Instagram - December 2013 (and a little January)

 

 1. Cam's favorite place to go shopping is the grocery store. He always has the hardest time (and pushes mommy's patience) in choosing which color car/cart to drive.

2. Cam got new Pottery Barn Kids bedding from grandma for Christmas. It was accidentally shipped to our house beforehand so we decided to put it to good use right away.

3. Brad took Cam to see Grandma Jones and Aunt Rachael while I studied for my finals and worked. He loved the lights, train, and made a reindeer friend.

4. He was really into Christmas movies this year and got tons of movies from Santa! This winter has been too cold to go outside almost every day so we do movies once in a while.

5. I was late taking Cam to school one day so we had an impromptu breakfast date at Big Apple Bagel. Why we don't go here more is beyond me. It was delicious!

6. Santa came to Cam's school one night and they were able to decorate some cookies, too. He was more hesitant about Santa this year, but still sat on his lap.

7. I finished my 3rd semester of nursing school!! One more semester to go!

8. We have fully transitioned to the toddler bed, which brought on the curious toddler who changes his clothes mid-sleep. (We are currently wearing only backwards zip-up pj's due to the curious toddler who strips and urinates in the middle of the night, too.)

9. I decided on my one-month break (that felt like one week) to peel wallpaper and paint Cam's bathroom. I got a lot checked off of my "To Do" list, which felt great. 

10. We bought a Children's Museum membership and visited for the first time ever. Camden absolutely loved it! We only went to one exhibit, too, so I know there will be many more trips in our future.

11. We have had tons of snow. Sub-zero temperatures, also. Winter can be over. Any time now.

12. Early January Cam had his first dentist visit! He did so well (I was surprised) and let everyone clean his teeth and look around. I'm sure it helped he really wanted to pick a toy from the toy chest and got lots of goodies.

All in all it was a great break from school and it's back to the grind. Juggling work, 2 clinicals, homework, care plans, discussion posts, reading, and studying is going to be challenging but I can't wait to be done with school!!

Children's Museum

 

 We recently purchased a year membership to our local Children's Museum. It's been rated #1 in the country (world?) for as long as I can remember. They had it decorated for Christmas time, but Camden had so much fun in the Playscape.

 

 There was a big music room where kids can play with egg shakers, drums, and other instruments. I grew up with music (flute/piccolo here) and want Camden to be able to do the same. When I was in school music wasn't an elective; it was an expected part of the curriculum. I feel that it still should be although many superintendent's don't agree. Whether it's offered in school or not, he will be participating in lessons either way. :)

 

His favorite part of the museum (besides the food) was the messiest part, the water play area. There was flowing water, scoops, spoons, plastic sharks, etc. He loved it. There were aprons, but they were all really wet and by the time I found a dry one, his clothes were soaked anyways. 

Overall we absolutely had a great time! I love taking him places where we aren't having to constantly watch what he touches or plays with. I like the fact that he can play with anything and everything he can reach.

LOVE IT!

I think it really helps him to be able to test his own limits and is great sensory stimulation. We will definitely be getting our money's worth out of this membership!

A Family Christmas

 Per the usual we had to get a real Christmas Tree (Frasier Fir) and we found a bargain at Home Depot at less than $50 for a 10-foot tree! Camden was so excited to water and decorate it!

 Per our tradition, we also had Brad and Cam put the star on the tree. We had to borrow a large-tree stand that would be sturdy enough to hold a 10' tree.

 As you can see the tree was gorgeous and that includes the random hanger Camden thought would fit well on the tree. Confession: I was too sentimental about the silly hanger and left it through Christmas. ;)

 LOVE

We ended up seeing Santa at his school on their holiday party night. They got to make cookies and see Santa.

 This year he was a little more hesitant to sit on Santa's lap. He did, but after I talked with him a little. Last year it was all I could do to hold him back from being in everyone else's picture. Hah.

We also had a mommy's play date Holiday Party getting all of the kids together. We really miss our Friday play dates and I can't wait until school is done in another 5 months.

 Christmas morning was a BLAST! He loved ripping off the wrapping paper. He had to get every last piece off and tore it off every square inch at a time. It was slow and he is at the age where he wants to open every single toy as he sees it.

Funny how many high-tech and expensive toys he received, but his favorites were a puffy jacket and a $3 cell phone from the dollar section at Target.

Of course Papaw Jones got him a Big Wheel. I mean where do we store all of this?

A family member made a fantastic idea for future presents. Because he gets so many different toys from all four sets of grandparents he has and then even more from us, it was suggested to start a college fund and allow people to donate. Starting on his 3rd birthday and all following holidays, we will be starting a college fund and allowing family to donate and asking for monetary donations with minimal toys. This way we are being responsible and frugal. We can also keep Camden modest in gifts and what he receives.

