10 Months Old

It wasn’t until last night that I realized that today was the 30th.  We’ve been so busy with moving the last few days that I forgot what day it was.  Today my boy is 10 months old.

The last few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about how quickly the last 10 months have gone.  He’s hardly even a baby anymore.  Except for the whole still being a baby thing……or some sort of evil creature.

Some new things happening in the life of Max: Swim class!  Man, he loves swim class.  I think it’s safe to say that he’s the loudest, and simply the most vocal in class.  Then there’s all the crawling.  This guy is fast, useful as far as cleaning goes.  I don’t sweep nearly as often as I should, but I’m considering attaching Swiffers to him to get the job done.  And let’s not forget the pulling up.  He’s like a little monkey climbing all over everything and getting himself up onto his knees, and as of this very morning getting up on his feet.  He’ll be running away from me screaming in Target in no time.

Last month I mentioned his visit to the pediatrician and how he was concerned about the lack of weight gain in the boy.  Since then I’ve started taking fenugreek, and drinking Mother’s Milk tea (which tastes like 4 day old diapers), both of which have totally worked.  Which is great because Max hated the formula, and goat’s milk we tried giving him.  So, I took him into see the doctor on Thursday, and while he’s gained some weight, he’s still just above the 50th percentile.  He’s eating solid foods like it’s his job, and he still nurses more frequently then most babies his age do, so I know he’s getting the nutrition he needs.  The Dr. mentioned that some babies will do this and it’s just them ‘evening out’.  Basically, he’s fine.  He did gain a little bit in the last month, but he is now hovering just above the 50th percentile, when he’s typically above the 90th.  He’s hitting all the milestones on time, so needless to say we’re not too concerned, and neither is his doctor.  He’s a perfectly healthy, growing monster.

Getting the monthly photo is becoming increasingly difficult.  I’m lucky I got a decent shot to share with you.  

In just two short months he’ll be one year old.  I’m planning a really fabulous party, with a performance by my friends hodge-podge band, crafty-homemade decorations, and a homemade cake.  It’s probably going to be ridiculously huge, and completely over the top for a one year old, but I don’t care.  It’s more for Rob and I for realsies.  It’s like a reward, a ‘Congratulations!  You did it!’ type of thing.  I feel like I should get a friggin’ metal for surviving my first year of parenthood.  But I’ll accept a party instead.

*There is no monthly collage because I can’t find my external hard drive!  When I do, I’ll update the post.

On Teething and Sleep Deprivation

I’ve figured it out.  I finally get why I don’t sleep, why Max doesn’t sleep and why neither if us will sleep for a long, long time.

Of course new parents are sleep deprived, everyone and their dog knows this, but this sleep deprivation has gone to a whole new makes-me-want-to-injure-myself-so-I-can-stay-overnight-in-the-hospital-and-get-some-effing-sleep level.  And that’s not good.  I said something to the effect of “I’m going to stab myself so I have to be in the hospital overnight” (only half kidding) to my friend Katrina (who’s in grad school getting her masters degree in social work) and she told me if I kept talking like that she’d have me committed.  Hmmmm……

Anyhoo, I think about how out of my mind tired I am and how it effects my day to day life.  It’s been going on so long that I’ve had to figure out how to live with it, I have no other choice.  And then I think about Max and how his little baby body and brain deals with sleep deprivation, and it isn’t good.  Babies, and people of all ages for that matter, need the proper amount of sleep to go through day to day life.

When Max was 4 or 5 months old I’d tell myself that by the time he was 10 months old he’d be sleeping through the night, and maybe Rob and I could get away for an overnighter.  Shit, was I wrong.  There are so many things that can cause a baby to sleep badly, but there’s one thing that I’m blaming for this whole damn mess.  Teething.

Babies can be ‘teething’ for weeks or even months without any visible sign of an actual tooth (which is just plain mean on Mother Nature’s part).  So imagine going through weeks of agonizing pain in your mouth and not being able to tell someone to remedy it.  That’s what babies go through every single time a new tooth erupts.  Basically what I’m saying is, babies are always teething.  Even when you don’t think that’s what’s wrong, it is.

