Happy Thanksgiving

'Tis the season to give thanks, so here is my laundry list of things I'm thankful for this year, in no particular order:

Let's get the obvious one out of the way...I'm incredibly thankful for our sweet little boy. He's happy, healthy, and thriving - what more can a mother ask for? Whenever I see his face light up with joy or hear his infectious laugh, I am 100% content. Being a mother is completely undescribable, and I'm so happy to be one.

I'm thankful for a husband who reads Parents magazine in the bath. Seriously.

I'm thankful that Reilly is tolerating Cameron. Even after the American flag incident (see previous July 4th post).

I'm thankful for my boss who kindly accommodated my request to change my work schedule to 7:00 AM - 3:30 PM, so that I can watch Cameron when Mike sees clients in the afternoon. I'm so thankful that we've been able to spend all this time with Cameron and delay daycare.

I'm thankful for parents and in-laws who showed Mike and how me how to be good parents.

I'm thankful for Cameron's full head of hair. I love that people comment on it everywhere we go.

I'm thankful for Chick-fil-A's spicy chicken sandwiches, and I'm especially thankful for the occassional free coupon in the mail. What will those poor-spelling cows think of next?

I'm thankful for Olympic curling, Parenthood, and the Bravo network. I spent countless hours watching all of those things on TV during maternity leave. By the way, Parenthood is my show, no matter how much Mike tries to claim it.

I'm thankful for Cameron's "treasure," the battery cover on the remote control. That has provided endless hours of entertainment. His happiness is my happiness.

I'm thankful for uninterrupted sleep. I didn't realize what a treat it was until I didn't get a full night's sleep for six months.

I'm thankful for hand-me-downs. So thankful that I feel the need to return the favor and share clothes and toys with others - pay it forward, yo.

I'm thankful for friends with kids close to Cameron's age. It's nice to talk to other people who completely relate to what you're going through.

I'm thankful that I've been able to breastfeed for 9 1/2 months. Even though I'm not making as much milk anymore, every ounce counts!

I'm thankful for Chris Johnson. I rode his coattails to win the War of the Roses fantasy football league last year, and I'm counting on him to at least get me into the playoffs this year. Considering Tom Brady blew up today with 40+ points, I need a big game from CJ this week.

I'm very, very, very thankful for my best friend and help mate, Mike. There's no one whom I'd rather spend more time with and no one who can make laugh as much as him. He is a wonderful father, and I don't tell him that often enough.

I am so blessed. My cup runneth over.

Consonants are Great

At Cameron's 9-month check-up, our pediatrician said that Cam's speech development was a little delayed because he wasn't babbling with consonants. Whenever he talked, it was, "aah aah aaaaaahhhh." Of course, Cameron comes from a long line of speech-delayed males, so this really shouldn't have come as a surprise to Mike and me.

But that all changed this weekend. On Saturday morning, Cameron went down for his morning nap as per usual. An hour and a half later, he woke up and voila! - consonants were suddenly a part of his vocabulary. And now the little guy won't stop with the "blah blah, da da da, ga ga ga." Hooray for consonants!

Inside voice extravaganza

So Cam and I finally made it to "lap sit" story time at the Library. I have to admit, it was actually really cool. There was no story - which was probably a good idea considering the attention span of their audience. Instead it was a large padded room filled with women and toys (aka: my idea of a good time). First parents, and to a lesser extent babies, participated in a sing along. Then a tub of toys was dumped out and the parents sat back and conversed while little people crawled around and essentially violated each others personal space. Basically it was like Gymboree, except free of charge and void of the awkward forced conversations about parenting.

But I wasn't kidding about it being a sea of estrogen. There were probably 20+ mothers in that place and I comprised the lone father representative. A little awkward, but if I learned anything from graduate school, it is the fact that I can hold my own in a land o' ladies. What I really learned today is my son is either a racist or really can't tell Mindy apart from other Asian women. I feel like I might need to mark Mindy on the hand with a marker like Michael from the Office. Seriously, of the 20+ mothers in the room two were of Asian decent. And these two Asian women were literally the only two adults in the room he approached. But, he didn't just approach them. He continually went over to them smiling, pulled himself up on there legs, and tried to crawl into their laps or arms. It was actually a little embarrassing. And it might have been made a wee bit more awkward by the fact that I kept winking at the women and telling them in a creepy voice that they looked just like his mother. Ok, that last part isn't true. But Cam did totally shun the white women. He told me later that as a general rule he finds them too high maintenance.

We did manage to make a friend with one of Cam's surrogate mothers. She was a real nice lady whose son was one day older than Cameron. I was really enjoying our delightful chat about the recall on teething tablets until she had the nerve to ask me if I "was JUST a stay at home?" How dare she?!?!?! After that, every time Cam went over toward her I would say with a slightly raised voice, "NO! She's not your mother!" You subtly disparage stay at home fathers and I passively aggressively retort. Ok, again, the second part really didn't happen. But inside I wanted to... I wanted to.

Overall, we were very pleased with our little adventure. We're planning to go back tomorrow. And I'm hoping to be able to teach Cam how to whistle the tune to "The Boys are Back in Town" by then. We'll see what happens.

Family Portraits

Today the photographer who took our family portraits gave me the CD of images from our session a couple of weeks ago. I LOVE the pictures she took! What's funny is that if you asked me, I would have said that Cameron wasn't particularly smiley that afternoon, but the photos prove otherwise. I really think she captured Cameron's happy spirit. So if any of you Austinites are looking for a good photographer, let me know, and I'll happily share her contact information. (I heart Brenda O'Brian.)

Here are some of my favorite pics from the session, and I held one back for our Christmas card. To see all the pictures, check out my Facebook page.

Enjoy!