Tuesday, October 30, 2012

October in a nutshell!



I was going to do a couple different post but thought I'd just do one to wrap up our month in October.  This month flew by as did the last months.  Seems like time doesn't slow down any but just keeps moving along and before ya know another year has past.  I am excited about my New Year's Resolutions already for next year and have kinda started early on them which I will get to in another post :).  I am already looking forward to Christmas and am pretty much finished shopping since I shop early when things go on great deals throughout the year and keep them stored in a gift closet.  Just have to still get my Dad, and hubby.  I think the best gift I could give my hubby would be organizing his closet which I have thrown some junk in and it is just looking cluttered and full.  I think I may just surprise him with a closet make-over sometime in Dec and have everything organized, little stuff labeled and maybe add in a couple new work shirts as well to have something new as an early Christmas surprise.   I am most excited for Cory to see his big train set for Christmas...here's a pic...even I would like to play with it!  He got other stuff as well but this is the gift I am most anxious to see him open..not sure yet if it will be from Santa or us. It comes with all the cute assessories.

October was such beautiful weather most of the month so it was filled with lots of outdoor play, going to parks and playing in the leaves, & playing at the playground!  I usually don't bring my camera to the park but this time I did and got some cute shots of Cory and BFF Avery who comes over to play twice a week. 







 



 


Cory painted his first pumpkin and I carved my first one and scraped it out (John usually does that but I wanted to try).
I want to make it a yearly tradition  because Cory loved it!  I don't know why but I was a little grossed out by scraping out the inside...lol. But it was fun!  Cory just watched me do the scraping and carving but at the end he gave it several good stabs of his own.


 

 

 
 
 

 
After we painted I got Cory to put his handprint on paper and I would like to do this each year as well to see his hands grow.  I have a newborn, 1 yr and now 2 yr.  I may put them in a scrapbook or something.  Lastly is just a pic of Nick my dog...such a sweet boy!
 

 
October we also had my Grandparents from Alabama come in town to visit, which I failed to get any photos except on my phone and we had the Indianapolis marathon two weekends ago, which I decided since I hadn't trained as much as I would have liked, I just did the half so it won't count for me in our big goal but I plan to return next year and John can cheer me on :)
 

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Cory at 2 years old!

Just wanted to do a post about Cory now that is has turned 2 with things he is doing and learning and things I will want to remember about this age. 

-A couple days ago he totally shocked John and I and he counted to 10 only missing one number....he skipped 8 but when I said "8" after he had skipped it, he corrected himself and said "8, 9, 10".  We were shocked because I havent even really been working much with numbers just he has been very interested lately in counting toys and crayons or whatever it is.  I will count with him some but he had never put 1-10 together until early this week so that was impressive to me.

-He has completely mastered his colors for a while now and gets them right every time....every color in the rainbow plus brown, black, white and pink.

-I would consider him a great eater which makes me glad that it isn't a struggle to get him to eat healthy.  For snack time when I ask him what he wants his typical respone is "fruit".  He loves the dole fruit cups...the mixed one or the pineapple.  Or he will ask for a banana or "berries" which is what he calls strawberries or he eats yogurt or applesauce which he loves.  I guess I just always imagined it would be much harder to get a child to eat fruit but he loves it.  He always tells me what he wants which makes is easy and he knows what foods we have.  Sometimes he does just pick out cheese and crackers but snack time is always his choice which gives him a little independence. 

- Though he is a wonderful fruit eater, veggies have been a different story.  I will offer him many different veggies with his dinner meal and that is usually the one food always left there on his plate when he is done eating.  He eats all other food groups fine and for the meats he loves chicken and turkey mainly.  He loves chicken pot pie and will actually eat the carrots out of it so he will eat carrots some....just he has banned all green stuff.  The doctor said it is normal especially at this age and to keep offering it and he may come around one day to try it and that he certainly isn't malnutritioned.  She just said to avoid food battles and don't force him to eat it, just offer it to him which is what i did. 

- His favorite things to eat seem to be anything with cheese, he loves grilled cheese, mac n cheese (easy mac kind or the gerber brand).  And he loves milk!  He pretty much only drinks milk or water with occasional orange juice but he prefers milk over juice.

