Wow. 5 weeks. Whoops.

I can't believe I haven't posted in five weeks!
There has been so much excitement in that time, I wish I would have chronicled it all better.

Things like Thanksgiving, molars, Christmas, talking, big girl beds, visits with family....
:sigh:
I have a lot of catching up to do, eh?

Catching up that is a major pain in my rear without a space bar, unfortunately.
We bid adieu to our trusty space bar after Camy ripped it off Hulk-style, breaking the 2 clips in the process.
Awesome.
Any ideas on how one might replace a missing laptop space bar? Where one might find just a space bar? ha

Back to the blogging soon, promise.

But because we all know posts are better with pictures, a couple randoms:

playing with her favorite musical ornament

Today = Christmas Card Photo Day

And today = FAIL.

Of the 60ish I took, only 38 made it to Picasa..

Of the 38 I uploaded, only 3 are in focus.

Sort of. 

None are photo card worthy, though. 

See?

Um... what does it smell like, Cam?

Let's talk about letting toddlers play with Christmas lights, mkay?

Its a totally different ballpark than setting a 4 month old amidst lights.

This kid wanted to eat them.

And put them to her ear.

And up her nose.

And find the plug.

And (try to) unscrew the bulbs.

Basically, she had a death wish.

Which makes taking cute photos hard impossible.

4 month old Cam just sat and stared in awe.

So then we brought out the giant plastic ornaments...

She was checking herself out in the reflection.

We could not get her to come out from behind the giant plastic bulb.

Perhaps buying silver was a bad idea.

What with the cute baby staring back at her and all.

Next up: giant plastic candy....

This was her expression when we said "Give hugs, awwww."

Pretty sure she was thinking "Why the heck do you want me to hug giant plastic candy?"

This thing held her attention all of 4.5 seconds. 

::sigh::

Oh well. 

Perhaps its better that the cheesy props were all massive fails?

We're going to try again tomorrow.

Fully clothed.

Outdoors.

Sans props.

Wish me luck.

Flashback Friday

This was taken exactly one year ago.
Look at those cheeks.
Those eyes.
Oh, that little smirk.



We have this on a canvas in Camy's room.
I adore this photo.
I adore my sweetsweet girl.

I can't believe how much she has changed between then and now.
I couldn't be more blessed.

Quick10

1. I am pleased to report that I have returned to the 21st century. We finally caved and reactivated my old iPhone for Andy and bought a new one for me! YAY! I had an old first gen phone that we stopped using in the depression of 09 (read: when the husband lost his job just a month after I quit mine) (read: we were broker than broke and cutting expenses left, right, and middle) (read: the iphone+data pkg was the last thing to go, I held out as long as I could). But I'm back, baby! Woooot.

2. So far I only have one photo on the phone:

Yup. My 14 month old was eating at Taco Bell. Cut me some slack though, we had to stay close to the ATT store while they were messing with our phones, and its better than fried stuff at other places, no? Plus, the girls loooves her some tacos. 

3. And this video. I loove having a video camera at the ready! Pardon the nudity - this was post-bath, pre-jams.

And I have to say, there have been times I've wanted to spit at the computer, too. I laughed at the perfect timing of her shaking her head "no" in response to my workoholic question. Silly girl.
My abundance of "I love you"s was an attempt to get her to say "awww" and blow a kiss like she usually does. Oh well.

4. Camy's latest "trick" {Hmm.. sounds kind of puppy-ish.. latest word? skill? obsession?} is throwing away trash. If she finds a crumb on the floor she'll first point and say "eeeeew" {yeah, she's definitely my kid. everything is "eew" to me!}. She then grunts like an 80 year old man as she bends down to pick it up. {yes she grunts, loud! every. single. time.} And finally, she marches it over to the trash can proudly proclaiming "tash! tash! tash!" with every step. It took her a few days to fully grasp the concept though - once you throw it away, you leave it there. Thankfully she no longer digs the trash back out of the can!

5. If you see Camy throw something in the "tash!" be prepared to applaud. She will not move on to something else without applause. She will stand in front of you saying "tash!" and clapping her hands until you cheer for her. For serious.

