One year...

It is impossible that my baby boy will be one in a month and 4 days. So much change to come. Goodbye formula, hello money. Goodbye bottles, hello sippies. Goodbye to looking at the back of the seat, hello world!

I am ready for some advice. Any good car seats? I thought about the Graco 3-n-1 Nautilus. This seat has awesome reviews and is supposed to be the last seat I will ever need, as it converts to booster seats and holds up to 100 lbs.

But, I am also considering the cheap ol' Cosco seat. My main concern is Cam's safety, but I also want the price to be right.

Also, how did you break your baby from the bottle? Did you wean slowly, or just yank the bottle away never to be seen again? How old was you child when they finally had their very last bottle? Did you go straight to whole milk at 1 or did you use one of the next step formulas?

We are also fixing to try and get Cam into his own bed again. Carmon says he goes to his crib or me and Cam have to go sleep in the other room....Yikes! He is getting to be a wild sleeper and needs to be a big boy. I am so not ready for this.

Camden is still trying to learn how to walk. He doesn't take much interest, as crawling get him everywhere he needs to go. He is finally starting to stand a few seconds on his own, but still thinks its a game to stiffen up and fall towards Mom. He will learn in his own time!

Camdenisms

It would probably be easier to tell you what Camden isn't doing. Basically, he isn't walking.

Okay, Okay. My little prince started crawling (0n his hands and knees, finally), he is pulling up to everything, is into everything he isn't supposed to be, I know its only a matter of time until he takes off running. I. Am. Not. Ready. For. That...At. All!

He is such a smart boy (we all know he gets that from his momma!). He knows how to patty cake, he claps AND rolls it up. Occasionally he will even throw it in the pan. Genius I tell you. He can also say Mom, Dad, Dog, Car, and Uh-Oh. He used to say "atty cake" and bye-bye, but they have since left his vocab. Weird how that works, he learns a new word to forget and old one. He also plays peek-a-boo like a pro. It is amazing at how fast he learns new things. He also sings along when he hears music and will dance. Carmon and I were laughing, about to the point of crying, the first time we heard him singing. It was a day we actually happened to be together. He was so serious, I knew motherhood was gonna be fun, but never this much fun.

His true love (besides Mom) is being outside. He gets super fussy if we have to stay in the house all day. I love being at home with him, but I'm still not 100% sure if this is what I want.

He is also eating almost everything that Mom and Dad eat. He has 4, almost 5, teeth and looks like a vampire since he didn't get his top center teeth first. He loves cheese quesadillas from the Mexican restaurant, he can almost eat a whole one himself.

It brings a tear to my eye to think that my precious baby will be 1 year old in just 2 months. How has the time passed so quickly? I seriously cannot remember life before him, nor can I imagine, or do I want to, life without him.

Happy 10 month Birthday Angel!!!

I will leave you with a picture of the lil' man that takes my breath away on a daily basis.

Or two...

Wordless Wednesday::Happy Easter

Is he not the cutest little bunny EVER???

For more Wordless Wednesday, head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

No No No-No

Is he not the cutest?

Breaking Up is Hard to Do!

Err...Where to start?

Yesterday I left work at like 4:57. I need to drop off some paper's at the boss's (my uncle's) house. No big deal. I left there at 5:05. I arrived at the babysitters at approximately 5:13. When I go inside Camden is sitting in the floor crying. Not a big deal.

Then the fun started. I can't remember that much from this point on. She tells me that she can't do after 5 o'clock and that she needed to leave 15 minutes ago to be somewhere. WTF!?! She also said that I told her I got off work at 4:30. Don't recall that. If I got off at 4:30 I would have been there at 4:35 EVERYDAY to pick him up. I'm the type of mom that wants to spend every second of every day with their child. I have been leaving work at 5 for the past 2 months to pick him up on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and now she decides she can't do after 5? I am speechless. I told her that I knew I had to have him picked up early on Thursdays when she kept him and that the 5 o'clock pick time had never been mentioned (nor a problem) for the prior 2 months. Not to mention the fact that when I picked him up on Tuesday the other kids she babysat were still there and that was at 5:15. As I was leaving she said see you tomorrow. I didn't say a word. (Those who know me well, know that it isn't easy for me to hide my anger.)

