The January Update

Callum and I took a magnificent trip to California to visit friends and family in January.  MAGNIFICENT!  But, in the meantime, we also did some day-to-day living, so I am going to give you an overview of January's highs and lows.

Highs / Fun Stuff:

Callum's favorite nap position is now butt-up like the stepsisters in Cinderella.  Love it!

Our friends Ashley and Carl Sansom lent us a BIG TV!  Woohoo!  We have been using a little one from Logan's grandma's basement that has a child lock on it to which no one can remember the code.  Ugh.  It wasn't a problem because we didn't have cable anyway, but we got the basic stations so we could watch the Olympics.  And now we get to watch them BIG!  Ashley's parents got a new TV and lent them this one, but they already have one, so they lent it to us for awhile.  Thanks, guys!

Callum loves to help lately.  He wants to sweep and he loves "helping" Daddy take out the trash.  What a sweet sight, huh?

Callum has been trying to sing along with his parents for quite some time, but now we can actually tell what he is trying to sing!  (It's usually "Joshua Giraffe" from his Raffi CD.)  He has a long way to go before he's singing in Carnagie Hall, but maybe he's on his way!  :)

Along with his newfound walking abilities, Callum love to carry things.  He is obsessed with anything with a handle, whether it be a suitcase, purse, briefcase, or even his diaper caddy, which is rather bulky and awkward for him to carry.  I think he made it about three steps when I took this picture, but just look at how pleased he is with himself!

Callum still loves bathrooms.  It's kindof a sick obsession of his.  I'm not sure if it's because ours is off limits to him usually or what, but he loves them.  It's bizarre.  His newest favorite thing to do in the bathroom is peek around the shower curtain at us when we are showering.  "Surprise!"  It is insanely adorable, but someday he will be quite traumatized at the thought that he ever did such a thing.

Callum is really into finger foods now, which is a great relief to me.  I HATE feeding him solids with a spoon.  Of course, I also had deep feelings of hate associated with the early stages (which for me lasted a miserable, long five months) of breastfeeding.  So I guess I just hate feeding my child.  Troubling...

Lows / Bad Stuff:

I broke my camera.  That's right, reread that sentence.  I broke my camera.  My new one.  That I adore.  And spent a fortune on.  There's a reason that this is at the top of my "lows" list.  Here's the deal:  I plugged my camera into my laptop to upload some pictures.  Callum started fussing in the next room and I left to play with him and make him happy.  An hour later I put him down for a nap and walked back over to the table.  By this time I had forgotten that I was doing anything with my camera, and picked up my laptop to check my email.  As I did so, the memory of plugging my camera into the computer flashed through my mind and my stomach dropped as I watched in horror as my camera went crashing to the ground.  It hit the ground and the lens snapped off.  I started bawling and freaking out.  In the end, it turned out to be a stupid and expensive mistake, but not as devastating as it could have been, and I have learned since then to be insanely paranoid about my camera.  The plastic (Why wimpy plastic, I ask you?!) lens mounts broke off, but the lens itself was fine, so I had to send it in to Nikon and pay them a hundred bucks to fix it.  Ugh.  The worst part about all of this?  It was a week before my trip to California, so I couldn't take the camera on my trip.  So sad.  So sad.

Callum is afraid of the dark.  I don't know if it's a coincidence or if it's our fault, but he is afraid of the dark.  In Colorado over Christmas vacation we were sleeping in my dad's basement, and it is so stinking dark that I left the hallway light on so I could check on Callum at night.  After our return Callum wasn't sleeping well.  In fact, it was terrible.  He was waking up in the middle of the night screaming and refusing to go back to sleep unless one of us was in the room holding his hand.  Eventually exhaustion overcame us and we ended up getting in a big fight in the middle of the night about whether to ignore him or not.  But I just knew that something was different.  Something was wrong.  This was his scared cry.  But WHY?!?  The next day I was reading a baby book and saw something about kids being scared of the dark.  It was like a thunderbolt had hit me.  SWEET RELIEF!  There is a reason!  There is a CURE!  Logan was skeptical, but we bought a cheap nightlight, plugged it in, and it was smooth sailing from there on out.  I can not express to you our relief.  A nightlight I can handle.  Exhaustion I can not!

Poor little Callum.  I have never known a "healthy" baby who was sick more often than him.  He is always sick.  Sigh.  As a result of his strep throat in December, he had diarrea for a long time, which was only complicated by all of the antibiotics.  He got a raging diaper rash that started to have little sores and things.  He would scream and cry every time we had to wipe his little bum.  When it kept getting worse I called the doctor and they said it was probably that he also had a yeast infection as well.  I didn't know boys got those, but it makes sense, since yeast grows in warm, wet places....and what's warmer and wetter than a baby's diaper?!  It was a huge ordeal full of multiple baking soda soak baths a day, a whole lot of naked time to air it out (Which Callum LOVED, naturally!), and antifungal cream.  I am so glad that it is over!

Coming soon:  Our trip to California!  Woohoo!!!  (Can I come back, pretty please?!?)