-At the doctor, his measurements were:  35in Height (25%),
                                                                 33.6 pounds Weight (75-90%), 
                                                                50 3/4cm. Head Circumference (75%)

-I kind of thought it was funny that he was only 25th percentile for height so he is a little shorter than average but I have had people tell me he is tall for a 2-year old.  I think maybe just because he is bigger in weight so it seems like he is big for a 2 year old. 

-He is learning his shapes now and knows diamond, square, circle, star, triangle. 

-He knows quite a bit of his letters....not sure how many he knows but he will often pick the magnet letter off the fridge and say what it is.  I know he knows "A, B, C, D, E, and he knows these letters"H, O, P, S, W, Y, Z because I have heard him hold the magnet and say them but maybe one day I will quiz him to see which other ones he knows.  One of his favorite DVD's is the Letter Factory and I think watching that has helped him pick up those letters with the catchy songs. 

-I actually feel like we can have some conversations now :)  He can put a few words together now and tell me what he wants or tell me about something.   Like "i want to go outside"  or "where'd batman go?"  (he has a batman toy he loves).  He is talking so much now I have no idea how many words are actually in his vocabulary which it is a lot of fun now to communicate with him.  I am really loving this age!

-Tantrums I think may be behind us now...well the worst of it at least.  I am thinking he must have gone through terrible two's a bit early and now that he is talking, the bad fits have reduced to nearly none because he can tell me what it is bothering him.  If he is tired and missed a nap, he will certainly be fussy and he still has his moments of crying if something doesnt go his way but it has toned down and not as embarrasing if we are out in public....he will whine a little then move on. 

-His sleep is still wonderful.  Still takes about a 2 hour nap during the day and sleeps on average 10 hours each night. 

-He is still a little copy cat and often repeats what I say.  Yesterday I said "I love you baby" to him and he repeated "Love ya baby" to me which made me laugh! 

-He loves hugs and will wrap his arm tight around my neck and squish his cheek on my cheek....it is sweet!  He got a very loving personality and likes affection! 

-We love snuggle time on the couch in the mornings watching cartoons wrapped up in a blanket.

-He loves baths and gets so excited when I say it's bath time.  He runs in the bathroom and starts trying to take his pants and diaper off.  He gets one every other night and loves to play with his bath toys. 

-He is a total outdoors boy and wants to be outside playing more than anything else.  Loves running, jumping, climbing, playing at playgrounds, etc.

-He loves reading books.  We often go to the library and get new books to read so we dont keep reading the same ones.  And he loves storytime. 

-His current shoe size is 8 & 1/2 wide.

- Lastly, potty training.  We haven't even started so that is all on my part but honestly when I have mentioned the potty he seems a little freaked out and says "no" and doesnt want to go near it.  I bought him a little ladder type potty for kids that you put on the big potty so maybe that is intimidating to him and I might try a smaller potty but so far he hasnt want to be put on the potty at all and I dont want to force him because I know he will learn and dont want it to be a negative experience for him so I will probably end up getting a book about potty training and will start it pretty soon. 

 
My big 2 year old :)


                 

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Projects, Party & Pictures

This post is also just a catch-up post out of order but things that went on at the Campbell abode before we left for Daytona.  First I was going to show 2 little projects (updates) I did, then a funny pic from my Mom's Birthday party and lastly I did a little photo shoot for my niece to take her 3-year photos and wanted to post them for my sister :)

My sister was wanting a little fold out chair for her kitchen table that the kids sit at.  She already had one chair but needed another and told me to keep on the lookout for a good deal.  I didn't go to many yardsales this year but I did find this chair for $1.  It was faded out, a little rusted, the cushion was falling off on the bottom because it was missing screws and the top cushion was missing, but when I saw it I thought this could be updated to a cute little chair.   So 1 can of spray paint, 1 small piece of fabric and a new set of screws and..........

 
......now a cute little chair for my sister's kids table/art desk :) 

 
The last thing I did around our house was more of an update than a project but I was trying to figure out what would be best to go on the wall above our couch and since my favorite thing to display is photos, I found these frames at Ikea and put up a gallery wall that I can keep updated along the way with favorite pictures I've taken.  Before:
 
 
Here's the after where I can see my sweetie up on the wall everyday :)
 
 
Lastly, we had Mom's B'day party at my house and when she was opening her gift look at all the kiddos surrounding her...lol, I love that my dog Nick is right there looking like just another kid.  He always likes to be in on the action. 
 
 
And here is my sweet niece's 3 year photoshoot I took. She is such a cutie and so photogenic.