Ten Tidbits

1. I tried to do a workout I found on Pinterest yesterday. I thought I was going to die so I had to stop after only making it through 1 complete cycle and barely starting the next. And I didn't even do things all they way. Wall squat for 1 minute? Definitely can't do that right now. I need to build up some endurance.

Source: sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com via Jana on Pinterest

2. Cambry has started sleeping through the night! It is awesome! I can't say it is consistent quite yet, but she is getting better all the time. She goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 and will sleep til about 6 something. So nice!

3. I have made some progress on the playroom. I made some bunting, have some pictures that need to be hung, and we bought a piece of carpet for a rug. Painting the bookcase is slow going.

4. Cambry has 2 bottom teeth poking through!

5. Greg's parents and Jameson and Michelle came to stay with us last weekend. We ate at Cedar Creek, the guys played disc golf, we played washers, Greg grilled some delicious salmon, and we played loaded questions. Fun weekend!

6. I love that I can use Pinterest to save all my favorite recipes in one place. But what do you do when a good online recipe has no picture? I thought about putting it on my blog and taking a picture and then pinning that, but it is really hard to make food look really appetizing in a photograph. How does pioneer woman do it?

7. My friend Erin mentioned something on Facebook about a new show Revolution coming out in the fall. I watched the previews and am kind of excited about it. Looks like a cross between Lost and Book of Eli. And I like JJ Abrams. How can you not like the one who did Felicity?

8. A stranger came up to me recently when I was wearing Cambry in the Bjorn and complimented her cuteness and chunkiness. Then proceeded to ask me all kinds of detailed questions about how I got her so chunky - BF? How often? Solids? Your diet? Vegetarian? Then she asked if she could pinch her thighs and referred to them as drumsticks, ha! I thought it was sweet and of course let her have a squeeze :)

9. Speaking of strangers, I get told all the time how Cambry will grow up before I know it. Or she will be running around before I know it. Or, watch out, before you know it they are 8 years old! I know this is all true and people mean well, but it makes me sad! I AM enjoying every minute of her, but just let her be a little baby now and don't remind me that she will be going off to college soon or I may just start to cry in the middle of Kroger.

10. And speaking of Kroger, I go there all the time. I always seem to need something. I mostly blame bananas. They have a ridiculously small window of edible goodness. Good thing Cambry likes to shop. She will just ham it up for all the other shoppers.

Picture Perfect

I love taking pictures of my little one. So does Greg. We have so many pictures. It is a little crazy. They are taking over our computer memory and they are taking over my phone. We need to delete some. Why is it so hard to delete them? I mean, I can't even delete the bad ones. Why do I still have these? I clearly have a problem.

No more pictures.

I'm serious, no more.

It is getting old.

I need a way to organize pictures. By age/date? By event? I think we just need to go through and just start deleting some and just keep the really good ones. Any tips on picture organization??

Poop Your Pants

Sometimes diapers fail.

At inconvenient times.

And stuff gets on your shorts.

After you get done nursing your baby in the car.

But before you go into the store.

I am not talking about pee here.

Pee is nothing.

Who cares.

Now you look like you pooped your pants.

But there is no way you are going home.

Not after all this way.

You are not doing 610 traffic again today.

So you strap a cute baby to your chest and hope that no one notices.

Cause when you have a smiling 5 month old with you, who looks at you anyway?

Monthly Photos: Month 5

5 months is a fun age! She is rolling over a lot now (but only from back to tummy), grabs at everything, makes all kinds of cute sounds, loves to run errands in the Bjorn (although getting heavy!), and is just so adorable!

Size: She got weighed this week at the doctor and was 17 lb. 10 oz. I don't know length. She is mostly in 6-9 month clothes.

Likes: Being carried in the Bjorn when out and about, sticking everything in her mouth, rolling on her tummy, the harmonica, baths, walks, sucking on her feet.

Dislikes: Bottles, being taken out of the bath, getting stuck on her tummy.

Working on: Rolling from tummy to back - not quite there, sitting up in the bumbo.

Sleeping: This is getting so much better! We have a bed time routine and she goes down between 7 and 7:30. Sometimes she is already asleep when I get done nursing her, but when she is awake she usually doesn't fuss too log before falling asleep. She usually wakes up once a night to eat and goes back to sleep without fussing. She wakes up around 6:30 AM. She takes about 3 naps a day and they vary between 30 min - 2 hours. It has been a while since she has taken a 3 hour nap.

Eating: She takes 7-8 feedings a day. No solids yet.

Still no daytime schedule as far as naps go but that is ok. Also, she is feeling much better with her medicine for her UTI. She is such a good baby. She makes us smile and laugh every day! We love you Cambry!

Sick Baby

Look at this poor sick baby! This morning Cambry woke up fussy and burning up. I could tell she didn't feel well because she is usually in a good mood in the morning. She had a fever and she just wanted to be held. We went in to see the doctor and it turns out she probably has a viral infection (red bumps in the back of her throat) that may or may not be bothering her, but the main thing is that she has a UTI. She has to be on an antibiotic to clear it up.

We went grocery shopping this afternoon to get our weekly groceries, Tylenol, and her prescription. I usually carry her in the Bjorn, but I kept her in the car seat in the cart so she could just relax since she didn't feel well. I had to take that picture to show Greg how pitiful she looked. It was so sad - she just laid there and stared with this look of misery the whole time. She didn't cry or play with her toys, she just laid there. Before I had kids I didn't really understand why parents got so worked up when there kids got sick. Now I know - you just feel so bad for them!

