11 Months!

Sweet Campbell turned 11 months old on May 10th, 2012. Look at that picture. Where has my baby gone? That's a little girl, not a baby! Whew...that's hard for this mama to stomach. Here's the scoop on our little bundle of energy this month:

Sleeping Patterns: Campbell slept well from her 10th to 11th month. She did give us one heck of a scare this month, though. A couple of nights, while I put her to bed, she stopped breathing. It felt like an eternity, but I honestly don't know how long it was. The first night, I told myself it was a fluke, but of course was a nervous wreck all night. When it happened the second night, I knew I had to have her checked out. I got her an appointment with our doctor the very next day, and God bless Dr. Schuster's heart, she spent so much time with us trying to figure it out. She just didn't feel like there was enough information to warrant a sleep study at Kosair, so she sent us home with instructions to time her when/if she stopped breathing. If she stopped breathing for more than 10 seconds or turned blue around the lips at any time, we were to put her in the car and head straight to Kosair. That night, she stopped breathing again, and it was so hard to not try to make her breathe. I timed her, and it was less than 10 seconds, so we were in the clear...I was still sick with worry, but felt much better about the situation. Strangely enough, the next night (and every night thereafter) she's been fine. Completely normal...which I am so very thankful for, but I wish I knew what caused those episodes in the first place.

Eating Habits: Campbell is now only nursing about 4 times a day, but is eating a lot of solids. She loves to eat.

New Foods She Liked: Fresh strawberries, green beans, egg yolk

New Discoveries: Campbell can (sort of) drink from a cup (a real cup, not just a sippy) on her own. She wants to have a drink of whatever David and I are drinking. She also learned how to click her tongue this month!

My Accomplishments: Campbell has been a busy, busy girl this month! She clapped her hands on command on April 13th. She pulled to standing on April 25th (after I agonized about whether to call the pediatrician, who wanted to refer her to First Steps if she hadn't pulled up by 10.5 months). She sat up on her own from lying down at 2am on April 26th (I know this because she was in the Pack 'N Play in our room due to her breathing episodes, and for about an hour, it was a routine of sit up, lay down, sit up, lay down, rinse, repeat). She crawled on May 9th!

Places She Went: We went on a mini-vacation this month to Nashville! We went to the zoo, to the Opryland Hotel, and she got to swim in our hotel's indoor pool. We had such a great time!

Special Friends: This month, Ms. Gayle watched two other kids for a few days. Campbell had lots of fun playing with Adam and Lilly.

Baby Babbles: The new babble we heard most often this month has been hah-dah. Not sure what it means, but she's pretty purposeful when saying it.

It's proving to be more and more difficult to get a good shot of Campbell in her monthly onesie. It's definitely a team effort between David and I. I'm usually the one feverishly snapping pictures while David is wrangling her or trying to make her smile. These are just a few of the outtakes from our 11 month "photo shoot". Her newfound mobility is a gamechanger, for sure! I just love this little girl and her big personality!

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

A couple of weeks ago, David, Campbell, and I headed to Nashville for a quick mini-vacation. (I need to get a post together about this. Maybe next week!) Anyway, we ran over to the Opry Mills Mall for dinner and ice cream. While David was getting our ice cream, Campbell spotted this floating fish balloon and, well...she thought it was awesome. 

We Can Do Hard Things

Edited to add: This post was originally written on April 10th, 2012.