 

But really, how easy is it to say no to that adorable, perfect little face?!

Not easy. At all.

A ghost says BOOOO

Halloween night this year was "rained out" and postponed due to strong winds and heavy rain. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go trick-or-treating with Camden this year because of that. I worked really hard to be available from clinical and work on Halloween night, but was scheduled to work the next day. Thus my disappointment in the postponed trick-or-treating.

Several local mascots came to visit the kiddo's on Halloween!

On Halloween I had my pediatric clinical and someone coordinated about 8 mascots to come visit the sick kids in the hospital that day. Some students in the past have gotten to meet Peyton Manning (which would also be SO awesome, hint hint).

Around Halloween a local senior community hosts an indoor Halloween trick-or-treating event. The residents can sit in their doorway and the kids run up and down the halls trick-or-treating. They also sit in the dining area and serve cookies, fruit punch, snacks, and more. I am not sure if they had it this year, but last year they had a craft station and arts area where kids could make a drawing, too. 

Camden had a lot of fun. (Even if it did take him the entire hour and a half we were there to trick or treat on his own.) He was a little scared to go near the strangers at first but when he saw they had candy and other goodies he started warming up.

On Halloween night (the postponed version .. bah humbug) Brad took Camden out to trick-or-treat. I think that he did better there because it was in our neighborhood he's familiar with and he knew some other people. He likes doing whatever the big kids are doing.

I guess he caught on quickly and went house-to-house saying "Trick or Treat" and greeting our trick-or-treater's later in the night with a "Happy Ha-ween!"  He absolutely loved dressing up as Mickey Mouse and totally understood the costume idea. He liked all the pretty princesses in sparkly dresses and also saw a spider girl!

Mom and dad like the raiding the candy bucket at the end of the night part. ;)

The rest of the year should be fairly low-key since I'm on call at work for Thanksgiving and Christmas is always at home. I can't wait until I get an entire month off of school in December! We haven't had a break since spring break in March. 

Literally nonstop. 

I'm thinking a mini-vacation is in order. Maybe for spring break? Yes, please!

Christmas Cheer

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday! We celebrated Christmas at home, just the three of us and it was so peaceful and wonderful. It's almost 2013 so I've got to catch up on updates since I know there won't be too much free time I will have in the next few years.

 

Camden is keeping us on our toes and is constantly impressing us with his smarts, good looks, and quirky noises. :) I'll have a special end of the year post (that'll make it to the blog I'm sure some time early January) to update everyone on Cam's personality, things he's doing lately, etc. I can't wait to update! He's so smart (and yes, I'm biased.)

 

 

 Camden had several Christmas' that he celebrated. His auntie Rachael and grandma Sharon came up the weekend before Christmas, we celebrated with grandma Laura the next day and then Christmas Eve we celebrated with grandpa Ivan. This past weekend he got yet another Christmas with his other grandpa Jones! He's the first grandchild for all but my dad so of course he gets every single toy at the toy store. (Talk about spoiled!)

 

 

Santa. Usually Santa is the scariest part of Christmas for a toddler. Not my son! I don't know how we did it, but he loves Santa! He is totally infatuated with him and probably set some kind of record for the only 18-month-old to not cry on his lap. Hah! I totally love that he likes Santa. It comes and goes because last year he cried. This year I couldn't keep him away. I just hope he still loves him next year! 

 

 

Santa came to our house and Camden had TONS of presents! He even got a neat little table which I think will come in handy for drawings and crafts in the future.

 

 

Camden received tons of toys, both small and large (a couple basketball goals, car, etc.) as well as lots of clothes. I made sure he got lots of things he needed: socks, pants, and shirts. The only thing I need to stock up on is next year's winter coat and snow suit once they go on clearance. 0:)

 

 

My mom had a gorgeous tree this year so I took lots of pictures by it. I am not sure they are going to keep it since the white stuff kept falling off and I'm sure it was a pain to clean up. Either way, it made for some amazing pictures! 

 

 

 

We didn't have a white Christmas, but we did have a white week-after-Christmas. We received about 5-7 inches of snow the day after Christmas and then a few days after that, we got another 6 inches. It was very snowy and luckily I had the entire week off for vacation I wanted to use before starting school again.

 

 

Camden didn't like the snow at first and didn't enjoy when his hands got cold (understandably), but once he saw Brad and the dog playing and having fun, he warmed up.

 

 

 

Of course the dog had tons of fun in the snow! He is such a princess when it comes to rain and won't go outside, but when it comes to snow he turns into what I like to call a snow bunny.