6. Saturday afternoon Cam and I met up with a dear friend of ours who we don't get to see nearly enough. Its still amazing to me that we entered into the TTC phase so close to the same time, found out we were pregnant within a week of each other, and have 2 beautiful, sweet, fun girls just over 2 weeks apart. Its been such a blessing to walk this path with her, and we had such fun catching up with them Saturday. Her sweet Ali stole my heart by reaching out to me for help and for cuddles, and I hope we can see more of them from here on out!
(Will post pictures after K sees them herself... K, I'll be uploading them soon!)

7. We capped off our weekend with 2 firetrucks barreling into our cul-de-sac, sirens a'blazing, headed for our house. We called 911 to have the house checked for a gas leak after we realized that smell we smelled 4 hours ago was still rather strong. I thought it had gone away with the open windows and blowing fans, but after walking outside and back in again, I realized it was still there. We must have just gotten used to it {which can't be a good thing}. They checked everything out. Waited. Checked again. Closed windows. Checked again. Then talked to me for a while and assured me that everything was fine. The fumes were lingering, yes, but the actual gas had gone away. They were even kind enough to walk me through the house showing me their little detector-gadget as we went along. I felt a bit dope-ish when all was said and done, but I could not have put my daughter to bed feeling safe and confident without knowing that she was okay to sleep there. I was so worried that we'd fall asleep with an undiscovered gas leak, and who knows what could have happened. Calling was certainly worth my peace of mind.

8. Monday morning Cam and I headed down to the Children's Museum again to meet some friends at Baby Bloomers. She had a great time, as usual, and this time we had front row seats for music time! Cam happily danced around in the open space in front of us, dug through the bucket-o-instruments before it was time to play along, and made several mad dashes for the museum store that was off to the side. She hung upside-down like a bat. She experimented with rolling things downhill (in the "notion of motion" exhibit"). She went potty on the teeny-tiny-toddler-sized toilet in the family restroom. And she ran around like a crazy girl, leaving me wondering what her Daddy fed her breakfast! After BB, we enjoyed a lovely lunch with the ladies/babies at Galaxy Cafe.. Mama's favorite lunch spot! Yummm. Best part: She passed out in the car on the way home, didn't wake up when I moved her to the house, and took a 2 1/2 hour nap!!! Dude. Awesome!

9. Bragging on my hubby real quick... his latest side job was to build a deck around an above-ground pool. I think he (and his friend, J, who he hired to help get it done quicker) totally rocked it.

Umm.. how would you like that yard? That view? That's the one thing I miss about living in the boondocks. We had no neighbors to the back (at least not anywhere near us) so we could sit on our back porch and just see trees and hills and sky. :sigh: 

10. So close.. but can't think of one. more. thing. Hmpf. 

Have a happy week, all!

Its that time already?

Time to start nailing down plans for Christmas.. gifts, travel plans, decor (now that there's a curious toddler in the house, some changes will certainly need to be made), and dun.dun.dun... Christmas cards!

Wardrobes for the family photos.
Getting the perfect shot out of a 14 month old that stays still for all of negative 0.4 seconds.
Selecting the Christmas card layout.
Ordering.
Addressing.
And actually mailing them (that's the hard part! ha!).

This year though, tasks number 3-5? Easy, peasy (lemon squeezy).
Why?
Shutterfly.
Dear, sweet Shutterfly.

Have you looked at their card designs this year?
:swoon:
I was able to pare down my list of faves to the five top contenders (uhh.. and that's down from like 16. For real!).
But I still can't decide.
I love the wording on this one.
The simplicity (and photo focus) of this one.
I love that you can blend the Christmas Letter concept into a short & sweet card like this.
Ahhh.. simple elegance. Huge photo, cuz I mean, who doesn't want to see Cam huge, center stage?
And this one.. Peace. Love. Joy.

