I Love My Squash

Cameron has been eating cereals for a while and his yellow veggies, too.  Here he is eating up some yummy squash.

He does have a highchair, but it is still in the garage and hasn't been cleaned off yet from when it was stored.  Once that happens, then he can sit in it.  Until then, he gets laid in the bouncer for his mealtime.

Cameron seems to be a pretty good eater so far, so hopefully it will continue.  It sure is nice when they eat well for you!

Along Comes Mr. Alligator

My little alligator, Cameron, is getting more and more ready to move.  In this picture even though it looks like he is ready to go swimming in the water, he won't be swimming for a while.

As he spends more time on the floor and on his tummy, he is getting better at attempting to be on his knees.  He seemed to do more of that today.  I think it might be because he is in an outfit with shorts instead of pants or a footed sleeper.

Cameron has leaked a few times today and yesterday.  I'm sure it sometimes has to do with where he is located when he has to go.  It ends up differently depending on whether he is on his tummy, back, in the exersaucer, bouncer, or swing.  It might be, too, that I need to upgrade from a size 2 diaper to a size 3.  I probably could have done it a while ago, but I figured that since he still fit within the weight requirement, I might as well keep him in the smaller size and get more diapers in each package.  It's not so fun having to keep changing his clothes, though.  Another sign of him growing up quick.

The End of My So-Called Freedom

Cameron has just started getting up on one knee - this is the end of my so-called freedom.  It's not so difficult when you have a child that is not mobile.

This brings on a whole lot more worry when they can start moving around more and getting into EVERYTHING that is left on the floor or down low.  I guess we'll have to do more housework than we have done in the past.

Actually, he has been rolling around from his back to his tummy, from his tummy to his back, sometimes it was going back and forth and sometimes it was more of a continuous roll.  Now, it won't be long before he gets into much more.  This is an exciting step in his growing up, but I still am fine if he waits a while longer.  Maybe he was able to be on one knee a little bit easier since the car seat was behind him and it gave his legs more support.  We'll see soon enough.

Hopefully with Cameron being such a good baby, he won't be too bad.  The hard thing is that these little ones don't understand everything yet of what we're saying.  So at first, even though you tell them not to do something, they're not sure what you just said.

Jefferson Family Fun Fair Winnings!

Anna, Emma, Justin, Cameron, and I attended the Jefferson Family Fun Fair and this is all the stuff that they won.

Lookie, Lookie, Where We Found Nuki!

Cameron had been laying down on the blanket that I made for him and he was nicely playing with toys and his nuk, the brand name of a pacifier.

We use to use different pacifiers for our kids, but this kind would be given to them in the hospital. I always thought they were rather strange since you could see through them and see your child sucking on the pacifier.

Since the brand name that we use to use was Nuk, we soon stopped calling it a pacifier and would call it a nuk or nuki. I guess out of habit we still call this pacifier a nuk even though it is called a Soothie. I only realized tonight as I was writing this blog. I figured I should check to see if it was called something, and sure enough, it had a name.

The funny thing about this picture is that I had picked Cameron up off of the blanket and sat down with him on the couch. I looked back at the blanket nearby scanning to find his nuk. I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked Anna and Emma if they knew where it was and they started laughing and telling me it was stuck in Cameron's shirt. I searched the front of his shirt expecting it to be there, but the girls helped me find it in back. I'm not surprised that he ended up getting the nuk behind his head when he was laying down on the blanket, but I am surprised that it got stuck there as I picked him up and that it stayed in place. I guess it helped that the nipple part was stuck inside the shirt.

I have come to realize that I prefer these kinds of pacifiers since they are a solid piece of rubber. There is no way for germs to be trapped inside the rubber like it could with the other ones we use to use. Unfortunately, right before we had Cameron, I purchased a package of Nuk brand pacifiers and haven't really used them. I'm not sure someone else will want to use them even if I tell them they have only been used a time or two. Oh well!

The Soccer Siblings

First soccer game of the season and the soccer siblings finished up having their team photos and they are off to play. Benjamin and Emma were the only ones that had games today. Anna's game will be on Wednesday.

I'm pretty sure that Anna and Emma are taller than they appear here, but the ground they are standing on is lower than Benjamin's so it shows a larger gap in height.

Benjamin's team is Blur, Anna's is Cobras, and Emma's is Flames. Emma's team didn't put a team name on their shirt and they just settled on a name right before pictures were taken today.

