Day 8

Originally we'd planned to have Cam's birthday party on his actual birthday the Saturday before this one. I am so glad we changed it since he ended up being miserable and sick for that whole weekend. And I'm so glad he got better by the end of the next week, because he LOVED his party.

He spent the whole day running around with his little friends, begging for "Dake!!" (cake), and loving being the center of attention. We ended up with a farm theme and he had been begging to eat the sheep cake balls since the day we went to Steak and Shake (which was also the day we made the cake balls since I had my sister over to help). He was a bit confused on how to eat them because they fall apart when you take bites. His shirt is also covered in water because Gary was letting him eat ice right before we cut the cake.

Day 7

Okay, this is where I have to fudge it a little bit. I've been wanting to do a 365 forever, but could never come up with a good starting point. Finally, halfway through May I decided Cam's birthday, age 2-3, would be as good a place as any, and as I looked back at pictures, there were only two days I didn't have pictures of Cam. And since I really want to do this, I'm making it work. :D

Cam was spending the night at my mom's house this night. So the night of Day 7 was a night without Cam. It was the first night we'd had without him, with the baby, at home. It was quiet without him. It made me reflect on just how different our lives are when he's not here. So, without further ado, this is what we do without Cam to keep us busy.

Day 6

Aunt Tracy, my sister, was on spring break. I'd recently seen in the advertisements that come in my mail box on Thursdays that Steak and Shake had half-priced shakes from 2-4pm on weekdays. We planned a trip.

To me Steak and Shake is a fast food place, so I forgot that it pretends that it is a restaurant. We had to order and then wait a good 8-10 minutes for our shakes to arrive. In the mean time Cam went nuts. We played, colored, and finally resorted to sticking stickers on each other's faces to keep him busy. While there I got a phone call about the kids' doctor's appointments, Riley slept on the seat next to me, and Cam broke Tracy's shake glass. We paid and made a hurried retreat, with not a single waitress coming over to even check on the broken glass.

Day 5

The weather was half-decent, so I promised Cam we could go outside once I got Riley down for a nap, because while it was decent, it wasn't near warm enough to take her out. The wind was pretty strong, too. Of course, as soon as she fell asleep, the rain started falling.

He probably wouldn't have really noticed had I backtracked and cancelled the trip to play outside, but it has been a long winter for a two year old (and a mom with cabin fever), and Cam had just gotten a brand new rain coat from Mimi for Easter, so we did it! He loved it!

Day 4

Finally Cam had a full appetite back and he asked for cold leftover pizza for breakfast. I was completely thrilled with his choice. So much so I even let him eat it himself on the furniture without a plate. Just thinking about the grease on his hands still makes me cringe a little bit, but at the moment - he was eating again!

Day 3

This was a great morning. Cam didn't sleep well still the night before, but he made up for it by sleeping in until 11:45am. He was up almost all night and around 6am he finally crawled into bed with the rest of us. Gary got up and left for work and I got out of bed simply because I wasn't getting back to sleep, and I hated to stay in bed and accidentally wake one of the kiddos.

I checked on them often because I was afraid Cam would wake up and start messing with Riley. They had started sleeping parallel to each other, but on one trip to check on them I walked into this. Cam had apparently woken enough to snuggle up into his sister and they slept like that for the rest of the morning until Riley fussed and I picked her up to feed her.

Day 2

Sunday was Easter. It was also the fourth day of recovery from a double ear infection and Cam was still running a fever of 101/102 off and on. I wanted at least one picture of the four of us as a family since I spent so much time picking out cute outfits (and I had spent so many months anticipating how cute the kids would look in them.) Alas, a Kodak moment was not in the cards, but here is Cam protesting bunny ears in a family Easter pic.

Day 1

Not the best first picture to start a year of Camden, but I figured a gilder pic was fitting. I took pictures of him in this glider with that bear every month during his first year. For the second year I also took a picture on 15 months, 18 months, and this picture at two years. At two, my active toddler finally wants nothing to do with sitting still for more than a second and this was the best shot I got of him. 

We had an Easter Egg hunt this morning, met the Easter Bunny at Dairy Queen, and then had a small celebration with cupcakes a few family members this day. There were plenty of better pictures from all those activities, but even though there were other shots I liked better, the most recent pic from the progression shots I've been taking seemed the most appropriate beginning for a year in pictures.