And Fall begins!!

Can you believe it? It seems to have gotten here so fast! If Fall is already here, then that means winter is really just around the corner. Ugh, I really do love all the seasons, but there is something about nice warm sunny weather that I am sad to see go this year! Oh well, we will have fun regardless!

This weekend we decided to go apple picking with our friends Steph and Justin and their daughter, Ashlyn. When we arrived at the Big Apple, we discovered that they were out of apples to be picked!! We could buy them in their store, but no picking was to be had! We were so sad!! Instead, we took some family pictures and bought the caramel apples that are practically required to buy from this place when you live in the area! They are always so good and even Cameron liked liking the apple when we were finished with the caramel! We had a ton of fun, even if we weren't up in the orchard.

After we were through at the Big Apple, we decided to go to Adams Farm to take some more pictures. They have a small petting area and some horses and cows to look at. Their big thing this time of the year is their pumpkins. We took some pictures of Cameron sitting among them and I must say, he looks quite cute! It doesn't hurt that he is hardly any bigger then them! I think he had alot of fun playing with the new "toys". Its fun that he can actually go to places now and enjoy them. Even in the summer, he wasn't to interested in looking at new things and going to new places. Now, at eight months, he just loves it! He's just like his dad in that he needs to investigate everything! I swear, just by the way he was watching this cow, he knows how to milk it now! Our boy is growing up and he's going to have a blast this Fall, even if it requires an extra sweatshirt or two!

Petting and Swinging

It was a weekend of a few firsts for Cameron. It was his first time to a cross country meet for his Uncle PJ, outside of the belly that is. We woke up early on Saturday morning to pack up the car and drive to UMASS Dartmouth to watch PJ run. He runs for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and apparently this was a pretty big meet. Aside from getting the times wrong (we thought he was running at 10; more like noon!), we had a really good time hanging out with my dad and cheering PJ on. He ran a great race and came in second for his school!

Saturday we decided to take Cameron to World War One park for the first time, which is about 10 minutes from our house. Its a really cute park with a petting zoo area, with some farm animals and a small section of caged off animals, such as llamas and deers. It was the first time Cameron had the opportunity to touch animals other then our dog Riley! He wasn't really into the touching part, but he had a blast watching them. We will see has he gets older whether he's a true animal person or not. His parents: not so much!

The park also has a pretty little garden with this funky little water fountain. It is a butterfly with various little holes that shoot out water at random times. Cam LOVED this fountain! He shook with excitement while he watched it. I think he could have sat for hours watching this thing! Here is a picture of us at the garden. He looks mad because we made him look away for just one second to take a picture.

After seeing the garden, we made our final stop at the playground. We had never really been to a playground with him before. He was psyched to watch the "big" kids play on the structure and slide down the slide. He was able to go on the swing set for the first time!! This he loved! He laughed while he swung and cried when we took him out! I think he had a fun time at the park and it is definitely on our list of places to bring Cameron as he gets older!!

Matt and Katie got married!!

They did it finally! I'm not sure how long they have been together, three or four years maybe, but it seems like forever! Katie is finally my sister-in-law and is now officially Cameron's Aunty. The celebration started on Friday night. Everyone got together at my in-laws house for the rehearsal. As Mark, the best man, rehearsed the ceremony, Cam and I were able to socialize with everyone. Here is a cute picture of Cam and Grampa. Cam's little snugly body and his happy face shows just how much love he already has for him!

After the rehearsal, we all got together at Waxy O'Connor's, a cute Irish pub in town, to have dinner and celebrate the soon-to-be married couple. We had great food and Katie's father made a cute picture slide show of the couple and there families. That was alot of fun to watch. Even though it was super loud in the restaurant, Cameron fell asleep right on time and stayed asleep until we got home. What a good boy, if I do say so myself!

The next day was the wedding. It was a pretty dark and rainy day, but there were a few dry spots here and there. For the ceremony, it had stopped raining so Matt and Katie decided to have it outside as planned. Of course the sky opened up half way through! But that didn't matter. They were finally married!

