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..