First Halloween

We dressed Cameron up for school yesterday because they were doing a parade at 10 AM. But Cameron decided she wanted to poop all over it an hour before the parade. Coincidence or future Halloween hater? DH and I are not big on Halloween, except the candy, of course. We both hate dressing up. But for some reason I can't wait to put Cameron in adorable costumes! Thank you to Mommy, Esq. for providing the costume.

Catching Cameron mid-sneeze
Yes, I am adorable!

Random Thursday thoughts

Adam Lambert has released the album cover for his record that is dropping one week after the winner of American Idol, Kris Allen. Apparently the cover is a throw back to the 70s. Personally I think it is a little out there, but so too is Adam so I guess it fits. Regardless, my love for American Idol doesn't translate into purchasing their music so I won't be adding this to my iPod play list.

Carolina sports teams suck this year. Last night the Charlotte Bobcats were destroyed by the Boston Celtics. How many points did they score? 59. Pathetic. On the NFL front the Panther's quarterback, Jake Delhomme has thrown 18 interceptions in the last 6 games. But apparently that isn't bad enough for him to be removed as a first string quarterback. In this economy any other industry would have fired him weeks ago.

On another sports front, the Yankees lost last night. DH handled it pretty well but I could feel that way because I was asleep for most of the game and didn't hear him shouting or cursing out the offense for not getting any more than one run. At this point I almost want the evil Yankees to win just so that my hubby will be happy. Is this how women are drawn to become sports fans against their will? Self-defense?

How is it possible that 8 days of doing the 30 Day Shred has resulted in not a single pound lost? Jillian would be so disappointed. I'm watching what I eat and sweating my ass off with zero results so far. Very frustrating. I did try to do Level 2 last night and almost passed out. I actually had to wimp out of a couple of exercises. Looks like I need to spend more time on Level 1...

Yes, I have renamed my blog. I'm not sure I'm sticking with "Conference Call On Mute" but I appreciate the suggestion from Natalie when I was first starting up my blog. Why conference call on mute? Probably because I was supposedly on vacation while she was visiting but still had to listen in on some conference calls. I multi tasked by chatting with Natalie during the parts of the call that didn't apply to me. She was freaked out and kept asking me, "are you sure that's on mute?"

Hilton Head Pictorial

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a wonderful time in Hilton Head. It was great to do a little shopping with my mom and DH played golf for two days. I even got to sleep in one morning and had a facial! Pure bliss.

I actually managed to work out to the 30 Day Shred every day I was there. Aren't you impressed?

We had a wonderful photo shoot at the beach.
Cameron loved the water.

DH and Cameron look out over the ocean.

Cameron loved swimming in the kiddie pool.

Even better? The hot tub!

Not bothered by sand at all.

Flying through the air courtesy of Daddy.

A perfect threesome.

The Obamas welcome Cameron to the world

We had a wonderful trip to Hilton Head this past weekend to visit with my parents. I am in the process of downloading and editing the 800+ photos. We went a little crazy with the continuous shooting mode on my camera. But we got some great shots that I will be sharing over the next few days.

In the meantime, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a note from the Obamas welcoming Cameron into the world. A few months ago I sent in a letter to the White House with her birth date and our address. I had read online that you can do this within a year of your baby's birth and receive a signed note from the President and his wife.

The card reads, "Welcome to the world! Your arrival is a cause for great celebration for your proud family. We wish you a long an happy life filled with chances to learn, ideas to explore, people to love, and dreams to fulfill. Sincerely, Barack Obama / Michelle Obama"

I think I'm going to put it in a picture frame and hang it on her wall. If anyone else is interested in receiving your own congratulations, you can find directions here.

Cameron: Seven months old

Dear Cameron,

Today you are seven months old. Can Mommy and Daddy hope that this means you are old enough to stop waking up at 4 AM and 5 AM?

This month was a busy one for you developmentally. You are rolling all over the place and have managed to move yourself across the room and spin in circles. I have a feeling that crawling is in your immediate future. In the meantime I've had to watch out for my computer cords. A million toys but you go right for the dangerous stuff. Daddy is so proud.

This month you also received a lovely present: your first tooth! Mommy had no idea it was coming in and decided it was a good time to do cry it out with you. We haven't been quite successful in getting you to sleep through the whole night (see above) but now you aren't swaddled any more. I think we all kind of miss that. Daddy is convinced that your second tooth is coming in any day now but he's been saying that for two weeks. I think you are following in the tradition of your cousins and won't get the matching tooth for a few more weeks.

While you are very close to crawling you are also very close to sitting up on your own for extended periods. Right now you still wobble a lot so we have to be careful not to let your head thump on the ground. If we can't catch you in time you just laugh and roll over.

I think this month you have had more smiles and laughs than the previous months combined. You love it when we swing you around or Daddy does the "Tower of Daddy" with you. We've also moved you into your 6-9 month clothing and we love all the cute outfits you can wear. They are still a little big but we have no doubt you will grow into them quickly.

This month you also got to see your Grammy and Bumpa again. They both had fun playing with you and can't believe how much you've grown up.

