re-BIRTH: 8 months and counting

At least a few mornings every week, I wake up to a peculiar little noise. *click click..click...click, click* - a tiny, barely audible little ticking. The first few times it happened, I didn't think much about it. I suppose I figured it was the house settling or noisy pipes or something. A couple weeks ago, Brian figured it out - Cameron, having discovered the tooth in his mouth, was picking at it with his nails. *click click*- he poked around his mouth, trying to figure out what it was that let him make such a noise.

I have to say, this made me feel like I have the smartest baby on the planet :) - just like every mom feels I'm sure!

Cameron is a little over 8 months now. He is Mr. Personality - the kid loves blondes and is a rough and tumble little guy. He's on the verge of crawling and inchworms across the floor in search of toys or to get ahold of Mowgli (who has no idea what he's in for once this kid starts moving!).

Being dangled upside down by his ankles is one of Cameron's favorite pasttimes - along with being thrown in the air and splashing around in the bath. When I pick him up from daycare or walk into a room, he turns toward the sound of my voice and breaks into the best grin when he sees me. He loves being read to and helps turn the pages of his bedtime stories.

Last week he was sick with the fever/ear-ache/teething trifecta and seriously, a sick baby is the most pitiful thing on the planet. You can't really do anything for them, though snuggling does help. On one particular day, I worked from home since he was too sick to go to daycare. We had a great day in our pajamas, enjoying a warm beverages (he with his bottle and me with my coffee) and typing away on our respective gadgets. Cameron has a plastic, boldly colored smartphone as well as a little neon laptop that speaks to him in Spanish. So I replied to my emails while listening to a cartoonish voice sing "Hola, Hola- this means Hello. Adios! Bye-bye it's time to go!" By quitting time, we were both exhausted. Cameron was sick of being sick and I was a bit stir crazy.

This day reminded me of a particular saying I heard shortly after Cam was born - "the days are long, but the years are short." I'm not sure where the last 8 months have gone, but they've flown by. Of course, they haven't been boring (and time does fly when you're having "fun", but I'm not sure I'd call this year fun either!), but I just can't believe that he's been in the world almost as long as he was inside of me. I feel like we're making the best memories - I'm so excited to see him play (with the wrapping paper and boxes) on Christmas morning. And of course, I'm happy that he knows his mama and gets to enjoy me. Sadly, I came across the blog of a woman who lost a friend to SCAD (http://eisforerin.com/2011/11/07/remembering-bethany/). Reading this gives me chills - I'm sure you understand why.

So... the days are long but the years are short. But they're all we have and we have to make the best of them! I am having so much fun watching Cameron discover the world. Brian and I spent about 30 minutes today watching Cameron feed himself his bottle as if he was performing a miracle (Do you see that?! Look at his hands?! Oh - now he's doing it one-handed!!! He's not even spilling.) I'm sure we could have ran some errands or cleaned something up with that 30 minutes, but I swear, it was the best way to spend that time.