A New Kind of Holiday

As the Christmas celebrations (I emphasize this because we had many!) come to an end, I am more aware than ever how much a child changes your life. Gone are the days of actually being able to have a conversation with relatives you haven’t seen in ages, don’t even think about trying to take a nap after you’ve stuffed your face with holiday goodies and the pile of gifts under the tree no longer have your name on them. But I wouldn’t have it any other way after experiencing the pure happiness Camryn brought to our family this Christmas!! Even though she was fighting her first double ear infection and had bouts of fussiness and sleepless nights, she was for the most part the happy baby we’ve been spoiled with for the last nine months. And speaking of spoiled, both sides of the family succeeded in going above and beyond making sure she had plenty of cute clothes to wear, cuddly pajamas to sleep in and fun toys to keep her entertained! The octopus from Nana and the bongos from Erik and Wendy seem to be her favorite at the moment. She was very interested in opening the pretty packages even though the paper went right into her mouth, which is the norm for anything she picks up!
Camryn is 9 months today and she is becoming more and more mobile. I don’t think you can call if crawling yet. It seems she really wants to go and she starts to crawl and then it seems she thinks, nah, I’ll scoot back and stay on my butt! Over the last few days at my parents she was getting closer and closer. She’s beginning to pull herself up on things as well. She is still toothless so our teething excuse we’ve been using for the last 5 months when she is fussy or drooly or anything that isn’t normal may have to end! She’ll probably get them all at the same time and then we’ll really have some fun! She is enjoying feeding herself her little flavored puffs and it’s entertaining to watch as she grabs several at a time and stuffs them in. Let’s hope she didn’t learn that from watching me eat. Her new thing now is when she hears If You’re Happy and You Know It or Pat-a-cake, she starts clapping…it’s so cute! She continues to babble da da a lot and likes to imitate sounds.
We went to the Dr. today for her check-up and she is going for the waif model body type...long and skinny! She is 17 ½ lbs. (28th percentile) and 28 inches long (82nd percentile). She still has fluid in her ears and we have a prescription for more antibiotics but her disposition is back to normal and her smile is bigger than ever so the Dr. said to wait and start them only if she starts having symptoms again. Although when I introduced meat into her diet tonight she was NOT smiling. So, we’ll keep trying on that one.
And as for New Years Eve tomorrow, we will be at home with a couple of movies. My goal will be to stay awake until midnight but I’m sure Jeff is not counting on giving his wife a New Years kiss. So, as we look toward the New Year, we look forward to getting back on a routine (for both Camryn and us!), anticipating all the new things Camryn will discover as she turns one! and enjoying family and dear friends!