Camden at 3.5 months

Camden's now 3.5 months old. His demeanor has totally changed. He's more alert now and likes to swat at his toys while in his bouncy seat or exersaucer. He enjoys tummy time and likes to play on his back too. He's happy as long as he can see me. You'll find him most days taking his naps in his swing, usually up to two hours. He sleeps very well in his crib but only at night. If I lay him in his crib for a daytime nap, then he usually wakes after 30-45 minutes. He's takes a bottle like a champ while he's in the nursery during church service or Mom's morning out every Tuesday. I'm not sure how much he weighs now. His 4-month well baby appointment is January 12 so we'll get his stats then.

Santa Babies

This morning was very productive. Millie and Camden (along with her cousins) got to visit with Santa. Millie learned a lot about patience as the line was about 45 minutes long. As you can tell, Camden slept comfortably on Santa's lap. Afterward, we picked out a live Christmas tree for our new big living room. Then off to Chick-fil-a to celebrate our grand adventures with no spills or accidents!

This evening we started decorating the tree. With Millie's busyness (and you all know what I'm talking about), I was afraid Millie would aggravate our poor Christmas tree this season. To avoid that sort of situation we allowed her to help us hang the ornaments. It was a great intro into our expectations of not pulling at the branches or trying to eat the tree or something. She had a wonderful time and we had fun video-ing her decorating the tree. It's a really long video so I'm not going to post it, sorry.

Millie and her box

She found some fun with this box during our move this weekend. Matt cut out some windows for her and she added her pillow and blanket.

Camden's 3 month old now!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

This holiday was spent with my dad, stepmom Pat, brother, his family and our friends Josh and Megan (unfortunately, not shown here). Leigh and Pat put the dinner together (baked turkey and all the fixin's) and the guys took care of frying the turkey. The place cards were made by my niece and nephew with their hand prints and everyone's name written out. Camden's placecard was coupled with mine- all too fitting. We brought over our big swing and Cam enjoyed that most of the day. Millie played with the cat, Feona and her cousins. With all that and the parade and football on the tv, it was a great Thanksgiving. We were missing you though, Lauren and Luis.

On Friday at midnight, Pat and I waited in line outside to get into Toys R Us for their early Black Friday sale. Two and a half hours later we had successfully made it home with a new outdoor playhouse and little shopping cart. I got the playhouse for a steal so the cold and rainy weather was totally worthwhile. Pat and I laughed at ourselves the whole time too. I went back to bed for about 3 hours then up again to head to Walmart, Home Depot and Target. While I was asleep Matt and my brother trekked over to the Post Exchange for more deals- mainly for the new TV now taking up nearly half of our dining room. We're excited to install and enjoy it in our new house (see photo) this weekend.Thanksgiving weekend, Matt and Millie took a trip down to Columbia to visit my in-laws. She came back with some tap shoes, leotard and ballet slippers- too cute. Mia always hooks Millie up with new and fun stuff. She's been walking around all morning today with her slippers on.

As for today, we got the keys to our new home! We'll move in on Thursday. Hoping we can make the move all in one day. Matt got Thursday and Friday off which never happens. I'm thinking that installing our new TV was his secret motivation to get those days off. Whatever the motive, I'm just happy to have him. And, my Dad stayed behind to help with the move too.

Here's Camden and Matt- taken today. He's starting to look like his Daddy.

Camden's Two Month Doctor Visit

The doctor gave us this sheet that talks about feeding our baby. It reads, "Breast fed babies continue to nurse every 3-4 hours." HA! Yeah- no that's not the case for our growing baby. He eats every other hour during the day. Awake for an hour and asleep for an hour, like clock work. On Saturday, though, he took a 3 hour nap! That has never happened before. Other than that one time, he's pretty predictable. His last nap usually ends around 4:30pm. We keep him awake until his 7pm bedtime. The routine has really paid off. Camden is sleeping up to 8.5 hours straight (7pm-3:30am). After a feeding he goes right back to sleep until usually 7am. This 10th week has been bliss.

Camden is smiling and cooing every chance he gets as long as he's being held. Put him down and he is not a happy baby. Put him in the swing, though, and he'll fall asleep. He's getting the hang of the Bjorn carrier although he hasn't slept in it. Instead he likes to look at all the fun stuff going on around him.

