Cameron Counts

Yes, that's right, my developmentally delayed child counts to 10. He doesn't do "1" and he skips "7" but I figure it's good enough! He's been doing this for about a month, I think. Of course, once I turn the camera on him, he's not nearly as willing to do it so this is the best I could get. We are starting to learn that Cameron has decided that he is just going to do what he wants to do rather than what books and doctors tell him he should be doing. He's an enigma, that's for sure. But isn't he a cute enigma?

Stay tuned for some other out-of-the-ordinary things our not-quite-2-year-old is doing!

A Worthy Cause

As many of you already know, a friend of mine from Murphysboro's 2 year old son is battling cancer.  His name is Cole and he was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma in April.  He had to have one eye removed and has been doing rounds of chemo.  I have been following the family's journey through a blog that his mom writes and have been so inspired by the strength of everyone in their family.  It is amazing how much fight children have in them, as well as how much strength a parent somehow musters up when faced with such a serious illness attacking their child.  I am truly in awe of all of them.

When I saw what another one of my friends from college is doing, I just felt compelled to share it with all of you.  My friend, Bill, who is training to be a Chicago Fire Fighter, will be participating in St. Baldrick's on September 25th.  St. Baldrick's is the world's largest volunteer-driven fundraising event for childhood cancer research.  Thousands of volunteers shave their heads as a show of support and unity for children fighting cancer.  In turn, they ask for donations to fund childhood cancer research.  Bill, along with his Chicago Fire Department Academy class, will be shaving his head.  I will be donating in honor of Cole.  If you can, I urge you to visit Bill's donation site and donate to such a worthy cause.  They have nearly reached 50% of their goal, help them get to 100%!

I am happy to report that Cole is nearing the end of his journey with chemo and will hopefully be cancer free when he is done.  Yay for Cole!  Please keep him and his family in your prayers, along with all the many other children who are suffering in the world.  Now go hug your own babies!

Big Day in the Muhs Household!

Today started off with a bang in our house.  Not only is it Daddy's birthday, Owen had his first day of preschool this morning!  Daddy decided since it was such a big day for us he would take the whole day off.  We are so glad that we get to spend this special day with him!

We woke Owen up around 7:30am, an early morning in our house.  He ate his breakfast, got dressed and stopped to pose for a few pictures showcasing his backpack before we headed outside.

Portion Control is Overrated

As you can see, I've changed the look of the blog.  I also decided to add labels to all the posts.  You can find the "Labels" section over in the right colum.  Click on a label of your choice and it will take you to all posts that have been tagged with that label.  I am going back through and adding labels to everything so it will be a while before all the posts are labeled correctly.  I'm also thinking of doing a few other things here at Muhs News so stayed tuned for that! 

Anyway, on to a few "lost" pictures. (I also created a "jump" for posts.  You will have to click on "More Muhs News" to read the remainder of the post.  I'm kind of trying it out for now so I'm not sure if I'll stick with it.  I think it's good for longer posts so the whole thing doesn't load right on the first page.)  Let me know what you think about all the changes!)

An Evening in the Park

Last month we went to one of Owen's favorite parks one evening. It's a huge play structure made out of wood and kind of resembles a castle. There are lots of nooks and crannies to hide, lots of slides, and swings. Owen calls it "Wood Park." This was the first time we've ever taken Cameron there so it was fun to watch him explore it for the first time. He spent his time climbing on things and just running around enjoying his freedom!



Meanwhile, Big Brother weaved in and out of hiding places, stopping for a few quick seconds to let Mom snap a quick photo.

We even attempted to send Cam down the slide for the very first time. Cody went up there with him, got him all poised to slide, and he just kind of sat there not knowing what to do! Cody tried to give him a gentle nudge but his little body just couldn't figure this sliding thing out!



So what's a Dad to do? Go down with him, of course!

Now every time we go to a park and Cameron sees the slides he says, "Wheeeee!!!" He's even getting the hang of going down by himself...sort of.

Wrigley and Soldier Field in the same weekend?!?!

Yes, my husband was, indeed, in sports fan heaven. Not only did he and Owen get to watch the Bears practice at Soldier Field, it just so happened that the Iowa Cubs were playing a game at Wrigley Field that weekend, too. I, of course, thought this was too much to pack into one weekend but what do I know? Cody really wanted to take advantage of this because, like the Bears game, it was a cheap way to take Owen to Wrigley Field.

Ginna got to join in on the fun this time around.

Are they cute or what?

The next couple of pictures are a prime example of what we are going through these days in trying to get a good picture of Owen. Kid will not look at the freaking camera to save his life. Drives me nuts!

Oh well, at least that's a good one of Matt and Gianna! The real reason Cody wanted to go to this game was because after the game was over, all the kids in attendance got to run the bases. Yeah, Owen was excited about it but Cody was over the moon.

"I got to touch the ivy," was all he kept telling me. I'm surprised he was able to concentrate long enough to get pictures of the kids running the bases. I'm also surprised he didn't just take off and run with them!

The kids were allowed to run from first to home and then they were done. Come on, do you think that stopped our Owen? Of course not! He kept right on running, rounding home and making his way back to first! Here he is being instructed to go back to his father, that man over there who is drooling over the ivy and trying to think of a way to take some of it home, too busy to collect his son once he got to home base.

Once again, a good time was had by all. I'm just not sure who had more fun--the die-hard-Cubs-fans Daddies or the kids!

Grandma's Block Party

Grandma Lynn's neighborhood throws a kickin' block party every summer. We didn't realize just how kickin' it was until Cody and Owen were there to join in on the fun. Cody came home and told me it is worth planning a trip to Grandma's house just for the block party! Not that going just to see Grandma isn't worth it. ;) Owen had a grand time as is evidenced by the pictures:

He rode this train once with Grandma but then said he wanted to ride it by himself. Cody said he kept commenting on how this was his first time riding on a "real train!" I'm not quite sure why we spend so much money doing this every year if the above train qualifies as a "real" train. But I digress.




Owen has quite a love for inflatables so I'm certain he was in heaven on this thing!




Apparently he borrowed this from one of the neighbor kids.

Thanks to Grandma and her neighborhood for showing our boy a great time! Count us in for next year!