Saturday, May 30, 2009

Worrying...

I think of myself as a pretty easy going mom, but the past week has been a bit stressful. If you read my last post you know I've been calling Cameron "Piggy" because he eats constantly. I didn't think much of it until we went for his well check on 5/22. At his doctor's appointment we discovered that he's lost three pounds (12% of his body weight). His growth charts are supposed to increase, or level off, not dip, like Cameron's did. We've since done lots of tests and have another appointment with his doctor Monday morning for a weigh-in and a "where do we go from here" conversation. We are also heading down to the Oakland Kaiser on Wednesday for a Cystic Fibrosis test. We are hoping and praying that it is negative. Apparently having the poops and weight loss is a classic sign of CF. We've asked his doctor many questions like, isn't it okay for him to lose weight since he's crawling and walking now? His answers to these questions are that it's not normal for him to lose that much weight, especially since he's eating constantly. There's something going on with his body that is causing him to not absorb his food. Other than his constant eating he's a happy little guy. Please pray for him and his doctors that we can find a solution to this problem. Our chubby baby is thinning out and his mom and dad are stressing out!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Our Beautiful Niece, Abbey

Okay, I admit it, photography is a secret passion of mine. If I had all the time in the world and money in the world I would love to buy an awesome digital camera and take lots of classes in the art. Until then, I use my regular camera and try it out on some beautiful subjects - family! This is my darling niece, Abbey. So beautiful and sweet, she looks like she could be mine. Maybe one day I'll have a little girl who looks like her. For now, I'll just take pictures of her. She's 10 months old in these pictures. Her mommy, daddy and big brothers are so blessed to have Baby Abbey!


We Walked for Rylee!

On the weekend of May 16th we went to Fresno to hang out with Doug's family and to walk for our sort-of niece, Rylee. She's actually Doug's cousin Sara's daughter, would that make her a second cousin? Who knows! She is the sweetest three year old little girl you could ever meet and unfortunately she has tumors on her brain and spine. She's been through so much an is such a trooper, you can see her darling smile below. The walk, in the small town of Caruthers, raised over $40,000! We couldn't believe it. What a blessing. The money will go toward building a gamma knife department especially for children at their local hospital.



Monday, May 18, 2009

Mother's Day '09

Mother's Day this year was so nice. After getting lots of hugs and kisses from my boys I opened my special gift from Chase that he picked out for me: a Little Mermaid watch, ice pack and raft. Yea! What a great gift. Apparently he wanted to get me all Spiderman stuff, but Doug steared him in the more feminine direction. I wore my new watch to church and showed it off. There's nothing like a cheap digital watch to make your wrist all sweaty and itchy. My number one man, Doug, got me a spa gift certificate, now I just need to carve out a few hours for myself, can't wait! After church we went to my aunt and uncle's house way out in the middle of nowhere. We love being there because it's so secluded and relaxing. They have a pond on their property and Chase brought the fishing pole that my Aunt Julie and Uncle John got him for his first birthday. Chase was very excited to take his tackle box and pole out to the pond. He truly takes after me, though, and refused to touch the worms, or the fish when he (and my cousin James) caught one. I was hanging out in the kitchen when the boys were out fishing and when my uncle came back in I asked him how Chase did. His response: he's not my son, that's for sure! Haha! It's true - Chase has a very gentle soul and absolutely hates to be dirty. He's probably the cleanes three year old boy you'll ever meet.

In other exciting news, Cameron took his first steps on May 1st and took seven consecutive steps on the 14th. We're hoping he will walk more consistently before we go on vacation to visit my dad and Emma in Vegas mid June. He is a super crawler, quite the fast little guy. He is talking and saying lots of animal noises. He loves to give kisses and hugs and pretending to talk on the phone. Cam, so far, is a naturally funny guy and has the ability to make people crack up. He's also quite the eater. I call him the hungriest baby in the world and have given him a (hopefully temporary) nickname of Piggy. As you all can see from the pictures, I still haven't cut his hair. His curls are just too cute and sweet. There's rarely a day that goes by when someone doesn't call him a girl, or say "she's so cute." I suppose the day will come when I eventually cut it, but I'm putting it off for now. Enjoy these pictures from Mother's Day.

April '09 - Fun times and Easter

We had an eventful month in April. On our way home from playing one day we were met with a huge tractor and dump truck working on the street right in front of our house. Cam fell asleep on the way home, so after putting him to bed I had a special moment with Chase enjoying the tractors. The workers were so nice to Chase and Tony, the dump truck driver, let him sit in the giant truck. An ice cream man happened to come by at the perfect time, so Chase and I had this perfect mommy/son moment watching tractors, eating ice cream and enjoying the sunshine.

Easter is always a fun time around here. On Saturday we went to the Easter Egg Hunt at our church. The boys loved hunting for eggs and Cameron loved playing in the balloons (he LOVES balloons!). Easter Sunday I got us all dressed up in coordinating outfits and we went to church, then to my grandma's house for a lovely family feast.

Enjoy the album: