Camden is Eight Months Old!

Wow, we are getting SO close to the big first birthday. And it is holiday time, so you know time is just going to fly by even fast than normal. I feel like this month was a BIG month. Lots happened to little Miss Camden. A very accomplished month. Shortly after turning 7 months, she started to crawl FORWARD.. it is the cutest little army crawl. But man she is FAST and goes everywhere now. Nothing holding her back. It was such a proud mommy and daddy moment, and I was so happy Tommy had just gotten off work and was home to see it. Walking won't be too far away now!

Camden's first Halloween, she was a lamb! We started the day with a trip to the doctors office to get the second half of her flu shot. She did great, I kinda distracted her a bit this time, so no crying at all. All the nurses loved her costumer. She was the only kid dressed up!!! What the heck haha. Tommy had to go to work for a few hours, but that quickly turned into more, so Camden and I headed over to mom and dad's to hang out since we don't typically get too many trick or treats, and I am not one to answer the door when it rings home alone. Although mom and dad only got a few more kids than we normally do ha. That weekend was daylight savings time. I didn't think much of it until all these people started posting about it messing up their kids sleep patterns. Well Camden nor Tommy realized it was anything different and slept just as good as normal. Gosh its great to have a kid that LOVES sleep as much as she. The first 5 weeks were though, but I wouldn't trade those few weeks for anything different now. Momma likes her sleep too :)

By 7 1/2 months Camden was accomplishing even more things. She is still learning to clap, but loves to grab peoples hands, and make them clap. I tried teaching her by doing that to her, so I think she believes that is how its done! haha. She also knows what the word "clap" means and knows exactly what to do if you say it to her. Such a smartie. On top of that, she knows what "pee-pee" means. Which my hopes will help down the road with potty training. But for now, helped with not wasting a new diaper, or the changing pad cover! She also loves to give kisses. Especially "da-da kisses" she opens her mouth when you go in for a kiss. Its the cutest. She has also started taking steps when you hold her hands. Like I said, walking won't be too far away.. And her FAVORITE thing to do, is sit up all by herself. She did this about 5 times without me seeing the transition. I would just see her crawling away, and then she would be sitting up. I was amazed. I finally got to see her in action. She sometimes goes into a split. Future gymnast?! Or probably just baby flexability. Camden has also started pulling herself to stand more. She really likes to use me (or a person) to pull herself up. But has also been trying just on her own. She usually gets to the upside down V position alone, and then isn't sure what to do! :)

We had another road trip down to NC last weekend. My aunt's house finally sold, so we had to get the last of her furniture out. We were blessed that she gave us lots of pieces. The new house she bought came completely furnished with amazing furniture, so she didn't need much but the treasured items from her house. Which was perfect for us, because our front living room had been pretty bare for a long time. The living room set from her house fit and looks perfect. And is actually were I am hanging out at right now! We also got a lounger for Dreke's old room which we will be turning into a playroom/office/guest room. Can't wait to get that room finished.

Punk has started coming along to Camden. They play "keep away" a bit now that Camden is able to crawl after her. She is gonna be in trouble when she really starts chasing her. We did some Christmas decor shopping in order to get the house ready for our Christmas pictures in a few weeks. As well as some early Christmas presents to each other, our new phones. We were at Best Buy for about 3 hours, and Camden did great. All the sales people told us how amazing she was, where most kids would be throwing a fit after an hour. I knew all the shopping we did when I was pregnant would benefit her haha! She is a shopper like her mom and dad! 

 I haven't done my baby food overload this month yet, but I need to soon! Camden is just days away from her first Thanksgiving where she will get to try some Turkey, and cranberries are on the menu for this week. Sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie also since she had already had those. She is going to feast! But beef and ham are on the agenda for December food, uhh I hope I can stomach it. She has also been slowly cutting a tooth for the past few weeks. Two weeks ago we finally felt it coming thru the gums. And last night (11/23) we finally saw it!! I can't wait to see more teeth in that little mouth. She hasn't been in pain or seemed bothered by it one bit. Prayers that be the case for the rest! 

