Cam's First Birthday

This weekend was our son's first birthday. It's so hard to believe we have a one-year-old now! It really was the fastest year of my entire life! Now I know what my parents mean when they tell me that time goes by too quickly with your kids.

I can't wait to see how he develops, who he becomes, and (almost hesitantly) what kinds of questions he asks us. :)

Above you can see a month-by-month picture banner for Cam's first year of life. I will eventually write a DIY post about how I made it, but I'll have to figure out how to do that since the grandparents and aunts and uncles all claimed them to take home after the party so I'm banner-less right now. Hah.

We decided to not go with a strict theme, but to be able to incorporate balloons and lots of red, yellow, and blue colors! We bought pails, books and bubbles for the kids (which were a BIG hit) from the dollar section at Target. Just so you moms out there know, you don't have to buy the biggest and most expensive things for your party.

Nor do you have to buy everything. Those cupcake stands you see? $3.50 each at Kroger on clearance! Yup! I made all of the food at the party (with the exception of some strawberries a family friend made). All of it was from scratch, except some frozen meatballs. C'mon now, I have a toddler. I don't have that kind of time.

I have to admit that most of my food ideas came from Annie's Eats. She has such great ideas and I was so excited to be able to incorporate all of them into the party. All we knew was that we wanted to entertain and tend to Cam 100% of the time so we did all finger-food. I am SO grateful that we chose to go that route and it was SUCH an easy clean-up, too.

Before the party, my mother, mother-in-law and Cam's aunts all helped to get the party food warmed up and ready to go while they let me get ready. The birthday boy slept almost the first hour of his party so I woke him up to come see everyone. Most people hadn't seen him since he was born. Many since he was only a few months old. I think he was a little shocked at first, but he didn't seem to mind the crowd.

The above picture is one of my favorites from the party. Aunt Rachael always brags about her (obviously) gorgeous nephew and she just LOVED on him during the party!

Uncle Shawn came, too and he had a lot of fun with Cam. Shawn, I know you're going to have so much "fun" with him when he's older and you can teach him to shoot nerf balls at mommy. :/

After going to a few birthday parties, showers, and other gatherings in the past few years, I've learned one lesson: open presents FAST. I just know it can be daunting. After watching Camden open a few presents, I decided to put the camera down and help open gifts. He had so many it took quite a while so I'm glad I did that. We absolutely loved everyting he got and we definitely won't be needing toys any time soon.

Grandma Jones was a HUGE help and I was so grateful to have her in the kitchen with me the night before frosting his cake (twice) and dozens upon dozens of cupcakes.

After presents, it was getting to that crucial 2-hour point, so we decided to go do cake.

We sang happy birthday and then Cam got to dig in...

"Is this all really for me?"

He did great with his smash cake, even getting some on my brand-new shirt. :)

He had such a great birthday and we couldn't have been happier with the outcome!

Now usually I'm not one to give advice (haha yeah right), but this is one crucial piece I would suggest for any mom: Put your child in their swimmy diaper and swim suit to eat their smash cake. It was so easy to just plop him right down in the kiddie pool. I'm so glad he was born in the summer time so we are able to do that!

We cannot thank everyone enough for coming, helping, celebrating, and visiting Cam on his first birthday! I know there are a few people we missed, but it was such a great time and we can't wait for #2! (Birthday that is...)

Hello? Hello?

Hello? Anyone there?

Sorry I have been MIA lately. I have so much to update everyone on and I'm so excited for Cam's first birthday this weekend! I've been so busy with planning that and starting a new job (told you I have a ton to update about), that I just haven't had the time or energy to get on here to write anything.

I'm motivated. I'm in such a good "writing mood" so to speak, but just wish I had the energy and time to keep up the blog better.

Shame, shame.

Anyways, I will update with pictures from Camden's first birthday soon. It's going to be great and I hope to see lots of family and friends there on Saturday!!

Nursing Mom's Nest - Indianapolis Zoo

This past weekend my hubby and I decided to take a quick trip to the Indianapolis Zoo. We have always wanted to eventually get a membership when we had kids and now seemed like a great time. The weather has been great, Camden loves the animals, and his birthday is quickly approaching. (And I couldn't think of anything really "big" to get him.) A year-long zoo membership was perfect!