Their Aunt Yolanda came to watch part of Benjamin and Emma's games with Brenna and Devin. They finished up their games earlier and had a little bit of time to grab a bite to eat and arrive at half time. Emma's team lost, Benjamin's team won, and Anna's team didn't play today. Regardless of who won or lost, the kids had a win-win situation today. Their Aunt Yolanda went shopping to IKEA afterwards and their cousins, Brenna and Devin, came home and played for a while. After the shopping, Anna and Emma went back with their cousins to sleep at their house. I'm sure they had fun.

Since Emma was not here, that left Benjamin more in charge of Cameron while I met Clinton after the Priesthood Leadership Meeting and attended the Adult Session of Stake Conference with him. When Emma is around, Cameron does get looked after and played with a little bit more. Hopefully all was well with Benjamin, Justin, and Cameron.

I loved attending the meeting. All the talks were great. Justin McPheters, a member of our Woodridge 1st Ward, a High Council member, a LDS Family Services therapist, and friend was one of the speakers. This is his last time speaking in the area since his family is moving to Utah on April 27th. I will miss their family greatly.

High On A Rocktop

Justin is a boy, and just like any boy, he wants to climb. He loves being up high on top of things, just like on this rock.

Cameron is So Fascinated With the Camera

This sleeping outfit that Cameron is in is one that he received from the "Easter Bunny" yesterday. I thought it was rather cute that he matched the blanket he was laying on. I just had to get a picture.

Cameron was so intent on studying and watching the camera and what I was doing. I tried several times pulling the camera away from my face, trying to get him to smile or laugh, and then quickly take the picture. Inevitably, I would be too late. Here is the only picture that I took where he was happy. All of the others his expression was one of intent. It was like night and day. One moment I am getting him to smile and as soon as the camera would go in front of my face, he would stare at it in wonder and awe. It was funny, but a little frustrating.

Cameron has begun lifting up his knees a little bit when he is applying pressure to his hands and raising his upper body. He's not on his knees yet and ready for crawling, but because of the stronger pressure he puts on the floor with his hands, he ends up scooting or moving backwards. With his excitement to reach for toys, that's when he usually does it, so he ends up further from them. It's amusing to watch.

The front of his shirt has a picture of an octopus on it and the shirt says, "Into Everything". He's not there yet, but I am definitely alright with that. Cameron's time will come soon enough.

Easter Egg Hunt at the Potters

Once again, another Easter Egg Hunt. This time it was at the Potter's house. They live right behind us in the culdesac.

Easter Egg Hunt at the Fishers

Once the Easter Egg Hunt began, Benjamin took off to help Justin first before finding his own.

Cameron's First Easter Egg Hunt

How EGG-citing it was today to help Cameron collect eggs at his first Easter Egg Hunt. He loved looking at all of the colorful eggs that were spread all throughout the gym of the church. It would have been outside, but the high today was suppose to be 55 degrees, so it was held inside.

As I held Cameron with my hands, I tried to lean his towards the ground low enough to reach the eggs. Most of the time the eggs would be bumped by one hand and begin to roll all around and away from the other hand. Occasionally, he would be coordinated enough to grasp it with two hands at once. When he did do this, he was successful in picking up the eggs. Of course, Cameron tried putting all of the eggs he collected inside his mouth. Cameron was fortune to find a "chick" egg. Anna and Clinton helped Natalie Chandler hide all of the eggs and Clinton took pictures, too.

There were a bunch of families at the church today for the Easter egg hunt. The bulk of the children were 4 years of age and under. Everyone was suppose to bring 10 eggs per child. Since Benjamin was involved with track, it was only Anna, Emma, Justin, and Cameron, but that's alright, we have an Easter egg hunt on Friday at the Fishers and one on Saturday at a neighbor's house (Will and Aubrey Potter). Benjamin should be able to get some treats then.

With having three different Easter egg hunts and our own Easter, hopefully the kids can be taught more about the true meaning of Easter and not focus on the eggs, candy, and the Easter Bunny. This is another opportunity to teach our children about Christ.

Spring Soccer Season Begins

The hustle and bustle of another spring soccer season has begun. Benjamin has soccer practices on Mondays and Fridays from 5:30-6:30pm on the Cypress Cove field. Anna has soccer practices on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00-7:00pm on the Sunnydale field.

