Nature Boy

Owen and Daddy were playing outside one evening and got some great photos of our big boy enjoying nature!

One of this favorite things to do outside is to sit in his chair in the driveway, which is seated right next to his Daddy's chair. He likes to chill with Dad while listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers, his new favorite band (Metallica is a close second), on the cd player. Cody is happy to have his own Mini-me!

Messy Marvin

Like most 17-month-olds, Cameron is quite a messy eater. He often ends up with food all over his clothes and fruit juice caked in his hair. And, really, what makes for a cuter picture than that?

His shirt was so messy I had to take it off and his hair was so crazy because it was all sticky!!

He most definitely inherited his mother's eating habits!

Special Delivery!

I've always said that I don't know why we bother to spend money on toys when kids are so easily entertained by a box...



But who wouldn't love to get this package at their front door? With a face that cute, you could totally look past the fact that he asks you the same question 15 times in the span of 5 minutes, that he screams louder than most howler monkeys, or that he won't touch most vegetables with a 15-foot pole! Or is that something only a mother can do?

"Here, have some!"

Cameron's newest thing is feeding all of us. He gets the biggest kick out of taking his Cheerios and putting them in all of our mouths. After he gets one in, he mimmicks the chewing with his own mouth. A little annoying getting Cheerios from the grubby hands of a one-year-old, but cute, nonetheless. Owen thinks it's great!

Now if I could just teach him to cook our dinners...

Startin' 'Em Young

A few weeks ago I was out doing some shopping and came home to find this:


This is the wheel that we use for MarioKart on the Nintendo Wii. Daddy was playing because Owen likes to watch him play but he said Cameron wanted to get in on the fun, too. It's only a matter of time before this apparatus is no longer Mommy and Daddy's!

*Carmen, tell Mole that it won't be long before Cameron is ready to take his Monkey you-know-what on! ;)

PBS Rocks

The boys love to watch TV together in the basement. I think it's mostly because they can sit a foot away from our too-cheap-to-buy-a-TV-stand set-up that we have going on down there. I spend half of my day pulling them farther away from it but they always end up right in front of it again. It does make for some cute pictures though...even if they won't look at the camera because their faces are glued to the TV.

Owen loves to sit with Cameron like this. Cameron tolerates it for a few minutes and then he's done.

How many more years do I have before they're watching WWE and wrestling with each other in this very spot?

Gone Fishin'

Cody got the bright idea to take Owen fishing over Memorial Day Weekend. He found a lake fairly close by, bought a pole for himself (Owen had one from our trip to the Ozarks last year), and off they went. They spent a couple of hours both Saturday and Monday and never did catch anything. Being a rural girl and having a brother who used to live to fish, I have gotten such a kick out of watching this "city boy" try to learn how to fish. He was so frustrated after 2 days of not catching anything and has now made it his goal to catch one before Owen decides fishing isn't fun anymore. And, of course, like everything my Engineer husband does, he has been researching and asking different people what he can do to increase his chances of catching a fish. In the meantime, I'm trying to be encouraging and not laugh at him.

All that fishing can really wear a guy out, so Owen decided he should just take a little rest:


Hopefully I'll be posting a picture of them each holding up a fish before summer's end!

There's a reason it's free...

When we had our meeting to go over our plan for Cameron, his intervention teacher informed me that on her first visit with him, she would do some sort of timed-play thing with him involving a doll house and accessories for observation/evaluation purposes. When she showed up 2 weeks ago for the appointment, she had forgotten the house. I thought it was a little odd that you would forget something that was seemingly the purpose of the visit but I let it go.

Our second appointment was scheduled for yesterday at 8:30am. We did this so that Owen might still be sleeping and it would be easier to work with Cameron without also having to entertain Owen. I deliberately kept Owen up later the night before so that he would surely sleep in the following morning. At 8:35am my phone rang.

"Sarah? This is Cathryn. I'm running late."

I wasn't really sure how someone gets behind schedule so early in the day but I said, "Ok."