When I left I called my sister, and I was in tears. I feel like this babysitter has looked at Camden as a paycheck and has never really gotten that close to him. I had actually already been debating pulling him out of there as it was and this had pushed me over the edge. If I were to leave work 30 minutes early everyday that would take away enough money to pay for more than one day of babysitting.

When I had arrived home I had a message on my answering machine waiting. It was from the babysitter. She told me that she would watch Camden until the end of February to give me time to find a new babysitter and that she wasn't going to babysit on "tense" terms. If she continued to watch him I had to have him picked up by 5.

I made a few calls and found someone to watch Cam for me, so I called and left a message on her answering machine. I told her that I didn't need until the end of February, I had already found someone else and to let me know when I could come and get Camden's stuff. I still haven't heard anything.

Did I over react? It seems so hard to find babysitters that you genuinely like. I know Camden will be taken care of now, because a relative is watching him. The only downfall is that there are no other kids there, and he LOVES other kids. Last night was horrible. I cried, got a headache, and went to bed by 8:30. I just want him to be taken care of and loved. Perhaps I won't go back to work as planned when this temporary job is over.

Camdenisms

Hello all of my mommy's blog readers!

Mommy is really busy at work, so I decided I would help her out and let you guys know what I have been doing lately. I am sitting up like a pro. This means that Mommy is finally giving me something she calls puffs. They are like nothing I have ever had before. They are hard and I am having to learn how to chew them, its really weird. I make faces to let Mom and Dad know that I think they are weird too. I am learning to like them though. Mommy has learned not to give them to me if she wants me to eat any of my bottle or that squishy food either. I have also been giving Mommy a hard time in the morning when she is trying to feed me. She'll get food on the spoon and bring it towards my mouth, and then I'll shake my head no, or slap the spoon and get food all over me. Hey, I think its fun. What's a boy to do?

I did make Mommy really happy last week. I started saying "Mommommomma". You could tell she LOVED it. I think she may have even got a few tears in her eyes. I think Daddy might be a little jealous. He keeps saying Dadadadada. I like Mom though. She lets me sleep in her bed. Daddy has this crazy idea that I should go back to my own bed, but I just don't want to.

Last night, I must have been doing something really funny. Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Kay were all laughing at me. I was laughing too. So hard that my whole belly was shaking while I was sitting up. My mommy was trying to get me with her "pigs". Any time I would try and grab them she would hurry up and pull them away. I thought it was so cool. I laughed my little butt off.

Okay, I think its time for a nap or food or something. Mommy will try to blog more soon. Our computer at home is broke. I think the cord went bad again.

Love,
Camden

P.S. If you come here, leave some comment love. Mommy really likes it when people let her know they read her blog. That little thing on the bottom right side has been showing some far away states and we don't know who it is.

Better Late Than Never

I should have posted this when you guys could still get the deals and I didn't. I'm sorry. I was EXTREMELY thrifty for Cam's first Christmas and he will be getting a lot for a little money.

The deals I found:

The Radio Flyer Rock and Bounce Pony

Reg. $119.99

On Sale at Amazon for $59.00

Minus credit card sign up promo -$30.00 (I haven't signed up for any in a long time)

Free Super Saver Shipping

Total Price-$29.00



Another Amazon Deal:

Fisher Price Cruise and Crawl Musical Jungle

Reg. Price-$74.99

Sale-$30.99

Free Shipping

Total Price-$30.99

Target Deal-Still available in stores this week!

LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table

Reg. Price-$39.99

Final Price-$19.00

That's $239 worth of toys for $79. Amazing. Of course we got him some more things but these were the best deals.

**Your glad you get to see this post. I thought it was gonna be the death of me. Nothing was going right!

Camdenisms

Camden is a roley poley....FINALLY!!!

