What is Kamdyn Doing Now?

It's been a while since I've posted some new and fun things that Kamdyn can do. She is at such a playful and precious age. I love just sitting on the couch watching her. I often lay in the floor beside her while she plays. I look on in amazement at my little sweetie! She is very good at entertaining herself and she can do so for quite sometime.

Kamdyn is getting really good at balancing when she walks with our assistance. I started only giving her one hand instead of two and encouraging her to take a few steps. She pitched a fit at first when I tried this, but now she will at least take a few steps with only one hand. She will stand up by herself while leaning against the couch. She will also hold on to things like her excersaucer while she is standing up. She holds on with one hand and plays with the toys with the other. She will even take a step or two to move around it. She still has a good ways to go though before she has her balance completely and takes off on her own. We practice every day!!





She still loves to ride around in that walker. In fact, she chases us around the house while she is in it. She has to be everywhere that we are! Did I mention that she is IN to EVERYTHING while she walks in the walker? We have had to cover all of our outlets because she has tried to put her fingers in most all of them. Now she tries to get the outlet covers off. She pulls our trash can completely over in to the floor. She tries to open all of the cabinets, but can't because the walker blocks them from opening. Needless to say, she is quickly learning what "NO, NO" means. In fact, when she approaches something that she knows she shouldn't be touching, she will look around to see if either of us are watching her. If not, she goes for it! If we are watching, she gives a little smirk and moves on to the next thing. She is quite precocious!

I also think that she is learning what "bye-bye" means. Every time I say "bye-bye," she throws her hands in the air and waves one of them up and down. From what I've read, this is the age when they start waving bye-bye and understanding what it means. I'll keep you posted on this though. It may just be a coincidence that she does it everytime I say "bye-bye." Maybe she just likes the way that I say it and gets excited!! Who knows what's going on inside that little head??? I'd love to know!!!

Her 9 month check-up is January 2nd. Yes, 9 months! I can hardly believe it. I can't wait to see how much she weighs and how long she is. She feels like she weighs 30 lbs. My left bicep is going to be the size of Mike Tyson's soon from carrying her around all of the time! :) Did I mention that Kamdyn has yet to be sick? She hasn't even had a sniffle!! I hate to even say this and right at this moment I am knocking on wood and saying a prayer. We have been so lucky! I guess it's that breastmilk! If so, I am so glad that I nursed her for as long as I did. It was well worth the hassle. We'll let you know what Dr. Foushee says about her.

She also has her next "photo shoot" on January 10th at Fitz-Symms. I can't wait to see how she does this time. She's not nearly as still and immobile as she has been in the past for these pictures. It should be quite interesting!

I will keep you posted!

A Weekend Away from Mommy and Daddy

Kamdyn went on a little road trip without Mommy and Daddy. Grand (yet to be named) picked Kamdyn up on Friday 12/8 around 9:30 am. I decided to take the day off so that I could have a "ME" day. It's the first one that I've had in 8 months and it was much needed! Kamdyn visited family in Greenwood on her way to Anderson to stay with Mama Lucy on Friday night. Mama Lucy's birthday was Sunday12/10. Kamdyn got to be there to celebrate with her! On Saturday afternoon, Na-Na and Poppy picked Kamdyn up from Mama Lucy's. Kamdyn spent Saturday night with them. She returned to Mama Lucy's on Sunday afternoon and Grand brought her back to North Augusta on Sunday evening. Kamdyn had a whirlwind trip of the Upstate and I'm sure she enjoyed every minute of it. She loves to GO, GO, GO!

