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.