Merry Christmas from the Sullivans!

Yay, Camden!

Camden learned to clap this morning. It's the cutest thing!

Getting Ready for School

Mykenzi busy getting ready for preschool,

excited about the Christmas party!

Pulling up on everything...

Now that Camden has mastered crawling, he's pulling

up on everything. Camden was crawling around when

I went over to the Christmas tree to hang a fallen icicle

and Jonmark was reading a newspaper, but when I turned

around Camden was standing up at his exer-saucer chewing

on one of the toys. I'm guessing he'll be walking in 3 months or less!

First Bath in the Sink

"Hey, Mom, you forgot the tub!"

"What's all this white stuff?"

"Look at me, Daddy!"

Figuring out that bubbles are fun!

Camden's first bath in the sink was also his first bubble bath.

Mykenzi's turn...

Mykenzi and Camden are learning to share everything,

including their germs. Last week, both of them were sick

with double ear infections and congestion, which put Camden

back on breathing treatments (in addition to the one treatment

he receives every day as maintenance) and Mykenzi was

introduced to the nebulizer. This was torture for her and I

during her first treatment at the pediatrician's office, requiring

a nurse and I to hold her down until she calmed down, and then

the nurse read her a book while I held her for the treatment. After

a few treatments at home though, she realized it wasn't so bad

after all, especially if we turn her favorite tv shows up loud enough

to be heard over the machine. Then she actually holds the mask

up herself, and afterwards she insists that she deserves a treat

for being so good during her treatment!

Baking Christmas cookies with Kenzi

Mykenzi loves to bake anything, and I love to bake with her,

but Christmas cookies are our favorites! I didn't get any pictures

of it, but we left a few sugar cookies plain, I gave her two tubes

of writing icing (red and green of course) and several different

types of Christmas sprinkles, and let her go crazy decorating

the other cookies. She basically just put a big glob of icing in the

middle of each cookie and piled on the sprinkles, but she kept saying

over and over how she was having so much fun, so the mess

of sprinkles on the floor afterward were totally worth it!

Mykenzi says we have to leave Santa both chocolate chip
cookies and sugar cookies, so we'll be baking cookies again
this weekend to make sure we have some to leave out for
Santa on Christmas Eve!

Getting into things...

A picture from when Camden found his way under the table.

Needing help backing out of there!

Camden passes this Santa several times during his strolls

in the walker, and normally never bothers with him, but this

particular time he was trying to eat the bell on Santa's hat.

When I got his attention to get the bell out of his mouth, he

decided to take off running, but forgot to let go first!

Crawling around, Camden found the bag of bows and decided

they needed to be in the floor instead of in the bag, and that

they should be eaten, not put on Christmas presents!

This is the look I get for taking the bow away.

Camden can move now!

Camden first crawled last week, but has really taken off the last few days, and nothing is safe now that Camden's on the move. That includes Mykenzi's toys...and Mykenzi for that matter. He's got this new skill down, but down he still goes on occasion, and he lets out a big squeal to inform us all how frustrated that makes him. His father believes he's already packing a little bit of his sister's attitude....lucky me I say, 3 hot tempered people to live with, because you know I never have an attitude! The good news though is that when he does splay out on his tummy, arching his back with his arms and legs flying in the air, he squeals, but gets right back up again and continues on his mission to destroy his sister's toys, which for now just includes eating them, thereby driving her crazy and illuminating his face with the biggest, most handsome smile ever! When he's not crawling or climbing his way to trouble, he's getting into trouble in his walker. Just this morning he grabbed Mykenzi's toys off her little table, causing quite a racket when all the toys went spilling onto the floor. This only angered him because he wanted those toys that he was then staring at on the floor, but instead he just got caught and everything was taken away. He also found some fun in the empty dishwasher between loads. He wedged his walker just right so that he could reach in and grab a rack, getting his hands all wet and rubbing them on his walker tray. Earlier while Mykenzi was decorating Christmas cookies and I had a chair pulled away from the table, he took his walker under the table and tormented her by grabbing her feet and legs. Anything to annoy her seems to be funny now. Needless to say, we're entering a new stage in our family now that Camden is mobile!

