Shoes!!!

It is an understatement to say that Camryn loves shoes. She gets so excited when we put any type of shoes on her and she proudly displays them to us. She even gets a kick out of trying to put mommy and daddy's shoes on. It is funny to see how much of a little girl she really is! The bad thing is that I know that shoes are not good for kids her age - especially since she is just now learning to walk. Experts and doctors recommend that bare feet are best to learn to walk and it is better for their foot development. Plus, it is just more comfortable to be barefoot - I know I prefer to be barefoot!! Up to this point, her shoes have been merely an accessory to her outfits. Now that she is learning to walk, it is a different story and her daycare prefers that the kids wear shoes. She has a comfy pair of Nike sneakers, but I know that she is not comfortable in them all day, especially since it is still hot outside. She has another cute pair of shoes, but she can easily take them off herself. But, we have reluctantly been putting them on her this week to go to school. So anyway, after some research and recommendations, I found a solution. Camryn got her first pair of Robeez today. I must say that they are very cute and she has had them on since we got home. It makes me happy because they are better for her to walk and they fulfill the need for shoes at daycare. Not to mention, they are adorable and come in lots of stylish designs. It was hard to decide, but her chocolate brown Robeez with pink and green circles are more versatile for her wardrobe. I just hope that Chris is ok with me buying more in the future!!

Ok, I need to get some stuff together for our trip to PSU tomorrow. It is the first game, so Chris and I are excited to have tickets. Camryn will be spending the day with Uncle Jay and Connor and Ella. It should be a fun day for all! :) I am really looking forward to a long weekend. I know I have only been back to work for a week, but it was a long week complete with my finding out that my room in one of my schools was turned into a storage closet over the summer. But, that is a whole different story!!

Farm animals are scary!

We got back last night from visiting Grandma and Grandpa Sheriff in NW PA. If it weren't for the 5 hour one way trip, we would go back more than we do. Camryn really enjoys her visits there, but it isn't a trip we can take often. During this trip, Camryn's cousins on my side of the family (Connor, Ella, and Zachary) were all there. They had a blast playing together, tried their best at sharing the toys (as well as Grandma and Grandpa), and effectively filled the house with lots of noise. :) They also had fun playing with the slip and slide in the yard and enjoyed their time at the Crawford County Fair together. It ended up being a hot afternoon at the fair after a morning of storms, but we all managed to have a great time.

As I said in my last post, I thought that Camryn would really like to see the animals at the fair. Boy, was I wrong!! She could see the pony ride during lunch and seemed so excited to watch them. After lunch, we bought tickets for all of the kids to ride the ponies. I knew I would have to hold on to Camryn during her ride, but I thought she would have fun. Nope. As soon as I got her near the pony, she held on to me with a death grip and screamed bloody murder. I tried to show her that the pony was nice, but she wanted absolutely no part in it. Luckily, they gave me my money back. That taught me that she loves fake horses on the merry go round, but if it moves on its own, she thinks it is scary! From there, we went through the animal barns and she would scream if we got her too close to any of the animals. She was fine looking at them from a distance, but that was about it. She loves her animal books and making their noises, but if they are less than 10 feet from her in real life, it is a different story!! I guess from her perspective, farm animals are pretty big and scary! Although, she enjoyed the tiger show - maybe I need to teach her that she should be afraid of the animals that will eat us and not the animals that we eat!!!

First Steps!!!

Camryn waited until the last possible minute of the summer for us to witness a huge milestone. I have been waiting for it all summer and I was getting depressed that her teachers at daycare would be the one's witnessing her first steps. Her first day back at daycare was today, so I was extremely excited to see her take her first steps last night. We were visiting Chris' family yesterday and we were at our last stop at his brother, Adam's, house. Chris and I were on the floor with her and she decided to take 3 steps from Chris to me all on her own!! Needless to say, we were ecstatic!!! She continued to amuse us and did it a few more times. It was as if she were thinking "I could do this a long time ago, but I wanted you to sweat it out." It doesn't matter - I am a very happy mommy. :)

Like I said before, Camryn's first day back at daycare was today. Chris and I worked today and have to work again tomorrow, but that it is it until next Monday. So, she won't be going to daycare full time until next Monday. We figured 2 days to start would be a nice transition for her since she has been used to being home all summer. I was worried about her today, but she did very well. She had a great day, but I think she was ready to come home when I went to pick her up. I am just so happy that she is better at handling these things than I am!

