Campbell's First Christmas

Campbell's first Christmas was a great one, if I do say so myself! It was a very busy few days, but so much fun! We started out our Christmas celebrations with David's mom and dad, his brother (Pat), Pat's girlfriend (Jodi), and Mama, David's grandmother. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures that day, but we had a great time. Pat and Jodi are on vacation in Thailand, so we had to get our Christmas in a little early with them.



On Christmas Eve, we always visit with my dad and stepmom. This is Campbell playing with the squeaky block set from my stepsister and her family. My sweet girl is sporting her "My First Christmas" onesie! We had a nice time visiting with Dad and Theresa and Allison and Larry (my sister and brother-in-law, the guy in the background there looking very serious). We also attended our church's Christmas Eve service which is always one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Unfortunately, I missed Allison's solo because a certain little person (pictured below) did a big poop that went straight up the back of her adorable onesie!

When we got home, we had to get things ready for Santa's first visit to our house! Granny (my mom) sent Campbell a Christmas Eve present, which was a record-a-story of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, read by my Mom. I'll admit that I definitely teared up while listening to my mom read the story to Campbell, especially the last page, when she told her how much she loves my baby girl. David saved the night by reminding me that Santa needs cookies and milk...I had completely forgotten that! I also put out a couple of carrots for the reindeer, too!

Christmas morning was so much fun, even though Campbell isn't old enough to understand what's going on, or coordinated enough to open gifts. I do think she could sense the excitement of the day, and I could tell that she was enjoying herself. I absolutely love the picture below. David is going through her stocking with her, and even though you can barely see her face in the photo, you can see that her eyes and mouth are wide open. It's almost like she's saying, "Oh, wow! How did Santa know I wanted this?!" And it's just a teether....but she does love it!

She got a couple of "big" toys from Santa, along with some bath toys and sensory balls. In the next picture, she's opening one of her presents from us...which is a portable booster seat/high chair. She seems to enjoy it, and I like it, too. She fits in it much better than either the Bumpbo (which is too small now for her chunky thighs) or her high chair (which is still too big for her). It'll also be nice to be able to take it with us when we're going to family or friends' homes at mealtimes.

After church on Christmas morning, we headed over to Mama's house for lunch with the rest of the Klingenfus family. We were missing a few folks this year (Pat and Jodi were in Thailand; Daniel and MaryBeth were in St. Louis with her family), so it wasn't quite the same, but it was very nice nonetheless. While we were there, Shirley snapped this picture of our sweet family, which I just love. We'll have to get this one framed.

After lunch at Mama's, we came home for a quick nap to recharge, then headed to Mom and Chet's house for our last Christmas hurrah. We ate some more and had a nice time with Mom, Chet, Allison, Larry, and my aunt, uncle, and cousin. Miss Priss was showered with gifts, one of which was an absolutely adorable pink armchair! Campbell loves it, as you can see! (It's got a cat's face embroidered on the back...those two big black dots are eyes.)

Christmas with our sweet girl was absolutely wonderful, and we're definitely looking forward to many more!



6 Months!

 Could someone please tell me how this happened? How is it that it feels like I've blinked and my baby girl is already half a year old? Just tonight I was thinking that I can barely remember what those newborn days were like. I'm going to have to get the photo album out and take a little walk down memory lane!

Campbell Adair

6 Months

19lbs., 14oz and 26 1/4" long

Sleeping Patterns: Campbell is still doing a great job of sleeping through the night. I don't think she's woken in the night at all in the last 6 or 8 weeks. At least, if she does, she's very quiet about it and I don't hear her through the monitor. She generally goes to bed at about 8pm and wakes up sometime between 5am and 6am. A couple of mornings this month, she slept until 7:00 or 7:30 (on weekends!) and it was wonderful! I'm not sure how I ended up with such an earlybird for a daughter, but she definitely is worth the early mornings. She's still not a great napper, at least for me. I think she naps fairly well for Gayle, but we struggle when she's at home. She'll take a great nap if I hold her, but usually, if I put her in her crib, she'll go through a cycle of play/fuss/cry. I comfort her, lay her back down, and we repeat the cycle. A couple of Saturdays ago, she fought her nap for an hour and a half. I'm not a fan of the cry-it-out method, so that's not really an option at this point. We'll figure it out!

Eating Habits: We've finally started solid foods! I actually started offering solids to her two or three weeks ago, but it's only been in the last week that she's seemed to be truly eating. I'm very interested in baby-led weaning, and we've been following that plan for the most part. It's absolutely amazing to see how good she is at manipulating food and getting it into her mouth. Our sweet girl loves to eat, and I love to watch her eat! I like the concept of baby-led weaning because it lets Campbell be the one in control of her feedings. I really want her to have a good, healthy relationship with food, and I feel like this plan will help to accomplish that goal. She decides which foods she likes, and she decides when and how much to eat. I understand that not everyone agrees with our plan to skip purees, but I think it's going to work well with us. I've tried spoon feeding her a couple of times, and honestly, baby-led weaning seems to be a lot easier and less stressful! Even with the solid food, she's still getting most of her calories and nutrition from breastmilk. She's nursing about 6 times per day, and I'm guessing that she takes somwhere around 5 ounces at each feeding.