I will post more about the zoo later, but I wanted to focus on a new area of the zoo, which I'm pretty sure is unique to Indianapolis' Zoo. There is a new exhibit at the zoo called Flights of Fancy: A Brilliance of Birds. There are all sorts of birds from probably around the world (I'm more of a seer/doer than a read-the-info person). We got to feed the birds, too, which was the highlight of my trip for sure!

The uniqueness of this area is that there is a great private, indoor separate area for nursing mothers to feed or change their little ones. Enter the Nursing Moms Nest, presented by Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health.

A lot of people have misconceptions that a breastfeeding mother is shy or should go to these private places to hide. This is not a place like that. The zoo isn't kicking us out from nursing on a bench out in public. The beauty of this area is that it's indoors, quiet, and comfortable. Any nursing mother will tell you that all of those play a HUGE factor in breastfeeding. If you've ever tried to breast feed a very distractible infant with noises around (especially animals, birds, crowds of people), you know what I'm talking about. Also, it gets pretty hot here in the summer, cold in the winter, and rains whenever it wants to (hey, it's Indiana after all) so the climate-controlled area is definitely a must-have!

I must admit that the area was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It's like a mini-gymnasium. Okay, well maybe not that big, but it was roomy! Whoever collaborated to make this happen, thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my my-toddler-won't-nurse-just-anywhere heart. :-)

The artwork was so heart warming and tasteful. They definitely incorporated the aspects of the zoo into the room decor, which I thought was a wonderful touch. They did some "finger" painting with the animals and there were pictures of animals with their young all around. Gorgeous, I say.

There were three private rooms with a rocker and footstool in each. (I assume, anyways, since I didn't go snooping into the two other occupied rooms.) The glass doors were tinted so you couldn't see into the area. There was also a place for you to sit and nurse out in the open, which I don't mind NEARLY as much as I did when first starting almost a year ago. 

Overall, my experience at the zoo this time around was fantastic. It usually always is, but this just made it so much easier to bring my son and not have to miss a thing!

No more nursing my son in the car sitting in the parking lot. It's conveniently smack dab in the middle of the zoo so you don't have to miss a single exhibit. Thanks again to everyone that came together to make this Nursing Nest a reality, because let's face it, this is something a lot more public places should adopt. 

Strawberry Pickin'

Every year I always want to go to Spencers Farm and pick strawberries. I usually never get around to it because the season goes by quickly. This year I was determined to go because I wanted Camden to be able to experience it. We had so much fun, as you can see, and we got a ton of strawberries (that quickly were eaten).

Camden kept eating the strawberries we put in the bucket, but somehow we managed to distract him and pick enough to weigh.

I love this picture (above) of him picking his own strawberry! He knew exactly what to do and we all had a great time! I'll also be going back this week for more since we are out and I want more to freeze, too. Plus I have more recipes to try and no more strawberries. 0:)

The main difference (if they're even comparable) between fresh-off-the-farm strawberries and the store-bought kind is the taste. The fresher they are, the juicier, sweeter, softer, and smaller. Trust me, though, we got some huge ones off the vines, but the baseball-sized strawberries where you get 5 in a tin at the grocery isn't what I think of when I think fresh; or delicious for that matter.  If you've never been picking, I highly recommend it!! It's fun for the entire family and the best part is, they encourage tasting them. Although, I'm surprised they didn't want to weigh Camden before and after. ;)

Here were our pickings! We weighed about 7 1/2 pounds and it was only $14.00!!! I can't wait to go back this week!

How is everyone else spending their summer?

Updates and fun things

I'm protesting the new blogger, but I know you all need an update on what's been going on with Camden so I'll bite my tongue and write this. ;)

We have enrolled him in infant swimming lessons at the Natatorium. They last the entire month of May and he has a blast!

At first, I thought it was going to be very unorganized and just be us in the water with him, letting him splash around. So far in only two lessons, we have dunked him, put him on his tummy, put him on his back, he's jumped from the side of the pool, and used a noodle! This week we are teaching him to float on his own. I'm SO nervous but I know he will do great since he is a little fish already!

We also have been visiting grandparents a lot and I have been practicing more with my camera. If only I were brave enough to venture out on my own and take more classes and do this for a living. (I wish..)

Here are Cam and I with his new life jacket grandpa got him for the lake! It was so heavy and awkward, he couldn't even sit up with it on. Haha. I know he will love the lake though (once the water is up and we can go enjoy it).

