Family Friday: Dec 21

15 Weeks Old

Cameron has survived her first "the world is going to end" day!  The Mayan calendar ended today but we are all still here.  We're thankful that Hawaii didn't turn into a pool of molten lava ;)

The most noticeable change with Cameron this week is that her grasping skills have greatly improved!  She has gotten very good at grabbing, holding on, and pulling on the rings hanging from her play mat.

Today we walked over to the BX and happened to find a darling little pair of shoes that match Cameron's Christmas dress!  I put them on her lap while we continued through the store and within minutes she had grabbed the tag and brought it to her mouth - I was impressed as she's never done that before!  We may very soon be entering the "everything goes in my mouth" phase :)

Dulce has gotten a LOT more comfortable with Cameron in the past couple weeks.  She always would sit or lie down close to Cam but now she is often found right beside her.  Dulce often gets kicked or smacked in the face because she's so close but she doesn't seem to mind.  Cameron doesn't seem to mind the close company either :)  However, it's not all cuddly and cute.  Dulce never licked Cameron until recently.  She has discovered the spit-up and drool that comes out of Cameron's mouth and finds it tasty.  Gross I know!  I now have to keep a close eye on her so that she doesn't lick Cameron's face.

We all sit outside every morning for a while before nap time and get some fresh air.  Cameron is content sitting on my lap and looking at the world around her, while Dulce is happy taking a nap in her sunshine-filled bed.  It's the only time during the day when I sit and not think about the billion other things I need to do.  I simply enjoy being with Cam and noticing the little things like her long eyelashes, knuckle dimples, and chubby baby feet :)

Cameron has been a drooling queen for the past couple weeks.  Her shirt is always wet in front and sometimes I have to change her outfit because it gets so wet.  I can't imagine how much drool she'll produce when she starts teething!

She is still fussy in the evenings but thankfully it has recently lessened from 3.5 hours down to about 2 hours.  I am amazed and very grateful that no matter how fussy she is in the evenings, she goes to bed easily at 8:30 every night and falls asleep on her own.  Bedtime is so easy in fact, that I'm afraid to change anything.  Cameron still sleeps in a bassinet on my bed and I know that soon I will have to transition her to her crib.  She is growing fast and changes are coming!

Cameron and I ran a Jingle Bell 5K race on base last Saturday morning!  This was her first race of many.  I really hope that Cameron develops an interest in running and exercise and will run some races with me when she's older.  I actually haven't been running at all lately (besides the race) but I have been doing Beachbody Insanity workout videos daily as part of a 60 challenge.  The videos really work your legs (and the rest of your body) so I find that it improves my running time by making my legs stronger.  We are currently on day 12 of the challenge and while I haven't lost any weight yet, I can already tell a difference in my muffin top midsection and I can feel an improvement in endurance while doing the videos compared to day 1.  Taking care of Cameron and Dulce are my number one priority.  Making time for daily exercise is a close second because I feel good doing something for myself that relieves some stress and anxiety.

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‎"A strong outside strengthens the inside."

~Selene Yeager

Daddy Doll

Johnnie left for deployment when Cameron was only 6.5 weeks old.  That is too young to have developed memories so I do things daily to make Cameron familiar with her daddy in hopes that she will recognize him and be comfortable with him when he returns.  She hears his voice and sees his face whenever he calls on Skype or FaceTime, she hears his voice reading her stories in some record-a-story books a dear friend bought for us, and she sees his face in photographs.

Now she has one more thing to help form a connection... a Daddy Doll!  I purchased Cameron's Daddy Doll from www.daddydolls.com.  We got the one-sided 17-inch doll which is almost as big as her!  Daddy Dolls are a great tool for helping children cope with having a parent who is deployed or who travels often for work.  In Cameron's case, it will simply help her learn and memorize her daddy's face.