We had our first holiday party at Hunter and Kathryn's. Camden was able to wear one of her Christmas outfits and she looked so stinking cute. We had a great time, but with everything going on, little one didn't wanna take a nap. I guess we got a bit in the Christmas spirit, because Tommy came home and put her in some of Christmas jammies, that he has been saying she couldn't wear yet because it wasn't Christmas time yet haha. I guess now it is. Well I caved too because I put up her tree in her room this morning. I am just telling myself it was a 8 month gift to her. I didn't get to finish it because I need hooks from our Christmas stash in the shed, so that made me feel a little better about myself. I am a day after Thanksgiving decorating kinda girl. Although Tommy has already given me the go ahead to start now, which has been tempting but I will refrain.

Until next month..

Camden is Seven Months Old!

Wow, so behind on this blog. So two months will be written in one day! Thankful for facebook with the reminders of our months. Every month seems to get more and more eventful. This month I finally busted out the letter and number mats my sister gave me when Camden was born. This helped so much because Camden was sitting up now, and it was making me very nervous with our hardwood floors that she would fall over and hit her head. These at least, lessen the fall a bit. She was also trying to crawl, so the blankets on the floor weren't helping, only making her slide. I spelled out her name "Camden Dixon" for a little fun. She loves them. Before we knew it, it was October, which means time to decorate the house for Halloween. Halloween is my favorite holiday by far, and usually goes in order, Thanksgiving, then Christmas. But I have to say, the Christmas hype this year had me all thrown off. And it being Camden's first Christmas, had me even more excited. But none the less, we got the house decorated just like every year, no new additions, but Camden did supervise. Next year we will have to get more lights since some of them were on their last legs. A friend from high school, Kristen, whom I probably haven't seen since high school was in town for a few days, and has a son a few months younger than Camden. We decided to meet at the Norfolk Zoo to catch up. The kiddies made it about 1/4 of the way thru before taking a nap, and then waking up as were leaving ha. But it was nice to catch up and meet Noah and Chris.

My sister and I went to the Hunt Club with Miss Camden a few days later to get some nice Fall pictures. It was a perfect day, sunny but not cold. And NO ONE was there. So we had free reign of the patch and got some really good pictures. I was very impressed. I had made Camden a little scarf that she wore in her pictures too! This month Camden started saying MAMA!! Ahhh, it was music to my ears. She mainly said it when she was upset or whining, but none the less, it was MAMA! After a few tries I finally got it on video. But "ba-ba" is still her favorite. She says that all day long. Our best friends Sable & Halston came to visit one night they were in town. Gosh I miss my best friend so much. I hate her living a few hours away.. I need her more in my life. But it was great to see Halston growing up so fast. He was 9 months then and he was already crawling everywhere and standing up on his own. He would be walking in no time! Him and Camden had a lot of fun together, and us mommas got some catch up time.

A little closer to Halloween we had a trip to Busch Gardens and Halloscream with Jessica and Kevin and a bunch of our friends.  Mom, Dad and Aunt Linda watched all the little ones all day and had a blast. We made a whole day of it, and surprised I almost couldn't last haha. My feet were so sore and just about lost my voice from all the screaming. But there was nothing better than getting back home to Camden still awake of course, haha. But the smile on her face when we walked in the door. It was priceless. That was only the fourth time I have left her, and for more than four hours. Its never easy.

