Mother's Day

Even though this is technically my 2nd mother's day, it's my first where I actually have some responsibility of taking care of a little one.  And, as I was driving to the grocery store (because even though it's Mother's Day, Cami still needs food for the week....and so do we...), I reflected a little bit on what I've learned as a mother in the past five and a half months.  First of all, Cami does not do what the book says.  I don't know how many times I called James or my mom the first couple months during maternity leave with something to the effect of "but the book SAYS _______...".  Yes, it's important to know what the heck is going on with a baby, but Cami is most definitely her own little individual self, and I think she rather likes to keep us on our toes from time to time.  Secondly, I had no idea what I was getting in to.  Literally.  When my nieces were babies I saw each of them two or three times during their first year.  When they cried or pooped I handed them back to my sister in law.  And I don't think I ever gave either of them a bottle.  I never babysat and I'm the youngest.  I never even had a dog; I had a cat, and my mom took care of him.  So, I discovered that it really IS true when people tell you you don't have a lot of time to read or watch movies or things of that nature (although we're quite lucky that Cami thrives off of her bedtime around 6:30 or 7:00....clockwork).  There was a steep learning curve in Cami's first couple weeks (that was well-documented), but I think I came through it nicely, despite the fact that I'm a perfectionist, which is something you MUST let go of as a mom.  Thirdly, I had no idea what I was getting in to.  Cami's smile is amazing, and her laugh that she seems to still be working on is one of the best things I've ever heard.  Her ability to work at something and work at something and keep working at it....only to finally give up and faceplant into whatever surface she's on, is hilarious and very much like me.  The way her face lights up sometimes when she hears music and the way she's turning into a snuggler and hugs me around my neck, squeezes my arm when she's uncertain, and reaches to put her hand on my face is fabulous.  I had no idea what I was getting into, but it's an amazing deep end to jump in to.  

By the way, if you havent' seen that Johnson's baby commercial from the POV of the baby; it turns me into a puddle.  

Happy Mother's Day!

On the Move

Since I posted about a million pictures to Facebook over the weekend and am in danger of having people think I'm obsessed with Instagram (I am), I won't post any new pictures on the blog this week.  I took about a million pictures over the weekend because Cami has become SUPER animated over the last week.  She just turned 5 months old and is now rolling around and thinking it's the best thing ever.  We've had to relocate from the living room to the upstairs bonus room so that we don't have to worry about her running into the coffee table, and she thinks it's amazing.  She rolls across the floor and stops at each progress step to look back and smile like "Can you even believe what I'm doing????".  It's hilarious.  One of the funniest pictures I took over the weekend was one in which Cami rolled over to the wall and began examining, quite studiously, the electric outlet.  It was like she knew she couldn't lift her hand to reach it and stick it in, but for future reference, she wanted to know how to get into trouble.  She is loving examining EVERYTHING she comes remotely close to, especially our faces.  Especially when Cami is tired, or if I'm laying on the floor next to her playing, she loves reaching out her hand and putting it on my face and then looking it over.  It's so, so sweet (unless the hand happens to have just come from her mouth and is covered in drool, then it's only slightly less sweet because her hand usually slips and slides down to my chin effectively covering an entire half of my face in drool).  The other night before bed she was sitting on my lap and had one hand on my face when James came over and sat down next to me.  She looked at me, and smiled like "Did you see Daddy is here??  Exciting!" and then looked at James and put her other hand on his face.  Then smiled at him.  It just melted my heart, and she seemed like she was just making sure the entire family was linked together.  I may have the sweetest baby in the world.

I Hate Fruit

Cami began her foray into the world of baby food about a month ago.  She has since had peas, green beans, squash, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  She was pretty enthusiastic about everything except the squash, which she still ate, but seemed to only tolerate.  And the girl loves her peas.  So much so, I have to moderate her intake or we might find ourselves in a sticky situation the next day (pun completely intended).  This past week we decided to try fruit.  I began with peaches because I didn't want to start with apples or bananas and make her gassy, or start with pears and make her explode. :)  She obediently opened her mouth for the spoon (perhaps expecting some yummy carrots?)...... and then immediately started crying as she registered the new flavor.  I thought perhaps this was due to her having a little fussy day with her teeth.  So I tried again a few days later.  Immediate crying again.  Peaches, apparently, are foul.  Yesterday I decided to go with bananas.  Everyone loves bananas, right?  Nope.  Cami got down about five or six bites with a face of absolute disgust each time I put the spoon in her mouth.  She didn't start whining like with the peaches, but it was definitely not an enjoyable experience.  Who would have thought that MY child would have a distaste for sweets??  She only had about 8,000 Oreos during my pregnancy.  Maybe that's what she wants......



