Blessings: Another little Lewis & more!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above..."
James 1:17

The Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year are always a time to pause and remember how blessed we are.  Not because of material blessings, delicious food, and family time--although those are GOOD gifts--but mostly because I remember how undeserving I am of all these things and so much more.   

I am truly thankful and excited that Dave and I are expecting another little Lewis around August 1st this year!    

For the past 13 weeks God has graciously sustained a growing miracle within me.  Two days before Thanksgiving I saw that magical (+) sign on a pregnancy test.  Fast forward through the holidays that were accompanied by a moderate amount of nausea, tiredness, cravings, and mood swings--Big thanks to my patient family!--and here we are at the end of January 2013.  

It's been a couple months since I last blogged and in addition to being preoccupied with the holidays/pregnancy, I also think I've been a slacker since we're not counting the months of Cameron's life as much as we did the first 12.  There's a lot to catch up on!

First, here's what Christmas looked like at my parent's house:

Nana & Pop-E were surprised with our big news!

Despite Cameron's "deer in the headlights" look, 
he really liked this ginormous cuddly bear...
as you can see below, Chewy took a liking to it too :)

Lighted hats...???

Aunt Katy & Uncle Jeff are expecting too!  She's due ~6 weeks before us.

Tired of waiting for the food...

 Doggie love

Got to visit with some sweet friends and their adorable babies too!

In the past couple months Cameron's personality has been showing more than ever, which brings both excitement and challenges!  He lets us know when he wants something AND when he doesn't. 

Some of his favorite things:

• pacifier during the day (a habit I'll be eager to break in another 6 months or so!)  We hear a lot of "ci ci ci" when he can't find it or is wanting us to get it for him
• crackers, cheese, fruit, cereal (Breakfast is his best meal)
• music
• basketballs, footballs, tennis balls, etc. 
• animals & their noises
• Chewy
• playing at the park & just being outside
• Marbles museum with friends
• pointing to familiar things in a book
• trying to say words & jabbering a lot more in general (I love his sweet voice!)
• bath-time
• hiding in closets, corners, or small spaces.  He is learning the game of hide and seek and once we start playing he asks for more and more.  

Some things he tends to protest:

• being forced to come inside
• being carried if he's in the mood to walk
• green beans & some other foods depending on mood
• when Dave & I correct his fork/spoon usage at meals.  He insists on doing it himself, even if that means most or all of the food ends up falling off the utensil! 
• occasionally diaper changes & bedtime.  His favorite bedtime-stalling technique is running off to our room and quickly shutting the door (he even locked it once--whoa!) 

I'm anticipating more excitement AND challenges in the coming months as we face new adventures in parenting Cameron and preparing to become a family of 4 along with whatever life brings.  We are trusting and thanking the Lord for His faithfulness to guide us always and provide blessings each and every day above and beyond what we deserve.  

Psalm 107:8

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, 

for his wondrous works to the children of man.

Cameron's cupcake + an update

Time to post pictures from Cameron's party that was almost, ahem, 2 months ago.  Oh well.  It'll just make me relive that special day :)

There ya have it! We had a blast celebrating our big guy and since then he's been growing leaps and bounds: speedily crawling, adventurously climbing (up stairs only, for now!), and steadily walking.  He took his first independent steps two weeks ago (10/26) and has showed great improvement in balance and coordination with each passing day.  I'm very proud of my baby becoming a big boy, but it makes me sad to think of how quickly he's changing and growing!  

Aside from independent mobility, he's continually interested in exploring his surroundings, getting into cabinets, crevices, and behind curtains around the house.  Baby-proofing has now become an overdue necessity.  The living room ottoman is currently serving as a stair-blocker, and I am constantly multi-tasking between household tasks and keeping Cameron entertained and safe.  He's all over the place :)

What else?  He's a big fan of swinging at the park, is easily entertained by animal noises (cats are still his favorite), has started to be a bit pickier at the highchair, loves music--especially on his Praise Baby DVD,  learned how to play peek-a-boo by himself, says "da-da"on command much more than "ma-ma" or anything else, signs "please" for so(!)many(!)things(!) with varying intensity depending on how badly he wants whatever he wants, loves giving Chewy hugs and kisses, engages in dancing and clapping at story time at the library, continues to fill his little mouth with more teeth than I can keep track of, grunts loudly when he's frustrated with something not working the way he wants it to, responds with big smiles and waves at Nana, Pop-E, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Katy via Facetime, tries to wiggle away during diaper changes, splish-splashes all over during bath time, and 98% of the time he is just being really, really cute!   (2% of the time he's being a stinker....maybe more on some days :))

I'm continually thankful for our thriving little boy.  Or baby.  I think he'll always be my baby... 