How is one to decide? Really?!
I may number them 1-5 and let Cam draw out of a hat. :)
Once I can make up my mind, though, designing the card will be a breeze.
And the best part!?
I can have Shutterfly address, stamp and mail them directly to our loved ones!!!
Dude!
Do you even know how momumentally AWESOME that is for me?
Let me just tell you...
In November 07 I went through the whole Christmas card routine, right down to the addressing and stamping.
In December 07 we listed our house, which sold in 2 weeks (eep!). So we packed up and moved out.
In Feb 08 we moved into our current digs.
In March 08 I finally tackled the boxes in the office.. where I found a bag full of all our Christmas cards. Never sent. Signed. Addressed. Sealed. Stamped. Packed. Forgotten about!
Not okay.
This year, however, I am aware of the fact that I would be doing our loved ones a huge disservice by not giving them their yearly dose of Camy Christmas Card Cute.
Fo' Real.
Behold, last year's cute:

We're upping the ante this year, folks.

Just you wait.

{Thank you, Shutterfly!}

And, need grandparent gifts? Have you seen these desk calendars? 

There are 4 gifts checked off our shopping list! :)

Disclaimer: If this sounds a bit promotional, that's because it is. Dude, 50 free cards! How could I not?

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Diddle Diddle Dumpling....

My Daughter Cam.

5QF: Birth, duh.

Hello, Friends. :)
I have a little free time on this Friday, so I'm taking a few minutes to link up with Mama M for Five Question Friday. Play along, won't ya?

1. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you?

Hands down, no question, don't even need to think about it - giving birth to my beautiful daughter. 

Pitocin induction, 2 failed epidurals, 3 1/2 hours of pushing. Oy. Never want to go through that again. 

And I don't mean the med-free labor/delivery, I mean the lack of preparation for the med-free L&D. 

I am no longer afraid of going without the pain medication, because I know my body can do it. I know I can do it. But, I need to be prepared next time. I need techniques to cope with the pain. I need my brain wrapped around the idea. It was a shock that both epidurals failed, a possibility I had never even considered. So not only was it the most physically painful experience I have been through, it was also very discouraging and mentally-draining as well. I had a lot of fear and anxiety and frustration and confusion. 

It was not a good experience for me. 

But look at my precious girl - thank goodness there was such an awesome prize at the end!

2. How much sleep do you get at night?

Not enough. And its not because of Cam. Cam is an awesome sleeper - I should learn a thing or two from her. She is usually in bed around 8pm, at which time I head back out into the living room to catch up on my DVRed shows, check my blog reader, waste time on Facebook, etc. Andy is usually at work until close to midnight, so I have nobody home to say "Hey, you should get some sleep" and I rarely make it to bed before 11. My alarm goes off at 445, I get out of bed around 5. 

So, 6 hours. Ick. 

I really need to get better about going to bed at a decent hour.

3. How long did you believe in Santa Claus? How did you find out that he does not exist?

Is it horrible that I don't even remember? I have no idea how long I believed. I have no recollection of how I found out. How sad. I think I will call my mother this evening to see if she has an answer to this question... 

4. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?

Holy Moly, I hope I am remembering this wrong. The first thing that came to mind was "Marley and Me", which I saw on Christmas Day 2008, just before finding out we were pregnant. But that can't be right, can it? Surely Andy and I saw something in theaters while I was pregnant?! I know I haven't seen a movie in theaters since Cam was born... hmm. Maybe it was "Marley and Me". Geez. We need to get out more. 

5. What do you wear to bed?

Underwear. That's it. I can't sleep with a shirt on because I hate when they get bunched up and twisted around. I can't sleep with a tank on because it drives me crazy to wake up and have to shift it back or cover myself up again. I hate sleeping in pants because I don't like the way they catch when I roll over. I get too hot in socks. Soo.. simply underwear. 

While I was nursing, I slept in a nursing tank to control the girls a bit. But now that I'm done with all that, its back to the good ol' days, the comfy way. 

Note: When I am staying somewhere else, not at home, I can and do wear clothing to bed. I just don't enjoy it.

Thanks, as always, for hosting, Mama M!

Just A-Swingin'...

Cam's daddy starts singing that song every time Cam's on the swing, so I can't see her in the swing or look at the photos without getting it stuck in my head.