As fun as the wedding was and all, I must say, having an infant with you to take care of while dad has wedding duties to tend to is not easy! Running back and forth on wet grass in heels and a dress to get something from the diaper bag, change his diaper or prepare a bottle wasn't to fun. He behaved perfectly and everyone stopped me to comment on that or his cuteness! Because of this busyness I wasn't able to take many pictures, which is very unlike me! I don't even have one of the newly married couple!! But here are a few. The first was one of the few times I had my hands free. I made Cameron feed himself! Doesn't he look cute all dressed up??

My first sick baby

After seven and a half months of an extremely healthy baby, Cam got his first stomach bug! I didn't think I'd feel so bad for him, but it was a pretty traumatizing few days, probably more for me then him!! The day started out pretty good actually. We took a trip over to see how Mark's parents survived the wedding that they hosted at their house the night before (more on that later) then returned all of the tuxes that were rented by the groomsmen. After, we decided to go to the Cafe on the Common for lunch. Cameron was hungry when we first got there so we fed him, then enjoyed our lunch with an extremely happy and friendly baby!

After lunch, we decided to take advantage of the 80 degree weather and go for a walk. We went to the nature trail and cranberry bog at Patriots Place. It was pretty cool! There were tons of little turtles and frogs and few gross snakes. It will be a really cool place to bring Cameron when he gets a little bigger. Now, though, not so much. He fell asleep in the Baby Biorjn after only 20 mins, which is not like him. This was when we started to wonder if he was feeling ok.

When we got home, I picked him up out of his car seat and BLAH, he puked all. over. me. Not fun. And he continued for most of the evening. Anything we put in him, like water or Pedialite, it came right back up. He was sooo tired and sad looking! Is it weird that I cried just watching him get sick? Anytime we picked him up he just flopped his head on our shoulder and fell asleep. The doctor suggested we take him to the ER, but we opted to wait and see how he did with sleeping. He slept great through the night and has so far kept the little bits of Pedialite down that we have given him today. He's been super tired and slept most of the day, but the times when he is awake he's in a pretty good mood. My little trooper! I hate that he is sick, but I would give anything to be able to spend all day everyday with him.

My sick baby

Another Milestone!

When I became a mother waiting for my son to meet all of the official milestones was very exciting, but extremely nerve wracking! Because of this I decided to celebrate all the little stepping stones that he meets on the way. Watching Cameron sit up holding on to my fingers was almost as exciting for me as when he could sit up on his own!

A few days ago, I put Cam in his crib to sit while I got out his outfit for the day. I turned around and when I looked back, he was standing with a big smile on his face! He had reached up for the rail and pulled himself up, with no help at all! To me, that is progress!! I wanted him to show off for daddy later that day and he did! Here is one of Cam's first times pulling himself up to stand.

The summer is over already??

I can't even believe it!! Being a teacher, I feel like a kid when it comes to the summer. It starts on the last day of school and is over when school starts up again. This year it seems to have flown right by! I don't know if it is because we have Cameron, or that we didn't go on any big vacations, or maybe that the weather wasn't to great. But what ever made it go so quickly, I am REALLY sad that its over.

We spent most of our weekends at my parents beach house on Cape Cod. It was a lot of fun to be able to spend that much time with my family and a great way to train Cameron to spend the night away from his crib. He did a great job sleeping in the pack n' play and being away from home didn't really effect his sleep patterns. He loved spending time on the beach and just being outside in the fresh air. We even got to dip him in the ocean a few times, but the water didn't really get warm enough for him to love it. I am proud to say that with the huge amounts of time we spent in the sun, my extremely fair skinned son didn't get one sun burn! I was obsessed with keeping sun screen on that boy!

Although the time went by fast, it was a really great summer. It was a summer of many firsts and will continue into a fall of even more. I guess you can't be to sad when one season ends because another is only just beginning. And really, who doesn't love the fall?!

