Final Countdown (to One Year Old!)

Since last we met, Campbell has turned not only 10 months...





But also 11 months...




She can creep along any piece of furniture, and even let go and stand for a few seconds as long as she doesn't realize what she's done. She's eating small, chopped up fruits and veggies, but still prefers pureed meals. Puffs and Cheerios, though, are her absolute faves. We're going to finish up the formula we have in the cabinet, then it's on to whole milk. She's pretty good with a sippy cup and is down to two or three bottles a day, so I'm hopeful for that transition as well.

She only needs a paci when she goes down at night, which is usually between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Last night was open house at her school, and we visited the toddler room to see what's in store for her next. Once she can walk, use a sippy, eat table food and is on whole milk, she'll move up - so probably only another couple of months. We really liked what we saw. They do daily art projects, teach the kids to use spoons, teach baby sign language (oh yeah - Campbell can also sign eat!), help teach the kids to clean up their toys, have daily outside play time (weather permitting), and have a 2 hour daily scheduled nap. I'm very excited about that last thing, since right now in the infant room, Campbell is only getting one 30-minute nap a day. The doc said she really needs at least an hour, and I'm hoping once she gets more structure around nap times, she'll be able to stay up and hang out with us a little later in the evening.

She's very aware of what no means, she just doesn't really care all that much. :) The other day, she started crawling over to Garett's X-Box games, shaking her head no, no, no as she went, but it didn't slow her down at all.

Swim lessons are still going great. She can go under water and propel herself forward for five seconds. We add a second each week (she's missed a few lesson because of conflicts), but I'm not sure to what point. It's amazing to me that she's already so comfortable in the water.

Her b-day theme is Hello Kitty, and I'm hoping to make/decorate the cake myself, so fingers crossed that it will turn out... The other big to-do on my list: a 'first-year' picture album. I'm cheap, so I don't want to download anything I have to pay for, but none of the free online software is letting me do all I want, so right now I'm building each page in Photoshop, then planning on uploading them to mpix.com to order a photobook from there. Each page has taken at least 1/2 an hour, and I only have five pages done, and the book right now is looking to be about 50 pages... so yeah, I really need to get to work on that.

It's been an amazing 11 months, and I'm so excited about the year ahead of us!

How Big is Campbell? So Big!!

Well, baby girl turned 9 months old a couple of weeks ago, and she is certainly so big!! (stretching arms up into air) She clocked in at 20 lbs 5.5 oz and 28.5" tall. Only another 1/2 inch, and she will have outgrown her infant car seat!

She's still crawling all over the place and cruising like a champ. She can even let go for about one second before losing her balance and falling on her booty. She's a tough nut - when she bumps her head or knocks something on top of herself, she just shakes it off and keeps on truckin'. She's loving swim lessons and is going underwater for 2 seconds at a time. Or a little bit more, when mommy messes up and pulls her in at the same time she's jumping and she accidentally ends up doing a flip... Definitely think it scared me more than it scared her, though.

Bath time is also still a favorite. This video is a little old - she's in the big bath tub now, but it's so cute I just have to post it. The froggy works great as a bath thermometer, but it makes an even more excellent paci...



We haven't made much progress on solid foods, partly because she's decided she needs a 6 p.m. bedtime. We went ahead and started sending her dinner to daycare. That way when we don't get home until 5:30 or so, it's not quite as much of a frenzy to get her ready for bed. She's kind of picky about the Gerber 3rd foods, so for the most part we're still sticking to the 2nd foods, with a few Cheerios and Puffs mixed in.

The 9-month photo shoot turned out great. I think G had fun with his new camera, and baby girl should really be supporting both of us soon with all the money she'll be making from modeling... :)














In my completely unbiased attention, she's about the cutest little girl I've ever seen.

Where to begin...

My once-a-month posts are going to devolve into once-a-quarter if I don't watch it! It's been a crazy month. Between Campbell crawling and all the holiday celebrations, there hasn't been much time for sitting down and reflecting. Thank goodness for Flickr and YouTube, so even if I don't get updates done here as often as I'd like, it's not like I have to dig out the camera when I do make it on - just have to drop in a couple of embedded images/video/links.
Like this:

Or this (sorry for the dark video. We were trying to keep the lights low to encourage her to settle down for bedtime. ha.):

In addition to crawling and clapping, Campbell is starting to "cruise". She can walk her way down a piece of furniture, but is seldom brave enough to let go of one as she makes her way to another without first getting all the way down.

We had a rough couple of weeks where she decided sleeping was for the weak and refused to go down at bedtime, then refused to go back down when she woke up during the night. G had the magic touch and often ended up being the one who finally got her settled down. This last week, though, she's pretty much returned to normal. The key at this point is making sure she's truly ready for bed - if she's not wound all the way down, there's no hope.

She'll be nine months on Saturday and G got a fancy new camera, so we're planning on taking our own 'milestone' shots this time around, then taking it back to the pro (Emily Melson) for one-year pics. One-year. How is that already even a consideration?!

Stat update: Campbell was an even 19 lbs. at her 8-month weight check. She's eating three meals a day - one jar (fruit) and cereal mid-morning, one jar (veggie) and cereal around lunchtime, and one or two jars with a protein included at dinner. She started Cheerios a couple of weeks ago and is now a pro. We've tried cooked carrots one time, and if I wasn't so lazy, we'd probably have started a few other finger foods, too. We bought her kiwi, mango, broccoli, more carrots and a couple other fruits that I can't think of just now this weekend, so hopefully soon I'll have a chance to try and broaden her horizons even further.

All in all, I continue to be amazed at how blessed we are to have such a laid back, happy, beautiful little girl.