"I just didn't know if you were waiting for me so I just wanted to call and tell you that I'm leaving the office now and will be there soon."

She didn't know if I was waiting for her? Um, hello? Why wouldn't I be waiting on someone who was supposed to be at my house at a scheduled time? I mean, really, what the hell kind of question was that? Of course I was waiting on her! I had stayed up late the night before cleaning my house. I woke up extra early and actually put on something other than my normal knit pants and sloppy shirt. I even brushed my teeth and put on make-up. I prepared for her because SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!

She showed up 15 minutes later (I believe her office is about 2 miles away from our house so I'm not really sure why it took 15 minutes if she was leaving right then.) with her dollhouse and accessories in tow. She brought them in and plopped them all out on the coffee table. Cameron took one look at them and took off for his own toys. Shocking that a 17-month-old boy wanted absolutely nothing to do with a wooden doll house, isn't it? She then moved them to the floor where she and I started playing with them and Cameron came over with a look of slight interest in his eyes.

She then tells me that she wants me to play with him while she times him and records things. Cameron and I start playing and I tried to get him interested in the bathtub that looked nothing like his bathtub, the bed that looked nothing like his bed, and so on and so forth. My point there is that why would he want to put the girl in the bathtub when he doesn't even know that's a bathtub? He jibber-jabbered the whole time and Cathy mentioned that she couldn't even keep up with her tallies of all of his "talking" he was doing, which was a great thing. But he never really "played" with the dollhouse and I'm still not really sure that that was the point of the whole exercise. He didn't make it the whole 6 minutes either.

We chatted a bit afterward about things he's doing/saying and things I should be doing with him but I have to say that after 2 visits, I'm really not all that impressed. I don't feel that she vocalized well enough to me exactly what she was measuring with the timed test. If it's to see if he can play make-believe...well, what 17-month-old boy really knows how to play make-believe with a dollhouse? Hell, I don't even think Owen would like to do that. And how can you really evaluate him playing with something that he's never even seen before? I think for the most part she was just trying to see what kinds of words or sounds he would use while interacting with someone else but I still think there has to be a better way to do that.

I'm going to give her another shot in a couple of weeks but if she forgets something or she's late I think I'm going to have to call and request a new teacher. I know she is a good person and I like her but I just feel like if you can't make my son a priority (and forgetting things and showing up late makes it seem to me that he's not) then I'm going to find someone who does make him a priority.

In the meantime, Cameron is still plugging along and has added the following words to his repertoire:

splash
cookie
chugga, chugga
bye bye

Of course, like all of the things he does and says, he only says these when he wants to and rarely when you want him to. But the important thing is that he is using these words in the context in which they should be used. If only I could teach him the word "watch" so that he might suggest one for his teacher...

Couch Potato

Ah, the lovely one-year molars really make life unpleasant for everyone in the Muhs household these days, though I know poor little Cameron is really taking the brunt of it all. It is those days that you can really only do one thing:


Turn on a little Baby Einstein, hit the couch, and chew on your finger in hopes that it might bring you just a modicum of teething relief. (And yes, wearing jammie pants and a shirt that doesn't match them is also a must.)

I tried googling "dentures for 1-year-olds" but really didn't have much success. I guess we'll just have to ride it out.

I tried not to be offended...

Owen and I were playing outside last week while Cameron was taking a nap. We were in the driveway and he spotted an ant.


"Look, Mommy! It's an ant!!! It's a Mommy ant!!!!"


"How do you know it's a Mommy ant?"


"Because it's big."

Springtime Tenants

A few weeks ago Cody noticed this underneath our deck:


I realize it's a little difficult to see but a Mama bird taking care of her babies does not allow the paparazzi to get very close for a picture!

