Karis, Matt and Cambria Mae Buckler

Free Time!

They say time is money and I now have some free time. They also say nothing in life is free.  So what does that tell you?  Well, this new post should tell you that I finally have time to update the blog!  So here goes.

So much has happened since January.  Let's see if I can remember it all.  Cambria's Uncle Zac was here for a while so we got some good bonding time between Uncle and Niece.  Karis and I celebrated another Valentines Day and our 3rd wedding anniversary. Thanks to Uncle Zac's visitation we were able to get in quite a few date nights.  Karis and I are very thankful for that and encourage anyone who wants to come visit to do so so that we may get in more of those rare and precious nights as an adult couple.  

Without a Trace went down for hiatus in April and I left the show two weeks early to work on another series called Hawthorne.  WAT will not be returning and I am now looking for a show to go to next season.  During this down time I am enjoying reconnecting with Karis and Cambria.  We are also taking advantage of this time to remodel one of our bathrooms.  I sanded all the walls and we took down the giant mirror on the wall.  Karis just finished priming and in the next couple of days we will paint and then put up a new light fixture and mirror.  I can't speak for Karis, but this is my first real remodel-by-hand jobs.  I hope to feel proud of our work and am crossing my fingers that we won't need to call in a professional to fix anything we couldn't get right.

Cambria is getting so big!  She babbles constantly and makes the most adorable faces and noises.  She's the sweetest girl.  Cambria and I watched the French Open finals on the couch and the way that she just relaxed into my chest and laid there was heart-melting.  I appreciate those times so much and each one only makes me long for more. It's also awesome to see her do it to her Mommy.  When she puts her head into the crook of Karis' neck, my heart swells.  

Cambria has started on solid foods.  She doesn't seem to like peas but likes prunes.  She doesn't like carrots but when they're mixed with sweet potatoes she eats them right up. She has five teeth.  Three on the bottom and two on the top and it looks like she has two more coming on the top.  We expect a big toothy grin from this girl.  She certainly elicits a lot of grins from people.  Taking her out in public is amazing.  Everyone who sees her has to stop and comment on how cute she is or that she's so happy and smily.  She seems to make strangers smily and happy.  I wonder how that will translate into her as a toddler, a teenager and as an adult.  

Though Cambria has not started crawling yet, she is very close.  She gets up on her hands and knees, but instead of figuring out how to go forward, so far she's only learned to push herself backwards, which can be very frustrating for her.  One morning I went to get a crying Cambria out of her crib and found her on all fours in the corner of her crib with all of her toys on the other side of the crib.  She had backed herself away from them while trying to get to them.  How defeating that must feel! Cambria is an expert now at rolling over and sitting up.  If you stand her up next to the couch and put her hands on the couch she'll stand there using the couch for support.  She also likes to roll over to the stereo and try to push buttons.  She knows how to open the DVD player and if you're not careful, you'll turn on the stereo only to find she's turned the volume up to 10.  

I'm going to try and post a bunch of photos so look out for them over the next few days.

Januray

January has come and gone and let's see if I can remember all the stuff that's happened.  

Well, as you can see by the pictures, we went to our first 2 Devils games.  First against the L.A. Kings and the next night against the Anaheim Ducks.  Cambria was a champ. She was a little scared by all the lights and loud sounds at first but got used them by the end of the 1st period.  Eventually, she was even able to fall asleep.  

Cambria is getting teeth!  We thought it was early for this to happen, but we have friends with a four month old who is also getting teeth.  So far, Cambria has her two front teeth on the bottom coming in. We noticed interruptions in her sleep patterns and are attributing that to teething pain.  

Cambria doesn't seem to love tummy time, or even back time, but has rolled over a couple of times from her front to her back.  Our pediatrician assures us that she has the strength to roll over from her back to her front, but maybe she just isn't interested.  Fair enough.  But she is very strong.  Recently she has begun to do crunches.  While laying on her back, she lifts her head as if to sit up.  At the same time, she lifts her legs.  She's going to have incredible core strength and we're thinking about getting her into physical training and letting her teach her own pilates class.  