We had some glooorious weather yesterday so Cam and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon out in the yard.

The girl loves her some swangin'. {and I love to see those little chubs in babylegs again! hooray fall!}

The tree this swing is hanging from attracts butterflies like crazy. We always see at least a few flying around this tree. Yesterday was the first time I saw Cam really take notice, and she was absolutely fascinated! It was awesome to watch her eyes dart back and forth and see the wonder on her face. I love that girl.

Ten on Tuesday: Yeah, Right.

1. This has been such an uneventful-blah week that I seeeeriously doubt I have 10 things to share. Which is why number one is an explanation of how I will not reach number ten. Cheating? Meh.

2. Last week was cold and dreary and chock-full of sick kiddos. Not mine, thankfully, but a lot of her buddies were in quarantine with fevers or tummy bugs or yucky noses. We stayed home most of the week before finally venturing back out into the world on Friday.

3. Friday morning we met our BFFs at the mall for some baby winter shopping and lunch. The girls were cutre than cute and cooperated really well with the mamas carting them from store to store. This mama behaved and only bought what Cam was lacking - tights.. but I can't say so much about the other Mama. SBG is going to be one well-dressed little lady this season! ;)
Tabs snapped this cell phone pic of Cam modeling a Baby Gap scarf. :love:

4. We headed home after lunch to sneak in a good nap before our park playdate with K and her sweet boy, Braxton. I was sure to grab my camera as we dashed out the door, and was so mad at myself when we got to the park and I realized the camera battery was still on the charger! UGH! I got in some good cuddles with Mr. B and managed to get a few laughs out of him even though he'd been having a less-than-awesome week (poor dude) while Cam kept K on her toes as they chased our giant ball around the soccer field. Cam loves to see and play with K! I wish I had my camera to document that. :(

5. I never did talk about our Trick or Treating adventure, did I? For shame.

This was Cam's first year trick or treating given that she was just over 2 months old last Halloween. After feeding her an early dinner, we got her all dressed up in her ladybug garb and hit the road. We only went to about half a dozen houses on the next street up, but Cam seemed to really enjoy herself.

She caught on to the process very quickly, and totally rocked at the knocking part. However, as soon as the door began to open, she would bolt in the opposite direction. Stranger danger, much? We were able to coax her back up to the door where she would be showered with "oooh"s and "how cute!"s and "wow! she is the most precious ladybug ever!"s. (Which, let's admit.. was all totally true!) The folks at the door would hold their bowl of goodies out to her, and she would ponder her choices a minute before digging in.. usually reaching for a lollipop.. occasionally a candy ear. :gag:

The very last house we went to really took Halloween seriously. In addition to offering grilled hotdogs and lemonade to all the neighbors, they had their house totally done up from top to bottom.. including a scene staged on their roof and a robotic life-size witch stirring a cauldron full of dry ice. We wanted to get a pic of Cam up by the cauldron display, but she was not digging the smoky fog, so I had to walk up there with her. (Minnie Mouse there didn't realize we were trying to take a photo.. but whatev).

I think my favorite part of the evening, however, was watching Cam walk back home with her bucket tossed over her shoulder like a purse. I love the way she carries bags these days, holding her arm up. So darn cute.

She'd stop every few feet to make sure her loot was still right where she left it, then hoist her bucket back up onto her shoulder and carry on. 

6. Oh! And another "I can't believe I never shared these photos!" moment: A dear friend of ours managed to catch a couple of SUPERcute pics of my beautiful girl a couple weeks ago. I mean, really, can she be any cuter? The baby blues. The tongue. The dimple. The cuddles. I melt. {best. pic. ever.}

And these.. I love them all!

7. Cam's vocab continues to expand at a staggering pace. She is now saying words the "y" sound, and the "c"/"k" sound. For example, her Aunt Amy is "yay-yay", our dog Maya is "Eye-Yuh", turkey is "cock-uh" (uhh.. yeah.. hard not to chuckle at that one), and "fork" is "foock" (another one that borders on inappropriate). And my super-fave. "Cupcake", or in Cam-speak: "Cuh-cate". love. [disclaimer: she learned "cuh-cate" from her very favorite Corduroy book, not her mama's chocolate addiction. promise.]

