Growing Like a Weed

Campbell won't officially be six months until this Friday, but we jumped the gun and got her six month vaccinations and check-up last Friday. We have her six month pictures scheduled for this weekend, and in case she had any related fussiness after the shots, we figured it was better to get them out of the way. She took them like a champ, though - even better than her three month shots.

And, her updated height/weight info.... drum roll please...
26.5" and 17.05 lbs - 80th percentile for both.

We also noticed yesterday that her first tooth has come through - and we didn't even realize she was full on teething! She's always been a bit of a drooler, and she never got especially fussy, so it came without incident. So hoping the rest of teething goes so easily. I Facebooked that it was her lower left, but it was actually her lower right. You'd think by now I could tell the difference.

We also went and prettied up her DOC Band, thanks to the good folks at 36o Wraps. The owner will be setting up a foundation soon to help offset the cost of the wraps, which he does for free, so if you have some extra money to throw at charity, consider throwing some their way.


We wanted to do the Dallas Stars logo in pink and white, but the guy has to worry about copyright/use problems, so we went with this flower instead.


Look ma - sitting all on my own!


Big fan of the Glo-Worm.


Don't mess with me. Seriously. Don't. Unless it involves getting my belly, in that case, mess away.

G won tickets to the World Series, so we'll be leaving Campbell in the capable hands of my parents next week. I've become a Yankees fan, in hopes that we'll be visiting New York. And when we get back - Halloween and TCU Homecoming. Campbell was going to be a monkey, but the costume we bought is too big (6 - 18 months should not be a size) so I'm working on something else - that's a little teaser for the next update. :)

Even though it was completely floppy, it's still super cute, so I thought I'd share what she would have looked like as a monkey (and this may be a preview for next year if she doesn't outgrow it!)


Yes, yes I'm adorable...


and precious...


but deep inside I'm plotting to take you all over with my cuteness.

Oh, and for the record, she's now eating solids twice a day - fruit in morning, sometimes with cereal, sometimes without, and a veggie in the afternoon - and taking four 7 oz. bottles, plus another 5 or so oz. at bedtime. And, I must just say again, she is a dream baby. She's so good at amusing herself, but also loves getting hugs and kisses. I can already tell she's going to be a daddy's girl - she keys in on G whenever he's around, and saves her biggest smiles and laughs for him. :)

The Only Thing that Separates Us from the Animals is Our Ability to Accessorize

We picked up Campbell's DOC Band last Monday and after a week long 'break-in' period, she's now in it 23 hours a day - one hour off during bath time before bed.



Right now she's just sporting some flower stickers, but we'll take her in to 360 wraps a week from Tuesday to get it done up right. Since she'll likely be in the helmet two to three months, we at least want to make it something special to look at and not just orthotic.

For those who think she was just perfect without the band, here's a shot to show why we went ahead and elected to get it:



The hope is after a few weeks in the band, the back of her head will even out to a round shape.

Moving on to even cuter accessories, I somehow stumbled across the pettiskirt a while back (that link is the one I was trying to recreate) and decided Campbell had to have one. But, I wasn't about to pay the $85 that well-made ones retail for. I found a few on etsy.com for less, but I still thought I could probably make it for cheaper. So, I bought the fabric, and I think it turned out pretty darn well, if I do so say myself. Campbell didn't give an opinion, but she did put it in her mouth, which I choose to take as a sign of approval.




That's a lot of ruffle fluff!


More pics of the pettiskirt construction and Campbell modeling on Flickr.

And, as always, every time I update my blog, I'm updating the Campbell at Home set on Flickr (link on the right).

Because I'm sure inquiring minds want to know, Campbell is fond of sweet potatoes, squash and bananas, and has so far tolerated carrots, green beans and green peas. On the list: applesauce, peaches, prunes and avocado. I love watching her reactions the first time she gets to try something new.

Of Rice Cereal and Sweet Potatoes

Campbell wasn't such a big fan of the rice cereal, but she did much better on sweet potatoes. G videotaped both adventures, presented here for your viewing enjoyment:
Rice cereal attempt (pretty much an exercise in futility):


First taste of sweet potatoes (yum!):

Five Months?!?!

Baby girl turned five months old today. We ran to the doc for a weight check and she clocked in at 15 lbs., 13 oz. She's taking five 8 oz. bottles a day, plus a veggie once a day. Our challenge now is keeping her in a dry diaper at night; she sleeps up to 12 hours, and the diaper just isn't holding out that long. Thank goodness for waterproof crib liners. We picked up some Pampers Baby Dry tonight, but the smallest size is for 16 lbs., so hopefully they'll be tight enough.

We pick up her DOC Band on Monday and will start easing her into it on Tuesday. By next Saturday, she'll be in it 23 hours a day. Don't know how that's going to work with her Halloween costume, but we'll figure something out.

In other news, Garett won free tickets to the World Series, so at the end of this month we'll be taking a little three-day vacation to where ever Game 1 ends up being played at - I'm suddenly a Yankees fan...

Full Weekend

This was our first full weekend at home in a long time, and it was quite a chore keeping baby girl entertained inside our four walls. We had planned on taking her to the Dallas Heart Walk on Saturday, but the weather wasn't very baby-friendly. She's had a cough for a few days, and we didn't want to risk dragging her out in the rain, so G took care of her for a few hours while I walked the 5k.

When I got back, he'd exhausted every weapon in the arsenal - exersaucer, tummy time, baby swing, baby standing, bumpo, boppy, baby flying... We spent the rest of the day watching the OSU Cowboys lose and the TCU Horned Frogs win, doing laundry, washing dishes, etc., etc. I also made some marginal chili (won't be picking up that mix again) and some pretty good peach cobbler.

We tried starting rice cereal on a spoon, but it was pretty much a fail. She didn't really swallow anything, and wasn't the least bit interested.

Sunday Campbell let us sleep in 'til 8!! Then, we ran to the mall and the Target so we could show off her Dallas Cowboy's outfit to the world and stopped by G's folks house for a short visit. Then, home again for some more football. We tried again with the rice cereal, but she just kept pushing the spoon out with her tongue. We're going to give it another shot next weekend.

So, nothing too very exciting, but some nice, quality family time!

Trial and Error

This will probably be interesting to no one but me, but as a matter of record, I thought I'd go ahead and put it down. That way, when Baby T2 makes his/her debut, I won't have to struggle so hard to remember Campbell's milestones.

At 4.5 months, she's sleeping through the night; going down between 7 and 8 p.m., waking a few times just to let us know she's still there and wants her paci, and up and ready to eat between 6 and 7 a.m. She's been taking 6 oz. consistently, so today I upped her to 7 per bottle and 2 tsp. of rice cereal in each. I did 1 tsp. of cereal for a couple of days, but I don't think it was quite enough.

The tsp. makes the formula a little too thick for the fast flow nipples, though, and Drop-Ins don't have a Y-cut nipple, so I trimmed them myself, and may have gone a little overboard... She shotgunned her bottle this morning - 7 oz. in about 5 minutes - the gave a good portion of it back, projectile style. That one only had 1.5 tsp of rice, so I added another .5 tsp to the others, and took some un-modified nipples to day care as well in case it was still flowing too fast. She can get it threw the regular nipples, it's just a lot of work.

If you've read this far, you're either family or extremely bored. :)

Choosing Thomas

I can only imagine the strength of this family and can't even begin to imagine the pain and loss they suffered.

Have a tissue handy...


Watch the video on Dallas Morning News.

*credit to Chirky since I saw this on her blog and borrowed her image*