Since we are only working today and Tuesday, on Wednesday, we are off to Meadville to visit Grandma and Grandpa Sheriff. All of my parent's grandkids will be home this week visiting and we are all going to enjoy the good old Crawford County Fair together. Camryn was only 2 months old last year, so she had no idea where she was. But, this year, we think she is really going to enjoy all of the animals! Plus, all of the cousins haven't all been together in quite a while. They are all really close in age, so it should be fun!! Now, we just have to pray that rain won't spoil the fun!

Flying high

Chris and I went for a plane ride this evening. It is always a good thing to have a pilot in the family!! My brother-in-law, Jason, wanted to log some air time, so he took Chris and I along. I absolutely love to fly! The first time he took us up, he let me fly the plane and I instantly fell in love. Chris has encouraged me to take flying lessons ever since, but I was pregnant at the time and we had more important things to spend our money on. Maybe some day! It was great to go up this evening and spend some relaxing time in the air.

Today is also a very special day for Camryn. Today marks the day that we have completely gotten rid of her bottle. We switched her to a sippy straw cup for her milk during the day and kept her bottle for before bed a few months ago. Lately, we have noticed that she was more interested in playing with the bottle before bed than drinking her milk. So, tonight, we gave her her milk in a sippy cup and read our nightly bedtime story. She sat in my lap, took her cup, drank her milk, and listened to the story. Just like that - the bottle is gone!! :)

Pigtails and the Park

After a few previous attempts, I finally got Camryn's hair into pigtails today! I tried a while ago when I realized her hair was long enough, but she didn't want to cooperate. She would scream and squirm so much that I could only get one pigtail done. I just gave up. I tried again today - she was a little more cooperative, but she still "voiced" her opinions! They weren't the prettiest pigtails in the world, but I did the best with her being a wiggle worm! I must say that she looked beautiful. Although, of course, I always think she looks beautiful!! I figured she would just pull them out, but she didn't. I think she actually liked having them in! After having a successful hair day, we decided to go to the park so she could swing. We realized the other day that we haven't been going the park as much as we should. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we went to the huge park near our house. As soon as Camryn saw the swings, she got so excited! It is so much fun to watch the pure joy on her face as we push her higher and higher. I think she would swing all day if she could! She got a kick out of when mommy and daddy would swing on the swing next to her! After the swings, she went down the slide with daddy and then we all had some fun on the teeter-totter. All in all, we had a fun afternoon in the park!

On another note, as the school year quickly approaches, I am slowly getting back into speech/language mode. I am not happy about this, but that is beside the point. Anyway, Chris and I were trying to figure out how many words Camryn now has in her vocabulary. It was hard to keep track, so I began to write a list. Amazingly, the list had 36 words!! Even I didn't think that she had that many words, so it was an eye opener for me. It just seems like she is having a language explosion lately. She is trying to repeat words we say and is putting 2 words together. Her receptive skills are also doing very well. She follows simple directions and enjoys showing us objects in her books when asked. I have said this before and I will say it again: as a speech therapist, I am very proud of my little girl. As much as I hate thinking in terms of speech and language already, when it comes to Camryn, I don't mind!!

Back from the beach

Unfortunately, we are now back from the beach. I guess it had to end sometime!

After my last post from the hotel room, we went to the boardwalk for a night of fun! Camryn really enjoyed all of the people, lights, and sounds. After a while, my sister's family came down to meet up with us. The kids had a great time playing games!! They are all very lucky because they won most of the games they played!! Camryn played the duck game again (she played at Hersheypark) and won 2 prizes (a big orange ball and a stuffed bear). She looks so proud when she wins!! She cuddled with her bear the rest of the night! At that point, it was getting pretty late and we were hoping that she would fall asleep in her stroller. No such luck. She began to get pretty fussy, so we went back to the hotel. As soon as we put her in her pack and play, she was out. She was a tired girl!!

