On The Move!!

Today Camia officially figured out how to get from one place to another quickly and not so efficiently. It used to be that she hated tummy time, and insited on sitting on the floor to play. Now, however, she insists on laying on her tummy because she has realized that, this way, she can get places. Today I felt like I was chasing her everywhere, trying to prevent her from getting anywhere near the top of the stairs and from chewing on electrical cords with electricity coarsing through them. It seems to have come upon me so quickly that I should probably child proof my home a bit more as she seems to be drawn to hazardous things like metal is drawn to a magnet.

Today Ryan is going out to get a baby gate to prevent any accidents from happening.

She starts out by sitting and playing nicely with her toys. Within 5 minutes she is on her tummy, moving around. If she is looking at something she wants to have, she will turn around and go backwards to get it. It is quite amusing to watch. She as of yet has not figured out how to go forwards without landing on her face.

She has gotten much joy out of pulling her socks off, throwing them in the air and then retrieving them only to repeat the process.

With this new twist in life, our days are still as exciting as ever!

What I've been Up To

This week I received a call from my mortgage broker who said that she would like to purchase more cards from me...A repeat customer! Yay! So, this week has been busy with preparing cards that I though she might like to purchase. This is what I came up with:
The last time we had gotten together she had requested more masculine cards. These are my attempts at masculine cards:

For this one, I used textured wallpaper I found at a garage sale this past summer. There were books of the stuff, so I bought 3 for $0.25 each. Since wallpaper should not be used in scrap books due to the acidity, I thought it would still be perfect to use for cards. I just took a stamp pad, and ran it over the texture to give it this look.

I also decided that since I have waaaay too many scraps, I should put them to use instead of accumulating more and more. So, this week I forced myself to look through my box of scraps and use whats in there instead of making more scraps.

This is made out of scraps as well. I also used more of the textured wall paper, but didn't colour it. I also like this look as it appears to have more dimension.

I met my mortgage broker for coffee and sold $20 worth of cards....and since it is money that I put directly back into scrapbooking, I headed to the scrapbook store and bought thing I was running low on and stamps that they had buy one get one free. It had been a while since I have been in the scrapbook store, and there are so many new things that have come out again...Oh, the things I can spend my - well, actually Ryan's - money on!!! :)

If You're Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands! as well as other things.

Camia finally learned how to clap her hands by herself this week. It's so amusing to watch her sit on the floor and spend five minutes or so clapping her hands. She has also become quite the talker, competing for the loudest voice. She yells out "umm, umm, umm!!" and 'uff, uff, uff!!" She as also become enthralled with putting her fingers in peoples mouths and giggles when we play along with her. This morning, however was not a morning full of laughs and giggles and sticking fingers in people's mouths. It started out that way, but did not end that way. Our morning ended with Ryan still sleeping and Camia and I in the spare room, me working on cards and Camia playing nicely on the floor. While I was working on developing my design, all of a sudden behind me Camia was lying on the floor, squashed under a chair that she had pulled down on herself. I was crushed....along with my daughter. Thankfully she was fine later, but in the moment she did not look fine. The picture above was taken after the incident.

This week was also monumental because we finally got a highchair for Camia. It is gorgeous, and works perfectly for what we need. Its small, and a basic highchair. Every day, she gets one cookie. She only eats about a third of it, but she gets one cookie, and she loves her cookie. It has been fun to watch her learn something new everyday. She still has not been back up on all 4's, but is getting quick on her bum and scooting backwards when she's on her tummy.

Bathtime is still hers and my favourite time of the week. She plays nicely in the tub with her duckies and I get to read the 4th book in the Harry Potter series, which I am finally almost done (almost being having about 200 pages to go :)) I've only been reading it for a couple months now. I really want to progress in the series because someone leaked to me that Dumbledore dies, so its been hard not to 'cheat' by reading ahead in the series. Ryan, who has completed the series, will not tell me if this is true or when this will happen.