Cameron does actually stare at her daddy's face on the doll and babbles to it once in a while :)

I took a photo of Johnnie in his deployment uniform (which he'll be wearing the next time we see him) in front of a white background.  I removed the background in Photoshop, uploaded the photo to the Daddy Doll company, and they created the doll.  Please note that the company requests "ONLY Upload Original, UNEDITED image files. We will crop the subject to best fit the product, and remove background for dolls." With my education and experience with Photoshop, I knew that I could remove the background as well as or better than anyone else so I chose to do it myself.  No one complained :)

The doll is a plush pillow made of soft micro-fiber fabric.  They use an advanced printing technology that produces "a "no-feel" image that is dyed into the fabric, so it won't peel or crack and is completely machine washable."

Daddy Dolls can be one-sided or two-sided.  If you choose a one-sided doll, you pick from a variety of fabrics to go on the back.  I chose the multicam fabric which matched Johnnie's uniform.  The text below the photo is free but limited to 18 characters, including spaces.  There is a pocket on the back of the doll for keepsakes or the optional voice recorder.

Maybe I should've gotten one for Dulce as well.  She misses her daddy too!

*******

"Distance never separates two hearts that really care,

for our memories span the miles and in seconds we are there.

But whenever I start feeling sad, because I miss you, I remind

myself how lucky I am to have someone so special to miss."

~Henri JM Nouwen

Family Friday: Dec 14

14 Weeks Old

The big news this week is that Cameron's birth story got published on Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine's website!  Anyone can submit a birth story and the editors choose one story a week (52 a year) to publish.  I submitted the story in October for consideration and it was accepted the next day for publication!  I've been eagerly waiting this week for it to be featured before saying anything.  It is so exciting to see our story and photos published!

My mom's visit flew by and we had to say good-bye yesterday.  I'm glad she could come and spend time with Cameron while she's still little.  She was also a huge help doing some cleaning and holiday baking.  Having her here allowed me to get a few extra things done and kept me sane during a few extra rough days.

This month is my birthday, Johnnie's birthday, our anniversary, and Christmas.  Going through all of that without Johnnie here is a lot harder than I expected it to be.  I'm honestly feeling pretty stressed and overwhelmed right now.  It's not so much the responsibilities of the baby, it's more just things weighing on my mind.  Don't worry, I can still take care of myself and Cameron (and Dulce) with no problems, I just have a lot more tearful breakdowns than usual.  I'll be glad when this month is over.

No matter what the situation, every mom gets overwhelmed at times.  There is so much to do you think you should do and not enough time to get it all done.  My to-do list is a long one and I'm adding stuff to it faster than I'm taking things off.  Everyone offers to help but there is very little that other people can do for me, it's mostly things and projects that I need to do myself.  I squeeze as much in as I can each day when Cameron is napping and celebrate the little things that I do get accomplished.

The article, Why You're Never Failing as a Mother by Amy Morrison, was recently published in the Huffington Post.  It was a comforting read for me :)

Cameron is generally a very pleasant and easy baby during the day as long as she gets her meals and naps on time.  She smiles a lot and is very active.

The evenings, however, are a different story.  From about 5pm to 8:30ish (when she goes to bed), it takes a lot to keep her from wailing which means I don't do anything or go anywhere in the evenings.  By the time she goes to sleep, I'm about ready to myself!  Despite best efforts, sometimes she just has to cry for a while.  I know she'll grow out of it eventually, I just hope it's sooner than later.

There are always a few new developments each week.  This week Cameron is "talking" louder and having longer "conversations" with me and with herself.  She may be a little chatterbox when she gets older!  Her eyesight is getting better.  Babies start off seeing only short distances but her new fascination with the ceiling fans tells me that she's seeing things much farther away than ever before. The best new thing is that she smiled at Johnnie during a video chat session for the first time!  We are very lucky that she gets to see his face and hear his voice often :)

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“Nothing you do for children is ever wasted.” 

