February: We had the biggest snowstorm in years, with over 2 feet of snow. Somehow Chris and I managed to battle through and with a five month old we still didn't miss a single day of work. We battled sickness and fevers (lots of it!) but continued to push through. This is also the month I took a photography class and grew an interest in photography as a hobby, and really learned how to work my camera. It has changed my pictures for the better! Camden had his first foray into the solid food world and I proceeded to make all of his baby food for him, using fresh and organic foods.
March: It finally started to warm up. There were signs that we were going to make it through the terrible winter that we had! Camden started to sit up like a champ. We continued to have sickies but no where near as bad as previously. The last weekend in February my friends and I went to visit a sorority sister who was moving to Australia for a year. IT was SO. MUCH. FUN! We also took a nice visit to see Great Granddaddy.
April: My birthday month. Camden started crawling. We went to Texas to a Nascar race, and had a good time. Spring arrived and trees bloomed. Camden got his first documented ear infection. My uncle passed after fighting a hard fought battle with Alzheimer's.
May: I had my first Mother's Day. While uneventful, it reminds me that I have this blessed opportunity to be someone's MOTHER, and that I cherish. We spent our first Easter as a family with grandparents and great grandparents. We had an impromptu photo shoot on a truck that went slightly awry. But the pictures are ADORABLE! Camden continued to grow and worked on perfecting crawling.
June: We had another round of the sickies. We had another ear infection and fever, but still managed to heal and get some swimming in at Chris' parents pool. We built a baby gate to keep speed crawling Camden out of the kitchen and out of the dog's water bowl. We planned for our trip to visit Missy in Australia. woo! Camden grew his first tooth and we enjoyed the warmer weather. Camden also worked on perfecting standing and pulling up.
July: We had our first July 4th as a family of three! This month also brought about Camden's second tooth. Lots of fussing came with that territory! There was also lots of swimming and enjoying the great outdoors. We planned for Camden's first birthday party as well as our big trip to Australia. We were elated that he chose to walk for us before we left for our trip, so we didn't miss it while we were gone! The day we left on our vacation, we woke up to find Camden covered in vomit in your crib. That made getting to the airport extra fun! I was worried about my little babe, and it turned out he had another ear infection!
August: We spent the first two weeks of this month vacationing and enjoying Australia. (I linked to one of the last Oz posts I did. If you want to read any of the others, click the tagged word 'Oz'.) It was definitely a trip of a lifetime! Once home, we set up appointments for meeting with an ENT - we had just been too sick for summer time to let the sickies continue. Camden got Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. We planned and enjoyed Camden's first birthday, as well as Chris' birthday and my two nieces. (you can revisit the birthday here and here.) My Mom, her friend, Camden and co-workers and I walked in the Alzheimer's walk. Mom and I walked in honor of her brother, and my uncle. It was hot, but it was a really neat thing to do. I raised over 200 for the Alzheimer's Association!
September: Camden moved up rooms in daycare. He was officially no longer a baby! He weaned off breastmilk and switched to cow's milk. He got tubes to help with his nasty ear infections. One of the ears had to be difficult and a blood clot was blocking the tube. In turn we had to do lots of work to get the clot out, and once the clot was out we discovered yet another ear infection complete with green oozing pus. (After we got rid of all of that, it was pretty easy to put drops in his ear and since then there have been no problems. The tubes were DEFINITELY the way to go for us.)
October: We continued to deal with the same nasty ear infection and on top of that an infected/ingrown toenail. To put the icing on the cake to a doctor's visit, Camden managed to rip off one of the doors on the cabinet. I was mortified! This was Camden's second Halloween and he went as a lion. He was so adorable it was ridiculous! He returned home early from trick or treating as he was fighting a fever.
This month was also the month I took what is one of my favorite pictures...
November: The beginning of November, Husband and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss. :) Unfortunately any fun plans we had were put on hold as a horrible stomach bug gripped our house and our little one. We spent most of that weekend throwing up, trying to decide if the earth quaking was a result of our upset tummies or if the earth in Oklahoma was indeed quaking. (which it was. Crazy!) Once we got over Pukevember, we prepped the house for Christmas by putting up Christmas lights and enjoyed a Thanksgiving with ALL of our family, my Dad included.
December: Husband set up our lights to music and an FM tuner so you could hear it in your car, while watching a light show. He's pretty awesome like that. He put in his notice at Target and quit working there so he would be able to spend more time with us at home. We LOVE it! We celebrated Christmas multiple times (if you count all the different places/shindigs we went to it adds up to 7!) We had a blast celebrating with families.
It was good to look back on the year and see just how far we have come! Camden has gotten SO big in SO many ways, I can't believe it! Despite our sickness it has made us stronger and we are grateful for each day we have been given together. What an exciting 2011 and we can't wait to see what 2012 will bring us!
Happy New Year!
