2013 in pictures

As I sit here sipping a cup of coffee while Jacob rocks Camden for a nap I'm overwhelmed with thankfulness for everything that 2013 brought us. I know I haven't even blogged about Christmas day yet, or shared my plethora of Camden-attempting-to-open-gifts-while-chewing-on-wrapping-paper pictures (or even downloaded them from my camera to my computer yet, oops). However, I want to take a few minutes to write a post recapping 2013. I want to seize this reminiscent, oh so happy, quiet moment to share from my heart.

To say that 2013 was the best year of my life would not be an overstatement. Although I've had so many wonderful experiences leading up to last year (college, engagement, my wedding, even our positive pregnancy test and gender reveal), I can wholeheartedly say that 2013 was the most incredible year. Sure, it was very challenging and life-altering. More than anything, it was miraculous, joyful, indescribably full of love. I think this can only truly be understood by other mommas. There is just something about becoming a mother. Something so deeply... special. It's hard to explain. If you're a mom, you know what I'm talking about. Falling in love with your own little one is an experience that is so incredibly beautiful. It's exhausting, difficult, sometimes tearful. Yet, it is a powerful life change. It is... motherhood. This new phase in my life that I have joyfully anticipated since I was a little girl is even better than I imagined. It has changed me. I'm not just Alayna anymore; I'm Camden's momma. And I am extremely thankful for this new role and how it has changed my life! With that being said, I want to share a few of my favorite pictures from this year. A little photo recap, if you will.

(I'm going to start with February since nothing all that exciting happened in January. Camden continued to grow in my belly while I anxiously counted down to his due date!)

February

I received the most miraculous answer to my prayers in February. Jacob was released early from his deployment and came home to be on February 28th. He wasn't scheduled to come home until sometime late-March, which would have meant him missing Camden's birth and the first few weeks of his life. I continuously prayed that God would work a miracle and allow Jake to come home before Camden was born. So many people told me it was impossible and wouldn't happen. But, at the risk of sounding cheesy, all things are possible with God! He granted us the desire of our hearts and sent Jacob home 17 days before Camden was born! 

March 

I went into labor on Friday, March 15th (the day I felt all along would be the day I had Camden! And my parent's 28th anniversary) and had Camden at 1:18am on Saturday, March 16th. My birthing experience was amazing. Having Jacob there gave me so much peace and strength. He was an incredible birthing partner through it all. I also had the support of my parents who spent their entire anniversary in the hospital with me, and my wonderful, smart, supportive and sweet doula, Stefanie. I was able to have the natural birth that I so intensely desired. And above it all, Camden was born perfectly healthy! I can't say enough what an amazing experience his natural birth was for me. 

We also celebrated our first holiday as a family in March- Easter! We enjoyed Sunday morning service at my Dad's church, had a quiet afternoon, and took a walk with my Mom. It was a great day.

April

We continued to adjust to life as a family of three in April while watching Camden grow by leaps and bounds! We soaked up every minute of baby snuggles and saw Camden's newborn face disappear right before our eyes.

May

I celebrated my first Mother's Day with my little guy! I was showered with love and some special gifts and completely enjoyed every minute of it! We also took Camden down to our alma mater, Valley Forge Christian College, for the first time! We visited with friends and took him to graduation, where he attracted plenty of attention and compliments! ;]

June

We kicked off a busy summer in June! We took a trip to New York for a wedding and stopped at the Baseball Hall of Fame on our way home. We celebrated Jacob's first Father's Day! I didn't get many pictures of him and Camden together that day (fail!) but we had a lot of funny spoiling Jake and making him feel special. Then, just a couple weeks later, we celebrated Jacob's 26th birthday and spoiled him some more! We also spent lots of time outside soaking up the warmer weather. It was a very fun, eventful month! 

July

We had another fun-filled month in July, including celebrating Independence Day (with Camden in the cutest overall EVER!), and taking Camden to the beach and the aquarium for the first time! We had lots of little adventures as a family and discovered Camden's love for being outdoors!

August

We took a few more trips to the beach in August. Camden loved the sound of the waves and the wet squishy sand. We also went apple picking with him for the first time! Mostly, August was full of days outside splashing in his baby pool, swinging on the front porch, and going for lots of walks! Another great month!

September 

We went on a few fall adventures and introduced Camden to the pumpkin patch! We also celebrated his half birthday by watching the Bruins and giving him baby oat cereal for the first time (he hated it, haha). September was a pretty low-key month. Lots more family time and chilly fall night snuggles!

October

We took Camden on his second trip to VFCC in October to attend Homecoming! He did awful with the car ride but he was great with all the Homecoming events. We had a lot of fun showing him off to faculty and friends. October was also marked by a few late nights watching the Red Sox and finally seeing them win the World Series! Camden wasn't all that interested but at lest we can tell him they won it all the year he was born ;] We also started to see Camden's personality begin to emerge much more this month. From his various sounds to his funny faces, Camden became a total ham!

