The Name Game

This was actually taken last month, I think. A while ago he started calling Cody and I by what he heard us call each other. This was also after he learned that Daddy's middle name is Christopher. The only other place he'd heard Christopher was Christopher Robin so he kept saying that. My favorite, of course, is what he thinks my name is. We have since corrected him, but for a while he really thought it was my name. It's so funny to see it because even just a month later, he has changed so much!

The Best One To-Date

I need to preface this story with a little insider info. For those of you who aren't Thomas fans, you should know that the trains have boilers and sometimes they have trouble with said boilers. Now, on to the story.

Owen: I want to see pictures of baby Cameron in the hospital.

Mommy: Not tonight, Owen. We'll look at them tomorrow.

Owen: Mommy, you were in the hospital.

Mommy: Yes, I was. Do you know why I was in the hospital?

Owen: Because you had a boiler ache.

Fun with Daddy

Just a couple of pictures I took of Daddy and his boys last weekend. Owen is Daddy's best bud these days and just adores him. Anytime he wears his Illinois or Cubs t-shirt he says, "I'm just like Daddy!" One day he had on a polo shirt and he said, "It has buttons on it just like Daddy's shirt!" I guess it won't be long before Cameron is joining in on the adoration of Daddy as well. Looks like I better have a little girl soon! :)

Look how thin my husband's face looks! He's lost somewhere around 30 lbs since January! Go, Cody!
Owen's newest thing is doing silly faces. And who does a better silly face that Daddy?!

Tulip Time

I realized I never posted the pictures from Tulip Time so here they are! Owen went with Grandma Lynn and Daddy while Cam and I stayed home as it was a little too chilly for Baby Cam. They had a great time and Owen loved watching his first parade.

Owen always sees the Pella logo and says, "That says Pella! That's where Daddy works!"

I never did hear the story as to why there was a fake dog, but he liked it!

The local college did a Thomas float so, of course, that was Owen's favorite thing there. I can't believe what an amazing job they did! And this is how nearly every float is. They are just beautiful. And they are all rigged with lights because there are night parades, too. There is a day parade and a night parade every day of the festival.


I'm not sure what was going on with the video that was up earlier today. I'm trying to get it working and hopefully it will be up again soon!

Bicycle Boy

Owen is just learning to ride his bike this year, as he can finally reach the pedals on it! He has been having so much fun going out with Daddy in the evenings and riding around the driveway. On Sunday I got him a new Thomas helmet and kneepads, which he absolutely loves. He wears the helmet in the house all the time! Here's a few pictures of him riding this weekend.

Just a cute little picture in one of his new summer outfits that I bought that I had to post because I thought it was so cute!
He's ready to go! Notice Murphy in the background asking Daddy if he can go out, too!

When I bought the helmet I saw a Thomas bike that I wanted to buy for him so badly! It was so cute! I held off since we really had no money for it and he's still just learning and it was a little bigger than this bike. Maybe next month!

Friday Night Fun

The weather here is just fabulous right now so I had the idea to hit our favorite park in Pella on Friday night. We invited Travis and the girls since Owen has such a ball playing with them. Jasmine was out of town on business, but we missed her greatly! We had a McDonald's picnic and then it was time for play!

Travis pushed the kids on the big tire swing. This was before Owen fell right through the middle of it onto the ground. There were tears but he shook it off pretty well.
Cammers just enjoyed the breeze while he chilled in his stroller.

I think this was Owen's first time on a real swing (not the bucket ones). He still hasn't learned to pump his legs but at least he didn't fall off!

He LOVES this slide. He kept saying, "I'll go down the big slide again!" Lizzie even managed to get him to go down tandem with her a couple of times, which he loved.

Daddy had Cameron waiting when Owen came down the slide and he thought that was pretty cool.

The Caged Bird

Lizzie stopped for a bit to hold Baby Cam

It started to get a little chilly so we had to put on a cute sweater, courtesy of Cousin Cade.

It was a great kick off to a great weekend. I'm hoping to get the rest of our weekend pictures up here soon but I've had trouble all day with the site. I'll keep trying though! Hope everyone else had an enjoyable weekend!

Cameron the Star and Some Random Pictures

First off, I want to update everyone on our little trooper. We went to PT on Tuesday and got lots of good news! It is so nice to hear something good for a change! Cameron is just doing great. He was propped up on his elbows, holding his head up, looking straight ahead without any help at all. While I know this doesn't seem like much, it is leaps and bounds for our little guy! I had never seen him do that yet so it was so exciting to see! The therapist also scored him in his motor skills. When he started going on 4/22 he only scored in the 5th-10th percentile for his age. On Tuesday, for his corrected age (almost 4 mos., age he would be if born at term) he scored in the 90th percentile!!!! And for his actual age (almost 5 mos.) he scored in the 50th percentile! That is just a HUGE improvement in just 3 weeks! The therapist seemed so pleased with all his improvements and is mostly just concerned now with the fact that he is still tilting his head slightly and his neck is tight. But she's hopeful that will get better with time and some stretching exercises. She thinks we can start going every 2 weeks now instead of every week! After that we went to the doctor and finally got some good news there. No ear infections! Well, for now, anyway. He still had some fluid in one ear but nothing infected. I'm hoping we don't get to that point! He weighed in at 13 lbs., 3 oz., gaining nearly a pound in 2 weeks. He is also doing better every day at eating his cereal. Yesterday he was really using his tongue to swallow it, which is an improvement for him as that's another difficult thing for hypotonic kids to do. Our little guy just continues to amaze us!