Last night the kid wouldn’t eat his dinner, he was incredibly whiney and clingy.  I laid him down and started inspecting his mouth thinking I wouldn’t find anything.  I saw a white spot on the top left part of his gummy little mouth.  I shoved my finger in there and felt a sharp poke.  The poor kid has a friggin’ molar coming in.  I immediately grabbed him a teething ring, some ibuprofen and teething tablets.  About a half hour later he was back to himself.

The conclusion I’ve come to is that babies are constantly teething, and until Max has all of his teeth, or until he can toughen up and handle the pain (kidding!), neither of us will sleep.  Until then we’ll be up 6-10 times a night, sometimes more, rarely less, cuddling and nursing back to sleep.  Or I’ll just down a bottle of NyQuil.  That should knock us both out.

Future Home: Living Room and Max’s Room

We’ve spent most of the last week at Future Home painting, painting, touching up, pulling up carpet and painting some more.

Last Saturday was the beginning of it all.  We had the help of a couple of my best girls, Katie and Joy, and got the ceiling and trim done.  Painting the ceiling was 1) soooo much easier than I thought it would be and 2) so incredibly satisfying.  Watching the yellowed and dinged color disappear under the crisp, clean white was…it just made me so glad I decided to paint it at all.

Sunday was all about walls.  The white walls in the living room and the blue walls in Max’s room.

Again, seeing the fresh white paint on those walls was so satisfying.  Both the living room and Max’s room took two coats, as predicted.  We were able to do both rooms the same day with the four of us working.

Monday was all about the accents walls.  The green wall in the living room and the black chalkboard wall in Max’s room.  Now, let’s talk about that black chalkboard wall.  I’m getting the feeling that it’s either a love it or hate it type of thing, and obviously I love it.  Rob’s worried about what his mom’s going to think about it.  I think she’ll like it too, especially once there’s chalked graffiti all over it.

Back to the walls.  I was so excited to see what both of these would look like.  I put the first few rolls of Envy green on the living room wall, and I was immediately enamored.  It. Was. Gorgeous.  I wanted to hug it.Mike and Katie took over that wall while Devo and I worked on the chalkboard wall.

I bought 3 quarts of chalkboard paint from Home Depot with the hope that that would be all I would need.  I poured an entire quart in the tray and got to work.  We were able to do one coat with that quart with some leftover.

Both walls needed to dry before applying a second coat, so we finished up the following day.  Once both walls were done, I just wanted to sit and stare at them.  I was, and am, so happy with how both rooms turned out.

I did a bad job of taking before and after photos of Max’s room.  In fact the after photo was taken with my iPod.  But you get the idea.  I love it.  I love it and I can’t wait to draw all over it with colorful chalk!

So, today after a couple of days off we returned to remove the carpet.  Rob and Mike actually had the carpet out and were pulling out tack boards and nails when Shauna and I got there.  There were still tack boards and nails and staples in the floor, but it looked beautiful.  Still glossy and untouched.

The boys left to do take care of other things and Shauna and I got every last nail, staple and tack board out of that floor.  You guys, we got really lucky here.  These floors look fabulous.  Just take a look at the before and after:Look at that shine on the floor!  All I did was sweep!  Now we’re going to have to have the wood floors throughout the house polished to look this good.

While I am more than happy with the way this room looks, we’re still not quite done.  We still need to:

-Finish painting the baseboards. The bottom half was under the carpet.

-Paint the green stripe.

-Touch up the green along the ceiling.  A little bit came off with tape.

-And eventually refinish the mantel.  I know a few people would choke me for wanting to do that, but I’m just not big on light colored wood.  I think I’d like to re-stain it a darker color.  Thoughts?

-MOVE IN!