November

We kicked off November with a belated Halloween party where Camden totally rocked his Batman baby costume ;] He had tons of fun showing off and being friendly. Then, of course, we had a wonderful time celebrating Camden's first Thanksgiving!!

December

Our December was full of Christmas cheer and festive fun! We had a great time buying gifts for family and friends, picking out a Christmas tree, decorating, baking tons of cookies, and having plenty of special family time. It was idyllic. Camden loved watching the blinking lights of the Christmas tree. He was adorable trying to open gifts and taste-testing all the wrapping paper. We had a perfect Christmas as a family! New Years was uneventful, seeing as Camden went to sleep well before midnight and we missed the ball drop, haha. But overall our December was excellent!

It's so hard to pick just a few favorite pictures from each month! There were SO MANY picture-perfect moments this year. Watching Camden grow and develop has been amazing. It's bittersweet to see how big he is now compared to his newborn pictures. I still can't believe that he'll be one in a couple months! Time is flying by. I'm incredibly thankful that 2013 brought us such indescribable joy and love! Camden is the biggest blessing I have ever received! I'm excited for all that 2014 has in store for us, including a super fun first birthday party for my little guy! Happy New Year, friends! :D

Christmas pictures

Christmas this year was truly magical! Like I said in my Thanksgiving post, it's so very fun to share the holidays with Camden! Even though he doesn't know what the big deal is, I know he can sense the excitement and he soaks up all the attention. It makes me so excited to see how much he loves the holidays as he gets older and can understand what's going on! It's just going to be the best.

This year, we had the privilege of getting family pictures taken as a Christmas gift from one of my best friends! We also had a professional photo shoot of just Camden with a different photographer. Anyone who knows me knows that I loooove pictures!! I take a lot of them. Pictures are the perfect way to capture moments to cherish forever. As you can imagine, I was thrilled to get all these pictures taken! They came out so beautiful, I just have to share some of them here.

(Family pictures by Chris of Duffro Photography)

(Camden pictures by Jenn of Jenn's Photo)

I love.love.love how all of these pictures turned out!! Camden was surprisingly well-behaved for all the photos. He did great. I'm beyond happy to have these beautiful pictures to commemorate Camden's first Christmas! :D  I'll try to write up a blog soon about Christmas day with the little guy! I have lots of pictures of him trying to eat all the wrapping paper, haha. I hope you all had an absolutely wonderful Christmas!

Camden's First Thanksgiving

First of all, can I just say how this time of the year is exponentially more fun with a child?! It's seriously the best! I love the holidays to begin with but having my own son to share them with makes it all that much more fun! It's amazing. I feel like a kid all over again. The excitement. The newness of it all. Obviously Camden doesn't understand what the hoopla is all about but it's still so neat to share all these "firsts" with him. Plus, Jacob was deployed for the holiday season last year so it's awesome to have him here to enjoy it all, too! It's so special. I am nothing short of thrilled to be celebrating the holidays with both of my guys! BOTH my guys! Gosh, I feel so blessed just typing that! :D

I know I'm a little late posting about Thanksgiving, seeing as Christmas is next week (WHAT?!) but I wanted to recap Camden's first Thanksgiving. Overall it was a gigantic mess success! Camden surprisingly slept in until 10:30am so we missed a lot of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which I was a little bummed about. But I was sick the day before Thanksgiving so being able to sleep in was a huge blessing. Camden had some puffs and cereal for breakfast before playing for awhile and going down for his morning nap. I snuck in my workout and a shower while he slept then we all sat down for our Thanksgiving meal together! I set aside some boiled white potatoes and sweet potatoes as well as a few steamed carrots and some turkey (that we pureed) for Camden's meal (I didn't want him to eat all the butter, milk, salt, and whatever else usually goes into our mashed potatoes and other sides so he had them au natural!). I think Cam was most thrilled to be able to make a mess of eat his meal with his hands! He loved squishing everything between his fingers, haha. We put some bites in his mouth for him and let him take the lead feeding himself after. He was NOT a fan of the turkey! He's eaten turkey before- mixed with sweet potatoes, apples, or something else- but he didn't like it plain. At all. His reaction was hysterical! I caught a video of his reaction (which can be found on my Facebook and Instagram) and watched it over and over. I love how honest his expressions are- if he doesn't like something he makes a face and doesn't hesitate to spit it out! It's just so funny. He doesn't know to care about what other people will think. The innocence is refreshing and sweet. I regress. He didn't like the turkey but he enjoyed the potatoes! His carrots ended up getting rubbery so we didn't let him have those. He did have a couple bites of a roll as well. We all enjoyed watching him eat and make a mess. Camden definitely stole the show at the table! My little goof. Also, in celebration of Thanksgiving, Camden cut his first TWO teeth!! I had a sneaky suspicion he was going to cut two at once and that they were coming soon. I found them while we were eating! His two bottom teeth. What a festive boy! Haha. Clearly, this calls for many, many pictures of Camden's Thanksgiving feast so here we go!

