"I wanna write about Baby Jesus"

Carter just woke up from nap. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was writing a story about Cameron. Carter then said, "I wanna write about Baby Jesus." I said, "Can you tell me about baby Jesus?"
Carter: "How about Tracy can dunk it." Carter Firebaugh is obsessed with sports and he LOVES the WOLFPACK! I will be writing a whole post dedicated to Carter's obsession. :)
But back to Baby Jesus...
He just told me that Baby Jesus was in the manager. His mommy & daddy are Mary & Joe-fas (haha).
After the Christmas flag got taken down, Carter from time to time, looks out the window and says, "Where's baby Jesus?"
He's now playing a baseball game on my phone and not talking...

Cameron's moving out

Last Friday, Feb. 18th, Cameron slept in her crib in her room for the first time at night. :) There's something about a baby sleeping in the room that makes me think of them as still being a "baby". So 1 day after she turned 8 months old, we kicked her out. Just Kidding. I was a little torn over it, but we did it.
Part of the reason we waited so long was:
1. Carter slept in our room till he was 6 months old, so Cameron was going to stay at least that long. ;)
2. Cameron was sleeping through the night after the first month but then in December, when lots of teeth started coming in, her sleep got interrupted. It was nice to just roll out of bed, change her and feed her. I know it sounds like her room is really far away but Aaron was more in tune (when she was in the room) to her being awake at night so he would fix her a bottle, so I never had to leave the room.
3. Aaron's parents got us a video monitor when Cameron was born so we had been using it in Carter's room. In January, I decided that we would take down his rails so I wanted to keep the monitor in there for a few weeks so I could peek on him. He only fell out a handful of times.
4. It has been a cold winter! We've kept her vents closed in the summer so we weren't cooling that room and closed in the winter so we weren't heating that room. We've had problems with our air conditioner and the man has said that we have "too many vents" and to close ones we can.
5. Really the #1 reason-I still wanted her to sleep in our room. :)

So I had Aaron drop the mattress and move the monitor to Cameron's room. All last week, she was dealing with RSV so it was nice for her to be in our room so I could check on her since her coughing was causing her to wake up. There was 2 nights that after 3am, she was not going back to sleep in her bed. So I hung off the side of the bed from 3-8am. She had been napping in her room for a couple weeks so we ran the humidifier during naptimes. By moving her to her own room at night, we could run the humidifier for her all the time.

Cameron has done well with her change. :) She's slept through the night but has woke up around 6:45 a couple mornings. She's been sleeping at least 1 nap a day half sitting up/half bent over. I'll post some pictures soon.

Valentines Pictures

I got a gift card from my brother to Picture People for Christmas so we got Cameron's 6 month pictures taken there, just a month late. I like Picture People but I find myself only like one or two of the pictures, which is a good thing for budgeting purposes. :)
Then the next week, my mom and I took both kids to Portrait Innovations to get Valentines pictures. There were some good ones, of course! We got the $9.95 package but I couldn't pass up on one of each kid. Carter did SUCH a great job as compared with Christmas pictures! :)

Kids Exchange

I'll have to come back and re-read this post as I am sure there are typos and its random and jumbled. I was trying to type before we headed to bed. :) Yay for 3 days in a roooooooooooow!

