Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! Baby Campbell #2 is still "baking" and only has 2 more weeks until his or her due date! We are so excited, and are keeping very busy preparing for both Christmas and our new arrival. So in the coming days/weeks, if you notice an brief absence of posting, you'll know why! I hope all my readers have a wonderful Christmas- many blessings your way!

New Cloth Diapers!

In the past, we have simply used prefolds with covers for cloth diapering. It's worked out well for us, but we still found we preferred disposables, and we were reluctant to use them. With the cost of diapers quickly escalating, I knew we needed to invest in a few cloth diapers that functioned similar to disposables. But we didn't have a fortune to spend on them either.

Enter the pocket diaper! I was able to get 18 different one-size pocket diapers with inserts off e-bay for just under $60 total. I bought them all individually to save the most money. We got the Babyland diapers sold from China. True, they probably won't be as nice as a Bum Genius diaper, but they were so budget friendly I figured it didn't matter! I did some research before purchasing them, and most of the reviews of these diapers were satisfactory enough.

Now that we have had them for several weeks, I am kicking myself for not buying them sooner! They are so easy to use! I stuff all the diapers after washing and keep the snaps on the desired setting so it's as close as they come to using disposables! They are not the most absorbent at times, but we're dealing with cloth here, not chemical laden paper. Stuffing an extra insert in seems to help with that issue, but since cloth is typically changed more frequently than disposables, it's not that big of a deal.

We are also using flush-able liners in the diapers to help with poo clean up. I find it much easier to just shake it off into the toilet than wadding up a nasty disposable! These liners, if just used for a wet diaper and not a poopy one, can also be washed and reused a few times, which helps save even more money! This has been the biggest change in the way we cloth diaper. Since our daughter is prone to extremely messy diapers, the liners were like a miracle!

As soon as the new baby comes and is big enough, we will be using cloth on him/her as well! At that point I will probably buy more or just use the prefolds to tide us over.

If you are considering cloth diapering but don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a stash of the "nicer" diapers, I encourage you to look into these Babyland e-bay diapers! They get the job done nicely with the ease a pocket diaper provides.

Thanksgiving Family Photos

This was the first Thanksgiving in many years where Daddy C and I did not have to travel! It was so nice getting ready for the day and preparing food, without the rush of driving 1.5 or 3 hours! It's truly amazing how much Peanut has grown from last Thanksgiving!

Here is a picture of the Campbell clan- I am 35.5 weeks pregnant in this photo:

She loved "playing" the piano while we were there! She even climbed up there on that stool and started playing all by herself! It was too cute!

Just happy to be with family, and showing off her pearly whites:

17 Months!

My little peanut is growing everyday! It's truly amazing how fast the time has gone! She will be a big sister in just a few short weeks!

We took a little getaway to Amish Country here in Ohio a few weeks ago as a last hurrah before the new baby arrives. Peanut had lots of fun staying in our rental apartment!

We've also finished cleaning up the yard for winter. Luckily we didn't have too many leaves to rake, although we saved all the ones we did gather for use as organic material in our raised garden beds. Peanut had fun playing in the leaves!

Structured Learning Activities with a Young Toddler

Recently, I've begun implementing structured learning activities into our day for Peanut. Although she is just over 16 months old, I can already see the benefit these early learning sessions will have! We plan on homeschooling, so getting into a routine of daily learning will also be really helpful when she starts more formal preschool studies.

When I first started researching homeschooling, I thought for sure that I would not have to worry about it until she was at least 3. But the more I learned about early learning and the more I watched her develop and grow, I decided to start doing structured activities with her, even if just for 15 or 30 minutes a day. The great thing is that she has fun and is learning without even realizing it!

I've been able to find quite a few free young toddler curriculum online, and so far we have been following Pam's House Young Toddler Curriculum. I love how flexible it is and how you can just pick and choose what you want to do. I also love the Christian teachings included. Since Peanut is still fairly young and not really talking, I can just repeat lessons a few times if I need to. This is going to come in handy when I am busy taking care of a newborn at the same time. These lessons are structured so that you can quickly start and stop different activities if needed. I borrow books for the week from the library, and am working on getting our "school" supplies stocked so I can more easily do projects that involve things like construction paper, glue sticks basic craft supplies or crayons.

If you're interested in teaching babies and toddlers, here are a few more links I found that were helpful:

Infant and Toddler Lesson Planning Ideas

Toddler Curriculum

Children's Songs with Lyrics

Sample of Bible Study Concepts for Toddlers

I Can Teach my Child: 1-2 Years

My Little Cheeser

I remember as a child I loved to "cheese" for the camera. It seems my daughter does as well, and she preps for her shot before I even turn the camera on! She loves "cheesing"!!

