Night on the Town!

Saturday afternoon we headed to Orlando for my cousin Ed's wedding. Our friends Matt & Kelly were not only nice enough to watch Cam for the night but also take in our goofy dogs. Aren't we so lucky to have such awesome friends?!



Both the ceremony & the reception took place at Maggiano's & it was so nice! The food was utterly amazing & we had an absolute blast.



The shuttle picked us up at the hotel which was nice so we didn't have to worry about driving.



Mike has known my sister since she was twelve; basically she's grown up knowing him. So, he loves to make her "uncomfortable" by rubbing or kissing her arm. May sound dysfunctional but it's all in good fun.



It was so much fun to get dressed up & mingle with the adults for a change!



And to catch up with family.





I'm very lucky to have such a wonderful brother-in-law!



My mom & her boys.





My brother & sister-in-law weren't able to make it so the family wasn't quite complete.



My dad & his two girls!



The whole goofy clan.



My grandma & her three boys.





It was a lot of fun to catch up with my Uncle Keith who flew in from Chicago to be the Best Man in the wedding.



And we enjoyed some insanely delicious grub, including the fried cheese Mike happened to be gnawing on in this picture.



And there was dancing, dancing, dancing and even more dancing.



I'm still feeling sore today from all of that moving & grooving but it was well worth it! Thank you again, Matt & Kelly for taking such great care of Cam! We're very lucky to have you!

Man Overboard!

Well, couple new things going on this week... First of all, Cam got himself a new beanbag chair & he's loving just kicking back & relaxing after a long day at school.



He's back to being obsessed with Cars & has given up Nemo for the time being. As we arrive home, he yells, "Lightning, Lightning!" as he grabs the DVD case & hands it to me. We may have ourselves a TV drone if we aren't careful.



And last, but absolutely, positively not least, Cam is officially able to climb out of his crib. Yesterday morning as I got my coffee ready, I could hear him stirring over the baby monitor as he woke up. He did his usual talking & just hanging out so I continued to get things ready & poured his milk. Then I heard him saying, Oh no, oh no! Oh no, oh no!

There was no urgency to his words, nothing was out of the ordinary & I heard no thuds or scuffles over the monitor. But as I headed to his room to get him from his crib, I found him sitting on the floor outside his crib rather than in his crib. I was extremely surprised to say the least.

After talking it over with Mike & consulting a few parenting websites, we've decided to keep him in his crib for now. We removed the padded bumper from inside his crib to prevent him from having any additional leverage. Seeing that he's never tried to get out of bed before, the bumper had just been there since he was born.



And as of last night we've got this little guy keeping an eye on Cam. I borrowed this video monitor from Lauren yesterday since we had met up to see Eat, Pray, Love.

Last night Cam made no attempts to jump ship as he fell asleep & Mike had to wake him up this morning so again, no attempts of getting out. He usually sleeps till 7:30 or so & we're already up at that time so we'll continue to keep a close eye & convert his bed as we see necessary. By no means do we want him falling out & hurting himself but we also don't want to convert him until he's truly ready. I guess only time will tell! He sure does keep us on our toes though!

On-The-Go Toddler Breakfast

As a Registered Dietitian who also happens to be the mom of a toddler, I feel that it's my responsibility to try & make sure that Cameron gets a well-balanced diet. But unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. It may be a particularly rushed morning or a really hectic night or Cam might be cranky & not wanting anything to do with food.

So, during my lunch break at work today, I started to think of some on-the-go breakfast ideas since we let Cam sleep until the last minute before it's time to fly out the door. We don't want to wake him up earlier than he needs to be up, so I tried to come up with something that he could eat in the car on the way to daycare.



I wanted something that wasn't messy & that was well-balanced with a good amount of total calories, protein & fiber. Cam drinks about 8oz of whole milk right when he wakes up, so he's getting plenty of calcium & fat from that. Children ages 1-3 need 500mg of calcium daily & one cup of milk contains about 290mg, so it's not all that difficult for a little one to meet their calcium needs. Click here to see the calcium content of other foods if your child isn't a big fan of milk. It's pretty amazing to know that Cameron needs 1200-1300 calories/day; that's close to what I need each day & I weigh about 90# more than him!