Source

I saw this quote awhile back...probably while I was wasting precious time on Pinterest. It really spoke to me then. I would say that I've always been the type that's easily discouraged. I like to do things well, and quickly. When I run up against a snag, unfortunately, my gut reaction is to quit. That is a character trait that I do not want to pass on to our sweet little girl. After seeing this quote, I mentally tucked the words into my heart and mind, ready to share them with Campbell when she's trying to do something difficult. Like pull up on her crib. Like get herself into a crawling position. To remind her that the things that are hard are very often the things most worth working for.
Today, I did a hard thing. Somehow, in ways my brain can't understand, everything has worked out, and that should come as no surprise to me.
Today, I quit my job. I quit my job in order to be home with my sweet Campbell girl. The prayer that I have prayed every.single.day since the moment she was born has been answered. I was never one of those women who planned on staying home with my baby. A long time ago, during one of those serious discussions you have before you get married, I distinctly remember telling David that I wanted to keep a job if we ever had kids. I think he was a little disappointed, because his mom stayed home with him and his brother, and I think he wanted that for our (then purely hypothetical) kids. And then, on June 10th of 2011, I looked into the most gorgeous pair of deep blue eyes I'd ever seen, and I thought, "Oh, no. I can't leave this precious child with someone else while I go to work." On that day, everything seemed to snap into focus. Priorities shifted in mighty ways. The things that were once important suddenly seemed embarassingly trivial. That very day I began praying that God would show us a way for me to stay home with her. I believed wholeheartedly that it would come to pass, but of course, I wanted it in my time. I just knew He'd show us before I went back from maternity leave. But September 1st came, and I dropped off my baby girl with a perfect stranger while I went back to work and tried to keep it together. I kept praying, and knew I'd get my "Christmas miracle." Christmas came and went, and on January 3rd, I dropped her off again while I headed to the office. And then, sometime during late January and February, hailstones started to fall. It started to look like there might be a possibility that I could stay at home with Campbell. When we crunched the numbers, they weren't exactly right. I started exploring the option of just teaching part-time, and it looked like that could work. We took a huge leap of faith, and today, I quit my job. A few hours ago, I didn't know if a position teaching on an adjunct basis would be available to me. But now, it looks like it might be. Numerous friends have told me to just stand back and let God work. That's really hard for me to do, but I did it.
So...as of May 15th, I will stay at home with my sweet baby girl during the week, and a few weekends a semester, I will go impart some Human Services and Counseling knowledge to eager minds. I am beyond excited to be able to be home with Campbell. I will take her to story hour at the library. I will see her first steps. I will kiss every boo-boo. I will watch her laugh as the wind blows through her hair while I plant flowers in our unruly flowerbeds. I will weed the very large garden my brother-in-law and his girlfriend planted this weekend. I will get my house in order. I will be present for my daughter.
In December, I was talking with one of my best friends about my struggle with working full-time and being a good mom. I told her that I knew God would make a way for me to stay home and give Campbell the attention that she deserves from her mommy. I told her that there were three words that I would shout from the rooftops when it happened. And now, since I live in the country and only about 5 people would hear them  if I did, in fact, shout from my rooftop, I'll say them on the Internet for the world to see: GOD DID THIS. He is good...all the time.

10 Months!

Oh, I'm so far behind. Her 10 month birthday was nearly a month ago! Oops.

Sleeping Patterns: Campbell is still sleeping really well...generally all the way through the night. My girl has historically not been a great napper, at least for me. But this month, that's seemed to be changing some. A few days this week when I was home with her, she took 3 hour naps. THREE HOURS!

Eating Habits: She's still having solids three times per day and nursing about 5 times. Our girl loves to eat. Her little rolls don't lie.

New Foods: So far, there is no food that this girl won't eat. Some of the highlights this month have been tomatoes, blackberries, yogurt, and ribs. We had ribs for Easter, and she loved gnawing on them. She loved even more to rub them in her hair.

New Discoveries: Sometime this month, she discovered that if she hits two things together, they make noise. This is an experiment that takes place numerous times over the course of a day, and neither of us ever gets tired of it. Sometimes I'll pick up two toys and bang them together, and she smiles, takes them from me, and does the same. My heart melts. I am amazed at how quickly she's learning and growing!

Accomplishments: Campbell rolled from her back to her belly...on my birthday! What a great birthday present. I'm finding that when I think of the times that I've felt most proud of myself, it pales in comparison to the pride I see when she meets a milestone. I couldn't imagine that I could be prouder of her if she won the Nobel Peace Prize. Everything she does makes me a proud mama. (Check back with me when she's about two to see if that's still the case.)

Special Friends: Campbell met the Easter Bunny twice in one day! I was certain that she would be terrified of him, but she wasn't fazed at all.

Baby Babbles: This month, Campbell has started saying nah-nah-nah. Adorable, of course.

9 Months!

I'm very, very behind on Campbell's 9 month post...but I guess it's better late than never, huh? Unfortunately, I wrote down very little in her baby book, so I don't remember a whole lot about my baby girl's 9th month of life. But I do know that it was full of love, giggles, and fun times...and that's what's important!