Gosh, I love this boy so much! I can't wait to share Christmas with him! It's going to be magical. I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season with your loved ones! :]

Feeding Favorites

Now that we have entered the wonderful world of solid foods I thought a "feeding favorites" blog was appropriate! Here are some of my favorite things that make the feeding adventure a little more fun. Enjoy! :]

1. Boogin Head Squeeze 'Ems. Reusable, dishwasher safe food pouches. You know the plethora of easy to-go food pouches for baby? These amazing pouches make it possible to create your own! I love making the majority of Camden's food from scratch. I like knowing exactly what goes in it and honestly, I think it's fun to make his food! If I anticipate an afternoon of errands or we're planning a road trip, I fill these pouches with homemade baby food and we're good to go! Plus, if any of you have seen the viral video going around Facebook of the Earth's Best food pouch that had maggots in it (EWWW!!!) you can appreciate making your own pouches to avoid such a disgusting surprise. I would highly recommend these to any parent who plans on making their own baby food! 

2. Tommee Tippee catch-all bibs. These things rock! Camden LOVES to eat Cheerios and puffs and these bibs help to catch all the strays that don't quite make it to his mouth. It helps insure that the floor doesn't lay claim to nearly all of his finger foods. The pouch catches what is dropped and it's still good to put back on his tray for a second attempt at eating. Genius bibs. They look a little weird but they get the job done. And the rubber material is super easy to clean! Double win. 

3. Gerber soft bite spoons. To me, these are classic for baby feeding. These small metal spoons have silicone covered tips so that baby's gums don't get hurt when they (inevitably) bite down. They're small, perfect for little mouths. And they're cute! I obviously have the "boy" colors and I love how vibrant they are. Also, the fact that the silicone coating resists stains makes me very happy! Otherwise I'm pretty sure they would all be orange by now thanks to my son's love of carrots ;]

4. Baby Bullet. Like I said, I enjoy making almost all of Camden's food from scratch. I love how easy the Baby Bullet makes it to do so! I also have the Turbo Steamer and together I can make a bunch of baby food in a short amount of time. The "bullet" part blends everything down so smoothly. The steamer cooks basically everything without a fuss. The little pods are the perfect size for storage and the freezer tray makes it even easier to store anything that won't be eaten right away! I use this for every food I make for Camden (besides applesauce, which gets cooked in he Crock Pot). I know there are a lot of different baby food makers on the market and this is the only one I've tried but I really like it and would recommend it! 

5. Boon grass. This isn't exactly a feeding item but it is a very helpful accessory! This drying rack is super cute, doesn't look horribly tacky and ugly on the kitchen counter, and holds all the little bits and pieces that come along with the whole baby food adventure. This is the exact set I have- the grass, white flower, and white tree. Everything stays nicely organized while it dries. I also like that the grass part keeps things upright without warping and allows for airflow under item to prevent mold/mildew. I know the whole drying rack thing isn't really a big deal but I just like this piece a lot. 

6. Gerber rest easy spoons. Apparently I have an affinity towards Gerber spoons, huh? Haha. These are the only spoons we use other than the soft bite ones. These are a bit bigger than the soft bite spoons, have a longer handle, and more of a rectangular shape. I find that the food slides off these spoons very easily and Camden gets bigger bites (we only recently started using them now that he's used to solids). The "rest easy" aspect is simply a built-in bump on the back of the spoon that keeps the tip of it from resting on the table when you put it down. If you're a slight germ-a-phobe like me, you'll appreciate this simple feature. Of course, the "rest easy" part does not help if your baby happens to grab hold of the spoon and violently throw it on the floor. Sorry, momma's ;]

And that's all I've got! The only other item worth mentioning was on my last "favorites" list: the Fisher-Price space saver highchair. Camden eats all of his meals from that seat and we love how it doesn't take up much space at all. But since I referenced it on my last post I figured there's no need to rewrite it onto this one. When I was getting ready to introduce solids to Camden, I have to admit, I was a little sad. Selfishly, I didn't want him to need/want/like foods other than breastmilk! I've so loved nursing my little guy, I was sad to see that whole dynamic change as solids were introduced. However, as I've ventured through the feeding process with Cam, I've found it to be so very fun! I enjoy making his foods. I enjoy feeding him everyday. I even enjoy plopping globs of food on his tray and letting him make a huge, sticky mess with them! He loves food. He's so willing to try anything and usually he eats all that I offer him. We've worked up to three "real" meals a day, plus nursing sessions in between (which I now treasure more than ever!). He's a great eater. And we're both having fun! I hope this list helps some of my momma friends who might be preparing for the solid food adventure with their own little ones! :]