Freedom!

Last night, Travis and I did something we never do! We went out without Campbell! The night was made possible by Travis' parents. We took Campbell to Marion to spend the night with her Gangy, PawPaw Butch and Nanny for the first time. Then we headed uptown for a night out with friends to celebrate Holly's 30th birthday! Campbell did amazingly well. She didn't even cry when we left - just a little whimper as we waved goodbye and that was it. They said she never fussed, didn't get into anything, and just played sweetly all evening. She went to bed right at her bedtime without a struggle, and they had to WAKE her up a little after 7. WHAT? Lately, we've been doing everything in our power to get her to stay in her bed past 6. I guess grandparents have the magic touch! We had a great time getting out, having a nice grown up dinner in a restaurant that likely doesn't even have high chairs. We left our table without a collage of green beans, bread and cheerios strewn about the floor below us. It was really, really nice. Then we stuck around for a while and hung out, but by 11:30 we were feeling our age and decided to call it a night. Coming home to a house without a baby was weird! Without the monitors on, our bedroom was completely silent. There was no need to go check on her in the night, and we woke up from the sunlight in our room, not her little cries! I must admit that I was awake at 6, laying in bed counting the minutes until we could go get her. I tried my best to take advantage of our ONE morning to sleep in, but I didn't do a very good job. I missed my little alarm clock! There's just something about waking up to that little voice saying "mama" that makes me not care that it's so early. Our reunion with her today was super sweet and she went nuts for Travis. I barely got any attention for the first five minutes because she had her face buried on his shoulder in a huge hug. I waited my turn and got plenty of snuggling in shortly thereafter. We took Nanny out to lunch for her birthday, and then headed home to enjoy a long walk outside on the first warm and sunny day we've had in ages! It was a great weekend, and a nice treat for all of us to switch it up and have a little freedom.

We weren't the only ones to experience freedom this weekend. This afternoon, I let Harley out of the garage for about a half hour and let her explore the backyard! She's been living in the garage for about a month now since we were having so many issues with her inside. She has seemed complete content out there which has definitely made it easier on me and my conscience. After she got used to living out there, I wanted to introduce her to the outdoors. She just turned 9 years old in January, and I adopted Harley when she was only 5 weeks old. She has lived strictly indoors that entire time, only setting foot outside the one or two times she escaped onto the back porch. She was definitely hesitant at first, not so sure about the grass. But she eventually got up the courage to walk the perimeter of our fence and check it all out. The fence runs along the ground and is six feet high, so it should, in theory, keep her in the backyard. After about 30 minutes, she was hanging out on the back porch by the back door which made me sad. So we took her back to the garage and fed her which always improves her mood. Eventually we hope to be able to open the window in the garage, and let that serve as her kitty door so she can come and go as she pleases. Also, she could escape to the garage when we let Lexi out back, and obviously Lexi can't jump in the window. I hope that Harley learns to like it outside, enjoys time to explore nature, and will enjoy some spring days with the sun beating on her back. I want the best for her. I know we made the right decision moving her to the garage because she was destroying our things and making it unsafe and unclean in our house. But that doesn't mean I don't love her and want to find a way for us all to live in harmony! I hope we are on the way to that solution.

The plan for tomorrow is for Campbell and I to head to Roanoke for a night before making the trek up to Northern Virginia to meet Baby Leif and spend some time with his family!! The only problem is Campbell doesn't seem to be 100% well. She's acting just fine, but has had some tummy issues for a few days now, flushed cheeks that won't go away, and now a bit of a runny nose. I'm going to take her to the pediatrician tomorrow and hope for a clean bill of health so we can go to Virginia as planned! I really don't want to postpone going to see my family any more, so let's hope all these little symptoms are nothing and the doc says she's free to go meet her new cousin!!! If so, we'll be up there all week and I'll try to capture a lot of our time on film so I can share it here when we return. Wish me luck in the car alone with Campbell for all those roadtrips!!

Campell is fourteen months old!! She has been since Friday, but Mommy is a little behind on this post. I always start these updates about Campbell with then intention of being brief, and then by the time I've written out all her new tricks, I am halfway through writing my first novel! I'll attempt once more to be brief, but you know me well enough by now to know that won't happen...

Chatty Chatterson...that's Campbell! She is talking up a storm. I wonder where she gets it from?? :) Only Travis and I really speak her language. She has words that she definitely uses in the right context and says them the same everytime. But it will take a while for the general public to understand these words. The current list includes Mama, Daddy (those two are spot on, said perfectly every time!), Baby, snack, turkey, chicken, cracker, juice, toast, bye bye, paci, moo, Nanny, Lexi, kit kat (for Harley), Elmo (pronounced Elbow), belly button, all done. She understands so much more than she says! I can tell her to go upstairs, and she runs to the foot of the stairs and waits at the gate. I can tell her to go look out the window and she runs to the front hall and pulls back the blinds to look for Daddy. She definitely knows what a diaper change is because now she runs like the wind in the opposite direction! In addition to speaking, she signs 'more' and 'please' like it's her job. The please one is new, and so adorable. You're supposed to rub your palm on your chest in a circle. Half the time, Campbell's 'please' is a very frantic belly rub. She is so polite, signing please ALL the time. Not quite sure she totally gets the concept, but she is catching on that in order to get us to do something for her, she needs to sign it first. Sometimes she uses more and please interchangeably, but I guess they are sort of similar concepts, one is just more demanding than the other.