Benjamin's coach is the same coach he had last season. They had a good season, but the times they lost were to the same good team. I don't know how evenly matched the 4 teams will be, but last season 2 teams were good and the other 2 teams struggled. Some of the players on Benjamin's team have been on his team before. He knows

Anna's coach is someone new. The only person she has had on her team before is Nolan. She does know some of the other people from playing against them other soccer seasons such as Eric, Aubrey, Melissa, and Thomas.

Emma has yet to hear from a coach and find out when and where her practices begin. I spoke with a person at the Woodridge Park District and they are discussing this with the Woodridge Soccer Association (WSA) to find out. I believe they had a coach before and then something fell through. Who knows if she will get to play if they don't get a coach.

Justin can't wait until he can play soccer next fall. I think he'll play well. Cameron will probably pick up soccer pretty quick just like Justin, since he will end up with 4 siblings playing the sport. Our Saturdays will be busy, but I'll enjoy it.

Great Times With Grandma and Papa Buss

Before our vacation ended and we returned home, we decided last minute to visit my mom and dad, Grandma & Papa Buss. Yesterday, as we headed closer to home after visiting the church sites, it put us closer to stopping by to see my parents. I called the home, my mom's cell number, and the church, but nobody answered. I realized that it was a Thursday and they were most likely at the Nauvoo Temple that day for their temple worker assignments.

I decided that we could still show up and surprise them when they returned home. We would only miss out on visiting with them for 1-2 hours that night, but that we could still visit on Friday. I knew my parents would love seeing the kids, especially Cameron. He has grown so much since December. Today Cameron turned 5 months old.

More to follow...

See Ya Later Alligator, In A While Crocodile

Little Cameron looked so cute after his bath. He desperately needed it, since he leaked in his outfit. I don't always think about giving him a bath, but he does seem to enjoy them or at least doesn't cry during them.

Cameron is continuing to grow, but it is a little tricky to have him lay straight in his little bathing tub. I bet as he strengthens his ability to sit up more, he won't be tilting or falling over as I wash him off. I think it is about time that I get another little bathing seat so he can sit up and even play while in the water.

Once I dried Cameron off, I left him on the floor on top of his towel to get an outfit to put on him. He flipped over so fast with the hooded towel still over part of his head, so as he flipped, it moved along with him. It was quite funny seeing this completely covering his face. What a cute little alligator or crocodile!

I'm Getting "Sew" Good at Rag Quilting

Last night I finished up my rag quilt which I started last Friday night. In between my St. Patrick's Day preparations on Saturday and taking care of Cameron, I worked hard to complete the quilt. I stayed up real late to get as much done as I could, but because I decided to add another row and make it 10 squares by 10 squares, I needed a few more squares of one fabric.

Late Saturday afternoon I headed back to Jo-Ann Fabrics to get three more squares of the multi-colored print. After arriving home, I couldn't start on the project for a while, but when I did, I realized that I actually needed a fourth square. The last row started with the multi-colored print, and it needed to end with it, so I needed a fourth square. I was so bummed when I realized that. I knew I couldn't finish it until Monday after getting more fabric. Once I finished, I washed it, dried it, and laid it out for Cameron.

Hooray! For once I finished a sewing project quickly (number of days and not the number of hours). The project still took me several hours to make, but I'm loving it, and so is Cameron. Now I need to help Anna make one (a smaller one) with her sewing machine or make another one with the additional fabric I bought. It was on sale and it was just too cute. I will use the same multi-colored fabric as this one, but I will use a green fabric with green, white, and brown polka-dots, and a blue fabric with blue, white, and brown polka-dots. I may eventually make a larger one for the family to use while watching movies, but we'll see.

Loving The Little Exersaucer

Here's a wonderful exersaucer that I borrowed from my ward friend, Diana Bowler. She fixed me up with the exersaucer, bouncer, and swing. Besides the little bouncer, I had previously had an exersaucer and swing for the other kids. Since I didn't want to invest in new ones, friends were able to help me out.

Cameron loves his exersaucer. His legs are getting stronger, he gets to see more things around the room with his new view, and he can play with the items on it which don't fall off.

Due to his two hour nap previously, he was awake and all the other kids were in bed. For dinner, he had a little bowl of rice cereal (which he started a few days ago) and his regular feeding. Hopefully it will help him sleep well through the night.

