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!