Here she is sporting her sunglasses inside, with the famous paci and her favorite toys- a spoon and a bowl!

"mommy! I'm ready!"

The next day...

And again! (notice the little scab between her eyes- that was from falling and landing face first on a frisbee she was carrying off the step from the garage to the sidewalk!)

14 Months of Breastfeeding

Today marks the 14th month anniversary of breastfeeding my daughter. It's a wonderful day.

If you would have told me I would make it this far back when she was a wee little newborn, I probably would have laughed! I never thought I would be able to stick with something so challenging and so life-altering for so long. I never would have thought I had the strength to endure low-supply issues, growth spurts, bottle rejections and night nursing every 2 hours for 9 months straight. But God has seen me through it all, giving me the strength I didn't know I had, as well as blessing me with those little moments of pure bliss while nursing that encouraged me to stick with it even when it was hard.

Breastfeeding my baby is the most accomplished thing I have ever done. I am so proud of myself, because I know many other mothers struggle and are not able to make it nearly as long as I did. I count myself blessed to have had this experience. I feel more empowered as a woman, wife and momma. I was able to provide the sole nutrition for my baby for the first nine months, giving her the precious gift of mother's breastmilk that will continue to positively affect her entire life. And I'm thoroughly convinced, that I if I can do it, anyone can!

Although I have made it this far, this will probably be the last day I nurse my daughter. She is moving on, and my supply has vanished in order to properly provide for our new growing baby. I was able to continue to nurse the first 5 months of this pregnancy, something I never thought I would or could do as well. But now the time has come, and I will be enjoying this break before another baby comes along and changes my life in new, wonderful ways.

Peanut Goes Camping

Recently, we took Peanut camping with her aunt and uncle who live far far away in Virginia. We decided to meet halfway in Pennsylvania, at Laurel Hill State Park (which was gorgeous BTW!).

Peanut walking along the beachy lake with Daddy C:

Peanut splashing in the water! This girl loves to swim!

She also went on her first bike ride with Daddy C and I! Here she is in her seat! She kept saying "weee!" all throughout the ride! So cute!

We went hiking to a dam and could not resist cooling off in the water below! Peanut practically dived right in, getting soaked in the process!

All 3 of us hiking! Peanut is busy look at the water in the background, haha.

We had a great trip spending time relaxing at the campsite and catching up with family. Peanut did not sleep the best the first night (we arrived at the site very late), and the second night it had started raining around dinnertime, turning our campsite into a mudsite, unsuitable for a walking toddler! So we got an emergency hotel room and let Peanut stay up late! It all turned out for the best, and next time, we'll know to take the weather seriously when it calls for a chance of rain (or at least have a backup plan arranged). Peanut thought the hotel room was so much fun though! Of course, this girl thinks everything is fun.

I can't wait for our next camping adventure, although next time it will likely be somewhere a bit closer so we don't arrive so late and also free of rain!

Do you enjoy camping? How often do you go?

Peanut is a Walker!

For the 4th of July, we went on a family vacation to my aunt and uncle's cabin in northern Michigan. The cabin is so peaceful and quiet, situated on a small lake not to far from Lake Michigan and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

This was the second time that we visited together, but the first time that Peanut joined us! We had such a good time relaxing, swimming, boating, exploring, hiking and spending time together! And to add to the memories, Peanut started full-time walking on this trip!

The drive there was 8 hours, the longest we have ever gone with Peanut in the car. We tried going through the night thinking she would sleep most of the way, but that did not go over well. She only likes to sleep about 2 hours at a time in her carseat! So on the way back, we drove throughout the day and took lots of walking breaks, and that went much much better. As long as she had plenty of books to look at and interesting new toys every so often, so was pretty content! She did really well sleeping in the pack n play in our room at the cabin, and we didn't have to fight naps with her either, which was really nice! I think all the new experiences tired her out fast!

It was so nice to have some quality time together as a family! Daddy C took off 3 days so we had 5 whole days to spend there, which is the longest vacation we have taken in some time! The best part was that it didn't cost us hardly any money since we stayed at the family cabin and ate almost all our meals there. Including gas, we spent less than $400 for this trip! That also included a day excursion to one of the nearby islands!

Enjoying our hike on top of Alligator Hill! She loves hiking and does really well in the backpack- this hike was 2 hrs so I was happy she was so content!

Playing with the rocks at Lake Michigan. She loved picking them up and banging them together!

We had a great time on our vacation and can't wait to go back next year!

Now that she is walking, we have to keep an extra eye on her to make sure she doesn't get into anything she isn't supposed to be in or run off unexpectedly. But it's so wonderful to watch her explore and find things! She is so fun!