12 to 13 month action

The last month or so has been busy since Cameron's first birthday celebration and our family vacation...

We took a week to get settled back into our routine at home and then I decided to make a big trip with Cameron (and Chewy!) while Dave went to work in Alabama for a week and a half.  So, my one-year-old (love saying that :)) and I spent the first 11 days of October traveling to Louisville visiting with my favorite KY girls and their babies!  Here's a little recap of how it went down along with a snapshot of our time there:

Day 1: Departed Raleigh at 6:20 p.m. with my sleepy boy, nervous dog, a car filled to the max, and my mind full of doubt that any of this was a good idea.  Made one stop to feed Cameron his nighttime bottle and grabbed a Starbucks to keep me company the rest of the way.  I breathed a big sigh of relief when Cameron settled to sleep around 8:30 after fussing for a while.  Can't blame him; he's not accustomed to sleeping in the car.  My goal at this point was to stay awake (always a good goal to have when driving) and get to Charleston, WV.  Thanks to my latte, there were no problems with alertness and the next three hours passed easily other than driving 30 mph through two areas of dense fog.  Definitely took another couple deep breaths after that.  For the first time in my life, I was very thankful for a well-lit semi truck that I  tailgated through all that.  We arrived at the hotel at 11:45 and then the following comedy scene played out:  I attempted to unload my confused baby, his pack n play, and our overnight bag while convincing Chewy that I would be back to get her.  (It was SO much easier when I practiced it in my head!) Got checked in and didn't have to try very hard to look in need of help, so the sweet receptionist called the security guard to help me with all our things.  Took about 45 minutes to get settled down--and by settled down I mean Cameron was no longer energetically kicking his legs and joyfully proclaiming his freedom from the car seat and/or peeping his little head over the side of the pack n play wondering where we were and what time of night it was.  I, on the other hand, took a TAD bit longer to settle down thanks to the combination of my grande mocha working overtime well into the wee hours of the morning and then Cameron's 5 a.m. crying....ha, this all seems a lot funnier now than it did in the moment :)  

The shirt says it all

Day 2: At any rate, we all ended up sufficiently rested by 9 a.m. and were back on the road at quarter after 11.  Nothing notable happened during our daytime driving, but I will say that during the last hour of the trip Cameron and I were DONZO being in the car.  He had caught on to my ploys of passing back raisins and breadcrumbs and every toy I could get my hands on and singing every song I could to keep him occupied and happy.  I reminded myself more than once that no one forced me to do this trip.  This was MY idea, after all.  And, as it turns out, the minute we turned onto good old Westport Road and into the neighborhood that holds hundreds of my growing-up memories and then I saw this sweet house and my wonderful mom...

...I KNEW it was all so so worth it! 

Ok, so much for a "little recap"... that was more like a mini novel :)  I promise to give you the CliffsNotes version along with ample pictures from here on out!

Day 3: Enjoying the beautiful fall weather at Tom Sawyer park with Nana

Mesmerized by the gorgeous tree

Day 4: Playing at Jill's! 

Happy Silas

Big brother Tommy.  Just gotta love this sweet kid!  

Tommy: "Uh, what?" Cameron: "I'm going to pet you like I pet Chewy!"

(Funny enough, that's the look Chewy often gives him too :))

Jill, it goes without saying, I LOVE YOU and would be lost and roastless without you!  Please tell Kyle to quit working and going to seminary and to get onto bigger and better things with his life like inventing a time-travel machine!!

Day 5:
Hung out with my dad at home on his day off.  Always working hard in the kitchen, he cooked up a delicious beef stew for us.  Yum Yum.  






Day 6: 
Saw my favorite twins, Amanda and Tara + their hubbies and T's sweet baby Andrew

Graeter's Ice cream--a MUST when going home




Day 7:
Relaxing Sunday with Nana & PopE

Day 8:
Road trip to Bowling Green, home of my Alma Mater 
AND my favorite Chelbell + baby Reid
(Chel--we should have gotten Tim to take our picture!)

Cameron and the dogs trying to escape!

Day 9:
 Shopped/hung out again with Jill, 
visited with Mrs. Tami and sweet Hannah

Day 10:
Visited my mom at work, packed up our things, enjoyed a
fantastic dinner with Tara C. (girl, we didn't get a picture together!)

Day 11:
Packed up the car while mom watched Cameron.  Left at 1:15 p.m....fast forward 10.5 hours and WE WERE HOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEEEE

Loved every moment with each of these precious friends, so thanks for making time for me and thanks, mom and dad, for the good times we had together!

P.S. I still need to post the birthday party pictures....
eventually I will :)