Cambria also keeps cooing.  She's started making the "mmmmm" sound and the "b" sound.  Usually, the Ms flow into the Bs.  "Mmmmmmbah" says Cambria in frustration. A couple of nights ago, while trying to give her a bottle, both Karis and I were pretty sure we heard Cambria say "I hate you".  This after saying "What is that?" twice and later telling us "I love you."  Surely, we're delusional, but we'll take what we can get.  

Cambria had her second round of vaccinations.  She took it like a champ!  Very little crying and no fever or illness afterwards.  At that appointment, she weighed 13.5 pounds and was 26 inches tall. That's middle ground for weight, but top of her class in height. Just like her Mom, tall and skinny.  

Christmas Passed.

Happy Holidays!  Merry Christmas!  Happy New Year!  We hope all of you are doing well and had a great time with family and friends and that 2009 will be a prosperous time for everyone.

Well, the holidays are basically over (yes, I know there's New Years still to come, but I don't imagine Cambria will give us anything exciting on that day).  So, here's my December post.  Check out the newest photo album: Cambria's First Holiday Season.  Again, I don't think she'll be up at midnight on the 31st, so I went ahead and posted pics now.  I can't figure out how to post the pics in order by date, so they're actually backwards.  It starts with the last Christmas picture we took and ends with some pics from my birthday.  

Christmas was wonderful.  We enjoyed it with Cambria's Uncle Zac who found a last second deal on airfare and decided to join us.  Thanksgiving was fantastic.  Karis, Cambria and I spent it with each other here at home.  Karis made a great meal and we all ate at the table like a family.  Karis brought Cambria to visit me at work on my birthday.  The best birthday gift ever received by me.  

Also in the last month, Cambria went through her first rounds of immunizations.  She handled it really well.  She cried for a few minutes due to the pain of the needles, but Mommy and Daddy cried more. She ran a slight fever for a few days but only got sick because Daddy had a cold and gave it to her.  I consider it teaching her how to share.  She's almost done getting over that cold now.  It's amazing how saddening it is to hear your child with a snotty nose or congested chest.  

Cambria has started refusing the bottle, not that she took the bottle that often to begin with.  But now we'd really like her to start taking it and she seems to deny it every time.  She cries loudly.  She sheds real tears.  It's hard to continue to try and feed her with a bottle when she uses tactics like that.  Any tips or suggestions would be welcome.  

We hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve.  Check back soon for more updates!

Sorry...

Sorry for the delay.  I know I said I'd try to update this blog once a week and now it's been 3, but I hope you can forgive me and understand that 1) I'm busy and 2) not much is happening that is worth writing about.  I just posted a new photo album entitled Early November.  It's got a lot of pics in it so enjoy in your own time.  Also, I think I may just start adding photo albums at the end of every month and using pics from each month.  Of course, if it's something special that just has to go up, it'll get it's own album. But for generic-cute-baby photos, I'm cutting back to one album per month.  

Otherwise, things are good here.  I had a very nice birthday.  My favorite gift was entering my office at work during lunch to find my wife and daughter there waiting for me.  The best surprise!  I can't wait until they can come and visit anytime.  We go in for the first round of immunization shots on December 12th so hopefully soon after that.  

Cambria is growing up so fast!  She started smiling on her own (at least we think it's not gas related). She's so cute!  Unfortunately, we haven't quite figured out how to guarantee a smile and it's hard to catch them on camera when we don't know it's coming.  But we'll keep trying and at some point (probably around Thanksgiving or my time off at Christmas) I'll try to see if it's possible to get video on the site.  Cambria likes to "talk".  She makes super-cute little noises: giggles and grunts and squeals.  Which word will be first:  Mommy, Daddy, or Devils?  

She still doesn't sleep through the night.  Some nights she doesn't sleep well at all.  Last night was one of those nights and this morning I got her to sleep on my lap, but she kept waking up every few minutes.  She didn't sleep much during the day yesterday and perhaps she is overtired and that may have contributed to last night's bad sleep.  We'll try to keep her down today and see what happens. Wish us luck.  

New Pics

So, I've finally finished putting up two photo albums:  Misc. Past 2 Weeks and Lazy Sunday.  It took me a while, but thanks to the Devils game keeping me up until at least 2am, I've got it done.  I know some of the pics in Lazy Sunday are blurry, but they're up because either we think they're cute or they were supposed to be blurry (a sort of "Angelic" look you may say).  Enjoy.