Last night it was the cutest thing. He finally figured out how to roll from his back to his belly and kept going back and forth for probably 10 minutes. I have a hunch he will be crawling before we know it. I can't wait, but this also means that I have to get my house baby-proofed...AAAHHH! I have to do that anyway because Jess and Jase will be here next week for Christmas. Yay!

I am the biggest kid ever and Christmas is fun again. Last week Camden's Christmas present came and I asked Carmon if I could put it together and let him play with it...He said, "No." :(

Today is shot day. We are a week late this time because I tried to reschedule his appointment so that I wouldn't have to take him out of the babysitters (I want my $20 worth). It turned around to bite me in the butt and I have to leave work early and he has to leave the sitters early. I am hoping that he is able to get his shots because he has a bad cold and has been pulling at his ears. I don't know if they hurt or if he is just playing with them. I also hope that we don't leave with a stomach bug this time either. Last time was hell.

I still haven't got all my decorations out. I am a slacker. Time is not something I have a lot of right now. I'll get it done....eventually.

Wordless Wednesday::Bounced Out

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6 Months

Camden,

Its been 6 AMAZING months since I first laid my eyes on you. 6 wonderful months since I first heard your cry. 6 months of not being able to sleep all night, that I wouldn't trade for anything. You are truly the best thing that has ever happened to me and I can't imagine life before or without you. You have changed my life in ways I never dreamed of. I have learned that sleeping in is no longer an option. Poop isn't as gross as it used to be, although yours does sometimes make me gag. I don't care if I get vomited on. Your smile in the morning makes the day a little brighter. Your giggles are contagious. If Mommy is sad, all it takes is one little smile or laugh and everything is better.

You are growing so fast and getting so big. I really want you to start crawling and walking, I swear, but right now I really enjoy your snuggles. They are the greatest. And your slobbery kisses. Delicious. I hate that you pull my hair all the time, but I am thankful to have you to pull it.

I love the way that you have already proved me wrong. I said I would never have a blond-haired, blue-eyed baby and you are making sure that I do, although I really don't think your hair is going to stay light.

Not that Daddy or I really ever went out before, but now we would much rather just sit at home with you and have you entertain us, or take you out and show you off. I know I need to share you more but I just want to spend every second of every minute of every hour of every day with you. I now know the true meaning of unconditional love. Thank you for everything you have already taught me, and you don't even know it.

Love you bunches and bunches,

Mommy

Help!

Remember when you didn't have kids? When you said all that stuff you WEREN'T going to do?

If you don't have kids, don't say you WON'T do anything. You will.

I said that I would NEVER let my kids sleep in bed with me. But, when its the only way you can get sleep-you WILL. I did. I already regret it. He will not sleep without me now. We started trying Friday night to get him to sleep in his own bed. He went to sleep around 10, after 3 times of trying to get him in his own bed. He slept til 5. Awesome. I thought we were going to be okay. I was wrong. Saturday we got him to go down in his own bed. He slept there until midnight. Sunday night wanted nothing to with sleeping in his own bed. Monday nothing. Last night around 8 he was so sleepy and was trying to fight me so I just put him in his own bed. He fussed for a few seconds and was out. Yes, I thought. WRONG! He woke up at 9:15 and wanted Mommy. Dang it!

Did anyone else make this mistake? How do you fix it? I guess persistence is the key. It doesn't help that he knows he has Mommy wrapped around his chunky little finger.

Camdenisms

Our world lately has been a little out of whack. I can't really put my finger on anyone thing as to why. I just haven't felt like blogging. My blogHER account got approved though so I have to get out of this funk.

I am temporarily working for my uncle while his secretary is out with pregnancy complications. I don't know exactly how long my stay down there will be. The good thing is that I get to take Camden with me so that keeps me happy. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be to get up and get him and me ready. Carmon was home in the mornings this week, but he won't be next so that will be the true test.