Addendum:  I wrote this post a few days ago.  Cami seems to be liking fruit a little more.  Still not as much as green beans and peas, though...

No, Thank You for Asking, But I'm Not Ten Months Old

It's well documented that Cami is a huge baby.  But, since she's my "normal", it's hilarious to me when we go out and about people are shocked that she's only 4.5 months old (we've been offered high chairs and kids menus...really?).  Yesterday, my mom and I took Cami to the mall and decided to give the whole front facing stroller idea a try (I may or may not have gotten a little teary eyed that she wasn't facing me).  Cami LOVED it.  She was showing off for people who smiled at her and smiled right back and basically had a grin on her face the majority of the ride.  It was a whole new world for her.

Another whole new world for Cami is the idea of "up."  She has become obsessed with looking at lights and fans, particularly dark ones.  It keeps me on my toes because she may suddenly decide to fling her entire body backwards in my arms to look up at one.  Usually, with a huge smile on her face like that light is her best friend in the whole world.

And the last whole new world for Cami is a more tedious one for Mommy and Daddy.  Cami has become super social.  She loves "talking" (she may or may not have said uh-oh and mama....we're not sure if it was an accident or not), smiling, has a crazy old man laugh, and examining everything is her range of sight.  While it's awesome to see her making connections and having fun during her awake time, guess what that means when nap time comes?  Yep, our super sleeper who loves to snuggle and she peacefully begins to doze in your arms now cries.  And thrashes.  And hits herself in the face (sigh).  All in the hope to get to stay awake.  Luckily, James (in his infinite lack of stress over crying that I hope to achieve one day), found a secret.  Don't react at all.  Don't shush, don't snuggle, and just keep rocking and she calms down quite a bit faster.  Quite behavioristic of him, and it seems to work.  I'm hoping this is just a phase and my little sweet snuggler will return to me for some quiet rocking in the future.

Four Months Old!

Cami's fourth month has had a lot of action.  She has met her "cousin" Bryce (even though they've met before, she actually looked at him and recognized there was another child present this time).  She has learned to roll back to tummy quite proficiently (even though she forgot she knew how for a week) and has become a tummy sleeper.  Now, the tummy sleeping thing is sort of by default.  Her preferred position seems to be her side, but she ends up falling to her tummy thanks to that darn gravity.  If you are a consistent blog reader, you know that Cami is not too fond of tummy time.  Since she can put herself there now (instead of being forced), it's not quite as bad, but when she's done, she's done.  The one (large) problem is, she's really struggling to find the coordination to roll from her tummy to her back.  Supposedly, it's harder to roll from back to tummy because it takes more strength and muscle.  Since Cami is a huge baby, strength really isn't an issue.  Coordination, however, seems to be. :)  So, we went through a few days where Cami would awake absolutely shocked to find herself face planted in the mattress and start crying.  We did our best to ignore this and she worked herself out to realizing it's really not so bad to sleep on her tummy.  And, if all conditions are right, she is learning to flip herself back. 
Cami also has four teeth pushing there way through her gums.  This makes for a little bit of a grump sometimes, but a little ______ (insert baby pain reliever of the moment) later, she's usually back to her smiley self.
We had the dreaded four month checkup last week (dreaded for me because I really hate those shots probably more than Cami does).  As we arrived, Cami was happy and smiling.  She wiggled her legs and blew bubbles and displayed her cuteness.  We were ushered back to the exam room and started to get Cami undressed.  No big deal.  Until they got her head circumference.  And then Cami seemed to remember that this head circumference thing that she has never liked seems to go with bad stuff.  Like thermometers up her bottom (dislike), and getting weighed naked and cold (dislike), and getting her hips all twisted around (dislike), and, of course the shots (despise).  Our seemingly tough and brave little doodlebug was reduced to a puddle of whiny tears from a mere head circumference measurement.  Luckily, the aftermath was not bad at all (especially since we didn't get in a car accident on the way home) and there was only a small fever and minimal whining that night.  Cami is also a healthy (and very large) baby girl (95% in weight, 100% in height) for which we are very thankful.
The evening of the four month checkup (after Cami was in bed), Aunt Megan, Uncle Jack, and cousins Ella and Hallie came to visit for the week.  We had an AWESOME week getting to visit and for Cami to get to know her family (and having Grandma and Grandpa babysit so we could go out for some fun!).  It is amazing how grown up my nieces are, and I only wish I hadn't had to work during the week so I could have played with them more.
The last milestone to document is Cami's first Easter.  Saturday we went down to Houston to hang with Cami's great-grandma and the Galloway side of the family and Sunday we had a fun day eating with Grandma at Cheesecake Factory in our Easter finest and hearing Cami's giggles and laughs.  Cami got a new lovey from the Easter Bunny (ok, she got it about three days early...she doesn't know....) because the doctor said she can have a small lovey in her crib at night.  She's growing up so fast!!!!  Oh yeah, and she held her own bottle yesterday for almost the entire feeding.  Crazy!


