Time!

I need more of it...

8 Months!

Already?! Camille is on the move...all of the time. She has been crawling for a while now and has learned a few other tricks along the way. Babyproofing/eyes-on supervision has begun and will likely be taken up a notch soon. Lately we've enjoyed visits from Gran (Grandad will come again soon) and Grandma and Grandpa (thanks for coming everyone!). We'll be in North Carolina this year for Thanksgiving and are putting travel plans for Christmas on hold until we know when Camille's cleft surgery will be. Fortunately we found out this last Wednesday that we might be able to schedule it for December! It will be so nice to have the day come when she can drink a bottle of milk without it coming out of her nose not to mention having her get back into the solids that she so enjoyed. She handles it all with such sweetness, sometimes a cry or two but for the most part, she just wipes her nose like it itches a bunch. What a trooper!

Waving to Mommy...

A light snack...


As I was saying...



Moving to higher ground...uh oh...


A little fun with Mommy (sorry it's so dark...the sound is the most important anyway)



Time for bed (with the bug-turned-teether) also, thank you to the person who invented the snuggly, flannel onesie with a zipper! Oh, we've done buttons and snaps all right but nothing is faster than zip!

Makin' it Fresh!

Trying out some new looks...

Sometimes it's best to call in a professional

http://www.kathleenhunterphotography.com/Hexdall/album

Now, which ones to choose...

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday, Ann!

We hope you had a wonderful day, Ann! We hope to see you soon!

So Long, Farewell, auf Wiedersehen, Goodnight

It's been real, boring, painful (and real boring and real painful), tedious, amazing and productive and I do think I'll actually miss you, Mr. (or Ms.) Medela. Hopefully, I'll see you again sometime in the future. Yes, I'm officially packing away the pump. It's strange how I reminisce about the tedium of it all: washing the pump parts, sterilizing them in the handy-dandy microwave bags, hooking up and watching every infomercial known to man from "Your 6-month-old CAN read!" to "Sham-WOW!) in the wee hours of the morning. It just finally came time to put sleep ahead of breastmilk. And it finally dawned on me that there's SO much more to being a mom than the milk.

Happy Half-Birthday!

Say it isn't so! I suppose I could put this phrase on "repeat"as it will be said time and time again: I can't believe how fast it has gone! Admittedly, those first six (12?) weeks crept slowly as we had only a vague recollection of what slumbering meant. But, since then each milestone, little and large, has come upon us with haste. As we strive to do so in all areas of our lives, I guess this just means we need to savor the sweet moments a little more.

From Sunday in one of her new outfits from Terrific AND Great Aunt Susan


Here she is today in the other cute outfit!

And here we all are after one of those crazy days (today) when I forgot my cell phone at work, was nearly late to the pediatrician's office, had to walk/run in the pouring rain into the peds office (what's best: Baby in car seat in snap-n-go with blanket draped over car seat with Mommy holding jeans jacket over head running or baby-in-arms with blanket draped over both Mommy and Baby looking like ghosts running into the office? Either one leads to a soaking wet and stressed Mommy and sad Baby...thank goodness we love our nice pediatrician and would stomp through the rain for an appointment with her), and had to drive home in yet another deluge with less than brilliant drivers. Ahhhh to be home again!

Ahhhh weekends

They just can't be beat! Last weekend was perfect for lounging...

and Apricot Pancakes made by Chef Eric! They were phenomenal complete with dried apricots mixed in and warm apricot jelly drizzled on top. Mouth watering yet? We have a lot of banana pancakes around here but these may become a new weekend regular.

Dinner Possible: How Camille Does Solids Part I

For the past few weeks we've been experimenting with solids (well, purees). Squash, sweet potatoes, peas and bananas have been favorites -- clearly Camille got my sweet tooth! Pears were also good but too runny and just not good with rice cereal. She's been doing very well with mastering the spoon. The only hurdle now is figuring out how she can keep the food from going up her nose -- a cleft issue that we all will be glad to resolve!

First came the interest. Who can resist a PB&J?


Then came a taste of banana (after she nearly grabbed it out of my hand!) in the closest thing to a baby spoon we could find.


Then came reading the labels...

Let's try some peas!

Yep, I like peas!


Mabel: Be kind to your mother, Camille.
Camille: Will she be joining us every night for dinner?


Ahhh...let's get back to the bottle...that eating stuff is tough work.

The Lost Posts

I wonder if fellow bloggers can relate...you take a picture and think, "That gives me a good idea and I'll post that to the blog." Of course I will! After I write that report, fold that laundry (ha! that happens about 50% of the time...our dressers are often plastic bins called laundry baskets), think about what we'll have for dinner this week (let alone what Camille will eat!), write that note, dust bust that floor, pump, etc. etc. etc. Hence this post. These are a variety of pictures I've had ready and waiting and only now do I have a vague recollection of what I was going to say. So, here is a completely random collection of pictures and ideas that one day may have been clever, but now are mere reporting of events since past.