Sleeping Patterns: After about 3 months of waking up once or twice a night, Campbell is back to sleeping through the night. I am one happy momma about this fact! She wakes up every now and then, but usually it's just because she's lost her pacifier. David generally goes in to give it back to her, and she falls right back asleep. She's no trouble at all to get to sleep, which is definitely a blessing.

Eating Habits: Campbell is eating solids three times a day, and still nurses about 5 or 6 times. When we're home together, she nurses when she wakes up (around 6 or 7), at around 10:30, then at 2 or 3, then again at 5:30, and finally once before bedtime (about 7:45). If she nurses a sixth time, it's in the middle of the night...and those are pretty few and far between nowadays.

New Foods: She's started eating Cheerios, and the little puffs (which seem to me to be the equivalent of potato chips for babies, but I guess in moderation it's not too bad). She also loves fresh pineapple, but we've discovered that the acidity gives her a rash on her bottom, so she doesn't eat it too often.

Accomplishments: Campbell finally rolled from her belly to her back! David and I were both with her, playing, and all of a sudden she rolled right over. You would have thought we'd won the lottery, with as much noise as we made. She gave us a look like, "What? That? Oh, it was no big deal."

Baby Babbles: No new babbles this month. She's still saying da-da-da all the time, which is adorable. She loves to giggle, and her little belly laughs are absolutely the most wonderful thing I've ever heard. I think I'd do just about anything if I thought it would make her giggle.

8 Months!

If I had a nickel for every time I thought about writing Campbell's 8 month post, I could be a stay at home mom! It's just that when I've thought about writing it, I've never been able to do it...I was either in the shower, driving down the road, or doing something else at the moment. We all know that my memory is about a minute long, so when I had the time to write this post, I never remembered to. Anyway, Sunday afternoon, my sister said, "I haven't seen an 8 month post on your blog yet!" I figured I'd better get busy. The unfortunate thing is that I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with what's been going on with Campbell. This might be pretty short.

Sleeping Patterns: Before Christmas, Campbell was sleeping like a champ, all night long. Now, I can count on at least one wake up during the night, sometimes two. I don't really mind waking up with her; it's usually a simple routine, but one that takes about 30-45 minutes: snuggle, nurse, snuggle/rock, put her back in bed. The only thing I do mind is when she chooses to wake up at around 4am. That means the routine is finished is sometime between 4:30am and 4:45am...and my alarm goes off at 5am. Those mornings pretty much suck. I have noticed that since Campbell has started waking up more at night, that I'm much more tired. I was just thinking the other day that the fatigue of those newborn days of multiple wakings and high needs has nothing on the fatigue I feel now. But I know that this is just a season in life, and sometime, I'll get more sleep.

Eating Habits: Our girl really enjoys eating! She's eating breakfast and lunch (in addition to breastmilk) at the sitter, and we have her sit at the table with us during the evening for supper. Because I'm not sure that she's getting a lot of finger foods at the sitter's that's what we concentrate on at dinner. She has definitely figured out the association between her high chair and food! Not too long ago, I sat her in her high chair with me in the kitchen so I could get a few things done, and she let me know in no uncertain terms that she expected food on that tray, not toys! She's still nursing about 6 times a day in addition to her solids and the main reason for so many nursings is the nighttime waking.

New Foods: Once again, I've done a horrible job of keeping up with the new foods that Campbell has tried. We give her a little bit of everything that we eat at dinner, and she has never refused to try anything. She's still a little wary of green veggies, but always comes back to them on her tray. We did discover this month that the child loves red bell peppers! She's had them raw and cooked, and prefers them raw. She's learned that she can rake the flesh of the peppers along her bottom two teeth, and she is very purposeful about it! She's also had green beans, mashed potatoes, and a variety of other things that I just can't think of right now.

New Discoveries: This is where I've really fallen down on the record-keeping. This month I did notice that when eating, Campbell is obviously choosing what to pick up from her tray. It's so fun to see her determination to pick up a chunk of fruit, or to chase a green bean around her tray. Sometimes I find myself wanting to "rescue" her and hand her the food she's after, but I know that she's learning an important skill and I don't want to interfere! I've noticed that she's also become really adept at passing objects back and forth between her hands, and she's great at getting her pacifier into her mouth!