4 Week Check Up (Updated)

We have to remind ourselves that 4 weeks is not necessarily 1 month.  

Cambria made it through her second Pediatrician appointment just fine.  Everything seems to be just as it should be.  

In the past couple of weeks, Cambria has enjoyed a visit by her Baba, Karis' Mom, as well as her first Halloween and her first play date. Laurence was here for a week and a half and Karis and I are so glad she was able to come up and visit with her newborn granddaughter.  It means so much to us to have such loving family that want to be involved in our daughter's life.  

For Halloween, Cambria was a Lady Bug.  We bought candy thinking there would be at least a few kids from our building who might come knocking.  It didn't happen so I'm taking the excess candy to work tomorrow and donating it to Crafts Service.  

Cambria's first play date was with Isabella Tatiana Davidson.  Our friends, Vern and Stephanie, gave birth to their beautiful little girl exactly one week before we were blessed. I think they may be BFFs for Life!  Just look at them in their dueling bouncy seats!  

I've added a couple of photo albums so make sure you check them out: Misc Pics From Past 2 Weeks and Lazy Sunday.

I actually took today off to attend this 4 week doctor's appointment and it's already 11PM and I'm just now getting the opportunity to post.  I may not make it weekly, but I'll try. Thanks for checking in!

***Okay, I must be doing something wrong.  But I'm tired and I need to get up early to vote.  So, I'll try to get the rest of the pics up this week, but it may not happen until the weekend.  Sorry.

3 weeks

So, Cambria is almost 3 weeks old.  She's so cute.  So adorable.  We love her very much.  It's amazing that we are blessed with her presence and allowed to raise her and care for her.  I often think back to when I was a kid and how many toys did I break within the first three weeks of ownership?  And here I am with a BABY!  I can't break this!  Well, not that I can't.  I probably could if I tried, but I don't want to and certainly hope I don't.  But I worry sometimes anyways.  

We have begun to establish a "routine" with Cambria.  I say "routine" because it doesn't seem to happen the exact same every night.  But the idea is we bathe her and then (dry her off) clothe her and feed her and then put her down.  It seems this will get us about 4 hours of Cambria sleep when we can have dinner and hang out just the two of us.  Then we go to bed and Cambria wakes up every 2 hours to eat again and get changed and then, eventually, go back to sleep.  I think the real reason she wakes up every 2 hours is to torture us.  It's actually quite funny--the sleep deprivation.  There's been a couple of instances when we woken up with ideas that the baby was one place when she was actually in her co-sleeper next to the bed. It makes for good morning banter.  I totally recommend it.

First Doctors Appointment

We took 11-day-old Cambria to her first appointment with her Pediatrician on Friday.  She passed with flying colors!  They like newborns to rebound to their birth weight by 14 days and Cambria Mae was already there at 11 days.  The doctor pulled and pushed on her legs and removed her bellybutton and said she was doing great.  We're so proud!  Good job, Cambria!  Our next appointment is November 3rd.  We expect she'll do just as well at that appointment.  

Sunset

We may not have patio furniture yet, but that doesn't mean we can't go out and enjoy a sunset as a family!

Meet the (Grand)parents

Little Cambria Mae is now just over a week old!  She sleeps a lot.  She poops some.  She eats some, too. That's about it.  But, she did get to meet and hang out with her Grandma and Grandpa Bucklers this past weekend.  Uncle Zac was still in as well, so she was well attended to.

Grandma and Grandpa were so excited and happy about their new Granddaughter!  They gave her lots of love and even more gifts.  Grandma knitted a few more outfits for her and Cambria's cousin, Tiana, gave some of her favorite clothes to Cambria.  Thanks, TJ!!

Grandma and Grandpa left on Monday and Uncle Zac left Tuesday morning.  Thanks to all of you for coming down/up to visit the newest member of your family and for bestowing so much love on her. Uncle Zac, thanks for taking so much time out of your life to be here with us and for us.  Your help meant the world to us.  We couldn't have done it without you.  

  

Karis and I are so happy that Cambria had the chance to meet two of her Grandparents so early on in life.  We are so lucky that Cambria has such an adoring and loving extended family.  It's something very special and I know she feels the love from everyone.