We have had more fun watching these birds. You can see them from both the window and the sliding glass door in the basement. Owen and I checked on them numerous times throughout the day, pretty much everyday for weeks. He was so excited when the eggs finally hatched! At first it was hard to tell how many babies were in the nest but as they grew a little we were able to see 3 little ones. We watched as their mama brought them food and they sat with their little beaks wide open. We watched their little wings flutter as they moved about in their nest. Their was even a Daddy in the picture! Although, he would just sit on a branch on a nearby tree standing guard while the Mama bird did most of the work. I'm not trying to make any points with that, I'm just saying. ;)

We waited patiently and were looking forward to the day that we might get to watch the Mama teach them how to fly. When we thought they were getting close we checked on them constantly, camera at the ready just in case I might catch a shot or two. Then ONE day we were busy running errands and weren't able to check on them. We went down that afternoon to see them and they were gone. :( It was almost as anti-climactic as waiting for the president.

We were upset but I thought we would wait a few days and then take the nest down so Owen could get a close-up look at it. Being the procrastinator that I am, I just hadn't done it yet. Tuesday morning I went to open the door to let Murphy out and what do I see?! That's right, another Mama! I couldn't believe it! I thought back to the day the babies were gone and I saw a bird fly in and stand there looking at the nest for a minute. Then she flew away. I couldn't figure out what was going on but now I know it was just another Mama checking out the real estate! We are so excited that we get to watch it all over again. It's like our own little science lesson right in our backyard! Who knew that birds were recyclers?

The Power of Suggestion

A few weeks ago I made a suggestion to my brother, a faithful Muhs News follower, that he should start a blog himself. I really didn't ever think he'd do it but I'm happy to say he accepted my challenge! Head on over to The Glodo Life in the STL to read all about the man behind the funny (and often a little weird) annonymous comments you see here on my blog. He's almost as good at this as his little sister. Almost. ;)

Geppetto's Workshop

If you know my husband well, you know that he is quite handy to have around. He can do almost any type of home project you want done and if he doesn't know how to do it, he will read and research it so that he can do it. He has saved us loads of money doing so much work on our house himself. He built our deck, put in new doors for us, put in a stone patio, built our garage with help, put in a new bathroom, and finished the basement all by himself. This is on top of all the other odd jobs he's done around the house that are far too numerous to mention. While he loves doing all of these things, what he would really like to spend his time on is woodworking. He hasn't had much time to really hone his skills between work, kids, and working on the house. Now that things are (sort of) dying down in house projects he decided he'd fire up the table saw and make something for his mom for Mother's Day. He found a set of plans online and made every inch of these beautiful planters all by himself:

They even have a moveable bottom in them. You can raise and lower it, depending on what size of plant you would like to put in it.

I think they turned out great and Lynn was so surprised when we gave them to her a few weekends ago! I'm not sure what's next on the agenda. Maybe a puppet? ;)

Ain't No Stoppin' Him Now!

That's right, Cameron is on the move! Well, sort of. He finally decided that the walker his Godparents bought him for his birthday is pretty darn fun. In fact, he loves the newfound freedom it offers him.





Mommy, not so much. Not for the fact that he is almost walking because, believe me, no one has ever been more ready for one child to walk than I am for this one. I think there are so many things that are easier once they can stand/walk on their own. Yes, you have to chase them when they run off but you can actually put them down in public places. And you can take them outside and watch them run in the yard. So I am more than ready. What I don't like about this whole walker thing is that he loves it so much he wants to do it all the time. Which wouldn't be so bad if this thing had even an ounce of steering capability for a 16-month-old. Wheels that turn would be a nice addition. Because really, what person just walks continually in a straight line forever? And who has a room in their home that allows a person to walk continually in a straight line forever? So our days of late have been spent with Cameron excitedly walking with the walker the moment he hits the basement. He walks for a bit, hits a wall, turns around and looks at me, then lets out a loud scream that says, "I've hit a wall. It is your purpose in life to redirect me, follow me, and then repeat this entire process when I hit another wall. Why is this so difficult for you to understand?" Or something like that. You can see a little evidence of this exchange here, although this video doesn't really do it justice:

I'm hoping we'll be out of this phase soon and quickly move into the "I'm going to run away from you in this public place so you will have to chase after me while people laugh at you" phase. Gotta run, I hear the screams now!