Mike picked up a whole wheat pancake mix with about 3g of fiber per serving, but I wanted to up that amount so I added All Bran buds to the food processor & threw in some almonds for some healthy fat.





I mashed some bananas with honey so the pancakes would have sweetness baked right in to avoid the mess of syrup.



I found that on our electric stove, the heat only needed to be at low-medium to cook them through without getting too brown since they were really dense. I made the first couple of batches a little too big; because they are so dense, a little goes a long way.



And viola, fifteen minutes later I had about fifteen pancakes that I threw into a Ziplock bag & put in the freezer so we can nuke them as needed when it's time to bolt out the door with our little guy in tow!

Oh, My Aching Back!

This week has been exceptionally busy! In addition to the usual working, taking care of Cam, laundry, cooking, etc, I decided I wanted to power wash the patio, steam clean the carpets & get a couple of new plants for our patio.



Yesterday I rushed home from work so I could get a jump on steam cleaning the carpet before the boys got home. I was so pleased with the results; it was awesome to see it almost-like-new again. As we watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs after Cam went to bed, I said to Mike, Hmm, wonder how long this rug will stay clean before one of our cats decide to puke on it?



Well, that question was answered this morning when I was getting ready for work & Mike came into the bathroom with a questionable look on his face, saying, Okay, this can be something we both laugh about...

I immediately said, Did the cats puke?? And he replied, Yes! But, that's not the bad part... As soon as I got Demps out of her cage, she started having diarrhea! Well, I found nothing funny about this & immediately burst into tears. Yes, it was a dramatic reaction but I was still waking up, still tired & just hoping that our carpet would have stayed nice for at least 24 hours. Silly me & my wishful thinking. And the oddest part is that Dempsey NEVER has diarrhea! What are the odds? But luckily Mike did a good job of cleaning up the mess & I didn't even notice it when I got home.



And today after work, I came home to mow the lawn, trim the bushes & pot our new plants in the unbearable heat.



Although I am exhausted after my many projects, it's so refreshing to come home to a spruced up house & yard.



And I was even able to muster up that laugh that Mike was hoping for about the carpet mishap from this morning.

I often say to myself as I bustle around, The fun just never ends around this house!

Saturday Happenings

Where might this little stud be heading out to on a Saturday morning, looking as cool as ever?



Maybe he's heading out to cruise the streets & flirt with some two year old gals?



Nah, he's just heading to McDonald's for a little grub with his mom & dad!



Some hot cakes for my hot cake!



And our little flap jack ended up wearing a large portion of his syrup as we left & headed out to the local nursery to pick out new plants for our patio. Cam got to see some colorful fish at the nursery & we headed out with some pretty plants in tow! Although we still haven't had the chance to plant them since it stormed like crazy within two minutes of us getting back home!

Once again the weekend went far too quickly & it's back to the grind again. As I picked Cam up from daycare today, I noticed he had a ring of drool on his shirt. Yes that's right, my nearly two year old is still drooling! That child started drooling profusely when he was two months old, didn't stop until he was about 14 months old & it appears to be back again as his second molars come through. What will I do with that boy? I know, I know!! Smother him with kisses and hugs! Love that boy!

Weekend at the Beach

Saturday morning we packed up the family & headed down to the beach to spend the weekend with my mom & dad. My mom wanted us to relax while she was able to spend some one on one time with Cam. The two of us were even able to go to Guppy's for a fantastic dinner out which is so rare. After dinner, we sat on the beach & had some wine. It was great!



Cam had such a great time on the beach!







It was extremely hot outside but everything was so vibrant & colorful & the water was beautifully clear. We really felt like we were on vacation.







I decided to sit down with Cam & enjoy the waves & we ended up laughing hysterically as I got tossed around.





Daddy & his boy.



Sometimes a weekend away is just what is needed to recharge your batteries. Unfortunately the weekend did go by too quickly but we'll be making a longer weekend at the beach later this month. Check out Cam's blog to see pool pictures with his grandma & grandpa!

Happy Summer!