First Valentine's Day

    Camryn Marie celebrated her first Valentine's Day today!  Normally, I am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day.  Maybe I am cheap, but in the past I have had a few not so wonderful  thoughts about the day (overpriced flowers, Valentine party chaos at school, being tempted to eat candy, cookies and cupcakes that I definitely should not eat, etc.)  This year I didn't see Valentine's Day being any different until our friends and family started showering Cammie bear with some extremely wonderful and thoughtful gifts.  Don't get me wrong, this girl doesn't need or want for ANYTHING, but seeing so many of our closest friends and family members think of her on this day made me realize how loved she is.  We are so lucky that she has so many people to love and care about her!

P.S.  I think Cammie helped her mom get flowers.... :) I do love my 2 Valentine's!

Bumbo

     As many moms have stated, the Bumbo seat is wonderful!!!  We use ours everywhere...including going out to eat! :)  Little Miss Camryn is a very nosy baby.  If we are out anywhere she wants to see and know EVERYTHING that is going on. Since she is not quite able to sit up by herself, high chairs in restaurants are not an option.  Last week while eating with my parents at Tumbleweed I decided to bring the Bumbo chair so I could feed Camryn her dinner.  It turned out to be such a great idea!  In addition to eating her dinner, she loved being able to sit up high and see everyone at the table and everything that was going on.  It worked out so well, we took it Friday during a pizza night with Nick, Chrissie, mom, dad and Nick and again on Saturday when the two of us met Meghan and Maddie for lunch at Chick-Fil-A. 

Here she is at home...just hanging out

and using it at the restaurant...being a big girl and sitting at the table

Sure makes me wish I could create something cool like this...then maybe I would be able to stay home with her all the time :)

Early Bird

This morning, Camryn was an early bird!  Around 5:15 I woke up to the sound of Cammie's musical fish playing from her crib.  At first, I had this overwhelming feeling of guilt/fear that I had not heard her crying (Sidenote: I ALWAYS wake up to her cries, squeals (happy and mad) and noises.  Chris conveniently claims he never hears her, even though he used to be the lightest sleeper on the planet before we had her...just giving Chris a hard time for the past 5 months that I have been the one to get up :) and Chris had been the one to get up and rescue her.  When the fish turned off, Chris looked at me and said "I think she is awake, because she turned the fish on by herself."  I got up to look in her crib and sure enough, Camryn had scooted herself all the way around and had kicked the fish on!  She just looked at me as if to say, "good morning mom, I'm wide awake...and by the way did you hear my fish, I did that!"  She is a MESS!

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

As I said in the last post, Cammie has become quite the mover during her playtime excursions.  Check her out in action!

The progression (what I was able to capture)...



Playing on her mat, already rolled once from back to belly...

Thinking about going again....

No more thinking, she's off...
(Sidenote:  You can see how far she has scooted/rolled off her play mat...she started out on her back right in the middle!)

and she flipped again...look how proud of herself she is! :)







Loves

Camryn is growing (as Nana would say) soooo big and is really starting to show her teeny tiny personality.  I am so scared I will forget the little things I love about her right now.  Each day she does something new, something better or something bigger.  Here are some of my loves that she does at 5 months....

1. The way she touches your face...(she often does it right before she falls asleep or while she is sleeping, making sure you are still right there, but will also do it when she is wide awake).  I love the way her tiny hands caress your cheek...I think it's her way of saying she loves you :)

2.  Her blankets....if you spend anytime with Camryn you know she almost ALWAYS has to have her soft blankets to fall asleep.  She used to only fall asleep if the blanket was covering her face (this was scary for this new mom at first, but I quickly learned you do what works), but now seems to like it right by her face. I often put it right between her and I when I am trying to get her to sleep and you will see her little arm just creep around it.  So cute :)  I love the way it almost always instantly soothes her.

3.  Tricks...Camryn has started to become more of a performer and likes to show off her tricks.  Recently, when she is placed upright (in a high chair, rocking chair, etc.) she will grab her foot and pull it straight up or the side.  Check her out...

     Cammie has learned how to smack her lips (well, she may make the sound with her tongue, but her lips always look like she is smacking them :).  She must think this trick is pretty neat, because when she does it once she repeats it over and over.  Funny how you think the littlest things they do are so neat! :)

     She also has become quite the roller....at first she only seemed to roll when I wanted to take her picture. We knew she could roll both front to back and back to front, but just didn't seem too interested in doing it very often (or maybe just too lazy :).  Lately, it seems like she is always moving and scooting.  If I place her on the mat of her play gym and walk away or turn my back for a second it seems like she has immediately scooted all the way down or flipped to the opposite side that she started on.  She's definitely quite the mover (well, as much as a 5 month old can move :)

4.  Playtime...Cammie is really beginning to interact with us and her toys as she plays.  Her expressions are priceless and those big, bright smiles she flashes at you will immediately melt your heart. :) Camryn is also "talking" more, as she begins to babble and continues to screech and find her voice. It's funny how she seems to "say" hi and yeah at just the right times when Chris or I am talking.

