Now we have a mobile child.  And I wish there was a word that better describes him than “mobile.”  The two big things that were pointed out to us as “not childproof” were the nest of wires under the desk in our living room, and our wine rack, which sits on the floor between the living and dining rooms. So we’ve been watching him.  He has gone for both the wires and the wine rack.  Except for an initial taste of the wires and a touch of the wine rack, he has left them alone.  I think mostly due to the fact that with the wires, we’ve gone and picked him up and moved him, but never ran to him screaming OH MY GOD CAMERON NOT THE WIRES WHATEVER YOU DO DON’T TOUCH THE WIRES. Because if we had, he would have heard OH MY GOD CAMERON THAT IS SUCH A FUN AND EXCITING PLACE TO BE LOOK HOW EXCITED MOMMY AND DADDY ARE, RUNNING OVER AND SCREAMING. YAY!

The wine rack has the difficult job of being directly next to the vacuum cleaner, an object that holds way more intrigue and power so even if he goes for the wine, the magical vortex of the vacuum sucks him in.

What no one told us about was the fact that he won’t just crawl around looking for wires and wine.  He in fact will decide crawling is for losers, start pulling himself up on any and everything and move furniture around the living room. Truly.  Often I will hear the scrape of an end table or one of those small wooden folding tables from Target everybody seems to own and look up to see Cameron sitting there pulling one of these tables back and forth across the floor.  

This does present us with a baby proofing dilemma.  Do we pack up the small furniture? Won’t we then have to pack up the big furniture? Because in about a week I figure to wake up to the sound of him rearranging the living room, barking orders to the animals so the whole thing is done more efficiently.  Sam, angle the couch just a touch more to the left. Little more, little more, perfect!  

So I’ve decided that for now, unless we want to pull out the bamboo mats and live on the floor, we’re just going to have to hope for the best and not put heavy items on top of furniture he might move.  

Because the floor has issues as well.  Like the fact that every time he brings his head up from a cruise around the room it looks like he swallowed a cat.

While in NC, I had assistance (more like full time guidance) in embarking upon the baby food adventure with Cameron.  Always tentative towards me feeding him, it was suggested that perhaps someone without the magical milk melons should try feeding him because if he knew he could have the melons, why would he ever want solid food?  Low and behold, it worked.  It started with a little food in the mouth, a lot out.  Rice cereal was taken off the menu early on as he made it quite clear it tasted um… like… gross, and thanks, but if he’d wanted that he could just suck on the piles of cardboard his parents never seem to manage to recycle.  Pears are the definite favorite, followed by sweet potatoes.  He also LOVES drinking orange juice out of a cup.

Developmentally, I can hardly keep up with all the changes.  He has been rolling for awhile, but the other day finally put together all the leg and arm coordination for crawling to begin.  He had been continuing to inchworm himself for awhile, but now rockets himself across the house before we realize where he has gone.   His two favorite things to rocket towards (other than the animals) are shoes of any kind and the vacuum cleaner.  This kid cannot get enough of vacuuming.  He loves watching John do it and visits the vacuum at least once a day during his circuits around the house.  

His vocality has also exploded.  He has always been a vocal child, but now there is definitely more purpose behind his sounds and he is trying out a vast array such as the “da” sound, “na“, “la” and a few dozen others.  He can also cluck his tongue, which he thinks is super cool, the only thing cooler is if somebody does it back to him. He is an excellent singer as well, something I’m sure we will get the pleasure of hearing many, many times in the future.  

As he outgrew all the 9month summer outfits his Auntie Reed and I got for him by the time he hit six months, John and I ventured back out to the baby outlet store nearby and loaded up on some 12month outfits.  They all pretty much fit and we’ve decided the wardrobe of choice for the summer is a t-shirt and diaper.  And once it gets a little warmer, the t-shirt will be optional.  

We also decided to join the zoo.  It is not a typical zoo in that originally the land it is on was a nature walk.  At some point they decided to blend the nature walk and the zoo, so it is basically a very pleasant walk with exciting animals throughout.  It feels like Jurassic Park with John and I waiting for the Raptor to jump out and gut one of us.  Cameron didn’t really seem to care about the Raptor, or much about the animals, except for a pair of white tiger cubs, which he was riveted by. 

He was also riveted by any kind of water.  Lucky for him the animals are surrounded by moats, so there was water everywhere. By the end of the visit we had thoroughly worn him out.

If I had to pick one favorite thing of all the things he is doing right now, I’d have to say bath time.  This kid cannot get enough baths.  Not that he is super dirty (although I did make John stop at a gas station on our way to visit friends the other day so I could buy some wipes to clean Cameron’s blackened knees, which I hadn’t noticed, so I didn’t look like a completely irresponsible parent) but he LOVES him a good bath.  It used to be a peaceful passive activity, playing with a few toys, sitting in the tub and cooing.  It is now a full contact sport.  More water ends up outside the tub than in, and this is our full size bathtub, not a baby tub. John is going to start wearing rain gear if he sits with us in the bathroom.  The other day after a particularly energetic bath in which I literally held Cameron belly side down in the water while he pretended to crawl/swim/create a tsunami until he wore himself out, I realized that we are raising Calvin.  It doesn’t help that his favorite stuffed animal is a tiger. 

That’s about all.  In the time I’ve written this post Cameron has started speaking in full sentences, started reading The Coming Plague, and I’m pretty sure will be asking for the car tomorrow.  He continues to fill our days with happiness and laughter and we cannot imagine what we did with ourselves before his arrival.