The next day, we spent some more time on the boardwalk before we had to make the drive home. Camryn decided that it was a good place to take a nap, so we walked around until she woke up. We did some shopping and soaked up the sun. It was a nice and relaxing way to end our vacation! It really was a wonderful vacation and we all had a great time. It was amazing to see Camryn experience the beach for the first time and to watch her have so much fun!

We are now home and counting down the days until we go back to work. Ugh!!! We are working on some more projects around the house. Chris just finished painting Camryn's bathroom and installed new lighting and hardware. The guest room is next. We are hoping to have it all done soon. After that, we are planning on completely renovating the master bath. Fun! It is never a dull moment around here.

After we get something to eat, we are going to post some OC pictures on our website. We had friends over for dinner last night, so we didn't have the opportunity. I would like to get it done before a month has passed!!!

Baby Beach Bum

Greetings from Ocean City, MD!!! We are currently in our hotel suite while Camryn gets a much needed nap. So, I decided to write a little about our week so far.

Our vacation didn't start off on a very good note. Camryn usually loves being in the car, but she was exremely fussy and decided that it was a good idea to scream a good portion of the drive. We finally figured out that her teeth were bothering her, so we pulled over and gave her some tylenol. After it kicked in, that did the trick. She took a nap for the rest of the drive. I was worried that the rest of our week would be just as frustrating, but she has been a perfect little angel ever since. I am very proud of how well she has adjusted.

When we got to my sister's condo, we unloaded the car and set up our room. As soon as that was done, we all got ready to join everyone else on the beach. Camryn was so excited to be in her swimsuit and we weren't even at the beach yet!! We went down to the beach and joined Camryn's cousins, Connor and Ella. Camryn had a blast playing in the sand with them and really enjoyed the crashing waves of the ocean. She would scream with delight every time a wave would get close to coming ashore to hit her. It was so much fun!!! We stayed out on the beach for a few hours having lots of fun. The fun had to end sometime, so we went back to the condo to rest. She was really tired and was in bed by 7:30 and slept the rest of the night. Oh, and Chris surprised me that night with a bouquet of roses since it was our anniversary - what a sweetheart!!!

On Wednesday, we headed back out to the beach for another day of fun. All of the kids were having a blast playing together in the sand and ocean. Camryn wasn't as fond of the ocean that day and kept clinging on to me and didn't want to get in. No big deal - we just went back and played in the sand!! I can't believe how much she loves the beach!! She just looks so happy and relaxed like that is where she belongs!! Again, we spent another few hours on the beach. When we finally headed inside, she took a late nap - she was so tuckered out from being a beach bum all day! Chris and I took advantage of her nap and had Aunt Jen and Uncle Jay "watch" her while we loaded up the car and checked into our hotel room. When we got back, we all went to dinner at an "all you can eat" buffet. Yum - crab legs!!! We all laughed at the fact that Camryn took the "all you can eat" part literally!! I don't think the restaurant knew what they were getting into when they let her eat for free!!!! I have never seen a child eat so much!!! She usually doesn't eat very much and always stops when she is full. But, last night, she ate 6 chicken nuggets, 6 tater tots, some mac and cheese, 2 dessert plates full of fruit, and topped it off with some cheerios!!! We were fully expecting her to get a sick belly, but she didn't! Needless to say, mommy didn't share any of her ice cream with her!! We finally headed back to the hotel around 9:00 and got her a bath and ready for bed. She laid down and didn't make a peep until this morning.

This morning, we were on our own at the beach. We headed out around 9:00 and found a pretty empty beach. We were able to set up right by the water. It was so peaceful. Camryn didn't like the water again, but was very content playing in the sand. Her and Chris dug a hole that she sat in while she played. It was such a beautiful day, but we decided to head in around lunch time so she could eat and get a nap. So, that is where we are right now. After she gets up, we are meeting up with everyone else at the boardwalk. So, it will be a fun evening of rides, food, and fun!!

We are all having a great time and are really happy we decided to spend a week here. Who knew we had a baby beach bum?!?!?