and I am soooo thankful I didn't live in the days of cloth diapers!!  I don't know how you did that mom.  It's bad enough to get most of it off in the toilet and then put them in the washer!!

It really hasn't been a problem until tonight.  Every time he has had an accident it has been at home.  Which has been extremely lucky because we are always gone somewhere during the day!  Well, we had gone to Target tonight...Cameron had gone to the bathroom a few minutes before.   We were in Target for about 10 minutes (items in the cart) when Cameron announces he just "pooped my pants" as if it was no big deal.  Then he says "let's change them".  I told him I didn't bring any extra underwear and we would have to go home.  Just then we ran into some friends from our neighborhood.  Cameron gives the guy five and tells him he pooped in his underwear.  I told them I was going to abandon my shopping cart and head home.  Cameron was upset because he wanted to stay at Target "I love Target" and get popcorn.  We came home changed his underwear and then he says "now let's go back to Target".  I told him we weren't going to go back tonight...explaining why....hoping that it would maybe have some sort of an impact on him and help him realize there are consequences to pooing his pants....hoping he would resolve in that moment that he would never  go to the bathroom in his pants again....that he would see if he had only told me he needed to go potty at Target, he could still be there eating popcorn instead of home....but here he lays on the couch watching TV and by the looks of things he doesn't really care or probably doesn't even remember what just happened.  The things we go through as parents.  I understand why some people choose to  hibernate during the potty training phase in life....I just can't do that though, I'm not sure what would make me more crazy!  So for now I will just stick an extra pair of underwear and pants in my car instead.

Update....

 It has been really nice weather the past few days, so we went to the park.  This was Mackenzie first time touching grass.  I remember Cameron didn't like the feel of it at first.  He didn't want to touch it with his hands or feet.  But she just kept rolling and rolling on the blanket until she came to the end and there was the grass.  Of course she smiled!!

I wish I could say she was this happy when we put her to bed at night!  But she is still crying when we first put her down.  She has done really well though, actually better than we expected.  She falls asleep after about 5 to 10 minutes of crying.,,,will sleep about 3 hours and then wake up crying a little but falls back asleep shortly.  She wakes up several times a night still, but is able to fall back to sleep without help within 5 minutes usually.  The best thing is I am able to lay her in her crib for naps!!!  It is freedom!  Even though she only sleeps about 1 hr I can get soooo much stuff done!  The other day I actually was able to shower, empty the dishwasher, do a load of laundry, check emails, pick up toys and clean up the kitchen all during her morning nap.  I never had this freedom with Cameron.  He never napped in his crib, I had to hold him because of his acid reflux or else I would drive him around to sleep.  I had no idea,until now, what my friends meant when they said they couldn't survive or get anything done if their kid's didn't nap.  It feels like a luxury to me!!

It's time!!

All day I have been dreading tonight and what I knew was going to happen.  We decided we were going to start the "cry it out" thing tonight or what is known as the Ferber Method.  I took such cute, happy pictures of her all day just knowing that tonight she is going to be screaming her head off and if she could she would be swearing at me :)

I just keep looking at these pictures while she is bed crying, telling myself that "this too shall pass" and once we get past this hard part she will sleep better and Jeremy and I won't be zombies anymore!  But this is the worst torture for me to endure.  I can't stand listening to her cry when I know I could go comfort her!

I have been trying to keep myself busy the last few hours, doing noisy activities and am currently running bath water so I can go try to relax??!!  I then plan to eat a gallon of ice cream to make it all better, yes I am a self diagnosed emotional eater :)

On a side note, I made that cute headband flower she has in her hair :)  I decided I was going to start making her bows and stuff since they cost so much to buy and I need something in every color to match all her clothes!

6 months

Mackenzie has been in our lives for 6 months now!  Although we have been sleep deprived for these past 6 months, she has brought so much joy to our family.  She is such a happy baby....even without sleep herself!  We went to her 6 month well check today and she is healthy in every way.  She is 26" tall  (60%) weights 13 lbs 12 oz (11%) and 45% with her head circumference.

She continues to like her baby food, and only drinks about 2-3 oz of formula at a time (should be drinking 8 oz now).  Mackenzie sucks at sleeping....she wakes up almost every 20 minutes.  At least 12 times a night.  I think we are going to do the "cry it out" thing this weekend.  I hate the thought of it, but Jeremy and I can't last much longer on the 3 hours of sleep we get!  Mackenzie rolls all around and loves to put toys in her mouth.  She reaches for everything, especially my hair and loves to grab at my mouth.  She knows her daddy's voice and lights up when she sees him.  She also loves her big brother, he can make her laugh when she is fussy or crying.  Mackenzie gets so excited when Cameron talks to her and plays with her.  Cameron is already a protective big brother, he was so concerned when she was getting her shots today.  When the nurse was preparing everything, he started asking questions about the shots.  Then he held Kenzie's hand the whole time and had the most concerned look on his face because she was crying.  He kept saying "she doesn't like that, it hurts her."  Then on the way home he kept talking to her and telling her she was ok and tried to make her smile.  We love our little tiny baby girl.  She is small but she sure is strong and determined!  I can't wait to see what the next 6 months will bring!!! 

Snowy the snowman

We haven't had a very snowy winter this year and so Cameron hasn't had many chances to play in the snow, sled, or build snowmen.  But we got a bunch of snow Friday night, so I thought it would be fun to build a snowman Saturday.  Cameron has been waiting to use the snowman kit that Grammy & Grampy gave him.

  

Cameron wanted to name him Snowy....

It turned out to be an interesting snowman....but Cameron was excited to put on the buttons and the hat.  He loved the big wooden carrot nose and the pipe.  There was actual coal for eyes and a fun big floppy hat.  Soooo once we accessorized the pile of snow, it looked more like an actual snowman :)