1 1/2 years old....and a few weeks!

Last week was Adaline's 18th month check-up. She is now 21 pounds and 31 inches long. She is still behind in many of her developmental skills, but is continuing to move forward, so we do not have much concern. Adaline now has 11 teeth, including 3 molars, and loves to show them off in smiles. Her hair is still pretty sparse, and seems to only be growing in a tuft in the back. It is so funny. Shane's mom's friend made a cute headband for Adaline (see below). Hopefully, when she gets some more hair, she will want to keep it on for more than a few minutes.



Shane finished up at camp last week and we spent the weekend getting settled back at home. We needed a new safe space for Adaline to play, since she is on the move constantly and is not content staying in one area and just playing with her toys. We got some new gates, drawer holds and such, and opened up a nice area containing her room, the alcove off our rooms, and the hallway. Adaline loves running up and down the hallway with her push toys. She continues to practice walking back and forth with us, but is still a bit nervous to take off on her own (even though she could). It is nice to be all together again at home.

New Car

Adaline and I have been back in High Point for about a week now, and we are getting back into the swing of things. Adaline started back to her school on Monday for at least a part of the day, while I was able to get a few things done. Today was my first day back at work, so Adaline had a very full day. After her second day back, she came down with a cold and we are still working to get past it....so I can get some sleep at night. I think she is close to feeling good again.

On Tuesday, Shane came down from camp and the Brown family got a "new to us" car. Since both of our cars were over 200 thousand miles, we figured it was time to have at least one that might not die at any moment. Shane found a deal in Georgia and the dealer drove this 2005 (what? less than 10 years old?) Honda Element to High Point, and then drove my car back. I am sure the return trip was a bit warm, and I hope he made it. It was so kind of him to do that, as it saved us some time, gas money and a babysitter. I have been enjoying the car...and the air conditioning!

Babies and Rainbows

Last weekend, Adaline and I went to Apex to help put on a baby shower for Anna, one of my college roommates. The shower was held at Emily's, another college roommate, home. Emily had most everything done by the time I got there on Friday night, but we still had fun making cake pops and some other food items. Adaline and Emily's daughter, Kay, had fun playing together over the weekend too, and they both are looking forward to playing with baby Laurel very soon!

This past week was also Adaline and my last week at camp. Shane will still be there this week, for the last session for kids, and next week, for senior adult camp. We will have a few visits throughout the week though. We did have a double rainbow at camp that arched all the way around and created a nice ending to the summer. In our CIT class we had "double rainbow" theme day to commemorate the occasion.


In other news...Nugget still think he is the baby.

Hurt, Pain and Jello

Hurt, Pain, and Agony...
The name really says it all. The Camp Cheerio Cycling Club (Shane, Pete Roethling, and Jim Hussey) made their world debut in this 66 mile mountain ride. The first picture was taken at about 6:30 am as we got ready to leave Cheerio for the ride start. The route itself takes you from the bottom of the mountain, to the top, and back to the bottom again with a lot of Blue Ridge Parkway, a little Virginia, and three 18 percent grade climbs in between. We were still feeling good for the next two pictures at rest stop two on the Parkway. The last picture is me riding into rest stop three as the heat and sun were baking the pavement on what had to be one of the hottest days of the summer so far. We pulled it together for the last leg of the ride and finished in style after a six mile descent back to the bottom. We had great support and there was even a Cheerio bus full of cheering campers at the top of the longest climb. Seeing Cheri and Adaline at the rest stops definitely made the ride and the rest stops even better! We are already talking about next year and getting a little faster.

Shane, Pete, and Jim / at rest stop 1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Family photo on the parkway / some chalk support on the hard climbs

still riding...

HPA was on Saturday, but that wasn't the end of a busy camp weekend. The weekend was the middle of a 2 week co-ed session at Cheerio, so Sunday meant CIT church, Cheerio Olympics, and the big dance...luau style. Not much time to recover and rest, but maybe some of that can happen this coming weekend...yeah right.

Adaline at church / Cheri, Jim, and Helen (CIT directors) at the dance

and now some fun baby pictures....

Adaline enjoying black beans and green jello... How about that makeshift rag bib? It is just too far to walk back to our room to get one. These are taken on two separate nights...the jello while Shane and I had a night out....sneaky friends! I think she enjoyed feeling it more than eating it; although eating it was good too.

A Few Small Steps for Man...

It has been a great and busy couple of weeks at camp. Coed Camp is off to a great start and we are now halfway through the first week of a two week session. My dad came to visit over the weekend, between sessions, and we really had a great time getting to see him. Adaline is growing and changing so much these days.


Adaline has been walking (with assistance) a ton lately and we have been hopeful that she would take her first steps on her own soon.


We only had to wait until yesterday! She is so trusting that until now if she let go of you, she just kept her feet planted and waited for you to catch her. I think she finally has grasped the idea of moving her feet as she begins to fall forward and Houston, we have walking.


In non-Adaline news, a few of us here at Cheerio have been preparing for a bike ride on this coming Saturday called the Hurt, Pain, and Agony Ride. It seemed so far away when we first started talking about it, and I hope we are ready. We even had custom Camp Cheerio Cycling jerseys made for the ride. Jim Hussey, Dr. Peter Roethling, and I will be starting at the bottom of the mountain for a 66 mile ride benefiting the American Cancer Society. I will be sure to let everyone know how it went in our next post.

Happy Birthday America

July is off to a great start! We celebrated the 4th up here at Cheerio with a yummy cookout, complete with the traditional flag cake, parade of campers, and the fireworks. Adaline had to go to bed after the parade, so she and I missed some of the events, but I still was able to catch the firework show from outside our place at camp, while Shane was shooting them into the air. Adaline enjoyed all the festivities and the visitors, especially Uncle Ryan and Aunt Jennifer.


Girls camp came to a close on Saturday and turnover to Co-ed happened by that afternoon. We are into our first session this summer with boys and girls in camp together, and so far so good.

In other news, Adaline has begun sessions twice a week for help with speech development. Heather came today for her first visit with Adaline. Although it is only an hour at a time, we have high hopes, and Adaline really seems to like Heather. When we leave camp, we will be able to transfer the services to home, so we can continue whatever we start. We have not yet noticed a great change since the tubes, but maybe we will get some sounds soon.

Ear Tubes Successful

Play time continues at Camp Cheerio...

riding on the lion with Daddy...Several days ago, Adaline walked behind this lion, pushing it from our apartment on one end of camp, across two large playing fields to the camp office. I think she would have kept going if she could have.

Adaline is reaching for Nugget here. She tries to catch him whenever he is near, but is always too slow. One day I suppose....and Nugget hiding under the rug.

We drove to High Point on Wednesday night for Adaline's tube surgery on Thursday morning. It went faster than we expected, and she was only cranky for a short time after, while coming out of the anesthesia. She was back to doing all her normal activities by lunch time.

Adaline in her Surgery Center T-shirt and yellow socks / lunch at Nana and Pop's

We were back at camp that evening. Adaline walking with Bailey and Caroline and swinging on her swing outside our camp home.

On another note, we got a flip camera, so now we can take more video of Adaline, and other things. Here is the first one, as we test out the new camera. This is a new thing that Adaline has been enjoying lately...some kind of strange dive forward.