Notice I just said she runs. Yes, she runs. Her fast walk has become a nicely paced jog. It still often ends in a crash and maybe a new bruise, but nothing slows her down! In the mornings, Campbell is stuck to her Daddy like white on rice. While he's getting ready for work, she won't leave his side. He is usually juggling Campbell while he tries to shave, brush his teeth, put on his tie. She knows that he's leaving I guess, and she won't even come to me. I have to pry her out of his arms so he can leave for work and she sadly waves to him as he goes down the sidewalk each morning. It is pretty cute, though.

Campbell is still a dancing fool, starting to bounce everytime she hears some music. Her favorite toys this month are probably her Baby and her ball. She carries her baby doll all over the place, puts her in the stroller, puts her in the chair and sits on top of her, and asks us to 'please' put her hat on Baby quite often. The ball is new and she LOVES playing ball with Daddy. Books are still of course a favorite and she's becoming a little more interested in slightly longer stories. We're still not ready for paragraphs yet, but she can sit still through a sentence or two per page and is completely engrossed in the story. Her other favorite pastime is playing with Lexi's dog bowls which I'm not a fan of. Luckily Lexi eats all her food at one sitting, so there is only some occasional water to splash in. We weren't so fortunate at a playgroup one Friday when we caught Campbell and her friend at the dog's bowls, with handfuls and cheekfuls of dog food. HAHAHA Oops. Bad Mommy. In addition to dog food...Campbell enjoys singing songs and playing games like pattycake and other little rhymes. This is starting to sound like a singles ad...long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, I should move on.

This month Campbell has been super busy with playgroups, storytimes, going to church on Thursdays and Sundays, and spending a LOT of rainy and snowy days trapped inside with me. Cabin fever has been in full effect around here for both of us! We did get to go to a nature museum with our playgroup, something I thought would be totally over her head. Not at all! Don't get me wrong, she wasn't studying the exhibits or anything, but had an absolute blast running around. The nature museum was totally geared towards little ones and she had tons of things to touch, water to splash in (the biggest hit of all), and things to climb on. Travis and I took her to the community arts center before Valentine's Day to make Valentines for the family. She was most interested in the water bucket used for clean up, but we managed to get some handprints made and glued them on hearts to send out.

And last but far from least, she got a new baby cousin this month who she'll get to meet next week when she and I go to Virginia to meet Baby Leif! It's been a fun, full month and she is still growing up at the speed of light.

Below are some favorites of the past couple of weeks, showing Campbell and all her favorite things. Somehow I caught her in a few posed pictures, a rarity these days! These first two are of her playing with her Valentine's card from her grandparents that makes jungle noises. She thought it was hysterical!!

Look how TALL she is!!

Giving Baby a "kiss." This picture won't rotate for some reason, but I still had to share the kiss.

Happy Valentine's Day 2010!!!

Baby Leif

On Friday, February 5, 2010 at 2:09pm, my nephew Leif Egon Hansen III made his grand entrance into this world! My sister and brother-in law, Leif, have been through so much over the years when it comes to having babies. Now they are the proud parents of not one, but two, perfect little sweeties. Baby Leif, as we've been calling him, weighed a hefty 8 lbs 4 oz and was 21. 25 inches long. I think he knew he'd have to be big and tough to be able to keep up with his big sister, Taylor! My sister was a trooper throughout the whole process. She didn't have the easiest of pregnancies, not to mention all the drama associated with getting pregnant in the first place! Then when the time finally came for him to arrive, her first epidural didn't work. WHAT? Didn't work??? Are you kidding me??? That just seems so cruel! So poor thing had to have a second epidural!!! Luckily it worked and helped her out a little in the process. He was born during the biggest snowstorm in the history of Northern Virginia. They got about 33 inches of snow over the weekend! Their kind neighbors shoveled the driveway so they could bring him home Sunday night. There's nothing in the world like good neighbors, is there? He was greeted by my mom and his proud big sister who continues to proclaim just how happy she is. Adorable!! They are settling in and attempting to teach the little guy the difference between day and night. I think he's got a lot to learn still in that department, but he'll get there. They are still trying to decide if they will call him Leif (for those of you that don't know my family, that is pronounced like the word "life" - it's Danish) or some other nickname. The other one on the table right now is LT, short for Leif the Third. Call him whatever you want, I call him adorable, sweet, precious, perfect...and my nephew. And I love him! Counting the days until I get to go meet him in a couple of weeks. Welcome to the family, Baby Leif!!!!!!!!!