I had another baby food day for my November foods. Strawberries, russet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cranberries, plums, kiwis, raspberries, melon, kale and spaghetti squash. WOO thats a lot. I had a few fruits from October to finished up as well since there don't seem to be as many season fruits as there are veggies. Its always so much fun though. I feel very accomplished after I make her food. And so excited for her to try it. There hasn't still been anything really she didn't eat. I hope she keeps that up. In the mist of all these fruits and veggies, I completely forgot she was old enough for meats. I had bought a Gerber Chicken baby food jar at the store. Upon opening and noticing a pink tuna smelling gunk inside, I was completely grossed out. I couldn't feed her that. So I boiled some chicken breasts in some stock and celery for flavor until cooked, and pureed it up. Now pureeing chicken (or any meat for that matter I am sure) is also not the easiest thing for the stomach, ha. But at least it looked like chicken and SMELLED like chicken. And it had great flavor. Camden seemed to like it, but the texture is a little odd. The people at Gerber definitely have a way of getting it smoother. But I will figure it out eventually. Hooray for homemade baby food!

Tommy and I brought Camden to the pumpkin patch for our official first family visit. We got our pumpkins and a few pictures in as well. We went home and got to carving. We cut open a big one, gutted it, and made some leg holes, put Camden's name on the side and put her inside. I don't think I have ever seen a happier baby. She absolutely loved being in the pumpkin. And we again got some great pictures.

 So 7 months. 7 months it took for me to experience my first "sickness" with a baby. I had about a 2 week long cold I just couldn't get over. It actually started with Camden. She woke up very stuffy and snotty one morning. But a quick trip to BRUS to get her her own humidifier, and suctioning out her nose a few times a day, she very quickly got over it. Again, I wasn't so lucky. A few days it was near impossible for me to get off the couch my body ached so bad. But thing needed to be done, and I did. Camden is just such a content baby, she had so much fun playing by herself for a few days that I was able to get some rest. And when Tommy got home from work, he quickly took over, even he too wasn't feeling too well. Such an amazing dad.

Until next month..

Camden is Six Months Old

SIX MONTHS!! My sweet girl has been with for half a year. Its mind boggling. And of course we celebrated her half birthday, but we will get to that a little later. We started out this month with a 10 hour road trip to Ohio for my cousin Holly's wedding. I was very nervous since Tommy wasn't going to be making the trip with us. I just envisioned in my head that we would have to stop every three hours, for about an hour each time, and a 10 hour trip would turn into a 15 or so hour trip. I went with my Aunt Linda, and at first we were going to leave Thursday evening, which would have been great in hopes that Camden would just sleep the whole trip, arriving in the early morning, but she got off work the whole day Thursday, so we decided to leave at 9AM, my parents left at noon, and Jessica and Kevin around 2PM. My aunt has a crossover type vehicle, you know a bit bigger than a normal car, yet smaller than an SUV. This has confirmed my thoughts of us needing a SUV. Tommy keeps picking out these smaller crossover style cars. Camden has WAY too much stuff, and it will only get worse once we start adding more Suggs into the picture. But Camden did great on the trip. We did have to stop for diaper changes, but I was able to feed her in the car as we drove. So we ended up making it there on time! I was so proud. We had lots of fun in Ohio. Trip to Tony Packos, Holly & Jake's Wedding that Saturday, and Put-In-Bay trip on Sunday. And of course, seeing all the family is the biggest plus of it all. The trip back home was just as good. My aunt actually bought her a portable DVD player to keep her occupied between naps so she wasn't so alone in the back seat. Although I did sit back there with here every now and again. I am soo happy I have such a good baby. Next task to test out.. Flying. But who knows when that will be! 

While we were in Ohio, Camden found out she could control her hands. She has this cutest "Miss America" pagent wave. I love the amazement on her face. She also went from saying "da-da" all the time, to "ba-ba". All day everyday its "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba".. Again I am still working on that "ma-ma". She also started sitting in highchairs and the big girl part of the stroller. We sent daddy lots of pictures..