As for Mommy and Daddy....this was a perfect weekend for us to spend time at our house alone (another event that hasn't taken place since Kamdyn was born). We have been out of town without Kamdyn, but we haven't been at our house alone since she was born. Richard's work Christmas Party was on Saturday night. And, since Ruth Ann was willing to stop by here to pick Kamdyn up on her way to Anderson, this worked out perfectly! We were able to have a nice relaxing dinner on Friday night at a restaurant at a normal dinner time! We shopped for Christmas on Saturday. We went to the Christmas Party on Saturday night and had a blast!! On Sunday morning we were anxiously waiting for our "angel" to return!!! I couldn't wait for her to get home. While I enjoyed my weekend with Richard, I missed Kamdyn terribly. I met her in the driveway and couldn't wait to get some hugs and kisses. Her smile fills my heart!

Here are some pics of what she did while she was away. I'm not sure she missed us that much! If she did, she didn't really have time to think about it!

Christmas Card

Here is the Christmas Card.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Strike a Pose.......or NOT!

Of course we waited until the last minute to decide what we were going to do for our Christmas Card. We knew that we only wanted Kamdyn in the picture, but we couldn't decide if we wanted to have professional pictures done or if we just wanted a candid shot that showed off her personality. You can see from the pics below that we chose the later. However, Kamdyn didn't quite cooperate 100%. We waited to take her picture until her fussiest time (the evening), which was our fault. Here's how it went. I'll let the pictures describe our "photo shoot." We did manage to get ONE adorable shot! How? I'll never know......

Hopefully all of you have received your Christmas Card by now so you have seen the finished product! We wish that the Christmas Card picture would have been brighter. It looked brighter on the screen when I ordered them. Oh well!! Here's what happened "behind the scenes."

The beginning.......

She immediately grabs the tree!

"Why are you calling my name and acting so crazy?" face

Okay, I'll give you a little smile!

Here comes the bow!

What is that bow doing on my head?

There goes the bow!

Take II.....





Not again! Maybe I should cry this time...

Perfect light, no smile!

Perfect smile, No light!

Finally! You people are slow! All I wanted
was the bow this entire time!

So, we kept on.....to no avail! At this point, she had had enough. She cried and fussed so we finally gave her the bow. She put it right in her mouth, of course! There were many pictures in between, but none as cute as this one above. We did our best to lighten the picture on the computer and decided that we were done with Christmas Card pictures until next year! We never thought that this would have been such a fiasco. I guess the moral of the story is, "When you want a baby to do something on cue, you can forget it!" Oh, the lessons you learn as a parent! What fun!!! I wouldn't trade these times for anything in the world though!

Happy Thanksgiving

Kamdyn's 1st Thanksgiving has come and gone. With all the attention she received during Thanksgiving, we can only imagine what must be in store for her for Christmas. Everyone came to our house for Thanksgiving. Although we didn't have a table for everyone to sit around, we made do so that everyone could at least be together. Hopefully, a new house is in our future sooner rather than later! Hint, hint! I love our house, we've just kind of outgrown it! You can see from the pictures below that Kamdyn got to do exactly what she wanted as she was passed around the room the entire day. She held on to everyone's fingers as they all took turns walking her around the house. And, I do mean ALL day. I can hardly believe how much she has grown. I never imagined loving anything or anyone as much as I love her. She has such a precious personality.......sweet, spunky, and she definitely has a mind of her own. A mind that we are supposed to be able to read, no doubt! We are definitely in for it when she starts to walk (which could be any day!). We can see her curiousity increasing each day. What a precious angel!

Grand walking Kamdyn around the house! Everyone
watching the center of attention, of course!

Kamdyn with her "Baby's First Thanksgiving" shirt.
She was loving this attention!

Mama Lucy and Aunt Kathy take a turn
walking her around the house!

Finally Kamdyn had to get in her walker, but
she was still entertained by all of the attention!

We sit down for our Thanskgiving Dinner
as we all try to squeeze around the table.