Cameron is rolling over all the time, raising his upper body fairly high, pushing his feet off the floor (since he is not constantly in the "body bag" outfits he was previously in), chewing on his fists frequently, grabbing his feet while laying on the floor, eating cereals, etc. He will be five months at the end of March already and I'm curious to see how much he has grown. His next appointment won't be until he is six months old, but by then, he will be doing so much more. I know I'll be in trouble soon once he is more mobile. Although he is a good baby, he'll be so curious and into everything.

"Sew" Crafty at Rag Quilting

Tonight I attended a Sew and Craft group activity where we were cutting out our material to make rag quilts.

I purchased the material the last day of the fabric sale and had a difficult time figuring out what I was going to do. I didn't want to do only three fabrics, but there weren't four fabrics that I liked that would work well together.

Just before I finished picking out my fabric, a worker from the cutting counter was returning some fabric to where I was. She asked me if I wanted any of it. I looked at it and said, "YES". I had been struggling with getting the two different blue fabrics and two green fabrics and the fabric that she brought back was the multi-colored print fabric. It actually went with both colors.

Like usual, when I want to learn some sort of skill in our Sew and Craft group, instead of making one thing I end up buying enough to make two or more. I decided I would do separate blue and green toddler rag quilts. I chose the blue one to start with, but ended up giving the fabric for the green toddler rag quilt to Lisa Fox. She arrived and didn't have any fabric. I told her I could sell her my fabric if she wanted it - she did. I guess it was a good thing that I got it. Normally, the fabric is $6.99 a yard and it was on sale for $1.99 a yard. It was a great deal!

I'm excited to finish the rag quilt. Tonight I had time to learn about what to do, cut out the fabric, figure out the pattern I wanted, and begin sewing. I finished one row, but I have nine more rows to do. Once all the rows are complete and stitched together, I'll need to sew all around the outside of it and snip the edges.

Not that I need another blanket at home, since I have a ton of them, but I wanted to learn something new and feel pleased about making something - something for someone in my family. I think Cameron will like his new blanket.

Thanks to Amy Anderson and Liberty Cameron for taking time to help and teach me. I truly appreciate it.

Cameron Catching His Toes

Cameron is Growing Like a Weed

Cameron continues to grow like a weed. He gets heavier and longer all the time. For a kid who was ten days late, he didn't weigh as much as he could have, but he was still 8.04 lbs. and 21 inches long. Not a bad length for a baby.

At his two month appointment, Cameron weighed 12.8 lbs. and grew to 24 inches long. They said that his head was in the 50%, the weight was in the 75%, and his length was in the 90%.

Last week at Cameron's four month appointment, Cameron weighed 15.4 lbs. and grew to 26 1/2 inches long. Just like last time, his head was in the 50%, the weight was just under 75%, and his length was between 90%-95%. It just amazes me that he continues to grow as well as he is and grateful that his length stretches out his weight. I think Justin weighed about as much as Cameron does now when he was only one year old. He wasn't near the height of Cameron either.

He is rolling around more and more. He has learned how to roll from his back to his front, but he has rolled from his front onto his back periodicallym too,

Best of Buds, Tired and Together

Although Justin's bed is the top bunk, he sleeps with Benjamin almost every night in his bed. Justin knows that he should only sleep with Benjamin when it is not a school night, but that still doesn't stop him. He may crawl into his bed before falling asleep or crawl down during the night.

It is important that they both get their rest during the school week and this week it is even more important. ISAT testing started this week for the kids. Anna and Emma started today and Benjamin will begin his testing tomorrow. He also has Jazz band tomorrow morning at 7:00am, so he should be awake sooner than usual.

It is usually hard to wake up Benjamin without waking up Justin if they are sleeping together. Good thing for Justin that Benjamin loves him a lot. Benjamin has told me on more than one occasion that he loves having Justin sleep with him because he is such a warm body. He generally doesn't need many blankets when he sleeps with him. As you can see, Benjamin is actually sleeping without a shirt in the middle of winter (although this winter has been extremely, and strangely mild).

I'm not sure if Justin chose to sleep at the foot of Benjamin's bed or if he was asked to do that. Once I laid Cameron down I went into their room to take a picture. Benjamin's head popped up and he asked me if I took a picture of him. I guess he wasn't quite asleep yet. I told him he was in it a little bit, but that I wanted to take a picture of Justin since he was about to fall off the bed. I know he wouldn't like it if he knew I was posting this picture and blogging about him. Gotta love that boy! :)