The Tickle Monster

Camden loves to giggle and Mykenzi loves to tickle!

Camden says no!

You can see Camden shaking his head no in this video,

and if you listen carefuly it sounds like he even says no.

I know he didn't really say it, but it was cute!

No, I did not let Camden feed himself. Tonight I decided

to focus on emptying the bowl rather than keep him neat and clean.

It seemed to work because the bowl was empty at the end. However,

half of the bowl is probably on his face and bib, but oh well, he did

actually keep more in his mouth this time than he usually does.

The mess comes from him spitting some back out and rubbing

his face while eating, trying to chew on his fingers instead of

taking the spoon, or turning his head to avoid the food.

A carrot free face feels (and looks) much better!

It's official!

Camden's really mobile now! He's crawling!!

I've witnessed it twice this morning.

Mykenzi Loves To Sing

Mykenzi is singing the Advent song

that she learned at preschool.

Camden's Carrots

We're trying out carrots here, but notice Camden

is shaking his head no at me. I'm not sure that he knows

what it means, but he does it every time I try to feed him solids.

Sleeping Beauty

Pulling Up

Camden thinks he's such a big boy now that

he can pull up on things!

Notice the socks on the floor. I don't know

if I just don't have the right socks for him or what,

but socks never stay on his feet. If he's not pulling

them off to play with his feet, then they're falling off him.

First Solids - Squash

This was Camden's first solids experience, which was squash.

It went very well the first night.

See, he was all smiles at the end of this feeding.

That wasn't the case the second, third, and fourth nights.

We missed the really good pictures and video the second and

third nights because Jonmark wasn't home to capture those.

This video is from tonight, the fourth night, and although he

doesn't seem to really enjoy it, he ate much more this time with

less face making. He even gagged repeatedly the second night,

even at the sight of the spoon coming at him.

So tonight was a real improvement.

So close to crawling...

Camden is still getting up on his knees and rocking, but

he hasn't taken off yet. We're in no hurry though!

Trying to crawl is hard work!

First Tooth

Yesterday I discovered that

Camden now has his first tooth!

He also started vegetables last night,

we started with squash, which he didn't

care for at first, but after a few bites he seemed

to like it. I'll post a video and pictures later!

Camden's 6 Month Checkup

At Camden's 6 month checkup, he weighed

16 lbs. 11 oz. and is 27 inches long.

He's also trying to crawl, now up on his hands and knees

rocking back and forth, but he just doesn't seem to know

how to move his hands, so for now he's still scooting

inch by inch or rolling over to get where he wants to go.

What a look!

I had to post the picture below. It started out with

Camden looking at me like this, so to get a smile

I tried making funny noises, but instead of

a smile I got this funny look...

Meet Zoey Sullivan

This is the newest addition to our family, Zoey Sullivan.

She is a 7 week old Beagle that has stolen our hearts,

and found her place in our family in just a matter of hours.

We miss Cooper, but we're happy to give Zoey a loving home,

and she's bringing fun times to our house already.

Just as Mykenzi adores Zoey, Zoey loves Mykenzi.

It didn't take long for Zoey to figure out who her best pal

in the house would be. When we're looking for Zoey, you

can usually find her tagging along behind Mykenzi following

her where ever she goes. Then there's Camden, looking

on from a distance wanting to be right there with them.

Zoey put her head on Mykenzi's leg, and you can
see the look of pleasure on Mykenzi's face.

I missed the best picture of these two getting to know each
other. Zoey walked over to Camden, put her paw up on his
chest, and Camden put his arm around her neck looking
down at her with a big smile. It's quite funny to see something
smaller than Camden around, which I'm sure he thinks is great too!

What a great smile!

A handful of puppy!

Grabbing Zoey's ear. I separated

them at this point not knowing how tough

Camden would get with Zoey, and afraid that

she might not be tolerant of it, but so far

she's just a loving little puppy.

She's rotten already!