Her Accomplishments: I'm not sure if this is technically an accomplishment, but Campbell's first two teeth came in this month! In fact, less than 24 hours after she turned 7 months old, I felt the first tooth breaking through the skin! She didn't seem to have a terrible time with teething, but there were definitely a few loooooong nights when she was cutting those teeth. She's learning how to use them, but luckily, she hasn't practiced on me yet! Last month, I mentioned that it seemed like she's started giving kisses. Now, there's no doubt about it, she is definitely giving kisses! They're wet, messy, sloppy, kisses, but they're my favorite kind! She's a little aggressive with the kissing...she grabs our faces with both hands and leans in for those slobbery, openmouthed kisses. What a sweetie!

Places She Went: Honestly, I have no idea. I don't really think that we went anywhere or did anything too exciting. Family and friends, if I'm leaving something out, let me know!

Special Friends: I don't think Campbell made any special friends this month...things must've been slow around here!

Baby Babbles: She's still very consistent with the dah-dah-dah. She's also learned to whisper, which is absolutely adorable! She'll go from yelling dah-dah-dah to whispering it, and when I whisper back at her, she just cracks up.

February Photo A Day Project: Days 11 - 20

I'm still having fun with the February Photo a Day Project...and I can't believe I haven't missed a day yet! Here's what the second ten days have brought:

Day 11: Makes me happy (weekend snuggles with Campbell and David)




Day 12: Inside my closet




Day 13: Blue (my favorite sweatshirt, a handmedown from my husband)




Day 14: Heart (one of my favorite necklaces)



Day 15: Phone (my work phone)

Day 16: Something new (our new reclining couch)

Day 17: Time (It's quittin' time!)

Day 18: Drink (a strong cup of decaf after dinner with my inlaws)

Day 19: Something I hate to do (leaving my girl at the sitter's)

Day 20: Handwriting (the menu for the week)

Two Years

Two years ago today, David and I learned that we'd lost our first baby. There are still really very few days that go by that I don't think about that baby. I used to wonder what that child would have been like and who he or she would have looked like. Now, when I think about that child, I immediately think..."but we wouldn't have Campbell." I firmly believe that God is in every detail of our lives, and I believe wholeheartedly that Campbell was absolutely meant to be our first child here on earth. She has been an incredible blessing, and she's brought so much healing to my heart after our loss.
Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be so acutely aware of February 25th (the day we found out that I'd miscarried) or September 18th (my due date), but those days were important turning points for me, and I've decided that I'll probably always mark them somehow. It may not always be in a public forum, but I'll always set aside a little time on those dates to remember that tiny life that taught me so much.
This poem was a part of the Louisville Walk to Remember promotional material that was sent out last October, and I thought it was a perfect way to remember our sweet little one today:

Still -

Heart from

My heart,

Body

From mine -

Dream:

Never awakening,

Held safely

In the cells

Of my body

In the light

Of my soul:

I feel you

Still little one,

Missing yet

Ever here.

--David Hiram Weller

Okay, Now I See It...

For the longest time, everyone has been telling me that Campbell looks so much like me. I've never been able to see it. Yes, she's got my (pale) complexion, but I just haven't been able to see that any of her features favor mine. But just yesterday I was looking through some pictures on my phone, and I can FINALLY see it! What do you think?

February Photo A Day Project

Last month, while browsing my Instagram feed, I noticed several people participating in the January Photo A Day project, created by Fat Mum Slim. I didn't realize what was going on until about the middle of January, and I figured it would be too late to join in. I was on the ball in February, though, and I've been participating all month. The principle is simple...each month, Chantelle (Fat Mum Slim) generates a list of things we're supposed to photograph. We snap the photo and upload to Instagram and/or Twitter with the hashtag #febphotoaday. All of the photos are lumped together, and you can look through thousands of photos of other folks all over the world who are participating. It's been a lot of fun, and I've enjoyed looking at the various interpretations of the photo suggestions. Here are my photos from the first ten days of the challenge:

Day 1: My View Today (This is what I see when I look out my backdoor.)

Day 2: Words (from Radical, by David Platt. This book has really been working on me.)

Day 3: Hands (Sweet Campbell's hands as we get ready for bed.)

Day 4: A Stranger (This guy stopped by the house to see if we're interested in leasing any land for planting corn.)

Day 5: 10am (Last Sunday, Campbell and I had the nursery all to ourselves during Sunday School.)