As you all know, we are die hard Dallas Cowboys fans. Its a wonderful thing marrying a fan of your same team. Makes it that much more fun. So there should be no doubt in anyones mind that Camden too, is a Cowboys fan! First game she wore the tutu and headband I made her and we took our family game day ready picture!! A few days later, my best friend Jessica brought over Ava's jumperoo she didn't use anymore after I told her I had been looking for one, and she had an extra. Camden LOVES it, and jumps so crazy in it! She reaches perfectly on level 1, so shes has plenty of room to grow in it! That day was gorgeous, and I know we don't have too many warm days left, so we decided to take that thing off road and go play outside. I am starting to have Camden explore different textures, so she was able to get her piggies in the grass, as well as sit in it and grab it with her hands. She had a blast. And I got some cute pictures too. We also let her explore more textures by playing with Jello. It was adorable, she didn't want us to take it away, and note, use yellow. Blue stains the hands a bit! ha

I had another one of my baby food making days, as I try to do them once a month. This being my second time, it was a lot easier. And I got a ton of food! Asparagus, Avocado, Spinach, Roasted Red Peppers, Mango, Blueberries, Blackberries, and PUMPKIN.. I was soo excited for the pumpkin. Especially since she seems to really like sweet potato and butternut squash. I did it this time while Tommy was at work. But luckily Camden is so good at being content on her own for a while. Between naps, laying on her blankets and her new jumperoo, momma was able to get all her food made that day! I also picked up some chalkboard paint and a bistro chalk marker so I could better label all her food. They look so cuute. I had so many people ask where I got the jars from! CRAFTY ;)

That weekend we had Tommy works annual picnic at the Hunt Club. It always makes me so excited cause I know my favorite time of the year is just around the corner. And it was a blast this year cause we had Ben, Jen & her son Blaine to hang out with.  As well as Scott, Heather & Jackson. We made ourselves a little spot on the grass with our blankets, ate good food, tried to win some raffle prizes, and played with the animals in the petting zoo.. Camden LOVES animals. She laughs everytime Punky gets close to her, but the Punk is so jealous of her, she doesn't really let Camden get too close. So Camden went nuts over the baby goats. We need to take her to more petting zoos! For weeks now Camden has been on the verge of crawling. I make sure she gets plenty of time on her tummy to be able to get her practice in. I just hate that we have hardwood floors cause I feel like its very uncomfortable for her. I can barely lay on the floor for more than a minute or two! But at her six month mark, no crawling yet. Just lots of scooting and sliding! But we will get there, she is a smart girl.

I had a craft day getting props and such ready for her Half Birthday photo shoot. It is so much fun transforming things into these amazing pieces. I need to get into that more. I turned a old picture frame into an antiquish looking mirror with a gold frame. And two plates and two candle stick holders into a cake tray. And I did some glittering of some mason jars! Everything is better in gold and glitter! It all turned out great for her shoot.

So we have put Camden in her crib so many times, but we always bring her back because I didn't want her away from my side. She has always done great, but it has always been me. But she was starting to wake up a lot in the middle of the night trying to toss and turn in her sleeper. So we knew it was time. To help mommy and daddy transition, we decided to put her pack-n-play at the end of our bed. Of course the first night we try this, come to find out, she got her first bout of diaper rash. 51/2 months we were able to go with no diaper rash. I'd say that's pretty good. Tommy and I did so much research on it. She had a nakey booty day, and I kept it clean and coated in cream. It cleared up in about 48 hours. I believe it was from the corn she had just started eating two days before, so I took her off that, and didn't start her on anything new until the next week. That seemed to do the trick. She really liked corn too, we will have to try it again in a few months. But the pack-n-play only lasted a few days before she was in the crib. She loves the room! We lay her down and she immediately turns to her side. We still check the monitor like crazy, but its easier to sleep knowing she is comfortable. She typically wakes up facing the complete opposite direction, and on her belly. Silly girl.

September 23rd my sister came over to take pictures of Camden for her HALF BIRTHDAY!! Yup, I celebrate her half birthday, I love anytime to celebrate. I would celebrate mine too if my parents kept up with it my whole life (January 30th by the way!) I had all the outfits that thankfully arrived in time, and all the props I wanted to use. It took us about an hour to get it all done before Camden started getting fussy. Its funny, when she was days old for her newborn pictures, she didn't want to sleep. Yet 6 months later, it seems like all she wanted to do. The pictures were amazing, I am so glad we were able to capture them! My friend Lindsay also came over and had a half birthday gift for Camden. It was Dallas Cowboys leg warmers and a headband she had ordered for her on Etsy! And they will probably fit her for years which is awesome!