Camille's first trip to Wal-mart! An occasion that would have been nice to put off for as long as possible but, there had to be a first.


Early literacy...so far, Camille just likes to chew on books but in this family, that is bound to change quickly.


Jayhawks gather in North Carolina! Coincidentally, the chair of the Central Regional KU Alumni Chapter lives a few houses down from us and has been encouraging us to join the fun for a long time. Finally in late August, we met for a family BBQ picnic. It was so fun seeing so many fellow Jayhawks!


Did I mention Camille is in to eating books AND nametags apparently?


A few weeks ago, Camille got to meet sweet Lily (and Kristin, Michael, Carrie & Dore), which was so fun! We hope to see them again soon!

Firsts!

First plane flight to see family in Kansas (we miss you tons! and it was a bittersweet visit because we realized how much we miss you!) and first cold. More posting to come but for now, thank you Aunt Susan, Aunt Caroline and Aunt Laura for making the trip delightful in so many ways.

More fabulous friends from afar!

Our good friends AD & Scott and Michelle & Kevin visited us a few weekends ago and we enjoyed good food and great company! Thanks guys and gals for the visit, it was great to see you! Looking forward to seeing you again in October!

Which is better: KC BBQ or NC BBQ?

This could spark a fierce debate but when we can't have Gates, we'll settle for Smokeys! We actually happened upon this place on the way back from an afternoon cookout that was, well, a bust quite honestly. We were anticipating great food, good music and fun but got no food, no music and not-so-much fun.

"Really, Mom and Dad? We need to blow this joint as Granddad likes to say."


Not deterred, we explored Cary, NC and found Smokeys! Our little fry even tried to grab one of mine! (Even more evidence that real food is not far away). Quite satisfied, we went home with full bellies.


Two happy customers...


At least Camille got to try her new shades!

Her First Wetsuit!

A few weekends ago, we had a great time swimming at some friends' pool. Camille was not quite so sure about the water (she wore her, "I'm reserving judgment on this experience, Mom and Dad, but appreciate the opportunity" expression the whole time) but she sure looked cute!

Rookie Blogger Goof

Just FYI...the dates on the next three posts are all out of whack. Apparently the posts go up according to the date you start writing, not when you finish! Oh, well. My critics are pretty nice =).

My Third Job

Pumping. To any and all women who have hooked themselves up to this I-don't-know-if-I-should-praise-or-curse-the-Medela-God-breastpump, you deserve a hundred thousand gold stars in my book. I've been at it for 4 months now, 5-8 times a day (I went down to 5 after the pediatrician looked at me like I had lost my mind when I was waking up in the middle of the night every 3 hours even when Camille was sleeping 6-8 hours). So, the day begins at 4:45 AM and ends at approximately 10:00 PM, and every 4-5 hours, I sit and win pigs. You what, you ask? If you've ever heard a breastpump in action, you'll never forget its distinctive "uh-wooga, uh-wooga." Well, one early morning during the early weeks after Camille was born (obviously, when else would I hook myself up to this machine?), I must have been so sleep deprived that I swear I heard the machine say, "Win-A-Pig, Win-A-Pig." So ever since that night/morning, I've been winning pigs. Now, there have been other phrases that I've "heard" such as "We need help" (I'll say!), "Wake Up!" "Heave Ho!" and "Win a goat!" but win-a-pig just stuck. Now the caveat to all this is that I feel lucky the technology exists to be able to provide breastmilk to our daughter and that I'm in a position to pump at work and pump at all! So of course it's not all bad. But...increasing the amount of formula Camille gets is looking mighty attractive!

Hail to the pump parts!

Bottlepalooza!


The beautiful result...


The happy customer who makes it all worth it...

Happy Floorth of July!

Eric is a man of many talents, many of which I learn about unexpectedly! On July 3rd, we both had the day off (yey! for great jobs that provide days off before holidays!) and we had run into a particularly bad carpet day. I had spilled coffee (I could dedicate an entire post to my praise for the coffee bean but will stay on target for now) in my rush to get outside one day and the dogs had been given treats that were akin to nacho cheese Doritos -- and they didn't use a napkin! So, needless to say, we had to do something. (I'm a brave woman for posting this on a blog for millions...ok, maybe a few dozen to see! I promise the house is cleaner than this picture might suggest but I would love a maid!)

ICK!


So...Eric declares, "I'm going to Lowes to do something about this carpet." Great! I'm thinking he'll come back with a steam cleaner or some fancy spray. Nope. 3 hours later, I call him, "is everything ok?" He replies, I'm on my way home with a car full of laminate flooring! All righty then! When Eric puts his mind to something, it gets done -- and it was! It looks great, honey!

Construction begins...

And continues...


with help from the littlest helper...


who stops to remind us that it is a holiday, after all.


And the finished product...