~Garrison Keillor

Our Anniversary

Four years ago today, Johnnie and I promised to love each other for the rest of our lives.  Every day since then has brought new adventures.  We have had an action-packed four years and I cherish every moment we have shared... from traveling the world together to eating pizza at home on Friday nights.  I am amazed every day that I was lucky enough to find my soulmate and marry him :)

We met in North Carolina, dated for a year, got engaged in Guatemala, and got married in Las Vegas.

We lived in Georgia...

and in South Korea...

and now we live in Hawaii.

We have traveled together to Guatemala...

and to Canada...

and to New Zealand...

and to Australia...

and to the Philippines...

and to China.

We have an incredible little dog...

and now we have a beautiful baby girl!

Life is good amazing!

Happy 4th Anniversary, Johnnie!  You are the most incredible man that I have ever known and I thank God for you every day.  Our life together is my happily ever after <3

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“You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep

because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

~Dr. Seuss

Taking Baby Christmas Photos

I was once a professional photographer.  It's still fun to say that :)  I took a hiatus from teaching elementary school back in 2006 and worked as a photographer and studio manager of a popular portrait studio chain for a while.  I really haven't done much portrait photography since then but now that I have Cameron, I'm easing back into it.  I have a neighbor friend who has a daughter only two months older than Cameron.  She supplied the lights and the props, I set up the makeshift studio in the guest bedroom, and we got some great photos of our daughters for Christmas.

This is an easy setup that anyone can recreate if you have a spot in your house with good lighting.  Our guest bedroom has a huge window so I set up the studio there.  I used only the natural light from the window, no other artificial light or flash of any kind (besides the Christmas lights obviously).  With the babies on the bed, I could easily stoop down beside the bed to be at their eye level.  Had we set this up on the floor, I would have had to lay on the floor to get these shots.

What you will need:

• White backdrop - a white sheet, quilt, blanket, fabric, or even just a white wall!
• Christmas lights - with white wire if you are using a white backdrop.  The green wire lights would work with a dark backdrop.
• Somewhere to hang your backdrop and lights - a backdrop stand, some coat trees, a bed headboard, or even tacked to a wall... get creative!
• DSLR Camera - (a camera with interchangeable lenses).  You just can't get the same look with a point-and-shoot or an iPhone camera.
• posing pillow (depending on the age of the baby) - a Boppy or Mombo work great!
• props - outfits, hats, headbands, etc...

A Boppy or Mombo both make an excellent posing pillow for babies and if you have a baby, you probably have one of these pillows already!  I have both and personally like the Mombo better.  It is dual-sided (a soft side and a firm side), is thicker than the Boppy, and holds its shape better.  For the Christmas photos, I draped fabric over the Mombo. (I actually used my white bathrobe in Cameron's photos!)  I took the decorative cover off of my Mombo for the photos so that the pattern wouldn't show through.  

You need to use the Aperture Priority setting on your camera and set the aperture to the smallest number that it will go to.  How to do this differs among the different makes and models of cameras so read your camera's instruction manual if you don't know how.  Don't worry, it should be a simple process no matter what type of camera you have.

I used the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens for the Christmas photos.  If you enjoy taking portrait photos, you really should get this lens.  Available for Canon and Nikon, the lens is only around $100!  It's a sharp little lens with great depth of field that has hundreds of rave reviews for good reason and you can't beat the price.

The lower the number you set your aperture to, the more blurred the background will be.  The 50mm can go as low as f/1.8.  Most other average lenses will go down to at least f/4.  Even at f/4, you will still get glowing globes of light, just not quite as large as at f/1.8.

Aperture is not the only thing to consider when creating a blurry background.  Increasing the distance between your subject and the backdrop has a HUGE impact on the depth of field (blurriness of the background).  Look at the samples below.  I used the same aperture setting on both but I moved my subject farther from the background in the second photo... what a difference!