 

 

 

I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday and ring in the new year with good health and happy hearts.

DIY: Felt Christmas Tree (for kids)

I found a great idea for a felt Christmas tree, to hopefully distract the curious toddler from the real tree. It was very easy, quick to put together, and Cam loves playing with it.

 

Side note: there's a 95% chance our Christmas tree will still be bare on the bottom 3rd anyways because of Mr. I-must-touch-everything in our house. ;)

 

 

The tree was the easy part, but it was a little time-consuming cutting all of the ornaments. I did make a few with pops of color using scrap pieces of a different color so you could do as much or as little as you have time for. I used a star and circle outline from one of Cam's many toy blocks/shapes. I just sorta free-handed the tree on a large piece of green felt.

 

 

Figuring out how to put the tree on the wall was the interesting part.

 

Felt doesn't stick to double-sided tape, trust me on this.

 

I decided to use hot glue and glue the felt to a thin piece of poster board (like the cheap $.97 kind from CVS). This was a great idea because it actually made the tree a LOT more sturdy anyways.

 

I thought about hanging it on the wall with command strips, however, we had a tradgedy from Camden's birthday party and still have yet to patch the wall. (Lazy, I know.)

 

I thought maybe some putty would do the trick without taking a piece of drywall with it, and voila!!! Worked like a charm! We shall see how long it actually stays up, but I'm thinking it'll be up for a while longer.

 

This is an inexpensive, fun way to let your toddler be involved in decorating and get in the holiday spirit!

Elf on the Shelf, day 1

This year my mom bought an Elf on the Shelf for us to start doing as a tradition for Cam. I really loved the idea although I wasn't sure what the reason for it was. Well, you can read the story here or go purchase one of your own that comes with a great story book to explain it as well.

 

I have been scouring Pinterest and Google for some fun and unique ways to "pose" the elf this year. Since Cam is only 1 1/2 years-old, I know that the elf will need to be out of reach so it will be fun trying to come up with new ideas.

 

 

My first idea was to start with the first day and the first thing you (should) do in the morning: eat breakfast.

 

If you have and elf this year, where did you find your inspiration?



Let the holidays begin, Thanksgiving style

This past weekend was Thanksgiving and we all went down to southern Indiana to visit Brad's family and celebrate. We drove down Wednesday around noon, did some shopping, and then had an amazing dinner (and breakfast, I might add) at Brad's moms house.

 

 

Camden woke up bright eyed and bushy-tailed (little spit fire we've got on our hands). He slept really well in the pack-and-play considering he's maybe slept in it 3 times overnight. We did find out that he doesn't like the pitch black. He screamed until we put a night light in the room, then he went to sleep A-OK. He has one in his room, but I never thought it was that big of a deal. Apparently we need to invest in a small, cheap one to travel with.

 

 

Grandma ABSOLUTELY LOVED having Camden around. Brad was always following him, making sure he wasn't getting into stuff he wasn't supposed to. Me, on the other hand, I was relaxing. I feel like Brad and I have reversed roles since having Camden. I'm the more laid-back one and he's more of the I-have-to-watch-him-at-all-times one. 0:) Love you, babe!

 

 

After breakfast, Camden and Brad looked at some of the Black Friday ads and Cam was picking out and pointing to toys in the ToysRUs ad. It was stinkin' adorable.

 

 

Later Thanksgiving afternoon, we headed over to Brad's aunts house. Luckily there were a few little ones he could play with, but by the time we got here he was tired, had a 15-minute nap, and a banana in place of lunch (so he could eat some Thanksgiving food). Poor kiddo was not happy until he got to inhale, which he did, some turkey and potatoes.

 

 

Then it was picture time and I sorta went a little crazy. :) Someone mentioned a group picture and that their family hadn't had a group picture since before I was around. So while everyone was congregating, I decided to set up a chair stacked with our pack-and-play and some sheets (for stability) on the front lawn and somehow convinced everyone to stand on the porch for a group photo. (See above.)

 

Then I took some of Brad's family. His sister, as we now call her Aunt Rachael, and Camden were playing on the porch and I snapped a few of the one above. It's by far my favorite picture of him and her together. They're so stinkin' adorable!

 

 

I was so happy to also see Rachael's twin, Ryan, at the dinner. I haven't seen him in a long while and it meant so much to everyone to be able to see him there. He also was pretty smitten with Camden; it'd been a while since he's seen him.

 

 

Of course we also got a few family photos (although we are in studio next week so keep an eye out for those photos).

 

Happy Thanksgiving and Holidays to everyone!

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...)