This month has also seen an increased interest in Charlie. You try to twist out of my arms to get to him as soon as we get home from daycare. Charlie comes over to sniff you and you love to screech and turn your face into my leg.

As of last week your new favorite toy is the jumperoo. You love it so much that when Daddy stands you up you immediately start bouncing up and down. At this rate you might be bouncing across the room instead of walking!

It has been a wonderful month and we can't wait to see what you will do next!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Poking my nose out from a warm bed

What is it about Tuesdays? For me, they are way worse than Mondays. Apparently the weekend can carry me through Monday but come Tuesday morning the last thing I want to see is the clock ticking along towards wake up time. Today this feeling was compounded by the fact we don't have the heat working in our house. We have a little heater running in Cameron's room so she was nice and toasty warm. I was bundled up in sweats and huddled against Charlie for warmth. Getting up at 5 AM to give Cameron her bottle was torture. Too bad she didn't appreciate that Mommy and Daddy would prefer not to get out of bed.

DH has the heater company coming today. The weird thing is that it was working fine on Friday. That was the first day I turned the heat on since last winter. DH may be fine sitting in a house that is 65 degrees but I am not. Of course that is balmy weather compared to the 58 degrees it was in the house this morning. It's been getting close to freezing at night here in Charlotte. I am always cold so Florida is looking good to me right now. The warmest winter I ever spent was last winter while pregnant with Cameron. She was a little heater for me. Hmmm. Is that a good excuse for having another kid?

In other news yesterday I had my first session with the 30 Day Shred. Is anyone surprised that Jillian kicked my ass? In my defense I only have 10 pound weights and they were using 5 pound ones in the DVD. So I was getting even MORE of a workout. I'm glad that the workout is only 20 minutes. Even that long felt like torture but doable torture. I try to get the workout done before DH is done with work. I would prefer to not have him see me flopping around and jiggling in places that really shouldn't jiggle. I like that the workout doesn't require a big space to do the exercises. As I mentioned previously our TV room is small and even smaller with all the toys scattered around. Needless to say, I'm only at Level 1. And I was already out of breath while doing the warm up exercises. Good thing Jillian told me that my heart rate should be going up just as I was thinking I was a total wimp. She wasn't even breathing hard, of course.

I am trying to be committed to doing it every day. Will I cheat? Is the Pope Catholic? But yesterday it was so cute to see Cameron bouncing in her Jumperoo along with my jumping jacks. And she is the best motivation in the whole world for me to get in better shape. So wish me luck!

Long work week, short weekend

Last week I had to travel to Charlottesville for a recruiting trip and then I had a last minute whirlwind trip to NYC. I was supposed to be home by 9 PM on Thursday. But air travel and inclement weather postponed my arrival until well after 12 AM. I rolled into bed at 12:45 after hitting 15 green lights and 8 red. Yes, that's right. There are 23 lights between the airport and my house. I really need to find a better route.

Is it any wonder that I didn't go with DH to drop Cameron off at daycare on Friday? I wanted to because she appeared to be about 50/50 during the week with how well she was napping. One day she would get a hour and then hour and a half in and the next it would be a total of 40 minutes. But my precious sleep was just too important. So I took the expeditious route of calling during the day and talking with her teacher. It sounds like they have being good about putting her down for naps now and not just letting her fall asleep. Phew. One less worry.

DH and I were also visited by a nurse to complete our life insurance application process. A whole post to come on that once we get our rates back. In the meantime we do have some temporary life insurance in place. DH and I have had fun telling each other, "You are worth more dead to me than alive."

My parents stopped by for two nights on their way to Hilton Head. My mom and I managed to squeeze in manicures and a lunch out while the men folk watched Cameron. Pure bliss. DH managed to watch about 16 hours of sports on Saturday including the marathon 5+ hour Yankee game. My mom brought some old clothes of mine with her (I'm talking OLD like when I was 5 or 6 years old) ostentatiously for Cameron when she gets older. Um, first of all, that assumes I'll remember it's there in time to pull it out. Not to mention that a few of the things didn't exactly age well...She also brought two big boxes of books with her. Normally I'm very excited about when my mother decides to part with some of her books. But this time she managed to dump a few on me that I didn't really want. So now I have to get up the motivation to get rid of them. Thanks, Mom!

Cameron loves to grab for anything that we have in our hands.

Aside from those items the grandparents brought my sister's old jumperoo with them. Needless to say, Cameron loves it. But now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with "stuff." I want to keep it in our family room because that is where we spend the most of our time but it's far from a large room. Between the jumperoo and exersaucer I'm starting to feel like toys are taking over the house. But we did finally pack up the swing so that removed one bulky item. DH asked me if I wanted to put it on Craig's List. Excuse me?!? That assumes I'm done having kids and I'm not prepared to let that go yet. Check back with me tomorrow when Cameron has another tough night because of teething and another (another!!!) cold. Then I might be ready to put a closed sign on my uterus.

Perhaps this teething cookie will help. Of course it also got all over her but hey, at least it kept her quiet!