Thanksgiving:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Poppy and Leenie!!  Campbell tried some turkey and mashed potatoes.  For whatever reason, she just does not like white potatoes.  She used to dig sweet potatoes, but now I’m lucky if I can get her to eat any veggies at all.   Campbell wasn’t walking at this time, but she was showing off a step or two during this time.

December:

Michael went to visit his family at the beginning of December because his father was having surgery, so Cam and I hung out at home together for about 5 days.  We had a wonderful time and really got into the swing of things…a pattern you might say. Hats off to all the single parents out there…I’m really not sure how they do it!!  During this time, Cam really started taking more and more steps.  I think she was up to 5 or 6 at a time.  Once daddy came home, on Thursday, December 9th…Cam decided it was time to walk and just took off down the hallway.  We have some video I’ll post (I apologize in advance that she is carrying a tampon…she also likes to get into mommy’s purse.)

She has also started talking, ALOT!!  Not that we can understand much of the conversation, but she is quite animated and tells us some grand tales!  She is saying “hi” and “bye” now.  She will also wave.  You can tell that she is understanding what you say alot more than she used to and is trying to repeat words.  Now when she is hungry, she opens and closes her mouth like a little bird.

Christmas:

We had Michael’s parents down for Christmas and they had a wonderful time with Cam, and she thoroughly enjoyed her time with them as well.  I can’t say that she had any interest in opening presents, but she LOVED rearranging the presents around the tree. She would use some of the larger presents as a stool and sit on them to play with the other boxes.  We left bows off of most of the presents, so when Sarah (our next door neighbor) brought over a present with a ribbon…that was the highlight of Christmas for Cam!!  She carried that present all over the house and was thrilled with the ribbon.  Maybe next year or the year after she will get into opening presents.

She has been a delight lately.  I am really enjoying this age!!!  Although, I am really not enjoying the eating portion.  She will not take anything from a spoon when I offer, so for the past month we are doing finger foods and I can’t seem to get her to take veggies at all.  We are doing mostly fruits and CHEESE.  I think this child is going to turn into a stick of cheese. 

We are also entering a very fussy phase.  Not sure what is going on, but boy is she fussy!!!  She isn’t sleeping well either…which means I’m not sleeping well, again.  Oh well, hopefully this doesn’t last long.

Campbell went sledding with her daddy yesterday.  I have video, but it isn’t downloaded yet.  Poor kid has another cold, so we went out for just a few minutes, but she loved every minute of it!!

Oh you will see some pictures of Cam and I near fish…I took her to the aquarium for the first time and she LOVED it!!!  Now that she is walking I think she would like it even more.  She doesn’t crawl anymore…all walking. Enjoy!!  I have videos uploading so I’ll post those later on.

Clothes –

12 to 18 month clothing is needed.  She doesn’t have many dresses or cute outfits for this next phase.  I think we have several long sleeve onsies, pants and PJs, but that is it.

Toys (1+ years) –

• Ride on toy                                          
• Chicco Sing Along Airplane
• Ball toys (example- the Playskool Explore and Grow)
• Play Phone
• A doll stroller
• Push popper
• Big legos
• Stackable boxes or anything that builds up (that she can then knock over)
• Disney princess car
• Bathtub toys (she only has one or two toys right now, but loves playing in the tub…and pooping…but that is a different story)
• Laugh & Learn – Learn & Move Music Station
• DVDs…she has a few, but right now she seems to enjoy puppets and not actual people videos…I tried Cinderella recently, but that didn’t captivate her…yet
• We would love a soft chair for her in the room with her name on it (example is like from Pottery Barn)

This past Saturday (2 days before her 10 month birthday), Cam took her first step!!!  She fell down afterward, but it was definitely a first step!  Daycare has told us that she has been taking steps this week at school, so she is definitely working on walking.  Apparently she stood in the middle of the room for 5 minutes testing her ability to stand on her toes and remain upright. 

Our kid rocks!!!

This video is of Cam dancing in her crib:

Cam imitating Elvis:

Other random videos:

Let’s start with the BIG events:

1)  About a month ago, Michael and I were notified a spot opened up at a daycare down the road from us.  I didn’t really dig the place, but Michael was having a few issues with our current situation, so after a lot of tears and pain, I agreed to change Campbell.  I was that distraught after 6 months at one location…I’m going to be quite the mess when we hit grade school!! 

The new location is ok.  I’m not completely thrilled with it, but I see Michael’s point of view, so I’m being patient with the new location.  Since we started, Campbell has been quite sick though. 

Cam has an ear infection and over the past three weeks has progressively run higher and higher fevers (104.4 was the highest).  Michael and I have missed a lot of work and the poor thing is a mess.  Now she has picked up another runny nose from daycare.  I don’t think it ever ends…(this is why I liked the smaller daycare situation).

2)  I don’t have the specifics in front of me, but at the last doctor visit, Cam was at around 50% for weight and 97% for length.  She is long and lean. I took her into work the other day and people were shocked at how long she is. 

3)  Cam is attempting to walk.  She holds on to our hands and walks to us and to different locations.  She can stand on her own, but she doesn’t trust herself yet, so she falls when she realizes she is standing.

4)  The daycare has a practice of putting pictures of loved ones on a poster and displaying the pictures around the room….WELL…ever since Cam has arrived at the new daycare, they can no longer post anything around the room.  We have a destructive child and apparently it is her mission in life to pull everything and anything off walls. 

5) Talking – She doesn’t exactly say a whole lot yet (we have mama and dada, but she doesn’t realize that is what we are called)…but for the longest time, she has really interesting conversation with herself (and to us).  I love the inflections in her voice and she is quite animated. 

I’m sure there is a lot more, so please forgive me for not including more…but I need to sit and think about things she has done. 

Here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch we visited:

These were images that I found on a different camera.  Cam was at the end of her 7th month for these pictures.