As for Camden's 2 month stats:
Weight: 12lbs, 15 oz. (75th %)
Length: 24.29" (90%)
Head: 15.75" round (not square, haha)

He's growing big, and I'm one proud mama!

Millie at 20 months and Cam's now 10 weeks!

Man oh Man, where has the time gone?

Life just gets sweeter and sweeter with our two fantastic munchkins. I've got to be honest, though, I'm still really scared (for lack of a better word) to take them anywhere by myself. I guess I'm just not excited about getting stuck with two crying babies. Not like that would really happen because they would both be well-rested and a snack readily available but still... I'm taking my time and easing my way into normal life again.

I don't want to jinx myself but for the last couple of nights (since Veteran's Day), Cam has been waking once at night!! We have positioned the fan just outside of Millie's room (which is right next to Cam's room) to mainly drown out the little peeps we hear from Cam at night. I had been going right in to feed him at every little peep and found that really I was just lulling him right back to sleep after a little snack. That can become really tiring and I know he can go longer than an hour between feedings.... I was getting up like five times every night and feeling the wear and tear on me in the morning. Both Millie and Camden deserve a more energized, happy mommy. So now that he's 2.5 months old, he's becoming a pro at sleep (day and night) whereas Millie was sleeping through the night at 5 weeks!

Can you tell that sleeping babies makes me feel accomplished?!

Anywho, Cam is smiling all the time now and its not just random. If you smile or make a silly face, he'll give you a big ol' smile right back! He's ticklish too- anywhere. When you tickle him, its almost as if he give a silent laugh. He gets all squirmy and gives another big smile back.

Bathtime has become my favorite time of day. Cam and Millie bathe together as I'm sure you have gathered from the heading picture. Millie is learning not to splash her brother and Cam is learning not to pee on his sister. Its a joyous event!

Millie is a riot. Everyday she puts a spin on something ordinary. She likes to suck on pacifiers as a toy. She'll sit in her brother's swing and rock her babies. She's big into sidewalk chalk, puzzles, stickers, and ELMO! My goodness, she loves her Elmo. She's finally fitting into 24-month clothes as I am enjoying the hand-me-downs from her 3 year old cousin. She tinkled in the potty on October 26th... and hasn't done it since. Again, we are still planning on potty training in December.

Next time you hear from us, we may be living in a new house as Ft. Bragg is moving us somewhere else on post. Exciting times!

Millie's First Haircut

...courtesy of Daddy. Millie twirls her hair. This morning she had her finger stuck in this gargantuan knot when I got her out of bed. We tried and tried to loosen it. Eventually, Matt got the shears. Needless to say, Millie wasn't so excited about the whole ordeal.

Can you see the knot?!

...and Our Frog

Halloween with our little Princess

Millie enjoyed Halloween as a princess this year. Camden was supposed to be a frog (get it?, princess and the frog), but he was resting during the peak Halloween hours. Anyways, Mia, Millie's grandmother, made her precious costume.



And, here she is with her cousins.

Trick or Treating was a hit, too! She was running from house to house saying "treat" for an hour and a half! All that candy, just for mommy! Thanks Millie!

Our pumpkin unveiled...

Sunday we carved our pumpkins. Correction: Matt and Millie carved their pumpkin while I am still undecided about what I want to carve on mine. Any ideas?

Before (clean)

After (covered! Bath before lunch!)
Matt chose this design because Millie loves the moon and stars.

Pumpkins!

We ventured off to the pumpkin patch twice on this rainy Saturday. The first attempt was one hilarious blooper after another. Millie's been battling a runny nose lately. She choked on phlegm (we think) and barfed all over herself in the car seat. We were totally unprepared- no water, no change of clothes, go figure. So instead of the pumpkin patch, we headed for the Chick-fil-a drive thru for water and bite to eat. While Matt placed our order, I jumped out of the van, jogged my way to the local Kmart, and booked it to the pharmacy for a thermometer (which we were lacking at home) just in case Millie was really sick. She's not sick and like we all do, she felt much better afterwards.

Next was naptime, so we chilled out at home and promised to try again later. Once we got there Millie went C.R.A.Z.Y! We could hardly keep track of her as she was running everywhere trying to take home all the pumpkins. We told her if she could carry it, we would take it home. One thing's for sure, she was very tenacious no matter how big the pumpkin. We ended up with 5 pumpkins and 2 mum planters.

We couldn't even keep Millie still enough for a photo, so here are the best we got...