Camden had a good time trick-or-treating last night. We wore him out. He was the cutest little lion ever though. He also tried prunes yesterday. We won't be eating them again anytime soon. He wouldn't even touch his spoon with just cereal on it. It was the funniest thing. He does, however, love his peaches, bananas, pears, and applesauce. We went on to sweet potatoes today and I think he is going to like them. He has a bit of a cold right now and despises the nose drops. I feel sorry for him, but they help so much.

Camden finally rolled over for his aunt Jess last weekend and hasn't done it again since. He's so rotten. I have no doubt in my mind that he could do it if he wanted to, but he doesn't like it on his belly. I'm off to bed now! I'll try to do better.

My Eventful Week

Shots. Puke. Fussiness. Late night phone calls. Doctors. Pedialyte. Hospitals. This is what my week has been full of since Wednesday. Not fun, to say the least.

I had a nice little blog typed here and it just disappeared.....This is the way my week has been.

Okay, I'm trying to remember what I wrote....

Wednesday Camden went to the doctor to get his shots. We came home afterwards and he was fine. I decided to go ahead and give him some juice. He did really good with it. After that we went outside for a wagon ride. While we were out I noticed that he had spit up a little, which was no big deal, he does this often. We went back inside and he puked. It was full fledged vomit. I felt so bad for him. I called my aunt and she said just to watch him. It wasn't 15-20 minutes later and he puked again. I called the doctors office, which was closed, and the answering service had a nurse call me back. She said to switch to Pedialyte. 1 tsp. every 5 minutes for 4 hours. If he kept that down, I could give him 1/2 oz. to 1 oz. every 30 minutes. This just pissed him off. How can you expect a hungry baby to be satisfied with a tsp. of flavored water? Finally after about an hour of tsps. I gave him 2 oz. because it was bedtime and I knew he wouldn't be up much longer. He took it all and off to bed he went. He did fine when he woke up the first time, but when he got up for good and he ate his cereal and bottle, it all came back up. I called the doctor's office and they told me back to Pedialyte, then watered down formula. No solids until he stopped vomiting. They didn't think that it was from the shots or juice. They seem to think he had a stomach bug that was going around. We were there for less than an hour to get shots and came out with a nasty bug. Yummy germs. He was supposed to get to start fruits. It went off and on all day. When we would be close to having regular formula he would start vomiting again. I felt so sorry for him and so helpless. Luckily, he hadn't been very crabby.

Thursday we spent the day at the hospital with my mom. She had called late Wednesday night because she was headed to the hospital with chest pains. They admitted her and ran some tests, fortunately they don't think its anything to serious.

Camden was still not keeping his milk down Friday, I think he may have had 2 normal bottles before the return of the "bug". Today we still had some lingering vomit. I called the doctors office again. They reassured me, AGAIN, that he was fine as long as he had wet diapers and his mouth was wet. This is the over-protective mom again. The doctor said that the vomiting with this virus had been lasting 48-72 hours. We just passed the 72 hour mark a few hours ago and (knock on wood) I think its gone. Today has been extremely hard though. He got uncontrollably cranky. I think his belly was hurting and his throat may have been a little sore due to all of the up-chucking.

I had intentions of posting more tonight, but I'm wore out. Off to bed it is!

Camdenisms

There hasn't been a whole lot of new stuff happening in our world, as you can tell from the lack of blogging. Tomorrow Camden has to go get more shots, yuck. I am not looking forward to that. He is still not rolling over, but I am not worried about it. One of the books I have says 5 months. No big deal. He is getting close. I gave him some white grape juice today and he got mad, I mean threw a fit, when it was gone. He's rotten.

I think he may be getting a little too used to Mommy. There are times when he throws fits and the ONLY thing to get him to calm down is for ME to hold him. Don't get me wrong I love my little cuddle bug. This may be a problem though. His daddy took him for his first tractor ride on Sunday. He didn't really seem excited about it. I think the sun was to bright and I didn't have his sunglasses. He is getting so fun though. He will sit and laugh for a couple minutes, if you can find something he finds amusing. Okay, Carmon's in bed and I don't think I'm too far behind him. I have a headache. Hopefully its just allergies.

Grrrr....