Last week I had a few minutes to spare before I had to pick Ryan up from work, so I headed into Value Village where I was roaming around and walked by the kids shoes section. I saw the cutes little pair of shoes for $1.99, and had to buy them for Camia. Sunday she wore them for the first time, and was absolutely darling in them. Such cute little feet!

She's Up!! And then she's not...

My baby is growing up, she almost reached another milestone in her life today. After much coaxing, and talking in a very excited voice, she got up on all 4's. But then was stuck from there. She couldn't co-ordinate herself to put a hand in front of herself before she flopped to the ground again. So exciting! Perhaps now would be a good time to invest in a baby gate to keep her off the stairs...

Time Well Spent?

While Camia had been sick and sleeping most of the days away the past couple days, I decided to try and get somewhere in her album that I had intended to stay caught up on. But alas, in the midst of our busy lives, time for this much loved activity scurries into a corner, far away from the reach of my finger tips. So, while Camia is not getting any younger and she is now at the ripe age of 7 months, I am still working on the time that we spent in the hospital after she was born. And to think that it was only 1 and a half days!

My friend Theresa and I planned to have a day yesterday where we would scrapbook all day...something that sounds glorious in my head and to my fingers who have not practised this part of imagination for months now. Unless you count the fact that I dreamt I was flying last night and could only get power for this activity by sucking power from the neighbour's lit front porches, causing them to be in the dark for an eternity.

With Theresa here and us having a social afternoon even though not many words were exchanged, this is what I came up with :

These pages took me all of yesterday afternoon and about an hour this afternoon to complete. But, now that that is complete, I can move onto us going home from the hospital and concentrate on her growing up into the fine baby she is now.

This sleep mode she has been in for the last 36 hours has been beneficial for everyone: She gets better, and I have productive days. Even if it is thinking about the weird dream I had last night.

There is a first time for everything

So, my baby has the flu for the first time in her life. She has never slept so much in her life like she does now, not even when she was a newborn (even though she has almost always slept through the night). Yesterday morning I got her up, and did the usual: Feed her her pablum and then her formula. She had the pablum really well, but refused to drink her bottle. She was more cranky than usual as well. Nothing I did made her happy, not even holding her.

I have started babysitting 2 girls, Hannah who is 4 and Cara who is 6, 2 days a week again and yesterday was my first day back on the job. In the job description I have to bring Hannah to preschool at 12:15 and pick her up again at 2:45, and then head to the elementary school to pick up Cara at 3:00.

I had Bible Study and debated not going, but in the end I went anyways and explained to the babysitters that she was not her normal self and that she did not want to have her bottle this morning and asked if the could try giving it to her during the study. I came back and of course the babysitters said she had been a charm...something apparently she always is when she's in the nursery at church. I tried giving her a bottle, but she kept pushing it away so I did not force her to finish it.

Upon getting home, I couldn't put her to bed because in a half hour I had to leave again to bring Hannah to school. My usual routine is that as soon as I drop Hannah off, I do my errands. However, today was an exception. I dropped Hannah off and went straight back home and chucked Camia in bed where she slept soundly for 2 hours. After she got up, I went to pick the girls up and, due to the rain fall and road closures due to flooding that we had in the last couple days, it took me a half hour to bring the girls home on a route that usually takes about 5 minutes. After I brought the girls home, I decided to try grocery shopping. Camia seemed to be doing fine. I put her in a cart and she had a blast, she usually is really good when I go out anywhere. She loves sitting in the front of the cart. After shopping I went to go pick Ryan up from work, and she was good. When we got home, Ryan fed her her veggies (which she couldnt get enough of) and then some formula. It didnt take 15 minutes and she was throwing up everything she had just ate.

Before 8:00 she had thrown up 2 more times and I had done a load of laundry and bathed her. She went to bed at 8, and slept till 4:30. I gave her bottle because I figured she must be starving by now and put her back to bed where she slept till 8:30. I changed her diaper and took her to bed with me where she slept until 10. I fed her some pablum and some bottle, and she is now sleeping again.

Hopefully all this sleeping will bring her back to her normal self again in due time...