     She is beginning to get a firm grip and tries to hold on to toys for a longer time.  Most of the time she is successful, but larger, chunkier toys are obviously more difficult.  She loves to squeeze a stuffed animal super tight and grab mom's hair or earrings and hang on for dear life! Camryn also LOVES to grab the bird hanging down from her jump-a-roo and tell him all her secrets! :)  I wonder what she is telling him...

5.  Cammie's Laugh...It seems like her laugh is getting bigger by the minute.  Saying I love it is an understatement!  She really is a happy baby, so getting her to laugh is usually a simple task.  Some of the easiest ways to do so are tickling her right on her chest or gently squeezing her legs and saying, "buzz, buzz, buzz."  I just can't get enough of it!!!

6.  Her uncontrollable hands...Cammie's hands are ALWAYS going!  She loves to open them, close them, move them, etc.  Although her grasp is getting stronger by the minute, her dad and I love the way she opens and closes them as fast as she can when she sees her bottle (she grunts and makes noises when she sees it also :)  Those little hands are getting ready for some big adventures in the future!

7.  Her love for the puppies....Cammie is a girl after her mom's heart. :)  She LOVES puppies! Anytime she sees Brohdi or Zoey walk by, she instantly focuses on them and watches their every move! When they get close enough to her, she reaches for them and "pets" them.  Zoey is so, so, SO good with her!  Zoey will stand there and let Cammie pet or grab her face and ears. These moments with Zoey are definitely some of the highlights to Camryn's day!   Brohdi, however is not near as excited to have Cammie touch him as Zoey is.  Brohdi tolerates Cammie, but only on his terms.  If he wants to be around her he will tolerate her touching him...if he is not in the mood he just pretty much ignores her and moves away.  I think he is still a little jealous he is not the only baby around here anymore! :)

Camryn loving on Zoey....

and Zoey being very patient with Cammie :)

5 Months

Can't believe Cammie-bear is 5 months old today...she is growing, growing like crazy!

At 5 months Camryn...

• wears 3-6 and 6 month size clothes
• wears a size 2 diaper
• still wears a size 1 shoe (a little frustrating...since we have all these size 2 boots that mom is dying to put you in :)
• is an expert at eating from a spoon
• eats cereal and baby food twice a day 
• drinks 5- 5 1/2 oz. of milk at a time
• loves any fruit (baby food of course :)
• loves carrots
• is definitely not a fan of green beans (mom had to dip them in bananas for her to eat them :)
• seems to have some tummy troubles with sweet potatoes 
• loves bath time...hope that love transfers to the pool this summer :)
• seems to have a few favorite toys at the moment...her gray Sesame Street remote control (thanks Aunt Tammy! :), vibrating pig, singing snail mirror and her light and sound ball
• sometime sneaks into mom and dad's bed right before the alarm goes off (I think she just knows her mom needs a little snuggle time with her bug before the day starts :)  Although I may regret it later, I love those 20-30 minutes I get to lay there with Cammie!
• likes the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cd that plays in mom's car (fair warning to anyone who rides with us...the hot dog song plays over and over...it can make most people crazy, but when I look back at her in the mirror and see her "interacting (moving her head all around and smiling)" with the song, it makes it easier to endure!
• still doesn't always nap great during the day (mom is now trying to feed her baby food at lunch and dinner, instead of breakfast and dinner...hoping that may help a little bit)...Camryn is just so scared she will miss something :)

Winter Favorites

Lately I have been dwelling on all the negative things about winter, so I thought I would try to turn my attitude around....here are some things we LOVE about winter...

• flannel pj pants for mom and fleece pjs for Cammie....we love cudding up together and being snuggly warm!
• unplanned snow days....although we will hate making them up in June, who doesn't love an unexpected day off....especially when you have a full DVR and the best baby to spend the day with! :) 
• saving money...it's too cold to really want to go anywhere, so unplanned trips to Target or other stores don't happen near as often
• fun hats...if you follow the blog you have seen some of the hats in Cammie's collection
• my Kindle....finally opened up it, explored and am now in LOVE with it! Perfect accessory to fill an unplanned snow day! 
• snow...the first, second and maybe third time we get it....love the way it looks when it first falls, before anyone walks or drives in it 
• chili...mmmm

Okay...I tried...the list isn't that long, because at heart we are just not a winter family. :(  We are SOOOOO ready for spring and warm weather!  The puppies are depressed because they never get to walk or play outside, Chris is so anxious for baseball to start that he has stooped to showing me new baseball strategies and equipment and I am tired of being sucked into reality television and being lazy...please hurry spring...please, PLEASE!!!!