Day 6: Dinner (Lasanga soup)

Day 7: Buttons (from my favorite dress, last worn October 2010 on our cruise...I was 7 weeks pregnant)

Day 8: Sun (it was a cloudy, overcast day with no sun to be found...but I thought this printable was pretty sunny)

Day 9: Front Door (I'm thinking of painting it black or red. The dead geraniums are a nice touch, no?)

Day 10: Self-Portrait (Can you tell I'm glad it's Friday?!)



I've really enjoyed participating in the February Photo A Day project, and I'm looking forward to participating the rest of the year. It only takes a minute, and I enjoy trying to decide what to take a picture of. And it forces me to take pictures of the everday stuff, which is fun. If you're interested in seeing what else we'll be photographing this month, here's the list:

Seven Months!

 My sweet baby girl turned seven months old a couple of weeks ago! It’s hard for my brain to comprehend just how close we are to that ONE YEAR mark. When I’m on Pinterest, I see the inspiration boards of friends who have kiddos a bit younger than me, and they’re pinning ideas for first year birthday parties. I think I have been in denial about the fact that my baby is growing up! But it’s happening whether I want it to or not…so I just need to embrace it, I suppose. Seven months is a good age…she is so.much.fun. Her little personality comes out more and more every day! Can’t you tell?

A lot has happened (developmentally) over the last two weeks, so I’m going to try very hard to remember to only include in this post the things that Campbell was doing between 6 and 7 months. But the 7 to 8 month post is going to be exciting!

Sleeping Patterns: Campbell’s sleeping patterns are definitely changing. Christmas must have really messed with her, because she’s not the sleeper that she used to be. We’ve had a LOOOOONG string of nights without any waking, but that’s not happening so much any more. I think she’s working on getting teeth, and that’s got to be uncomfortable for her. We usually start the bedtime routine at around 7 or 7:30, depending on whether or not she’s getting a bath. If she’s not getting a bath, we put on her “sleepy lotion”, change into pj’s, read a story, nurse, and then I put her in her crib. She almost always nurses to sleep, and the transfer from my arms to the crib is pretty seamless. It’s the rare occasion that she wakes up during that transfer, but when it happens, it usually doesn’t take her long to drift back off to sleep. She still seems to be taking good naps at Ms. Gayle’s house, but not so much at home. I’m not sure what that’s about, but she’ll really only stay asleep if someone is holding her for a nap. I can’t understand it, because that’s not how she sleeps at the sitters, and we have ZERO trouble putting her to bed in her crib at night. For naps at home during the day, I follow the same routine (minus bath, sleepy lotion, and story), but as soon as she touches the mattress, her eyes fly open and she’s ready to play. Oh well…we’re working on it.

Eating Habits: Campbell LOVES to eat. We’re doing our best to include her in mealtimes with us, and I think she thoroughly enjoys it. We’re still working toward the baby-led weaning (BLW) concept, and it’s going okay. It works great at home, but not so much with the sitter. Ms. Gayle doesn’t like it, and unfortunately, she doesn’t follow it, even though I’ve asked her to on many occasions. It’s incredibly frustrating to know that my sitter isn’t following through on what I ask her to do (and I don’t think that anything we ask of her is any big deal), but I guess I’m beginning to just expect it. We just try to do BLW at home and hope that it’s enough to encourage her to eat and explore on her own. So far it seems to be going okay…I would just like to have consistency throughout her day.

Campbell is still nursing well. She averages somewhere between 5 and 6 nursings (including bottles at the sitters) per day. The addition to solids has been a little bit difficult for me, because I want to be certain that the majority of her calories/nutrition comes from breastmilk, and I’m not sure how to be sure that’s happening. I’ve got no less than 5 breastfeeding books, and I’ve read them all. They all do a fantastic job of addressing the establishment of a robust milk supply in those first few days/weeks/months, but I think they all do a poor job of working through the introduction of solids while continuing to nurse. It seems like they all pretty much say, “Well, you’ve made it this far with breastfeeding your baby, so you’ll figure this one out. Good luck!” Not good enough for me. So…I’m on a quest to get more info on nursing and solids. Any advice you can give is appreciated!