Birthday Party

On Saturday, my teaching assistant's little girl, MacKenna, had her 3rd birthday party. The theme for her party was "My Little Pony." Kamdyn was invited, of course. I was a wee bit nervous because it was the first birthday party that she had been to. And, she had never been around this many children at one time. We got there early so Kamdyn could see MacKenna before the party actually started and because I didn't know how long Kamdyn would last. Much to my surprise, Kamdyn had a blast! Debra, my teaching assitant, brought a walker for Kamdyn to walk around in. When I say that she is ready to walk, I think I mean that she is ready to run. I spent the entire party chasing her around making sure that she didn't pull the tablecloths off of the table or knock any of the other little children down. There were about 15 children there and Kamdyn was everywhere! I couldn't believe my eyes. After a brief "run" in the walker, we had to venture outside to visit the pony. Yes, a real pony! Kamdyn petted the pony. As she was petting the pony, it let out a huge neigh. To my surprise, yet again, Kamdyn did not cry! She seemed to love the pony (sorry, Daddy!). Then, each of the children got to take a pony ride around the field. We weren't quite up for having the pony walk Kamdyn around; however, I had to have her picture taken while she was sitting on the pony despite the intense pain in my ear. I could silently hear Richard saying, "Kim, horses are dirty and nasty. Don't put the baby on there." I ignored the pain in my ear and it did go away. :) Since the Ohio State vs. Michigan game was so important to him, this seemed semi-important to me. Kamdyn survived it and actually seemed to like it! Then, we were back inside to play chase a little while longer. Kamdyn also got to play one of the games with the 1 and 2 year olds. It was a version of musical chairs, except there were animal circles on the floor. If you didn't end up on a circle when the music stopped you were out. We were out first! I think I planned it that way though because I was already exhausted by this point from running around after her. Leaning down holding her hands while she walks is painful to the back. So, then is was cake and ice cream time. Kamdyn was still running away in the walker while everyone else was trying to eat. Last, MacKenna opened her presents. By this point we had been there well over two hours and Kamdyn had not let out a whimper or grunt of unhappiness. She was all smiles and yells! Her first birthday party was a success. I think she actually could have stayed in the walker ALL night. I knew when I took her out that we would have to make a mad dash to the car. I felt a fit coming on. We made it to the car and Kamdyn fell fast asleep as soon as she was buckled in. Once I sat down to drive I realized how exhaused I was. Daddy was on "baby duty" when we got home! I didn't really care who was playing football on TV! :)

Kamdyn with MacKenna

MacKenna trying to talk to Kamdyn as she ran around!

MacKenna taking the first pony ride.

Kamdyn on the pony!

Trying to get Kamdyn to look at the camera

Kamdyn trying to kick the horse so it would giddy-up!

Blurry picture of Kamdyn as she raced around the room!

Clemson Reunion Weekend

What a fun weekend we had! All of my friends from Clemson were in town for the NC State game. It's the first time in 3 years that all of the "Geer Hall Girls" (name of college dorm where we all met) have been in the same city and state at the same time. Potter had a party at his new house in Moore, SC on Friday night. Our entire Clemson group met there, for what Richard called a "Baby Viewing Party." It was the first time that any of the girls had seen Kamdyn. Since she still goes to bed so early, we all had to rush to get to Potter's so everyone could see Kamdyn before she was in bed. Luckily, everyone made it. Kamdyn absolutely LOVED all of the attention. Her new favorite thing to do is "walk"around while holding on to someone's hands. She is even starting to pull up on things. Oh my gosh, she is only 7 months old! Yes, she is ready to walk! This is all that she wants to do and she will pitch a fit to let you know that this is what she wants to do. With all of the girls there, she undoubtedly got her way! She "walked" all around Potter's house. She was completely worn out by the time that Nanny and Poppy got there to pick her up. Mommy and Daddy got to have a funfilled grownup weekend with all of our friends. I miss the girls and wish we could get together more often. However, since each of us lives in completely different states, reunions have become few and far between. Maybe one day all of us can at least live on the East Coast again! Hint, Hint, Abby and Libba! Our weekend concluded with tailgating in Clemson and a fun filled night at Tiger Town Tavern. Can't wait to do it again! Love to you all!