We did our 6 month growth photo, again wearing matching outfits. Gold leggings and t-shirts that said "Trophy Wife" and "Future Trophy Wife".. Because every woman deserves to be treated like a trophy, for her husband to think she is his prized number one. I don't believe the old meaning of that title. She had her 6 month check up a few days later. She weighs 14.14 pounds (50th%) and measures 24 3/4 inches (25th%). Doc says she is sure to have a growth spurt in length soon since she hasn't had one since her 3 inch spurt at two months! But other than that, she is doing amazing. Doctor Stephen's is so happy with her development, says she is very advanced and was so happy to see her sitting up by herself when she walked in. Shot on the other hand, didn't go so well this time. Camden hates oral medicine, but this time really didn't want to take it, so the nurse did kind of have to force it. Which made her cry off the bat. She didn't calm down from that, so three shots in a row didn't help.. (She got half of the flu shot which she will go back for the second half on Halloween).. To all these people that don't cry when their babies get shots, or say "it gets better".. YOU'RE CRAZY. It has only gotten worse for me. haha.

Until next month!

Camden is Five Months Old!

Wow I am very behind on this blog post.. She is two weeks from being six months old HA! I think my computer is finally going out on me (after 9 years!) Probably time to upgrade. My last post left off with Camden's four month doctors appointment, and starting solids, we will get into that in a few!

A few days after was my 27th birthday.. I am officially in my "late-twenties" how weird is that? I still feel like I just graduated high school sometimes, but I guess having a baby now helps me feel a little older. We went to dinner at a hibachi grill with mom, dad, jessica, kevin, aunt linda, and of course tommy and camden. The trips had their four year check up and got all those fun shots before school, so they were a little sore. And by the way, I still, to this day, remember getting those shots. I couldn't move. So I feel their pain! Dinner was great, and I was SO surprised to get my dream tablet from my family, the Samsung Note 10.1.. You know us Samsung lovers over here. It was perfect timing to, because we were leaving the next day for my birthday trip to DC and this thing takes great pictures!

So we left that Friday morning around 830am.. Now, Camden usually sleeps til 10am, so this being out first car trip with her led us to decide whether to just put her in the car and let her fall back asleep, and stop if we needed to when she woke up, or change, feed her and and start our three hour clock and go. Thats what we decided to go with. We ALMOST made it there without Tommy having to hop in the back and feed her, but we ran into a bit of traffic (duh) making it take us four hours instead of three and a half. But all in all, it wasn't so bad. I am so glad she is back to enjoying car rides.. Those few weeks of screaming the second the car seat hit the base was brutal! Our hotel was awesome, after unloaded all of our (Camden's) gear, we realized, we forgot her bed. Thankfully most hotels have pack and plays. Its funny how much stuff you need to pack when going out of town for a baby. I still think we need a bigger car, but I can't imagine what we will do when we have to fly.. OR when we have 2+.. When we arrived we decided to go shopping, haha. They have lots of outlet malls in that area, and you know us Suggs like to shop. My best friend Sable who recently moved to the area was going to meet us there with Halston, but wasn't able to make it because of traffic. We decided to head back to the hotel, and check out this metro system. Our hotel was in Arlington, just outside of DC and they had free shuttles to the metro station. After arriving, I quickly remembered how these systems worked from my trip to NYC years ago. However, I forgot they have COLORS, and we hopped on yellow instead of blue. But after looking at the map, we  figured out where we needed to get off at, and we weren't out of the way at all. DC area is goregous. I love all the people outside, running, playing, just enjoying life. I understand we have that at our boardwalk, but it just didn't seem to be the same. We visited almost every single monument that night, and headed back to the hotel and ordered room service. We all woke up early the next day. So happy that Camden slept just fine thru the night like normal. That day was ZOO day! The DC zoo is huge. I think we were in one part of the zoo for like four hours. It was so nice, and nice that it is free. Can't wait to take her back in a few years so she can really enjoy it! We were so worn out from walking up and down hill all day, and walking around all of DC the day before. Sunday we visited a few more places, and hit the road back home. Stopped at Potomic Mills on the way home, but just as they were closing, so we will have to make a trip back there as well. But it was a great first family trip, and can't wait for many more!