Speaking of painting that stripe, I don’t think I mentioned where my inspiration for that came from.  While we were over at Future Home a few weeks ago Rob was looking through an old photo album and pointed out a photo (pictured below) that showed what the living room looked like circa 1984ish?  Three of the walls were white (same 3 as ours) and the accent wall was orange.  There were blue and orange stripes going around the mirror on the mantel.  I immediately thought we should do the same.How adorable is little Rob there?

So that’s how that came to be.  Hopefully we’ll have the remainder of the checklist checked off by the end of the week and we can start actually moving in.  Also, it would be really swell if the weather cooperated.  Does anyone have any pull with Mother Nature?  If you do, will you please put in a good word for us?  Thanks!

Oh!  One more thing.  THANK YOU to our totally awesome friends who’ve helped us out (and will continue to).  We truly couldn’t have done it without you guys.

More Big Kid Things

So many things are happening, and fast.  Without trying to sound like a total mom (well, I am one so I guess it’s ok), I’m just really trying to embrace what he’s doing now because it’s not going to last long.  Hell, in two months he’ll be a year old.  ONE. YEAR. OLD.  Just the very thought of that brings tears to my eyes and knots to my stomach.  As much as I want him to remain this (nearly) perfect little creature, I want him to grow and become his own independent person.  Being a mom is hard you guys.

Ok, now for crazycuteadorablethings:

So he started “swimming” lessons on Saturday.  Really it’s just play time with songs in the water, which is great!  Rob was really excited to get him signed up and I’m really glad he did.  I sat out the first class so I could take some photos and video, but this weekend I’m totes joining in.Also, if this class was any indication of things to come we’ll be receiving a lot of notes from teachers about how Max doesn’t pay attention and is easily distracted.

The guy loves to eat.  LOVES.  He hasn’t had purees in about a month now and it’s because he wants to feed himself.  It’s great!  Rob and I get to eat together and not in shifts anymore!  His new favorite: Spaghetti.  I think it’s some unwritten baby law that they have to love spaghetti.

FAVORITE.

Then there’s bath time.  Thank the gods that he likes baths.  He’s finally in the big tub, after multiple escape attempts out of the infant tub I thought it was time.

Remember this?:He was less than a week old here.  Cross eyed, tanned from the bili lights  and bruised from birth.

Going to go cry now.

The Beginning of the Transformation

We’ve begun work on Future Home and OMGIAMSOEXCITED.  Holy crackers I have so many things I want to do and paint and refinish and make my own.

Have I mentioned how this all came about?  I don’t remember so I’m going to tell you anyway.  About two years ago Rob’s parents mentioned us taking over the family house at some point.  They would downsize and live the downtown life along Portland’s waterfront, and we would raise the next generation of Campbell’s in the family home.  At the time neither of us were ready, but then that whole me getting pregnant thing happened and we realized how nice it would be to have more space.  So the idea became a plan.

Rob’s parents are on a nearly 3 month long cruise (to amazing places like ANTARCTICA!) and the plan is for us to move in while they’re on their trip.  Before they left we went through the house and took notes on what they wanted to keep and what they wanted to get rid of.  When they get back in March they’ll be living with us until they find a place.  So, for the time being all their belongings are being moved to the (finished) basement to make room for our stuff.

Sunday Mike and Katie came over to help clear out the living room and Max’s future room.  These are the two rooms we’d like to get painted before moving in.  We got them cleared out, and Wednesday Katie and I cleaned the walls, removed all the outlet and switch plate covers and filled in any holes with spackle.  Now, paint.

I have a love hate relationship with painting.  I love watching the change happen, but man it kills my arms and it is so.  damn.  messy.  I mean, I’m so damn messy with it.  I am determined to change my ways with this house though.  A big plus is that we’re going to remove the carpet in the living room right after we paint (hardwoods underneath), so big giant free drop cloth!  Sucky thing is, we’re painting the ceiling too, and I’ve never painted a ceiling, but I can only imagine that it’s 10x worse than painting walls.  After this I will have crazy strong arms.