New Foods: So far, she's had sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, cucumber, carrots, pears, peas, broccoli, ham, and chicken. Without a doubt, she enjoys sweet potatoes, bananas, and ham the most! She seems to dislike the green veggies, but we'll keep trying. I know it's not unusual for babies to reject a food several times before they finally eat it.

New Discoveries: It's been a big month for Campbell, developmentally speaking. She's discovered her feet and toes, so that keeps her occupied for quite a while! She's also sitting up on her own now, and it's opened up a whole new perspective on things for her.

My Accomplishments: Being able to sit up indepedently is definitely her biggest accomplishment this month! My poor girl was getting so very tired of laying down and sitting with support, so I'm really excited about this for her! And maybe it's a bit selfish, but it makes things so much easier on us as parents, too! Now I don't have to lug that infant carrier around anymore. She can also sit up in the grocery cart now, and she loves it!

Places She Went: Just the other night, Campbell went Christmas caroling with us through our tiny little town. She had a great time, but it was pretty chilly, so we cut our time short. David went on with the group to finish up, but Campbell and I went to the car to warm up and to have a snack (well, she had a snack, anyway!). I'm still really enjoying the Moby wrap and the ring sling...I can't imagine being without them. I think my favorite is the Moby, and it's mostly because I feel much more comfortable about my ability to hold her correctly in it. It's also nice and warm this time of year. We're now able to do the hip carry with the ring sling, and I think Campbell enjoys the view that comes along with it.

Special Friends: Santa Claus! Last Friday afternoon, I met up with my coworkers for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory at the Mall. I took Campbell with me, and after our lunch, she and I paid a visit to Santa. So many people told me that she would have a bad reaction, but she didn't. She sat right in his lap and grinned like a possum! It was precious, and made a great Christmas card photo! Almost as soon as I picked her up from his lap, she spit up. Santa was lucky he didn't get it!

Baby Babbles: I'm not sure that she's really learned any "new" babbles. She's still blowing raspberries and "talking" a lot. Just in the last few days she's started to really squeal...LOUDLY. Tonight I told her she sounded like a little screech owl!

Just for the fun of it, here are a few pictures I've taken over the last week. Clockwise from the top left: Campbell in her stroller on the way to visit Santa; reading Radical over Daddy's shoulder on Sunday morning; her "faux hawk" after bathtime; her first ride in the grocery cart (outside of the carseat).

Nothing In Particular...

I am seriously horrible about blogging. Back when I started the food blog a few years ago, I blogged several times a week. Now I'm lucky to get a post up once a month. I can't blame it all on being busy with Campbell (even though I am!), though. I just get irritated with Blogger. They've changed things around, and unless I'm just too dumb to figure it out, you have to upload every picture individually now. That's a hassle. Another problem is that I just can't think of anything terribly interesting to blog about. We're just living life around here...nothing too exciting is going on. We're going to work every day and enjoying our time with Campbell once we get home. And when she goes to bed, I crash on the couch asleep. We're living a wild life, I'm telling you! But I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything.

Since I don't have anything terribly profound or interesting to update you on, I just thought I'd share some of my favorite photos from the last several weeks.

I took this picture today at church while we were decorating for Christmas. One of the little girls from church found this headband and thought Campbell needed it. She's a cutie, huh?

 I just love this picture. My girl is absolutely one of the most goodnatured, laid-back babies I've ever met. I know I might be a little biased, but I do hear that a lot about her. She's always happy and smiling!

 I think this is one of my very favorite pictures of all time. A couple of weeks ago, I needed to get in the shower to get ready for church. David was reading in bed, so I plopped Campbell down with him. They were too cute, so I took a quick picture with my phone...and it's perfect!

 This is the way my kid sleeps every night of her life. I hear other people talk about how their kids are all over their cribs at night. Not ours. We put her down like this, and in the morning, she's in exactly the same spot, usually smiling, laughing, and kicking her legs like there's no tomorrow!

 The vast majority of my pictures of Campbell are of her asleep. She's just so much easier to photograph that way! This was her one morning before I dropped her off at her sitter's, and of course, I couldn't resist snapping a picture. Most mornings she falls back to sleep on the way to the sitters, and she usually doesn't wake up until we're in Ms. Gayle's house. Each morning, I take the opportunity to quietly pray over her. I still struggle with leaving her with the sitter, and I so wish I could be a stay at home mom, so those quiet moments in prayer are what gets me through each day.

And this is Campbell with her sitter, Ms. Gayle. We had a rough start, but I think things are going much better. We're still figuring each other out, but I think she genuinely loves Campbell, and that goes a long way in helping me to feel a bit better. One day last week, when I got to Ms. Gayle's house to feed her for lunch, she had Campbell in the chair with her, and they were just chattering away. It was precious, and I had to snap a picture!