It has been sweet though to just hold her and have her snuggle with me. I am giving her lots of extra love and I pray that she feels better soon!

  

First Swim

This weekend the Kimmels came in town and we had some fun family time at my parents' house.

Look at these cousins together!

We had some nice weather despite the fact that it was forecasted to rain the whole time. My parents heated up the pool and we went swimming Thursday and Friday.

This was Cambry's very first swim! She seemed to like it. She didn't cry at all and just sat happily on my hip in the water for a long time. Kyler had fun in the water too. Little Hayes just napped the whole time in Gigi's arms.

I can't wait for our neighborhood pool to open up in 2 weeks. I want to take Cambry there a lot this summer and use the baby float I got her.

In other news, this was my very first Mothers Day! I am so so thankful to have the privilege to be Cambry's mother. It is such a joy to watch her grow.

It is also neat to realize just how much your parents love you. Love for your child is such a special, unique love, and after having Cambry I am starting to understand how my parents feel toward me. Of course I have always known it and felt it from them, but now I really know. So, happy Mothers Day to my Mom! I hope to be the kind of mother she is!

Greg was so sweet and made me breakfast in bed this morning. After church we came home to feed Cambry and change clothes, then went to eat lunch at Cedar Creek in the Heights. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside. They accidentally forgot our order so they ended up giving us our meals for free - woo hoo! This afternoon we went on a walk and just relaxed. A nice end to a fun weekend.

So Many Faces

And so many names.

Cambry. Cam. Cams. Cam Sandwich. Cam Sandwich with Cheese. Camberlini. Cambry Cooper (her news anchor persona). Cambry Pucket (queen of the wild frontier). Camburrito. 

We are a little weird...welcome to our family.

Project Playroom

Project Playroom starts today!

We have a room in the back of our house that we currently do not use. Our house was built in the 1950's and this room was a later addition to the house by the previous owners. It is currently set up as a living room space, but since we spend most of our time in the front living room, this back space gets wasted.

This is what the space looks like now.

I think turning it into a playroom is a great way to utilize this space. As Cambry gets older and as hopefully God adds to our family we will need a kid friendly area. Cambry's room is pretty small and there is not much space to play around in our front living room either.

I am excited to take on a new project. I had so much fun decorating Cambry's nursery, and I think this will be really fun as well. It is more of a long term project, but I am ready to get started!

Here is a list of some of the things I want to do:

- Paint the bookcase white, turn it on its side and use it for toy storage
- Move the rug to a different room and buy a larger piece of carpet as a rug
- Sell the coffee table on Craigslist
- Make some colorful bunting to hang across the window

Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

- Get some fun throw pillows for the couch
- Put up some book ledges

Source: sunshineontheinside.blogspot.com via Jana on Pinterest

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- Get a flat screen tv (we'll see about this one...we currently have 1 tv in the house and it is a big old box)
- Make a "busy board" and hang it on the brick wall.

Source: rainbowsandunicornscrafts.tumblr.com via Jana on Pinterest

We'll see how much of this actually happens, but so far that is what I am envisioning.

Just Like College

My friend from college, Chelsi, was in town this weekend and came to visit. It was so fun to see her and her adorable little girl Brierley. Look how precious she is! Lindsay and Cayden came too. Chelsi said - It is just like college...but with kids! It was fun having some girl time together while the kids played around.

Brierley was so sweet to Cambry. Cambry loves when there are lots of people around. Brierley was dancing all around the living room and Cambry just sat so calmly on Chelsi's lap taking it all in.

Sweet Cayden was so good too! Look at those cheeks - too cute. I didn't get a picture of all three kids - that is just way too difficult.

College days were so much fun - staying up ridiculously late, eating tons of ice cream (that hasn't really changed), watching Felicity, and hours and hours of girl talk. Things are definitely different now, but having kids is a whole new kind of fun. I can hardly stay up past 11and girl talk gets constantly interrupted, but I love this phase of life.

Encouragement

I am reading a book called the Power of the Positive Mom with some other moms right now. I was a little skeptical at first because the title sounds like the power of positive thinking, but so far it is really good and biblically based.

One thing it talks about is the power of encouragement. And not just encouraging our children's skills/abilities/talents, but being encouraging when we see in them the fruit of the spirit.

"But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control". Galatians 5:22

It seems easy and natural to compliment kids on their skills. Wow, you can count to 10 you are so smart! Or, good job throwing that ball, you are really strong!" It doesn't quite come natural to me to compliment the more important qualities - love, joy, peace, patience, etc.

So I decided to start making this a habit now. I try to find these qualities in Cambry and encourage her in them.

When she is being really good during a diaper change I can tell her -You are being so patient!

Or when she is really smiling and happy I can tell her how she is full of joy.

It may seem silly doing it now, but maybe by the time she is old enough to understand I will be in a habit of doing it that it will just come naturally.

Sometimes the weight of responsibility the Lord has given me as a mom to raise Cambry seems overwhelming. I feel like we are in an "easy" stage now. As long as I feed her, change her diaper, and play with her I can't do too much damage :) But it is the years to come that seem challenging when how I discipline her, what I say, how I act, etc. will have such a significant and lasting impact on her. So I want to use this time now to practice and prepare for the task of parenting her in a way that is pleasing and honoring to the Lord. She is such a gift and I want to love her well!