The weekend after we got back, Tommy had a work trip to Atlanta to drive some Land Rovers and Jaguars at Atlanta Motorspeedway. I was so excited for him, but also nervous that this was the first time I was home alone with Camden. Four days and three nights. Night time without tommy alone scares me. But I managed. I actually decided while he was gone that Camden didn't need to be swaddled anymore. She would fight it so bad, but we were scared that she wouldnt sleep thru the night anymore, so I figured while Tommy was gone was the best time to test it out, and she did just as good as usual.

So Camden started solid foods. I made a little book for myself to keep track of everything she ate. The first week I just did carrots and rice cereal. She caught on so quick to eating from a spoon. Especially when I thickened up the rice cereal. My plan was to introduce a new veggie every Monday, and a new fruit every Thursday. That gave her body time to react in case there were any allergies. I use Beech Nut. I love their just collection, in that nothing else is added to their foods. I got almost all of their stage 1s to test out what she liked. Then I browsed the ingredients in their state 2s to get ideas for food I wanted to make her. We went golfing one Sunday and that night, I went to work. I made her peas, green beans, beets, peaches and black beans. It was so much fun! It took me about 3 hours, but in the end I wish I had more food to make. I had saved all my Beech Nut jars to store all the food in, which also helped because I usually got 3 serving out of each jar, so it made it easier to know how much food I needed for a weeks supply. In my book, I am also keeping track of how much of each ingredient gives me  weeks worth (i.e: three large beets is one week of food!) She did so good eating everything as well. So far I think sweet potatoes and green beans are her favorite. But she isn't 100% on the black beans. And most of the fruit hasn't been as much as a hit as the veggies which was a surprise to me. But nothing she hasn't eaten, or even gagged on. So looks like I'm raising a good eater!! :)

We almost got to put together her highchair, which she eats in every night, and we finally moved into size 2 diapers, which is awesome because we have about 1000 of them (no joke). Everyone got us size 2s at our shower, and now five months in, we have yet to buy diapers. And I am sure we will be set for another 5 months! Camden has a new found love of babies. I think she loves that they are "her size". She sees babies and just smiles and giggles and wants to "nuzzle". Yes, if she is close enough, she will grab on and give them a nuzzle, its the cutest thing. I hope she never looses that! I am so glad she isn't shy. She also learned to sit up. I still get nervous leaving her totally alone seeing that we have hardwood floors. I always layer up a blanket to give her some cushion, but I know its not a soft of a fall as with carpet. She still loves her feet, loves to put them in her mouth. Silly.. AND she said her first word.. "Da-Da".. Its too funny when I sent the video to my mom she said "Yup and she will say it over and over and over again until she learns something new!" Sure enough, she did until it came out as "Ba-Ba".. Now she doesn't quite know to put Tommy and DaDa together, and sometimes she just says BaBa to say it, but at times she does say when she is hungry! She is just growing up too fast. Now I'm like MaMa MaMa MaMa!! ;)

For our five month outfits, I actually painted her shirt to match a shirt I had. I also went to the fabric store and made us matching pink turban headbands. I also made her a tutu to match her thanksgiving shirt (a headband will be next in a few months!) And I also made her a fabric dallas cowboys tutu and silver start headband! They looked so cute. I can't wait for her 6 month pictures. I actually ordered them early in fear I wouldn't get them in time. I am also doing a little photo shoot for her "half birthday" I am so excited to share those with you in a few weeks..

Until next month!