I am also very invested in planning his first birthday party. I have so many ideas and it's sometimes hard to put them all together, but we have a few things planned out already! The menu, for the most part, is planned so I just need to get some recipes together. The cake I'm still on the fence about. Cupcakes for guests or a big cake? I'm thinking a big cake for Cam and cupcakes for guests. Less clean-up and I can tend to Cam the entire time without stopping to cut it, serve it, etc. I can't believe he's closing in on 1 year!!! Hard to believe my baby is growing up.

Walkers, Moving and Easter, oh my!

 

"I'm sexy and I know it..."

That cutie patootie you see above is 9 1/2 months old! I can hardly believe he is that old already, but it's time to start planning his first birthday party. I cannot wait and have had a Pinterest board for just such a time when I needed to start planning. I already know what the guest cake is going to be and I'm about 80% sure on a theme (nothing too intricate) so from there it should be a breeze. I'm sure I'll stress over it, put my sweat and tears into it, and nobody will notice if something goes awry.

Cam is so close to walking! He will stand up with his walker all by himself (and anything else for that matter) and walk with it across the room until he hits a wall or the couch! I am so incredibly proud of him and am excited and nervous for him to start walking. Luckily we haven't had to put the baby gates up for two main reasons: 1, he doesn't really have a desire to climb the stairs (although he most certainly can), and 2, there is still so much clutter from moving that we have to follow him around wherever he goes anyways.

First Easter together and first holiday at the new house!

I can't wait to have everyone over for his birthday! Brad suggested renting a tent for out back since our house isn't too big and plus it'll be nice and hot at the end of June. I think that's a great idea, but trying to rent a tent on a Saturday in June; I can imagine we're going to have to fight some brides to get it. 0:)

All is well in other areas, mostly. I'll have to set time aside another day to talk about my job situation (or lack-thereof).

First trip to the park

We have been extremely busy lately (you will find out why here in a few days) but have been making time to take Camden for walks with the nice weather. A week or so ago we wanted to see how he did at the playground and as luck would have it, there was nobody else there when we went so we had the place to ourselves!

We decided to take Cam in his new wagon that Grandma Laura (my mom) gave him for Christmas. He loved the wagon ride and we might even take him to the zoo with it, since it has a canopy for shade and the seats lay flat so we could lay him down to sleep in it.

Well he absolutely loved the park!

Daddy loved pushing him on the swings and as you can see, he loved it, too! I'd like to think I'm getting a little better at taking pictures since having my first photography workshop back in February.

This was Cam's first trip down the slide. He wasn't quite sure what to think but as long as he was on our laps getting ma-ma and da-da hugs, he didn't really care that much.

These two just melt my heart! Since the weather has been cooperative, we have been walking every day either before or after dinner and also have been spending more time outside (grilling!) This has also been a positive motivator for me to get exercising again and continue losing some of this baby weight.

Call me Bargain Betsy

Lately I've become more of a bargain-hunter. The longer it takes me to find a job, the more desperate I get; and closer to dumpster-diving mode. 0:)

I found a few consignment sales in my local area so I went. I shopped. I over-spent. Mostly I'm writing this post to help justify my purchases, although in hindsight I know I didn't need to buy all those toys. But then again the grandparents would be sorely disappointed if I dropped Cam off toy-less.

Here are a few of my amazing finds:

Two metal, heavy-duty baby gates for $25/each.

Several pairs of shoes, sandals, crocs (the baby crocs are SO CUTE) for only $2-4/pair.

An infant swing for a play set (purchased for a friend) that I'd bet money was unused for $5.

 A Combi umbrella stroller for $20. This was a little more pricey than I wanted, but I am sick and tired of my monstrous Chicco "regular" stroller that came with the car seat.

Several toys for only $1-2/each.

Several books at $1/each.

Lots of clothes ranging from $1-4/each piece.

.. drum roll please .. this is my best deal of the year ..

A mini play cube for only $16 (in mint condition I might add)!!

It's late and Camden hasn't been sleeping through the night consistently anymore so it's off to bed for me! I hope you enjoyed my bargain-hunting as much as I did! It's a lot more stressful in person and there were a few snags today with the staff at the second consignment sale, but it's over and I got what I wanted. And then more. And more.

Bargain disclosure: I have been selling some unwanted and extra furniture/items on craigslist lately so this is where the money came from to purchase these items. Trust me when I say that we don't have the money for me to be shopping like this year-round. :) Too bad we don't though .. it sure was fun!

