Hi

Sorry I haven't been a good blogger lately. Coming into the office is getting increasingly more difficult, as Camden has figured out how to get into just about everything in here. I'm typically okay letting him dig in things, but when he starts licking the doggie door I know it's time to vacate! He's been really interested in dumping out his toy basket, just to move on to a bottle of water or something else other than the nice toys he has. He's also been pulling up on just about everything. He gets up very easily, but getting back down seems to confuse him a little. Thank goodness for diapers, because his little bottom would be black and blue from falling backwards on his butt if they weren't so nice and padded.

Thanksgiving pictures

Jess sent us the pictures she took on Thanksgiving! Thanks so much!!

Camden had just woken up so he was a little red-eyed.

Camden and Brody.
Brody in his driving cap.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day! I left the house tonight without my camera, so I'm depending on Cousin Jessica to send me a couple of pictures she took so I can post them. I hope you all had a wonderful day stuffing yourselves like, well, a Thanksgiving turkey. We went to Granny and Papa's house where we had beans and rice, chicken and dressing, gumbo, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and ham, but no turkey. We're not really sure what they had against the bird this year, but he didn't make a Thanksgiving appearance. I felt just fine about the level of my consumption until I ate two pieces of pumpkin pie my sister-in-law Lissa made. It was very tasty, obviously, and it put me over the top. I'm not exactly sure where my stomach is located these days, but wherever it is it's REALLY full right now. I'm looking forward to digesting my food so I can start over tomorrow when Blake's family comes over for gumbo. Have a good night everyone!

Another tradition

Today Peyton and I went to Arts on Fire to paint pottery. This is the sixth year (I think) we've been painting pottery as Christmas gifts. We'd have to look at the dates on all the things she's painted for Nana and Chappy to know for sure. I think maybe she just humors me and says she still likes it so I won't look stupid painting pottery by myself! (Thanks, Peeps!) Blake brought Camden by so we could torture him by painting his foot green for a footprint. He was a pretty good sport.

1080 ounces of pepper jelly

Danielle, Karla and I continued our pepper jelly tradition last night. This is the sixth year and we seem to make more and more each year. The process would definitely go a lot smoother if they didn't put the pregnant girl in charge of math. I just couldn't seem to get it right! After 2 additional trips to the store for more jars we finally had enough and ended up with 152 jars (of various shapes and sizes) of the stuff! Needless to say, I don't want to see another bell pepper for quite some time, but we had a great time talking smack and stirring the pot. And no, we're not really 65 year old women trapped in the bodies of thirtysomethings!

New places to hide

I found Camden hiding under the dining room table tonight. It wasn't very hard to find him once I realized he was missing - he has a really hard time being quiet when he's exploring! His latest favorite thing to do is push doors closed. That is way more interesting than playing with all the toys he has.

Morning wood?

Um, call me stupid, but I wasn't quite expecting the surprise I got this morning when I was changing Camden's diaper. Is this normal?!?

Just because . . .

. . . he's so stinking cute!

Sleeping baby

Camden is sleeping right now, which in itself is obviously not new, but the method of getting him to sleep is. He used to have to be rocked completely to sleep and then put down very gently so he didn't wake. Over the past 2 and a half to 3 weeks he's gotten to the point where I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be rocked to sleep. There are still times that he'll pass out on us in the recliner, which is good cuddle time, but for the most part he twists and turns restlessly until we give up and put him in bed. Typically after about 5 to 10 minutes of rolling around trying to get comfy he's out like a light. I realize that this is the way a lot of people put their babies to bed, but we ruined him early on with all the rocking so it's all new to us. Part of me is very relieved that he can be put down awake, but the other part of me is a little sad. I'll blame it on hormones. I guess it couldn't have come at a better time since we had to lower the mattress in his crib last week. I was doing good to get him down with the mattress at the highest level!

That's all the useless babble I have for now! I hope everyone is having a great day.

Boys' Weekend

Jeremy and Jennifer came up from Houston to visit us this weekend. The big boys spent the weekend at the farm trying to find some deer while the little boys were stuck with their mommies all weekend. Luckily Gaven's a good shopper and Camden's not old enough to complain yet, because we drug them around for 2 days! Jennifer used Camden as a guinea-pig to get a taste of how Gaven will be as a big brother. He was super sweet to Camden and did a very good job of getting him to laugh when he was getting testy! We had a wonderful weekend catching up with good friends.

Baby Signs

We had our first Baby Signs class last night. I think there's quite a bit of confusion for Camden because it's at Gymboree and he very much associates that place with playing. His face lights up when we walk in the door. Camden didn't really pay attention, and probably won't throughout the six week program, but Blake and I learned some good signs to use for feeding time and hopefully with enough practice Camden will pick up on some of them. We got a lot of literature on teaching infants to sign and a nice big laminated cheat sheet of signs to work with him on. I'm excited about the possibility of communicating with him a little better and really hope that this is something that will work for us. Here's some information on the program, just in case you're interested and have time to do a little reading: https://www.babysigns.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/aboutus.babysignsstory/story.cfm

26 week checkup

We went for our 26 week checkup today. I didn't get in trouble with my weight, which was VERY nice. I knew I had controlled myself a little better, but I was still a tad bit scared of the scales. The baby's heart rate was 151-156 and my uterus measured 29 cm. I'll be 27 weeks on Thursday and have been measuring about 2 weeks ahead for a while now, so Dr. Pineda didn't seem too concerned. He also loaded me up with medicine for my chest cold or whatever it is I've had for over a week. I feel like a big moron for not going to the doctor last week because I thought I couldn't take any medicine, but apparently I was wrong. He said I was far enough along that I could have some meds. I'm thinking I'll have to medicate myself only after Blake gets home from work because I'm feeling a little lightheaded right now from the stuff he gave me.

I'll go for my gestational diabetes test and to pre-register at the hospital next week! This pregnancy seems to be flying by. I suppose because I don't have time to obsess over every single detail like I did with Camden. Oh, and I believe we have settled on a name. If there are still no boy parts on the ultrasound when we go back on December 4th we'll name her Landry Nicole. If there are boy parts we'll have to start the name game all over again.

Weekend Photos

It was a nice weekend in Raineyland. We had some friends over to watch the LSU v. Alabama game on Saturday, and on Sunday we took a drive up to Atlanta to check things out at the farm and visit Aunt Tara, Uncle Bill and Peyton.

I got a little wild and crazy on Saturday and embibed in an O'Douls Amber and a bellpepper cigarette.

Disclaimer to all grandparents: The 4wheeler was NOT in motion at any time during the taking of this photograph!

Hanging on the couch with Aunt TK and Peeps.

Chillin' with Uncle Bill.

8 Months Old!

" You can't run from me anymore, mom!"

"Hmm."

"This could mean trouble!"

Camden's crawling has drastically improved in just a couple of days. Yesterday my Aunt Doreen put him down in the living room in front of the recliner and he crawled all the way through our bedroom and bathroom into our closet! He acted like he knew exactly where he was going. He came and found me this morning in the bathroom while I was getting ready to take him to Gymboree. He was a crazy crawling guy at Gymboree until it all caught up with him and he almost passed out sitting straight up. He got a nap on the way home, so he was full of energy by the time we got to the house. His latest discovery - the doggie door. This should be fun. The office/doggie room is really the last place I should be letting him crawl around, but maybe it'll motivate us to replace the carpet with hardwood sooner! Well, I'm off to find out what he's into now! Have a great weekend everyone.