8. Girl loves to read these days. She is finally more interested in what is actually on the pages, as opposed to just turning the pages, or eating them. Her favorite books are the lift-the-flap books and she always giggles when she sees the picture hiding beneath the flap, no matter what that picture may be. She has 2 books in particular that she almost always reaches for... 

9. Today I'm recovering from a whirlwind virus that totally knocked me on my butt for a day and a half. It hit me out of nowhere Sunday morning with what I thought was some sort of stomach bug, but that quickly passed and I felt fine for several hours. Then Sunday afternoon I woke up from my nap with Cam with a fever, all-over body aches and a headache like you would not believe. I got a little worried thinking I may have caught the flu, but fortunately that wasn't the case. My fever lasted almost 24 hrs exactly, my headache has lessened significantly but not totally gone away, the body aches are gone but were replaced with a sore throat.. and my doctor was stumped. No flu. No strep. Normal blood count. We chalked it up to just some crazy, fast-moving virus. So far both Cam and Andy have dodged the bullet, and I hope it stays that way. I can't imagine my sweet girl feeling as miserable as I did Sunday afternoon! 

10. No way! I made it 10? I guess this would be a good time to tell you that I am going to start over with my Couch to 5K training. I missed a good portion of last week with the rainy weather and no rain-shield for our jogger, and then didn't run over the weekend with my yucky virus - so I'm going to just repeat week one and go from there. Starting tomorrow. And oddly enough, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Cam loves pumpkin guts.

True story.

I do not like pumpkin guts.

Cam loves 'em.

Scoopin' 'em.

Stirrin' 'em.

Even trying to eat 'em.

She LOVED carving pumpkins!!

Mommy and Cam, both hard at work.

Cam was in charge of the seed-scooping.

She took her job very seriously.

"Did I get 'em all?"

Daddy warned Cam to stay back when Mama was carvin'.

We think she was humming to her "Stir the Soup" song.

Camy was proud of this year's creations.

The small pumpkin was the one Cam painted last weekend.

We had such a wonderful Halloween!

Accountability.

I'm putting this out there in hopes that by announcing my goals, I will have more motivation.. I will hold myself more accountable because there will now be people that will be aware of my success or my failure.

I started the Couch to 5K program last week.
I got a few weeks into it just after our wedding, then quit.
This time, there's no quitting.
Even if I have to repeat a week or two along the way..
Even if it takes me longer than 9 weeks..
Even if I come home from every run cursing the program..
I am going to finish this.
I am going to be able to run a 5K without stopping.

I have a few friends who have also recently started, so I am looking forward to the group mentality helping me along.

Wish me luck, friends! I'm gonna need it!
This mama is way out of shape, and the first 2 days of the program felt a bit like a butt-kicking!

Today should have been my third run, but we participated in a charity 5K this morning, so I'm going to bump it to tomorrow.

Here we all are just before the race. The three of us walked, but I'm glad to get a feel for the distance I'm aiming to run in the next 8 weeks. Camy fell asleep sometime during the second mile, so our finish line photo should be interesting. :)

the family that runs walks together...

We met up with our Urban friends, and were uber-impressed by their hardcore-ness.
Mr. Urban lapped us twice.. and Mrs. Urban beat the goal she had set for herself by a few seconds!
And we just adore the little Urban boys, so we had fun getting some playtime in with those kiddos before/after the race!

What a fun (albeit tiring) way to start our day!
Hope you all are enjoying some Halloween festivities with your loved ones today!
As soon as The Bean wakes up from her nap, we're headed outside for some pumpkin carving and then tonight will be her first Trick-or-Treating experience! Can't wait to share those photos!

Happy (and safe) Halloween!

The definition of 'October'

October - noun - the tenth month of the Gregorian calendar. or the month in which Camy decides she doesn't need to sleep. or the month in which Camy decides pooping on the potty is fun. or the month in which Camy's vocabulary explodes. or the month in which the fun never stops.