If you choose the right settings on your camera, you should only have a few adjustments to do on the computer afterwards.  What are the "right settings"?  It depends on your camera and how it works with the lens on it!  For example, my camera tends to underexpose images (make them too dark), especially with my primary lens, so when I take photos I have to overexpose to compensate for the look I'm after.  Therefore the exact settings for my camera probably won't get the same results on your camera.  You really have to experiment with your camera to know what works best.

When taking photos of people, especially babies, it's usually better to overexpose a bit.  A brighter photo will lighten shadows and make skin appear smoother.  Brightness and contrast can always be adjusted on the computer afterwards as well with most any photo editing software.

Have your studio set up and props ready ahead of time so you can work quickly when you have a happy baby.  With a digital camera, you don't have to worry about how many photos you take.  You'll have a ton of photos that you will delete, but you will also have that handful of gems that make you smile every time you look at them :)

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"You don't take a photograph, you make it."

~Ansel Adams

Family Friday: 3 Months Old

13 Weeks Old

It's hard to believe that Cameron is 3 months old already!  In one sense it feels like forever ago that she was born, but then it also feels like time is flying by.  She started her life at 5 lbs 13 oz and now weighs 11 lbs  6 oz.  I am still exclusively breastfeeding Cameron and I feed her on demand.  During the day, she eats about every 4 hours, but in the evenings her last few meals are every 2 hours.  At night she sleeps 7 to 8 hours straight and she usually takes 3 naps during the day.  She still gets very fussy in the evenings from about 5pm until she's ready for bed.

Cameron has gotten better at rolling over!  She doesn't do it often but when she does decide to roll, she can do it very quickly now.  She still smiles, laughs, and "talks" a lot!  I most love when she flirts with me - she'll turn her head, look at me out of the corner of her eyes, and smile bashfully.  It melts my heart every time :)

In the past week, Cameron has mastered a couple new things.  First, she has discovered that kicking her feet while sitting in her bouncy chair makes the chair bounce!  It's so cute to watch her excitement as she bounces herself :)  Second, she now turns her head to follow action.  She follows Dulce and I with her eyes and by turning her head to keep us in sight.

My mother got here this week for a 10-day visit!  My grandma was supposed to come as well but she recently broke her ankle.  We were sad she couldn't come but we think of her daily and can't wait to see her in the spring!

Cameron is having a great time getting to know her Nana, and my mom is certainly enjoying the time with her newest granddaughter.  Having her here gives me a little more free time so hopefully I can catch up on some blog posts, holiday baking, and the hundred other things on my To-Do list!

Lots of smiles and giggles for Nana :)

I am still running at least 3 miles every other day.  With my mom here, Dulce and I have done a couple runs alone, leaving Cam at home.  Without the stroller we certainly run faster, doing an 11 minute mile versus a 12:30 minute mile.  On December 15, I will be running a 5K race pushing Cam in the Bob.  It will be my first race in well over a year and I'm so excited!

Starting on Monday, I'm taking on a 60 day Beachbody Insanity challenge with some friends, led by a Beachbody coach to keep us all on track.  I have the Insanity videos and used to do them a year ago before getting pregnant.  I love Insanity!  It's a tough workout that burns tons of calories and only takes about 30 minutes a day which is totally doable even with a new baby in the house.

I have a severe shortage of random Cameron photos this week!  There is actually a reason for that... Christmas photos.  First, I photographed a friend's little girl who was 4.5 months old.  It was a lot of fun and super easy to get a ton of great photos of her!  Photographing Cameron who was not quite 3 months old, however, was considerably more challenging because of the more limited poses she can do and her extremely short happy-for-the-camera span.  It took an entire week of 5-minute sessions to get enough photos of Cam to satisfy the photographer in me.

I created a simple photo studio setup in the guest bedroom and got great photos using only a few things you may already have in your house.  In a few days, I'll put up a blog post showing how you can recreate this same look in photos of your little one if you're up for the challenge :)

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"Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever."

~Author Unknown