So, in Max’s room (formerly Sherri’s craft room, and before that it was Rob’s old room) we’re going to be painting 3 of the walls a pale light blue, and the 4th will be painted in black chalkboard paint, and the trim will be white.  Also the ceiling.  Ugh.

In the living room we’ll be painting the the wall to the right a bold green called Envy.  The remaining three walls will be white with a stripe of the green about 3/4 of the way up the wall.  After we’re done painting we’ll be pulling up the carpet to utilize the beautiful hardwoods underneath.  Not excited to be pulling staples and tack boards out though.

Painting will begin this weekend with the help of many friends.  I’ll be on hand to document, bark orders and make sure no one is having any fun.  Stay tuned!

Favorite Things: Home Edition

In packing the house up I’ve been faced with having to say goodbye to the things that make this place special.  This is a collection of my favorite things about our house.

First up, the built ins:

Good golly, am I going to miss these.  The shelfs on either side of the fireplace housed our dvd’s and many, many picture frames.  The cabinets in the dining room are perfect for displaying family heirlooms and holding my estate sale found wine glasses.  Sadly, the shelves that once housed our dvd’s are now empty, and the cabinets in the dining room will be packed up by the end of the week.

My little retro kitchen.  If we were staying here, I would give this room some new flooring, appliances, and hardware for the cabinets.  Otherwise it’s perfect.  I love the countertops, and the beautiful wood cabinets.  I think in Future Home I want to get new countertops similar to this formica, but in marmoleum.

I am going to miss my Sex and the City Blue living room.  I know a lot of people probably can’t stand all the bold colors in my house, but I can’t get enough of it (obviously).  You know in the first SATC movie (The only SATC movie in my eyes.  That second one should be forgotten by all) when Carrie paints her apartment blue with white trim?  Well, I just fell in love with that look.  I found out the paint that was used in her apartment was Benjamin Moore’s Electric Blue, bought a can of it and got to work.  I still love the blue walls with white trim.  I also love all the switch plates and outlet covers I Mod Podged. (Cross stitching provided by my lovely BFF Joy, of Joy’s On the Side)

These glass doorknobs are just the prettiest.  Some of them are on the verge of breaking (please don’t notice future buyers!).  I wish I could take these with us.

This is Diego’s perch.  He spends most of his days up on the windowsill watching the passers by, alerting us with a wagging tail or an excited bark that someone is approaching the house.  I’m going to miss coming home and seeing Deej in the window waiting for us.  At Future Home there is an even bigger window that starts about 18 inches from the floor, so I think we’ll be seeing Deej peeking through there.

The red door.  When we were house hunting we both liked the idea of a red door.  So when we came across this place with a red door, we thought this was it.  A red door symbolizes good luck in a lot of cultures.  In China it’s customary to paint your door red to welcome the New Year.  In Scotland a red door can symbolize the mortgage being paid off-HA!  If only.

While these are all things I will miss, there are certainly things about this house that I won’t miss.  Like the bathroom.  The one teeny tiny bathroom with insanely unforgiving white tile.  Future Home has two full bathrooms!  2!  I will also not miss how I can hear Rob talking and working in the basement through the vents all the way upstairs.  Also, I will not miss our super sucky neighbors.

Some thoughts on Christmas

I had this dream, more like an idea, of what I wanted this Christmas to look like.  It was going to be perfect.  When Max and I would get get up in the morning I would bring him out to the tree and his eyes would light up in delight to see all the gifts that had suddenly appeared.  Then he would wake Rob up with his squeals of glee while playing with his new toys.  My mom and brother would come over and we would all have fresh out of the oven cinnamon rolls together while we exchanged gifts.  And we would take the greatest Christmas family portrait ever.

It went no such way.  There were no squeals of glee, or family breakfast.  Max was kind of a pill the whole day, and the cinnamon rolls were more of an afternoon snack instead of breakfast.  And my brother, who I love dearly, was so very very late.  And that family portrait?  Yikes.