Holy Wow, October has been an adventure.
-We've got three teeth coming in - 2 top molars and 1 bottom lateral incisor. Oy. {Perfect timing for a teething tablets recall, wouldn't ya say?!}
-We've had a language explosion, with Camy's word count now exceeding 30 words. This seems to have happened overnight. I remember killing time on 10/4 at Barnes & Noble, flipping through a parenting magazine. I came across an article that said by 15 months, most children have 20+ words. I counted on one hand how many Camy had and got a little worried.. worried enough to talk to Andy about it when I got home. Then out of nowhere, it was like a light-switch went on in her mind and now she's learning new words at a staggering rate! It's awesome!
-Do you recall the "Code Brown" incident we encountered during our Day in the Life fun? Uh yeah, apparently somebody told Cam that all the cool kids poop in the tub. We had a scoop-the-baby-out, drain-the-tub, flush-the-poop, disinfect-everything adventure the very next night. On night 3, when I saw her tell-tale squatting, I scooped her up and sat her on the potty. And it worked. And she was just as thrilled about her accomplishment as I was about not having to bust out the disinfectants again! We started setting her on the potty before every bath, and having luck each time. After a few days we expanded it to pre-naptime as well, and whenever we could see that she was up to something. Its strange to say that she can use the potty at 1-day-shy-of-14 months, but trust me, we are not trying to ditch the diapers anytime soon. We have no grand expectations of potty learning at such a young age.. it was just something we stumbled into out of necessity desperation. And its going well. So we'll continue to reinforce it and talk about it and let her lead the way, and maybe, just maybe, we'll have any easy go of officially potty learning when the time comes.
-In addition to these developmental accomplishments, we've been quite the busy bodies in the month of October as well. So far, we've had 2 Fall Festivals, 2 pumpkin patches, 2 trips to the Children's Museum, 1 mall playdate and 1 park playdate with our BFFs, a costume party, and a visit from my sister and her family.
Quick recaps:
Fall Festival #1 was at Andy's parents' church. My dad was in town that day and Andy had to work (boo!), so Cam and I invited my dad, my younger sister, and her 2 year old daughter to tag along. The girls had a blast!

Fall Festival 2 was this past Saturday, at the local YMCA. My whole family came along - the three of us, my older sister with her husband and 16 month old son, my younger sister with her 2 year old daughter, and our mom. We all had so much fun! Petting zoo, pony rides, pumpkin painting, bounce houses, barrel train rides, picnic lunch... seriously, everyone was exhausted by the time we left.. not just the kiddos.

Pumpkin Patch #1 was a couple weekends ago, about an hour outside of town. We met up with a group of our Mommy-Toddler friends and sadly, Cam didn't have an awesome time. She'd had a really rough morning before we left for the patch, and we probably should have just skipped it. I thought being there with her friends in a new place with new, fun things to see would cheer her up, and it didn't. We only stayed an hour, but we came home with a few decent photos. {and yes, she was wearing the same outfit that I put her in for Fall Fest #2 - getting as many uses out of her Halloween ensemble as possible!}

Pumpkin Patch #2 was last weekend, just before we headed home from the YMCA Fall Fest. We really wanted a photo of the three cousins together in the pumpkins, but do have any idea how hard it is to wrangle three kids 2 years and under for a picture? It was comical. And this is what we came home with. Haha. Awesome.

The Super-Awesome Costume Party was just yesterday, and I was so glad my sister was in town to come along with Mr. Rylan. Most of the kiddos there were right around his age (Cam is on the younger end of the spectrum) so I was happy to bring them along to play! Sadly, I didn't get a single shot of her in her costume because the skirt kept tripping her, so we had to change her into real clothes pretty soon after arriving. But a friend of ours did get this great shot -- Camy's a lady bug this year, and lady bugs love to sing about spiders, especially spiders that get washed away when the rain comes down.

This is me on the left with my nephew, Rylan, and my sister with Camy.

And Camy with her Uncle Kevin. 

October - noun - the tenth month of the Gregorian calendar. or the month in which wonderful memories have been made. or the month in which my baby girl seems to have grown by leaps and bounds.