Cameron Update

Last week, Early ACCESS returned to our home in the form of two lovely ladies--Jill, who was here the first time and who is now Owen's new best friend (she was enamored with him and he is still talking about her to this day), and Kathryn, the woman who will be working with Cameron. We sat down and went over all of Cameron's scores on the evaluation that Jill did at the end of April. This was really no small feat as the packet of information could have qualified as a short novel, in my humble opinion. I'll spare you the numbers and details and just give you the Reader's Digest version--Cameron is delayed. This much, I knew, so no real surprise there. The big question we had was where and how much. While he is only very slightly delayed in some areas, and even on track in a few, his biggest delay is in speech and communication. His next biggest delay was motor, but that was really expected because of his low-tone. So, we have decided that for now, we will just concentrate on the speech and hope that he catches up in the other areas on his own (with lots of encouragement from Mommy and Daddy, of course). Kathryn will come twice a month for now and work with him for about 45 minutes to an hour each time. She will also be working with me teaching me things I can do with him on a daily basis. I may even have to record data for her from time to time to give her a better idea on how he is progressing. She will also keep an eye on the other areas as well, just to make sure that he is moving along as he should be.

Cody and I both feel really good about this and are excited to get the ball rolling. As I've mentioned before I was worried that it might be something more than just a delay, but after speaking with them and watching Cameron, I am not nearly as concerned as I once was. In fact, he even made progress in between the time of the evaluation and the meeting! Jill was impressed to see that he was doing things that he hadn't been doing just a couple of weeks earlier. This is one of those things:

You see, while he's always been pretty good at imitating sounds, he's never seemed all that interested in imitating faces. I was making this face at him 2 weekends ago and he decided he'd like to get in on the fun! I haven't gotten him to do it since then but, in true Cameron fashion, I'm sure he'll do it again when he feels like it!

So that's the plan for now. I will sit down with the ladies in another six months and go over his progress and figure out what we will do from there. However, if at any time in the next six months I feel things are not going as they should, we can adjust things to fit. They seem really great and we are all in agreement that we want to do what works best for Cameron. As long as we are doing all we can to help him and seeing lots of this:

I will be a satisfied customer.

Stay tuned for pictures of some of the other things Cameron has learned in the last few weeks!

So Glad He's Reading

A few months ago, Owen started reading a few words here and there. Now, as I type this, he is sitting here next to me reading "Goodnight Moon" aloud. It is amazing how far he has come in just a few short months. However, we have discovered a few downsides to his ability at times. Like the other day in my bathroom as I was getting ready and he and Cameron were pulling stuff out of the drawers...

"Mommy, can you play with this?"

"Play with what?"

"With this [holding up a box of tampons]...you can play with it!"

"No, honey, you can't play with that."

"Sure you can! It says 'Playtex,' see? That means you can play with it!"

I'm trying to be proud of the fact that he can read and not focus so much on what he's reading.

Confessions of a Worrisome Mother

Cameron has been a little on the irritable side lately. Usually when he gets like this I try to narrow in on what could be causing it. I have gotten pretty good at it in the last 16 months but this time around I just can't figure it out. He just got over an ear infection and his tubes seem to be working, so I don't think it's that. He has all of the teeth he is supposed to have at this stage, so no luck there. After going over all the usual suspects and coming up with nothing Cody and I had this exchange:

"Maybe he has the swine flu."

"Sarah. He does not have the swine flu! How in the world would he get the swine flu? And why do you do that?"

"Why do I do what?"

"Why do you automatically go to the worst, most improbable thing possible?"