In spite of all the imperfections, it was a really nice day.  Mom and I cooked together, and managed to drink every last drop of wine in the house-before dinner.  Max had his ‘Christmas Morning’ after dinner, so he was well rested and not hungry, and all eyes were on him, which is how Christmas will be from now on.  And while our Christmas family portrait didn’t come out as well as I had hoped, it was taken with one of my most favorite presents, my new lens (a Nikon 35mm f/1.8, thanks mom!)!

These are a few of my other favorite things I got:1. A milk glass canister from my brother.  I looooove milk glass.  And I know exactly where I’m going to put this in the Future House!

2. Chicken necklace from Rob.  I saw this when we were at a boutique on SE 28th, off of Burnside.  I told him how much I liked it, and he was a good husband and remembered.

3. This was a pitcher of my Grandma Brown’s.  It came with a handwritten note from her: Clare, this is the little pitcher that belonged to my Grandmother Bradley, Howe.  I would like to have Erin keep it since it would be Great, Great Grandmother to her. Love you, Mom Brown

That one might be my favorite.

I also made a couple of things for gifts, and you can read about and see them here.

Crafty Times: Christmas Things

Every year I tell myself that I’m going to make my Christmas gifts and every year I fail at doing so.  But not this year!  This year was different.  I had the motivation!  I had ideas! I had the supplies!  Well, some of it.

My first project was a stocking for Max.  He could’ve just used an old one of ours, but I wanted him to have his very own.  And I wanted to make it.  I found this pattern on Pinterest.  BTW, isn’t Pinterest just the greatest?  You can follow me here.  Ok, getting off track.  So I found the pattern, got the specs on how much fabric I needed and went to Jo-Ann’s with my coupons.  I chose three different fabrics, some ric rac and some buttons for accents.  It was a super easy pattern to follow.  It took me an afternoon to make (it probably shouldn’t have taken me that long, but when you’ve got a baby at your feet putting everything in his mouth you can’t get much done).  I’m so pleased with the way it came out!

For my second project I made a set of pillowcases for my brother.  I, again, found this pattern on Pinterest and the name is true, the easy pillowcase.  It was maybe the easiest sewing project I’ve ever done.  Well, all the sewing projects I’ve done are super easy because I can barely sew a straight line (but that’s going to change this year, people!).  I took notes on what I needed and grabbed my coupons and went back to Jo-Ann’s.  I got a killer deal on fabric because they were running crazy sales.  I bought extra of the main fabric, the brown houndstooth, because I want to include it in a quilt I’m making for Max for his 1st birthday.  Both of these pillowcases took one afternoon, but if they were done without the ‘help’ of a baby around it probably would’ve taken only an hour or so.  Again, I was so pleased with the results and I think Cameron was too:

My third project never actually got done before Christmas.  In fact it’s still not done, but I am in the middle of it.  It’s a gift for my brother for his 21st birthday which is tomorrow (!!!).  Also found on Pinterest, and also super easy it is a picture transfer to wood.  The reason it wasn’t done for Christmas was because I waited until 3 days before to go find gel medium, which everyone seemed to be out of.  Well I got some the other day and started last night.  My only complaint is that you need about 12+ hours for this one.  Once it’s done I’ll do full review and you can see how it came out!

2011: Favorite Photos

I was thinking about all the many things that have happened this year and all the photos I took of those many things, and I thought that I’d share my favorite photos.  But then I thought that that would be way too many photos.  So I decided to pick a favorite  photo from each month that I haven’t posted before.  Still very difficult to do, but I did it.  So, without any further ado, I give you my 2011 Favorite Photo Roundup!

January: The last bare belly shot of me without stretch marks.  Sometimes I miss being pregnant, I always miss not having stretch marks.

February: I know you’ve seen this, and I know it’s not a photo, but I’m making an exception cause this is just one of the single greatest things ever.  And I didn’t take many photos in February.March: This was the first time I held Max.  He was brought to our room around 10:00 the morning after he was born.  I vaguely remember this moment.

