Dancin' Man

Well, Valentines Day is over (thank God!). I delivered flowers for a little extra spending money. It was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure I'll do it again next year. The best part of my day was when I got to spend an hour with "my date" at the Valentines dance (at Camden's daycare). There was nothing cuter than to see a dozen plus little cuties (a sweet little mixture of special needs kids and typical kids) all dancing around together to the Electric Slide, The Locomotion, and the Macerena! The timing was a little off for Camden...it was at 10:00 am, when Camden starts winding down for his nap so he comes across as a little fussy in the pics. Plus, he's starting to reach that wonderful attachment-anxiety phase, which made it difficult for anyone to cut in and dance with him. But when we came into the room with the music on and the other kids were jumping and dancing, Camden instantly started giggling and was super-excited! He did the YMCA with his buddy John (one of my favorite kids there, he has mild down syndrome). It was hilarious! Didn't get pics of that because I was too busy posing Camden in the
Y-M-C-A moves.
So watch out! Camden's got mad skills on the dance floor!

And After!

"Whew! I can move a lot faster now!"

Hair Raising Pics: Before...

Two weekends ago, Camden got his first haircut! It was time to shed those baby curls (which made Mommy kinda sad) but he was very brave. Actually, we snuck the haircut in while he was standing in his Pony Walker on Aunt Joani's porch, and he didn't have a clue! Of course Mommy saved those sweet curls for the baby book. :)
Thanks for the pics, Aunt JoJo!

Therapy update

Hey all! I know I've been slacking lately. Just been so crazy busy it seems! Camden got fitted for his ankle braces yesterday. They won't be ready until Feb 8th, when we'll return to test them out. When Camden is put in a standing position, his feet rotate inwards. These braces should hopefully prevent them from doing that and get him used to the feel of correct weight bearing.
And recently a "Pony Walker" was donated to Camden. His PT, Lisa, put him in one they had there and he took off! It was so exciting to see! They happened to have another one in their closet just gathering dust so they have loaned it out to us for as long as Cam needs it. We went last weekend with "Aunt" Heather to the mall (which had a good, flat service for walking) and all the kids were looking at it like they wanted one.
We had a rough patch for about a week when Camden was SUPER fussy. The Dr. gave him a reflux medicine that seems to be working.
Lisa is considering trying to get Camden acquainted with a "communication board". Baby Sign Language was, for a brief period, an option. But Camden doesn't seem to have enough control in his fingers just yet. The communication board would have pics of things he may want with buttons on it. He would just push the button corresponding to the pic to say what he wants. This would, by no means, be a substitute for learning to speak. But it may alleviate some of his frustration with not being able to tell us what he wants. He is able to push buttons, so we're going to try to meet him halfway.

Our Happy Holidays

We're back home from our whirlwind Christmas trip. We stayed with Nana and got to do Christmas morning at her house (with her infamous breakfast bread!). Camden also got some good play time in with his cousins Maddie & Jake on the trampoline. Aunt Ash was there too and Joani & I lived vicariosly through her when we got to help her pick out a cute outfit for one of her social outings! (oh, that I was young & had her cute shape!) The day before Christmas Eve, Camden and I traveled to Gainesville to hang with my mom, dad, Aunt Betsy, Uncle Jason, Aunt Katie and Uncle Brian. Camden was quite fussy (think it was all that orange and blue everywhere). A walk to the park cured that, and we had just as much fun playing as Camden did! Christmas Eve was spent over at Grandma Jane's house with ALL the Kimbles, including the Farmer Fam. It was great to see my cousins Sarah and James again and I'm amazed at how they've grown and have their own fun personalities. We had a blast playing the Dirty Santa game and ended up with some cool loot--including diapers! Christmas Day found Camden on the farm--his first real trip to Perry to see his Great-Grandpa Hoyt. We took a ride in Grandpa's buggy and went out to see the cows!
We feasted on some good food from Aunt Betsy, Uncle Richard, Ms. Maggie and Nana. And Camden got tons of cool presents, but probably his favorite is his little red car that Nana got him. He LOVES it and looks so funny cruising in it!
We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, because that's what it's all about anyways. Hope you had just as much fun as we did.
Mom and Dad will be staying with us until Saturday for some extra Camden time and we've been enjoying Mom's cooking! Tomorrow should be fun--they're coming over to Joani's house and we're all going to eat Samburgers (If you haven't had a hamburger made by Sam, you just wouldn't understand!) Nana and Gramps are in Jax too so this should make sharing Camden easy!
(Thanks, Grandpa for letting me use your pics!)