We got Camden's lion costume in and I'm not so sure its everything I was dreaming of. To top it off it has already broke. One of the snaps came off of the hood. He is, however, practicing his lion noises. He likes to gurgle, I say he's trying to grrr, or roar, like a lion. I'll have to record it because it is so stinkin' cute.

What do you think? Should we keep the costume?

Camdenisms

What's new in Camden's world? Our days are now filled with slobber, frozen pacifiers, and fussiness. That's right. We're teething. It's no fun. Camden doesn't like it and Mommy definitely doesn't. He is so cranky at night its terrible. The frozen pacifiers, combined with Tylenol, seem to be helping. He also likes to chew on his bib or burp cloth. Mommy's fingers are also a new favorite.

Other than that we haven't been doing much. The only thing we have left on our checklist is rolling over and I'm not sure we are going to do that. I'm beginning to think that he just doesn't want to. We're still trying though. Cereal is still going well, I'm thinking of maybe trying oatmeal or going up to two feedings a day. Does anyone remember when they did either one? I need to call the Dr. and see what they say.

Daddy has been coming home ENTIRELY too late this week. Camden is disappointed that he doesn't get to spend much time with Dad, and Mom doesn't like Dad not being home to give her somewhat of a break, especially with cranky pants. That's okay, I get to go next week to sit through that hour long survey and get my $50 Target card while Dad babysits, a.k.a be's a Dad. I would like to set up the camcorder somewhere and see how that goes.

Okay, I'm gonna go. I have a terrible headache thanks to lack of caffeine and that monthly visitor I didn't miss! I think I'll go order Camden's Halloween costume. I think I decided on the lion.

I am not a bad Mom!!!

I just have a stupid camcorder. I didn't erase all of Camden's stuff like I thought I had, my camcorder is just messed up. Thank God, but not thank God. Does anyone know of a good repair shop? It's not wanting to rewind/fast forward. Who knows.

Camden didn't win last night, although he WAS the cutest baby there. I might be a little prejudice. Just saying.

Also, Baby Einstein is truly the GREATEST thing. He was so mad, wouldn't calm down for anything. Put him in the bouncy seat with Baby Einstein and we are fine. Amen! We are heading out of town in a few hours for the weekend. Hopefully we won't get all of the rain they are calling for. Have a good weekend!

Its official....

I'm the worst mom ever!

Tonight I decided we would go ahead and start feeding Camden his cereal. It went pretty well for his first time, I thought. I couldn't feed it to him fast enough. He's a little pig. He also thought that he had to have the spoon in his mouth to swallow. He is absolutely the cutest thing ever.

After eating, I figured it would be a good idea to record his bath since we haven't recorded it since he has learned to splash. Unfortunately, he didn't want to be a movie star and refused to play.

Now comes the bad mom part. I wanted to reminisce on the past three months by watching everything we had recorded since his birth. We recorded some at the hospital, his first sponge bath, a few play times at home, among other things. I rewound the tape to the beginning, and what do I see? Camden swimming!!! What the #3ll? What did I do? The first three months of my baby are gone. I am SO mad at myself. I swear that I hit "end search" on the camcorder to find the end of the tape when we went swimming. I'm so sad. I just might cry.

What does Camden want to be for Halloween?

I know we still have a little less than 2 months, but I want to figure it out before all of the good costumes are gone. Jess and Jase are planning on coming home, so we thought of maybe dressing them to coordinate, and maybe even adding Miley if we could find something. Let me know your ideas. They can be just for Camden, or Jase and Camden, or Jase, Miley and Camden.

Here are a few I like:

Cute

Funny

If I pick your idea or really like it, your creativity may be REWARDED (as in a giftcard). To be considered please post your ideas by Friday, September 5 at 12 p.m. If I don't like any ideas I think I still reward someone by giving away a giftcard. I'm thinking $10. Target. I might be swayed if you would like it somewhere else.

***UPDATE*** If you post about my giveaway with a link back to it on your blog I will give you an extra entry in my giveaway. After you post come back and leave me a comment letting me know that you did it.

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Innocence

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