October

October was a busy month for us. We started with a trip to Indiana to help our dear friends move into their new house. The next weekend we got together with some other Cleveland-area Kaz adoptive families. All 3 boys had fun - they especially liked crawling in our non-functional fireplace. Grandpa Bollin came for a visit and helped with childcare while Grandma Bollin was on vacation. Cam and Grandpa really hit it off and he can't wait until Grandpa comes back. Mom and Dad had their first outing without child - to a house-warming party. Grandpa had babysitting duty and all went well. We made a trip to Toledo (Perrysburg, really) for Buffy's 20th high school reunion. Cam got to meet a bunch of Buffy's high school friends and he spent the evening with Jean Thayer who gladly returned the babysitting favor (Buffy sat for her kids 25 years ago - boy, does that sound like a long time ago). Cameron got to meet his third cousins and Great-Great Aunt Ruth that same weekend. We also had our last swim lesson for this session at the Y and Cameron went to his first Halloween party at his third cousin, Holly's, house. He went trick or treating with Daddy, they collected $20 for UNICEF and Cameron was waving at everyone the whole way.

Cameron started clapping in September and has been using the new skill with Patty-cake and whenever Mom and Dad say, "Yea Cameron!" He also says dada and mama - though dada sometimes means Daddy and sometimes it means doggy. Mama doesn't really have a significance yet, but we're working on it. He also said something that sounds like Jake and something that resembled Maizey. The dogs haven't figured it out yet, but he does talk to them too!

On a less cheerful note, Cameron had his first trip to the ER and the hospital. He has been fighting an ear infection as well as bronchiolitis (not bronchitis, this is different) since we've been home. He's been on bunches of antibiotics, but to no avail. He began breathing treatments mid-month and that didn't seem to be doing much either. We ended up at the ER one Sunday night when Cam's breathing clearly was not improving when it should have and Buffy was considering sleeping on the floor of his room to ensure that he did keep breathing overnight. Instead, we called the pediatrician and she advised us to take him in. They ended up admitting him and after 4 tries, managed to get an IV shunt inserted (both he and Buffy were wailing by the 4th attempt). They injected steroids and ran an antibiotic IV starting around 2:30 a.m. and did breathing treatments every 2 hours while we all slept. By 7:30 the next morning, he was much improved and we were all exhausted, but glad to see him coming out of it. That week, he skipped daycare and spent most of his time at Grandma Bollin's and Aunt Cathy's. Two weeks later, he's much improved. We're weaning him from the breathing treatments and his congestion is almost a distant memory. Through all of this, he has been quite a trooper. He is so good-natured and even-tempered and we are so fortunate to have him in our lives.

Next month... the big birthday bash. Stay tuned.