New Foods: It’s horrible, but I can’t really keep up with the new foods that Campbell has had. I know lots of the literature says that a new food should only be introduced once every 3 -5 days to rule out allergies, but we (I) don’t really follow that. Food allergies don’t run in either side of our family, so I figure we’re in pretty good shape, and so far, so good. I do know that she’s had apples, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, cucumber, and carrots. She also had some pasta (both plain and with marinara sauce) and a meatball. I’m sure we’ve introduced other foods, but I can’t remember them! For the most part, we give her a bit of whatever we’re having, and she loves to dig in! We put small amounts of a few foods on her tray, and let her choose what and how much to eat. I’ve really started to notice that she’s picking certain foods, instead of just grabbing whatever is closest. It’s so much fun to watch her figure out the whole “eating” thing!

New Discoveries: The first thing that comes to mind is that she’s now really seeming to enjoy her baths. For the longest time, it seemed like she just tolerated her baths in the baby tub. Then, it started to become really obvious that she was outgrowing it, and finally she started sitting up when the baby tub got tight. Now that she’s in the big tub (with toys!), she’s having so much fun. She loves to chase her rings and other tub toys around, and she’s learning to splash. David usually gives her a bath (because really, I don’t like doing bath time…it stresses me out), and I love hearing them play together. David usually takes his phone in and they listen to something on Pandora…it’s generally either the Kentucky Sports Radio show or some bluegrass station. They play and splash and laugh, and I love it. I know Campbell enjoys that time with her Daddy, and I think it might have something to do with the fact that he lets her have more water in the tub than I do. J

Her Accomplishments: Campbell is growing and learning every day! She’s STILL not rolling, which honestly kind of bugs me. It’s not that she can’t; she just doesn’t want to! But she’s sitting up great, and she can bear her entire weight on her legs. I just think she’d have more fun if she would roll. My favorite accomplishment of Campbell’s this month is that she’s started to give kisses! They’re pretty hit or miss right now, and sometimes I’m not sure if it’s really a kiss or not, but I’ll take ‘em. She’s gotten enough kisses over the last 7 months that she knows what they are, that’s for sure!

Places She Went: Christmas fell during this month, so she’s done lots of local travel. I think the only new place she’s been this month is to my step-sister’s home. Michele and her husband, Denny, have two kids: Clint is 5 and Lia is 9 months old. It was so much fun to see Campbell playing with Lia…I hope they’ll grow up to be good friends.

Special Friends: This wasn’t the first time that Campbell met Lia, but I think it’s the first time she was ever aware of her! Campbell was amazed at all of the things Lia can do: roll, crawl, scoot, pull up, cruise. I’m hoping that it might light a fire under Campbell and get her going!

Baby Babbles: Oh, my! Our girl is really chattering now! One night I had to work late, so David picked Campbell up from Ms. Gayle’s. When I got home, he said, “When I got there, I was sure that there was another kid there because of all the talking going on!” But nope…it was just Campbell. That day, she started to really babble, instead of what I would consider cooing. Now she’s saying “dah-dah-dah-dah-dah” pretty consistently.

And now, a few lot of pictures of my sweet baby girl. Oh, how l love this girl!

Happy New Year!



Image from graphicleftovers.com



Happy 2012! At some point, I'm planning on doing a recap of the year, but that's going to take a bit more time than I have right now. In the meantime, I thought I'd do a quick post with my personal New Year's resolutions. I once read somewhere that if you want to meet a goal, your first step should be to write it down. By writing goals down, we make them much more tangible...they're no longer just some nebulous idea floating around in our brains. It's also much more likely that someone else will become aware of our goals when they're written down...which means that hopefully that person (or people) will help to keep us accountable in meeting those goals. That's what I'm hoping to accomplish here.

I've broken my resolutions down into two categories: the goals that I'm serious about meeting, and "extra" goals (those that are more "fluffy" or less important, or that would just be fun). For my "real resolutions," I plan to write individual blog posts about each of them, outlining why I chose them, plans for meeting them, and any other important info I can think of including. 

Real Resolutions:

1. Become a stay at home mom to Campbell.

2. Complete The Radical Experiment

3. Be a better wife to my husband.

Extra Resolutions:

1. Wear more scarves.

2. Exercise more often/get back into shape.

3. Resurrect the food blog.

4. Wear nail polish.

I'm hoping that in posting these resolutions, I'll be more likely to follow through with meeting them. Family, friends, and blog readers, will you please come alongside me and hold me accountable to these goals? I'm sure that I will need encouragement (and your ideas) as I work through them this year.

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!