In my defense, the swine flu wasn't my first thought, but I do realize how ridiculous the idea was and I really wasn't serious. I have always been a worrier and it has only gotten worse since I've become a mother. I mean, come on, can you blame me? The whole idea that I am completely responsible for the life of not one, but TWO human beings can be a little overwhelming at times! There are so many decisions that I have to make on any given day that will affect their health and well-being. And what can I say? THAT MAKES ME WORRY.

I realized after the aforementioned conversation with Cody that the things that I worry about are much different since having Cameron. I worried throughout his entire pregnancy because I had lost our second child. When my water broke a month early, I worried. When he was diagnosed with MRSA, I worried even more. When he bled out in the hospital for 2 and a half hours and I thought he might die.....you get the idea. I could go on with all the things that have happened with Cameron and have caused me much anxiety but I'll spare you. The point is, all of these things that have happened with him are things that you really never think are going to happen to you....until they do. It is at the point that you realize that if your one-month-old child can get MRSA, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.

So anytime something seems a little off with Cameron, my mind goes to the worst possible senario. That's something I never really did before and now it has almost become an automatic response for me. Because now that I've realized anything can happen (even though I knew it before, realizing it is a whole new ball game) I am always afraid that something will happen. This kind of goes back to my post last week about waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's exhausting at times because it's difficult to separate worry from that gut instinct that Moms have.

I am working on it though. I didn't actually take him into the doctor and ask for him to be checked for the swine flu. That's progress, right?

Easter and Murphysboro Visit All Rolled into One!

Hold on to your hats, folks! This one is packed with pictures! Let's start off with a little egg coloring. Because, really, what is Easter without it? Truth be told, I was actually going to skip this part of Easter this year. But because of my wonderful niece and Mother, Owen got to experience the mess fun of egg dye.

How cute is this? Grandma just loves to spend time with her little ones!

And Cameron, you ask? What did he do during all this mess fun? He did all of the things he does best, of course. Snacking, watching a little Baby Einstien, and looking cute, as evidenced by this picture:

That brings us to Easter Sunday. Grandma got up early, went to early Mass, then came home and took care of Cameron while she made a wonderful lunch for us and showed the Easter Bunny where he should hide the eggs. How does she manage to conceal her Superwoman Cape underneath her clothes so well? While she did all the work, Grandpa and I took Owen to Mass and had a wonderful time! Right after communion Owen said, "Is it time to go home and hunt Easter eggs?!"

We were waiting on everyone to get outside to watch the show so we made the boys cover their eyes so they couldn't see all the eggs. I think Cade still needs a lesson in this trick.

Finally, the hunting commenced!

Apparently the Easter Bunny thought this would be funny.

Wondering what the little boys did while the big boys ran around like crazy scooping up eggs?

Cameron wasn't quite sure what to think of all of it. He inspected things very closely.

And all Cash cared about was what most 4-month-olds care about--food! Grammy Gaye sat in my van feeding him a bottle since it was a little chilly outside.

How do those people with 18 kids ever manage to get a good picture of all of them?

After the hunting madness, it was time to go in and check out the loot!

"That was fun but this is better!"

We ate the yummy lunch Grandma slaved over and had a great, relaxing day. It was such a wonderful, blessed Easter.

Now here are a few random pictures from our 2 week vacation in the 'boro:

This boy is almost as addicted to Thomas as his brother and his cousin, Cade. He loves to play with trains!

Do I have the cutest stinkin' Godson or what? I had so much fun playing and cuddling with this little guy. I even got him all to myself one afternoon which was complete HEAVEN for me!

Owen* loves our little Cashers!




These two boys love each other so much! They had such a good time playing together during this visit. Fights were minimal and hugs were given out freely.

I believe that wraps it up! Hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed capturing them!

*You will notice Owen is wearing a Cardinals shirt in some of these pictures. His father would like to note that he is still a fervent Cubs fan and this shirt was merely a gift from his Uncle Josh, who is (unsuccessfully) trying to convert him.

Doing His Part

Upon hearing that he might be a little delayed in a couple of areas, Cameron decided to take matters into his own hands.

"How do you spell 'google'?"