Busy Little Bee

All of the special dates during the first year of a child's life (holidays, church events, milestones, etc) are not for the baby. No, they are for the parents. Throw in parents who waited almost six years for a child and were on the brink of accepting that it would never happen and you now have two adults celebrating every moment as if it was HUGE. Cameron could care less as long as he has someone to snuggle with and something to put in his mouth. For Chris and I, this first year with our son is one celebration after another. We just can't get enough.

Holidays have been, well, just another day in our household for too long. Take me for example. I've always LOVED Christmas. The music, the twinkle lights, decorations, the whole thing. Love it! But over the last few years Christmas has lost it's sparkle. I could barely force myself to pull out decorations and even then they sat on the floor until it was just too late to do anything with them. Christmas Tree shopping was another check mark on my To Do List. The day has come and gone with half-hearted smiles and a feeling of relief when it was over and life could get back to normal. So NOT me. It was a mind set. For us, Christmas was about celebrating Christ's birth (and all the trimmings) with a child. If I was ever going to enjoy the holiday again I needed to change the way I thought. That is exactly what Chris and I were contemplating when Cameron came along. Now, everything is fresh and new and we can hardly contain our excitement.

In preparation for Halloween, a dear friend of ours handed down the cutest bee costume for Cameron. It was a little big but very wearable and wear it he did... twice. Our church usually encourages appropriate costumes the Sunday before. Kids come all decked out as well as quite a few adults. Chris and I have never participated. For me it felt like, "Why bother." But this year I was all set. I purchased a black mullet wig for Hubby along with a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, and for me a bright purple bob wig along with a Scooby-Doo shirt. Wouldn't it figure that this was the first year in ages that adults were not to dress up as we were having a special service in a park with a more formal tone than a costume would allow. Kids could dress up though and so Cameron got to make his big debut as the cutest bee I've ever seen. He never fussed once or tried to wiggle out of his get-up. In fact, he was more interested in the elephant costume of a fellow baby. Too cute.

On Halloween night we joined our friends (who gifted the bee costume) for some Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood (and debut our own get-ups). For their youngest, as with Cameron, it was the first experience of this kind. The weather was great, there were lots of folks out going door to door, and the conversation was fun. Cameron slept through a good portion of it however, but we'll be able to tell him all about it when he is old enough. Like I said, his first experience was really for our own benefit and we had a blast.

Since that fun filled week, Cameron has taken to playing on Daddy's drums, banging on the piano, cutting his second tooth (bottom front right), taste testing more and more of our grown-up food, sitting in an overwhelming pile of leaves in the backyard, sleeping twelve hours every night, tasting and loving diluted juice, tasting (by Mommy's mistake) scrambled eggs which resulted in his first allergy rash, and not reacting to the multitude of kisses we bestow on him on a daily basis because to him they must be as natural as the blinking of an eye. Throw in an overactive camera and video recorder and you have every day life in our home.

Cameron is doing what an almost nine month old should be doing while Chris and I are soaking up his life with as much excitement and enthusiasm as we can handle. There is so much joy within us that it often feels like our chests will explode from the fullness of it. On a regular basis we lose ourselves completely in the innocent giggles of our son. God wrapped so many pure and wonderful things into this tiny (but growing) package and we are in amazement of it every day. I mean.... WOW!

So to all the celebrations yet to come, we thank you Lord for this most precious gift and eagerly await the celebration of your birthday like we have never celebrated it before. We hope your gift to us will be just as much of a gift to you.

Love, Cameron's Family!