April: I took this after a bath.  His hair still gets all curly after a bath.  I miss the way his fat cheeks would rest on his chest.

May: Katrina took this one.  These were the days of hanging out by the baby gym in Max’s room while he watched the lights go round and round on the mobile.  I have every song from that thing memorized.

June: Naked baby.  I wanted to be able to remember his naked little baby body like this.  Those little wrinkles on his back, the dark newborn hair with a few curls, and the stillness of a new baby.

July: This was taken on Del Ray beach (I think) when we visited Rob’s Aunt Christi and her husband Greg for the day.  It was Max’s first trip to the coast.

August: My Aunt Karen and cousin Brandon were in town to meet Max. This was taken at Arch Cape, on our first overnight trip with the kiddo, his second trip to the coast.  I’m usually behind the camera, but Rob is a good husband/photographer and got this shot of us.  I love it.  Mostly because I’m smizing.

September: I took this during our friend’s, Dave and Jeanine, wedding.  I like the contrast in color with the grass and mine and Max’s shoes.  Going through all these photos I realized I have, unknowingly, taken a small series of photos like this with myself and Max.

October: This picture makes me melt.  His little Kewpie doll swirl, the goofy little grin, and puffy cheeks.

November: I love the expression on his face, his giant blue eyes.  And the drool dribbling down his chin.

December: Bonding time.  Rob and Max’s new favorite game.

While this has surely been an incredibly challenging year (who knew having a baby would be so difficult?) it’s also been just the best ever.  I can only hope that 2012 will be as good for us and for you as well.  Happy New Year, everyone!  Celebrate responsibly, and please don’t drink and drive because nobody likes an asshole.

9 Months Old

December is, and always will be, a super busy month.

First there was mine and Rob’s birthdays.  Then there was the boy’s first cold.  We all survived, fairly unscathed.  A few days later Katrina came in town, and Max spent every waking moment in her arms. 

And then there was Christmas.

No, all those presents are not for him.  (I’ll post more about Christmas later)

He had his 9 month checkup yesterday, which Rob took him to without me because I was busy recooperating from food poisoning.  So I sent Rob with a list of questions for the Doc.  One of my concerns was about him having trouble nursing.  Well, turns out he’s not gaining any weight and hasn’t since his last checkup.  He’s sitting lean at 19 lbs, 2 lbs under what he should be at.  Which puts him under the 50th percentile for weight, where he’s always been above the 90th.  The doctor recommended that we start supplementing with formula, which I sort of suspected that’s what he’d say.    We have some formula that a company sent us when I was pregnant and I kept it on hand just in case of a situation like this.  He hates it.

I’m going to try a few things to see if I can boost my supply so we can continue breastfeeding, I’m not ready to stop.  In the meantime I’ve done some reading on formula supplementing and I’m going to try another kind to see if he’ll take it in addition to what I’m producing.  And if he won’t take any formula I’m just going to start mixing creatine in his yogurt to bulk him up.

In other baby related things, Max does the following:

-Says mama and dada, not in context, but he does speak in complete sentences otherwise.

-Cuts 2 more teeth without anyone realizing it (for a total of 6 teeth!).

-Sits himself up from a laying down position.

-Walks the dogs when Rob and I don’t feel like it.

-Is still so close to crawling, but may just skip it altogether.

-Sleeps 12+ hours straight.  Ok, not really, but maybe if I continue to write it and repeat it to myself I’ll start to believe it and maybe I won’t be so effing tired?  No?  Ok.

-Stands holding onto things pretty well.

-Feeds himself whatever we put in front of him, then spits out 80% of it because he’s a picky little nerd.

-Sleeps in a lowered crib.  Going into his room in the mornings and seeing him with his  little hands on the railing, peering over, had me fearing that I would one day wake up to  a loud thump of baby hitting the floor.

-Licks table legs, coffee or kitchen.

This is very reminiscent of that scene in A Christmas Story.

Only three more months ’til the big One.  Party planning has begun.