8 months

At the beginning of this month (or end of last?), Camden turned 8 months! He is so active and loves to crawl around. His favorite thing to do is race you, crawling on the floor. He giggles so much if you do! He also, unfortunately, is teething something horrible. He has been really fussy and cranky (almost non-stop crying screaming) the past week or so, but his second top tooth FINALLY broke the surface.

Here's to hoping he sleeps through tonight ...

Nursing is becoming less and less desirable with each new tooth that he gets. He bites more; thankfully no skin broken yet. I will miss these days when they are over, but I'm certainly not going to miss other aspects.

Someone please hand me a baseball bat while I take out my frustrations on my Medela.

Related note: I'm typing this while pumping since it's my only time these days to myself. 0:)

Cam is almost 19 pounds, as of a few days ago, and we haven't checked his length. He has a 9-month check up at the end of March so we will see what he is then. I have switched his infant car seat out for a convertible car seat. We will see how he does tomorrow as he's not tried it out yet.

Other big news to come soon!!! :D

Camden is officially mobile

Camden has learned to crawl and sit up from crawling so he is officially (and extremely) mobile!

Although I am excited for him, I'm also a little nervous at the same time. I already miss the times I could lay him down on the ground and he'd be at least in the vicinity of where I left him if I have to go do something real quick.

He also has learned how to wave. He doesn't quite yet wave to strangers, but he does to himself in the mirror and to mom and dad! :) He has so much energy and love. It's too precious sometimes.

He is also cutting another tooth. This one is on his top, left side. That part of the day is not-so-precious, if you know what I mean.

Messy meals

Meal time is and probably always will be the most interesting time of the day for me and my child. At first it was easy. Baby to breast is all he needed. Then he got older and started reaching for our foods and trying to put it in his mouth. Let the puree spoon feedings begin. What's the next step you ask?

Yes, we've reached the stage where Camden wants to put his own food in his mouth. I've really got to find less messy foods than avocado and prumes. Come on mom, THINK!

I'm very excited that Cam wants to chew his food and can feed himself (for the most part), but I know now why there are such products like this out on the market. My floors will never be clean again. Well, we do have a dog so maybe...

7 months & food update

My sweet baby Camden turned 7 months a few days ago. We ended up at the pediatrician's office for his second flu shot on that day so we weighed and measured him while we were there, for the baby book of course. He was 17 pounds 4 ounces and 27 1/4" long!

We celebrated (as you can see above) by starting to give him pieces of food so that he can perfect his pincher grasp and also to start eating more "solid" foods. The avocado wasn't the least messy choice although I think it's the softest one and since he absolutely loves avocado I figured it would be easier to motivate him.

He did really well in eating the food. I think he aspirates on the puree stuff now because he tries to swallow it too quickly and also tries to chew. He does chew his food now, which is amazing to me since I thought it'd be a long time before that happened. He is so good at moving things around with his tongue! He probably wonders why I stare so closely at him when he eats. :)

I think once he starts getting used to the avocado, I might try a fruit like pears or peaches that he could try eating little bites of. I'm totally excited to start giving him thicker foods!!

Super Bowl XLVI

I'm sure everyone knows by now that the Super Bowl is in Indianapolis this year. I was really excited, but then the thought of taking the baby out in the middle of winter sort of made me cringe. As luck would have it, it's actually been in the 50's and 60's this week so we were able to go! He didn't even really need to be bundled up too much either. :) Brad has to work all week and I'm still not that comfortable taking Cam out past dark (aka his bed time), so I went with a friend from a support group and her daughter.

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day. It wasn't too sunny and it wasn't gloomy either. PERFECT WEATHER! It was also a whopping 61°F which is close to a record high in January for Indiana. We both wanted to get out of the house and this was a great place to do it.

The kiddo's had fun, too! They got to see everything from their stroller (best seats in the house) and cuddle up with mom at Starbucks at the end of the day. :) They were loving the weather!

We walked around for a while and I took lots of pictures being the tourist-in-my-own-city that I am. I think the zip line had to be the neatest thing I'd seen. What a great idea! Whoever thought of it should get a raise.

Unfortunately you have to get in line at least an hour before they sell tickets for the day at 10:00 am and even then the wait to get on the zip line is still about 4 hours. With Cam, I don't have that kind of time. I really would've loved to do it though.