And because posts are always better with pictures, I included a few random ones we've taken in the last few weeks.

Me and my boys on my birthday.

Are they cute or what?! ;)

Owen helping Daddy pick up sticks in the backyard. His new favorite thing to do is to help Daddy with yard work. They have been out numerous times in the last few weeks mowing, feeding the birds, and spraying the "dangle lions."

Who couldn't love this cute face?

Stay tuned, folks! I'm on a roll!

Light on the Owen, Heavy on the Cam

It has been brought to my attention a couple of times that Cameron has been underrepresented in the last few posts and that I need to get some more recent pictures up here of him. So here they are, folks!

Daddy took this one on Saturday while I was out shopping. I'm not sure what Owen is so excited about but I thought it was cute!

And here comes Mr. Smiles! This boy loves to smile, especially when you tell him he his handsome.

This was Sunday, his first time eating cereal. He didn't care much for it but we still got him to smile!

So there you have it! I'm trying my best to take pictures of him a little more often than I have been so hopefully I can get some more up soon.

A Few More From Murphysboro

These are just some random pictures from our trip to Murphysboro in March that I thought were cute and wanted to share.

Owen wasn't feeling well for part of the week and spent a couple of afternoons lying on the couch like this watching the "Thomas" videos that Uncle Matt and Aunt Jess gave him for his birthday. For those of you that know Owen well, you know that he had to be pretty sick to just lay like this for any period of time. He NEVER does that!

Cam fell asleep during tummy time. Too cute!

This was at Auntie Gaye's house. He is on the couch in between Grandpa and Uncle Jay. He was talking to Grandpa and then just feel alseep!

This is a little routine that Cade started doing while we were there. He would pick something up,(in this picture that would be the basket) to use as his purse, or for his dad's sake I'll say bag, and then he would start waving to all of us and say, "Bye!" You have to have heard his bye to know how cute it is. He has a southern accent when he says it!
Then he would go to the door like he was leaving with his 'bag' on his arm, just like his mom carries her purse on her arm. It was too funny!

And this is our two big boys watching out the door at Grandma's house on the morning that we left. They stood there forever while we were loading up the van.

Frustration....and a little story to brighten your day

I am still having problems uploading pictures. I can get them uploaded but then when they are done it says to click "done" to add them to your blog and the "done" button is nowhere to be found. Is anyone else having this problem? So there's the frustration part of the title. I figured since I couldn't get any pictures up I'd give you an awesome story that I heard yesterday.

Cody was telling me about a man that he works with who has a son who was born a few years ago 6 weeks premature. He told Cody this story last week when they were working together. He had some problems and had to be in the hospital for months after he was born. Then when he was around a year old he had to have a risky surgery done. During the surgery, he almost died but they were able to save him. When the boy was 2 he had to go back to the same hospital (not sure why). When they got to the hospital his dad said to him, "This is where you had your surgery a while ago. Do you remember being here when you were younger? " The boy said, "Yeah, I remember. They wouldn't let me stay." The father said, "What do you mean they wouldn't let you stay?" He said, "I was here and all these people were dancing around me and they told me I couldn't stay and that I had to go back."

My jaw dropped when Cody told me. Apparently the little boy was remembering something that happened to him while he was on the operating table and nearly dying. I just can't imagine hearing your 2 year old child say that to you. If that doesn't make you believe in a higher power, I don't know what will. Anyway, I just felt so compelled to share that with everyone because I had never heard anything like that before. Hope you all have a wonderful Monday and remember to BELIEVE!

CORRECTION: For those of you who know my husband well you know that he doesn't really re-tell a story very well. He always manages to forget certain parts and then just makes them up as he goes along. Anyway, I just wanted to note that he has since found out that the boy was actually three years old when he had the surgery and then they went back to the hospital a few months after that. It's still an amazing story but I at least wanted to correct myself!

Easter and Baptism

So here are the long-overdue pictures of our Easter weekend in Murphysboro.

This is my cousin, Stephanie. We had to stop and pose for a quick picture with her after mass.

Cade can't ever seem to get enough of Baby Cam. He sat there for the longest time just looking at him and smiling. It reminds me of when I used to do that with his Uncle Matt when were little.
How cute are these boys?!?! ;)
Cameron and Grandpa get in a little chit-chat time. I LOVE this picture! No one can get our babies to talk and smile like Grandpa! They all just love him!
Cade and Owen had a great time hunting eggs. They were both so good at it!

Of course, once they both figured out there was actually goodies inside the eggs, there were done with the hunting!

Cam and Grandma get a little snuggle time

Our little drummer boy--he and Cade are crazy over this drum. It used to be Matt & Beth's when they were little!