Pics from the last few weeks:

 Why hello there, other small person.  I hear they call you Bryce.

 Maybe if I keep laying here, Mommy won't get me out of bed.  6am is awfully early you know.  Hmmm, my paci started the night up here in the top left; how did I get it down there? Weird.

 Ok, Mommy, I know you're trying to document the day, but I just had shots.  I guess I'll still sit here and look cute, but I'd rather not have photos now, please.

 My cheeks got bigger overnight.

 So, Hallie, I know we're cousins and all, but I don't have a sibling and I'm not used to having to share.  Just wanted you to know that.  Remember, it's MY Baby Einstein.  Mine.

 I didn't have a morning nap, and then when I fell asleep on the way in here, you woke me up for this?  Flashing lights?  People jumping around trying to make me smile?  Well, we do look cute.  I love my cousins.

 Cousin Hallie swimming with her mommy!

 Cousin Ella ready to take some people down with her water gun.

 No running around the pool, please!!!

 What did I say before about sharing??

 Adorable?  Yes.

 I really look like I know what I'm doing with this spoon.  I don't.

 I think Ella might be mocking the whining Cami was doing over her teeth all throughout lunch.

 Are my eyes blue?  I'm not sure.

 Yes, I'm a blur.  So far peas, green beans, and squash are de-LISH!

Laughter!

Quick update:  yesterday Cami laughed!!!!  It was the cutest little baby laugh and might be one of the best sounds I've ever heard in my life....maybe 2nd only to Bailey's little breaths.  I can't WAIT to hear more!!!!

Ahhhh! Too Much Going On!

I haven't gotten to update the blog in awhile because, as I've mentioned, I'm in grad school.  Grad school and a baby?  They don't really mesh.  I'm working on defending my thesis proposal, actually performing the research for my thesis and working on projects for two classes.  BUT it will all be over in May.  Phew.

Here's a quick run down....Cami learned this week that she can splash in the tub.  No more kitchen sink baths.  This was the first week that she seems to actually enjoy her exer-saucer.  She LOVES to stand (with support of course) and gaze over her people (whoever happens to be around).  And she is starting to nap well.  AND not minding tummy time so much.  AND figuring out her feet.  AND grabbing things with both hands.  AND hates lotion after a bath (yeah, I know...weird).  That's a lot going on for one little girl.  She is EXHAUSTED (me too) at the end of every day from all her discoveries.  She is cracking us up on a daily basis and we just love her to pieces.

 I'm getting the hang of this lifting the head thing.  My brain is heavy, you know!

 Ok, this time I actually am taking it from here.  For about five seconds.  Then you can have it back, Mommy.

 How many different ways can y'all prop me?  No matter, this ball is fascinating.  Colors AND a caterpillar...awesome.

 I see you Green Bear.  And I'm watching you.  Don't try any funny business.

 All the toys on this and the towel that props me up might be my favorite.

 Ha, Mommy.  Good luck showing me these supposed "toys."  I have my toy right here.  The towel, remember?  It's blue and I can hold it and stick it in my mouth.  So there.

I'm STANDING!!!!!!  It's so awesome!!!!  Now I can look down on you!

 Is it time for FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD?????

Chillin with my peeps at the Cheesecake Factory.  You know how I roll.