Kids Exchange comes twice a year and its my favorite!! July 2010, I convinced Aaron to work a shift so we could shop early. He actually enjoyed himself so we both scheduled to work the January 2011 sale so we could shop even earlier. Aaron was orginially scheduled to work security on a teacher workday with the "snow" caused the county to move the workday so we had to change Aaron's job to tearing down the building...a little harder task. My job was on the last night of the sale as a sorter...aka going through all the madness that was still left and sorting it to be picked up or donated! We got to shop on Wednesday at 3pm and I think I could have shopped all night! We first attacked the double strollers and found a joovy one for $20...and it's red! ;) The only thing is it was missing the front tray but umbrella strollers don't have a tray either. We also purchased one for some of our friends that were coming to shop at 5pm. After strollers, I was off to attack the 4T boys section. I touched every piece there...and had tons in the wagon. Michael counted and there were 44 pairs of plaid shorts! HAHA. I was just grabbing what I thought I might like! After going through the section, I went along the side and had Aaron sort the items while I started looking at the 18 month girls for Cameron. No, we didn't buy 44 pairs of shorts, but I was able to check for stain, brands and prices to make the best purchases. This is what really is the time consuming part. It's getting tougher to shop for Carter as boys are so tough on their clothes. I noticed some moms take a lot of price in the used clothing as some of the items were priced really high. That makes it easier for me actually. So about 8pm, they are making calls to reference they the last call may be coming soon. I was trying to move quick as the 18 month girls section was more disappointing than Carter's section. If you know the store layout, I never even made it from the back of the store to the row of infant toys. At 9pm, they asked us to get in line to check out. After check out, our average per item was $2.86!! :) I'm ok with that! Carter is set...but Cameron needs a little more. Today, I noticed that most of the stuff in her closet for spring/summer are all sleeveless. I guess I was remembering how hot it was last summer!

One thing I really like about the sale is that its sooo huge and draws such a huge crowd. This helps my items to sell! I like that I get paide so quickly after the sale and I usually tend to make about what we spend. We got our check from the sale last week and I made right at $250!! :) I wanted to make some quick $ off the leftover stuff so I took some clothes, books & toys to the Children's Orchard (Kids Consignment Store that pays cash upfront for items) and was very disappointed that she wanted to give me only $13 for 37 items (9 books (brand new!), 8 outfits, 7 shirts, 2 hats, 2 bathing suits, 7 oneies, 2 shorts). Needless to say I did not accept her offer! I think I may look into another local consignment sale for the unsold KE items.

Sign Language

Back on January 18th, right at 7 months, Cameron signed more! I kept repeating more and she kept signing and smiling. She was proud of herself and I was too! Funny thing is over time, she has gotten lazy and decided to sign more so it looks more like milk & byebye. We haven't even tried to teach her milk. Sometimes it sounds like she actually trying to say more. We are currently working on thank you. No progress yet.
She enjoys self-feeding but still struggles with releasing the cheerios from her chubby hands! :) We've worked with Carter so he knows when he can put another one is her mouth before I've seen her with 3 in her mouth before. He's mommy's big helper!
Solids started off as a big challenge with Cameron but she's doing great now.

During month 7, Cameron:
-signs more
-can sit up in her bed by herself!
-is crawling but not too far
-can pull up
-has her 7th tooth coming in
-is wearing diapers bought by mommy & daddy. We made it to 6.5 months with gracious diaper gifts from family and friends!! Thanks!! :)
-Wears Size 3 diapers
-Wears 12 month clothes, but still wears some 6-12 month
-Had her 2nd sick visit-this time it's RSV.

2 days in a row?!?!? ;)

I'm home from church with Cameron, who is napping, so I thought I'd write some more about our wonderful kids & life!! :)

Aaron's parents came in town last night on their way back from Richmond so they stayed with the kids while Aaron and I went out for Valentine's Day! We don't eat out often so when we do, it's a TREAT! :) At Christmas, one of Aaron's students gave him a NICE gift card to LoneStar...so we eat dinner for less than $7 last night! Wahooooo! Then I asked could we go to Kohl's and Target. I have a leftover gift card at Kohl's (I'm really good about holding on to these waiting for the right time to use them! I have atleast partial 1 from Christmas 2009 & 2 partials from my bday 2010) so I went to search for Cameron a white picture frame instead of paying for it at Target! ;) And then of course a trip to Target included buying baby food and formula with LOTS of great coupons!!

Recently, I've had a lot of friends sharing baby coupons with us, and it's a blessing! And the formula checks that I can't use, I just trade them on Craigslist for the ones I can! :) With Carter we just used whatever brand of formula, both Similac and Enfamil after breastfeeding, but Cameron is a little pickier! ;) We use Good Start with her because the dr said it is the closest to breastmilk and it really helps with regular bowl movements. {Here's the TMI part: They have been explosive especially in conjunction with the daily doses for amoxicillian for Kidney Reflux. Though, now with solids in her diet the explosions aren't as often}

If you ever get any baby coupons, be sure to share those with those in your life that can benefit!! I never thought coupons are something that I would get so excited over!! :)

Cameron is crawling...