K-tastrophe

First, let me say that I hope you truly appreciate all the k's in this post. Why, you ask? I'm not sure who is responsible this time, Lexi or Campbell. But someone has taken the k off of my keyboard. It is currently resting on the spot where the k belongs, and if I very deliberately push on it, I can get it to work. Campbell has previously picked off the F8 and one of the shift keys. I don't even know what F8 does, so I haven't missed it. The shift is kinda like the k key at this point - it works if you really push it. I left my computer on the couch, I think out of Campbell's reach. I was dumb enough to leave it right where Lexi launches off when she's making a mad dash for the front of the house to scare off a UPS truck or school bus. I found j and k laying on the couch. J was an easy fix, k continues to be a work in process. So far it's working, I just hope you appreciate all the time and effort that has gone into each k in this paragraph!! As I typed this, Campbell approached and popped the b off with little effort. I think we have identified our culprit...

On to more exciting things. You may have noticed the decline in pictures recently. No, they didn't rip the lens off the camera (not yet at least). The issue is me! I used to hear parents say that it was hard to take pictures of a toddler because they were too fast. I thought that was an excuse lazy picture takers used. Nope, it's legit. Either my camera got slower, or Campbell got faster. I think it's the latter. I keep capturing the back of her head, or that moment right after she was doing something cute! I'm telling you, it was a LOT easier to stage photo shoots with a baby who wasn't mobile! I know, we need a new computer and a new camera, but neither is happening anytime soon. I did get a few pictures of some funny stuff over the past couple of weeks which I'll post below.

I also want to share another little milestone. Campbell is now signing 'more'!!!! We have been signing 'all done' and 'more' since she was about six months old. For about a month or two, Campbell has been signing her version of all done, and has now progressed to saying it. She only says it when prompted, like if we ask her is she's all done. Believe you me, she'll let you know if she's not! But last week, we were floored when Travis gave her a bite of his banana, and completely umprompted by us, she looked up at him and signed more. We both had the same reaction - oh my gosh, get the child a banana quick! We need to reward her for asking for it! After a few days, she's gotten a little confused and now signs more quite often. I think for Campbell, it means "give me some food." We've noticed she does it when she's hungry or frustrated. So cool to watch her try to communicate with us! She definitely uses it appropriately as well, and will ask for more when she's in her high chair and runs out of food. The people keeping the nursery at church got a laugh out of her frantically signing more when her Cheerios were all gone. That's my girl!! I'm trying to use 'more' when we're singing a song or playing a little game that she likes. Like, do you want to sing some more? I think she's catching on that you can have 'more' of things other than just food!

Enjoy the pictures below that I've been able to catch in the last few weeks. I'll keep trying, but get used to seeing the back of her head until she is old enough to learn how to pose!!

She's learning to follow simple directions like, put your blocks in the box! She LOVES to drop them in and make a loud sound.

Campbell LOVES to wear Daddy's hats.

There's something about my little girl in her Daddy's hat that melts me everytime!

Background for this next pic: Lexi was in a "time out" on her doggie bed for following Campbell around and stealing her snack. So what does Campbell do? Plop right down on the doggie bed with Lexi to have her snack. Lexi was upset about being sent to her bed, so she didn't even try to eat a Cheerio from this point forward. Campbell was happy as could be sitting with her pal Lexi for snacktime.

Keep in mind, this is the child who is supposedly very allergic to dogs. Riiiiiiight...

Crazy Baby before bedtime!

Red 80, Red 80!

This post is dedicated to Travis. In fact, he begged me to write about this. So here's the story. Last Sunday, he was upstairs putting Campbell to bed and I was watching the ProBowl. I know that makes me sound like quite a cool chick. Truth is, it was 15 minutes before the Grammy's started and so I was just killing time. Anyway, I am watching this play when the AFC team is on offense. The AFC team is in red. Their quarterback, Matt Schaub, gets down and yells "Red 80, Red 80!" just before the ball is hiked. Then he drops back (did I say that right?) and throws a beautiful pass to the guy wearing #80 (in red of course) and they score! I'm like...you've got to be kidding me. He called out the number of the guy he was going to throw it to? Shoot, I'd like to play defense against Matt Schaub. He went to UVA, my school's rival, so I figured he just wasn't that bright. ;)

Travis comes downstairs and I tell him what happened. I'm thinking, maybe because it's a ProBowl, they haven't really practiced much with their teammates or maybe they don't have a lot of fancy plays. But man, that seems pretty dumb to yell out the play for all to hear! Travis died - I mean he died. He thought that was the cutest statement I'd ever made. Can someone please back me up here?? I mean, he said Red 80!! And he threw it to Red 80! Was my observation really that airheaded? Apparently he yells Red 80 before every play, which I saw in the next series (just before I switched it over to the Grammy's). I thought I was just making a good observation. Travis thought it was the biggest "girl" football comment ever. He said he couldn't wait to wake up and go to work on Monday morning so he could tell his coworkers all about it. Well there you go honey, here is your funny story, forever to be remembered now that it rests on our family blog. :)