Camden was fantastic the entire day and even though he won't remember any of it, I think it will be neat to show his friends as he gets older. Not too fast, though, buddy.

At the end of the day as we were heading back to the car, it became extremely windy very fast so we quickly snapped a picture with Elmo and left downtown.

It was a great experience and we had fun just walking around talking. I'd like to do more walks with my friends, but I get the feeling that the weather probably won't cooperate again until April.

Peas and Carrots

You know that saying, ".. like peas and carrots"? Well, for Camden it's not a walk in the park.

Earlier in the week I tried to give him peas in a desperate attempt to clear his bowels and give him more vegetables. He was okay with them, but his body totally rejected it. He kept throwing up pea-colored green whenever he did tummy time or was wiggling around the floor. This happened two days in a row.

So, no more peas for a while.

Yesterday I tried to give him some carrots. Don't worry, I bought the organic kind. He absolutely despised them. I was so shocked! Carrots must be an acquired taste (like avocado once was for me). It was the first food he wouldn't open his mouth for and would even push the spoon away.

Side note: The pictures I took of him after he ate the carrots made it look like he had red around his eyes and his face. He was coughing quite a bit more than usual (not choking or anything) so I'm wondering if that was a very mild allergic reaction. Hmm.

Finally I decided to trick him and mix avocado in with it and he reluctantly ate most of it. I just hope he's not going to be as picky of an eater as his mom and dad. Dad won't eat any green vegetables except for very buttered/salted green beans and the occasional iceberg salad (aka non-nutritious foods). Mom is more open now, but used to never eat any meat besides chicken and the occasional burger. Trust me, I'll eat almost anything nowadays .. darn breastfeeding appetite!

One barrier with the baby is the list of foods he can't or shouldn't have right away, especially since he is constipated and NOTHING is helping! Also, I need more ideas of vegetables and other foods to make for him. One new food I thought of tonight was broccoli. I love broccoli so that should be fun to make. I'm definitely getting a lot more use out of my steamer nowadays.

My Two Front Teeth

My sweet, little baby I brought home from the hospital just last week (or so it seems) has his two front bottom teeth! He is such a big boy!!

I am just excited to see the next phase of his life. Crawling? Pulling up? More teeth? Ohmygosh please no more teeth for a while... Teething is a horible experience and I have so much more respect for my mother (mainly that I'm still alive) for raising two girls.

Time flies with a kid, so hopefully Cam and I can bunker down for this cold winter (30 degrees above normal a few days ago and 20 below now.. Indiana..) and then summer will be here before we know it.

First Hair Cut

Wild man's hair has been cut for the very first time! I can't believe we actually waited until he was 6 months to do it, but it was long overdue. We just trimmed it about a week ago and he almost needs it done again!

His hair was in his eyes, almost to the tip of his nose, and covering his poor ears!

Before

After

Yes, my son is a certified hunk. :)

Anyways, I called around to my hair stylist (who never called me back. thanks a lot Kristi.) and Cookie Cutters, which is a local place that is a kids-only cutting salon. It's quite popular around here. They took their sweet time calling me back, too, so I decided that since he just needed a trim around the edges that I would go ahead and do it. I actually used to cut my own bangs so I had the proper scissors to do so.

I started by laying him down on the floor so that he didn't move his head around too much. I made sure to not ever point the end of the scissors towards his face and voila! Hair cut for baby! I don't think I got it exactly straight, but as much as he was moving around, I probably did just as good as anyone else would've. So my baby is growing up and is now a big boy. A big boy with lots of hair!

Puree, baby!

Camden has been trying lots of new foods lately. Some he really enjoys eating and some he doesn't. Based on my latest experiment, I think he just doesn't enjoy textured/chunky foods yet. I gave him avocado one day and it was sort of chunky (my first attempt at pureeing it). The next day I added more water and made it into a truly soft puree and he gobbled it up!

I thought breastfeeding every 2-3 hours was hard, but now I have to feed him 2-4 jars of food in between there adding 3 extra feedings; and he doesn't miss a meal. It's so neat to see his initial reaction to the new foods. He really didn't like pumpkin and we tried it several ways. That's my boy for sure! I can't stand it either. So far he has had (and loved): oatmeal, banana, butternut squash, sweet potato (a favorite), and avocado. I also have some organic carrots and peas to try next. I hear peas are a popular favorite among babies. We shall see about that.

Also stay tuned for a post about teeth. We have two!!!