Last Saturday, Feb. 5th, I figured I'd better go ahead and saying Cameron was crawling before someone else told me. At this point, she's not moving very much. A knee more or two but after she moves she's roll over and then sit up and eventually change directions. So in order words, Cameron is mobile. I'm actually rather sad, aside from the you can't leave her unattended for very long, but I just keep thinking about how quickly she is growing.


As of now, Cameron is still sleeping in our room. Having a baby sleeping in your room makes you think you still have a "baby". Well, we had a couple different reasons. One: I still wanted her to sleep in there! :) What other reasons do you need! Two: It is freezing in her room. We use a space heater in Carter's room at night and we need to get one for Cameron's room too. Carter has started to like and use his covers when he sleeps so now I feel more comfortable moving the heater to Cameron's room. Three:Carter and Cameron's rooms are next to each other, so I was also concerned about how he would sleep if she where crying and how she would sleep if he was loud playing in his room. Four: Carter was still using the video monitor Aaron's parents gave us when Cameron was born. Mid January, I decided to take Carter's rails off the sides of his bed so I still wanted to keep the video monitor in there so I could see him. He only fell off a hand full of times. At least twice, he just kept sleeping on the floor. This week, I decided it was time that I didn't need the video monitor in his room so I had Aaron try to find a place to set it up in Cameron's room. We still haven't found a place that I like, but its in there. I also had him drop the mattress since she's now pulling up on stuff. So starting this week, she's been napping in her room. I guess her time to move is coming too as she'll be 8 months next week. But with her being sick this week, I wanted to keep her in the room with me.

Thank you Christian Radio!

Carter loves to sing! :) I would post a video from Christmas of him singing tons of Christmas songs BUT hard drive went bad and we weren't able to access those files. :( So maybe we'll just have to record some in February. Some of his current favorite songs to sing are songs that we listen to on the radio or on my phone like:

Chris Tomlin: I will follow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnwz3xx_yGs

Chris Tomlin: Our God is greater
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SAtWjBDFeM

Lecrae: Background
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHnZRZiCYHE

He only knows the chorus but its a start! :) Its the sweetest thing to hear him sing these songs.

We went through a time where Carter protested praying at meal times so thankfully one day he wanted to start singing his meal prayers like they do at church. {Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus, for our food, for our food, and your many blessings, and your many blessings, Amen, Amen.-to the tune of Are you sleeping?} And one of my best friends is the head over the toddler class and I've been fussing for a while now about them teaching some content in his class. I know its tough with the age range from 16months-3year but she told me on Friday that she taught them a verse on Wednesday for the first time. We were out to dinner with my mom last night and Carter randomly starts saying, "In the beginning, God, who loved us"...(and then a bunch of stuff I didn't understand). Well, he was close...but I would say most 2 years don't use words like create or heaven(s) and earth. We'll start working on that so he can get Genesis 1:1 down.

For now, we are just waiting for May for Carter to turn 3 so we can go into the preschool class where they have weekly lessons. :)

Last night, we were at an event with FCA at the high school. During the opening prayer, I felt Carter's hand on my shoulder and then he put his hand on Cameron's back. :) He melts my heart!!

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm procrastinating cleaning...so I thought, I'll update the blog during naptime! :)

We took Cameron to the dr yesterday and she has RSV. Sounds scary but its just a name for bad cold. Not I'm not downplaying it, she does have a really bad cough and runny nose but this could be worse if she were smaller or a premie. She's slept well-Praise the Lord! :) And aside from some occasional fussy moments, she's handling it well. She's been drooling a lot as she's been having to breathe through her nose so we've soaked at least 7 bibs in the last 24 hours. We're just letting it run it course as we elevate her bed, run the humidifer, use saline solution, Tylenol/Ibprofen...Now if we could just keep Carter from putting his hands and mouth all over her.