Here are a few pictures from our first summer with Cammy:

The Birth Story

Let me first re-cap on what happened that day: I went into the hospital with Mark on January 21st at 9am. Well, that was when we were supposed to be there! After being stuck in traffic for a while we got there at 10:30! Oops, the most important moment of my life, and I was late! After being checked in, we went into the delivery room and got set up. I changed into the johnny and they strapped the monitors on to my big belly. We could hear the heart beat which sounded like a running horse! They hooked me up to the IV with pitocin in it, which is a drug that induces labor. From the beginning I was about 3 cms dialated and 75% effaced. After the medicine, though, things slowly got better. My family and Marks family arrived shortly after us and hung out in the waiting room the entire time. Things were pretty uneventful for awhile and we were able to take some naps and walk out to the waiting room to see everyone. At around 3, my sister Tina went for an ultrasound appointment at the same hospital and found out she was having a boy! She stayed with me through out the rest of the delivery. At around 5, the family went out to dinner, leaving Mark and I behind. While they were gone, the doctor broke my water and the contractions started getting much more intense! After being informed Tina got so worried, she stood up at the table and yelled "Stacey's in labor!" and flew back to the hospital. i thought that was pretty funny!

The contractions hurt so bad I decided that I wanted the epidural. They came in to give me that about an hour later. People say the epidural hurts a real lot, but I didn't think so! I got an electric shock feeling down my leg, which is normal, but other then that nothing hurt to much. After that, I couldn't feel the contractions and was able to rest a little bit more. A few times, the pain started to come back and the epidural had to be re-filled. It was weird to see on the monitor that I was having a huge contraction, but I couldn't feel it at all! I couldn't even move my legs! It was great! At around midnight, we decided it was time to start pushing. Mark held one leg, and Tina held the other. I felt the pressure of the contractions, but not the pain. Each time I had one, I pushed a few times for 10 seconds each. Mark and Tina were great coaches and were really excited to see all that was going on! i had really bad heartburn and halfway through I started to feel nauseous and eventually I get sick. After that, though, I felt great and 2 pushes later Cameron Andrew was born! It was 1:51 AM on January 22, 2009.

They whisked him away to clean him up and check him out to make sure everything was ok. And it was! Mark was the first to see him and I could just tell he was already in love with him! I kept asking, "Is he cute? Is he OK?". After a few minutes, the nurses handed him to Mark and he brought him over to me. He was all wrapped up and the most beautiful baby I had ever seen! He had my heart already and he was only a few minutes old! He hardly cried and his eyes were so wide open! He was just looking at his parents and around at his new world. I couldn't believe that I had been growing THIS in my belly for almost 10 months! It seemed unfathomable to me!

Soon the family took turns coming in. Everyone cried! They were all in agreement: he was the most beautiful baby they had ever seen! It was alot of work, through the pregnancy and the labor and even though I only had him for a few short hours at that point, I knew that I never wanted to loose him. He was the new thing that was now my life. I felt a new love that I had never felt before. I never wanted him to get bigger, yet my brain was flying through all the things that I had to look forward to as he grew. Looking back at that joyous day, it makes me sad to know that I will never have that moment again! Every day, every minute, that goes by is gone forever. I need to cherish the memories that everyday brings and take time to show him the huge amount of love that I have felt for him since he was born. I love him so much and even at 2 hours old, I knew that I didn't want anything about him to change. He's my baby boy and will be forever!

Our first picture as a family :)

Dear Cameron

I've decided that the time is passing to quickly and even though I take pictures of almost everything, I need to start writing everything that happens with you! I need to remember the cute things that you do, the milestones that you surpass and the feelings I feel as all of this is happening!! Your 7 months old so I am going to first go back in time and try to remember everything that happened since you've been born! Its been crazy to see you grow from a tiny little newborn to the pudgy little guy that you are today! And the development that I have witnessed in you is just amazing! You are growing your own personality and you learn new things every day! I can't wait to look back at all that has passed and am hopeful to see all that is to come! So this is for you, my little Cammy. You are the love of my life and I want you to know that I have felt that way every day, from the beginning of your time!

Love,

Mommy