For Your Viewing Pleasure

I'm trying to get better at updating....it's only been 10 days since my last post! Go me! :)

Here is the latest: Matthias has two bottom teeth and probably a couple more on the way (if his chewing is any indication), he continues to be an enthusiastic "talker" and general noisemaker, and has begun to point to things in books and say "Dat" (although it's unclear if he is saying "that" or just happens to make that noise and point at the same time). He loves "walking" while we hold his hands, and he is getting better and better at taking steps. He also likes to hold up his arms when we ask him how big he is. :)

The biggest news, however, is that about a month ago he started pulling himself up onto everything. As cool as this is, it has its drawbacks: naptime was TERRIBLE for a few days, because he kept pulling himself up in his crib and then screaming because he couldn't get himself back down! We're still working on teaching him how to get down on his own, but he is getting better at it. He has gotten braver — he will move from one piece of furniture to another, and sometimes will just use one hand or lean on it so he doesn't have to use any hands.

Regarding food, he seems to tolerate green vegetables more now that we give him jarred baby food in chunky meat/veggie/pasta combinations. Also, he loves eating peas in their natural state...so I just give him one or two peas at a time and he shoves them in his mouth. He also really likes the Gerber freeze-dried yogurt melts. (Jason and I like them as much, if not more, than Matthias...too bad they're really pricey.)

Matthias enjoyed his first Thanksgiving meals this last week. We used our food grinder to give him turkey, stuffing, corn, and mashed potatoes, which he really liked. He also got a few tastes of pumpkin pie, which he LOVED. It is nice being able to feed him what we are eating sometimes!

There are a ton of pictures and videos that I would love to put up to catch everyone up on the last few months of Matthias' life, but that would take much more time that I actually have...and thus, would never get done, defeating the entire purpose of having this blog in the first place. So, I guess I will settle for uploading a few videos that at least provide some glimpses into the last few months of life.

Here is one that is sort of old (either July or August...can't remember which!). Matthias was really into making this screeching noise at that time and did it whenever possible. He was having so much fun swinging outside, he kept making the noise over and over again!

This one was taken not long after Matthias learned to crawl and figured out he could crawl anywhere (e.g., the kitchen). He still crawls like this, just a lot faster now.




Matthias learned how to open the drawer underneath the oven back in September. Shortly before I shot this, I saw the open drawer and him right next to it, but I thought, "There is no way he actually did this himself!" So, I closed it and left the room, but peeked in at him and caught him doing it again! This video shows the third time he did it. He was really good at it by this time.




Here is a cute one of Matthias playing with Daddy and giggling really hard. It was shot on October 10, the day we got our family pictures taken.





Matthias performs Concerto in D Minor at Grandma B.'s house in early November:




The only stairs at our house lead down to the concrete-floor basement and have nasty old carpeting on them — thus, Matthias has never really had a chance to practice climbing stairs. He had a blast figuring out how to climb the stairs at Grandma B.'s house during the first weekend in November. Although he had pulled himself up onto the first couple of stairs earlier that day, this was his very first attempt at climbing stairs all the way up! A couple of friends were over at the time, and one of them "spotted" Matthias all the way up so he wouldn't fall. My other friend's two kids were encouraging Matthias the whole way up.

Family Pictures!

As I shared in our last post, we finally got some professional pictures taken. Matthias did great and smiled so big for the camera! Here are some of our favorites:

Back from Blog-cation

So, it's been a couple of months...okay, THREE...I apologize for the extended vacation from the blog (which I have termed "blog-cation"). I'm looking into trademarking this term, so don't get any ideas! Kidding. Sort of. :)

Rather than try to cram all the events, pictures, and videos taken over the last few months into one blog entry, I have decided to simply list some of the highlights to catch you up to speed on what's been going on:

July: First bite of solid foods, learned how to roll over from his tummy to his back (already knew how to do it the other way; thus, he began rolling all over the floor to get where he wanted to go), began sitting up on his own
August: Began "scooting" and babbling a lot (mama, dada, baba), made a wide array of interesting noises, learned to feed himself Gerber cereal puffs. Also, we took a mini-vacation and went to the Iowa State Fair and to Adventureland amusement park, where he rode his on his first rides: the carousel, the ferris wheel, and the little train that goes around the park.
September: Learned to crawl, figured out how to open the drawer under our oven and open cupboards, went on his first airplane ride.
October (up to now): Got his first tooth (with another one on its way), learned to drink from a sippy cup, has expressed dislike for certain foods for the first time (green beans, mainly).


Today, we finally got some portraits taken for the first time! We have a bunch of pictures of Matthias from birth until now, but had not gotten any professional pictures taken yet. It was a pretty fun experience and Matthias was such a ham. He smiled very big for the camera. We got some shots of us as a family, Jason and I together, me and Matthias, Jason and Matthias, and of course, a lot of just Matthias. :)

Ever since about June or July, we have suspected that Matthias understood the word "no," but now there is absolutely no doubt that he gets it. When he hears it, a lot of the time he will protest by whining (and sometimes crying and smacking the floor with his hands/arms). Thankfully, there are no full-blown temper tantrums yet!

A very sad recent event was when my aunt Cindy died of a heart attack on September 19. She was my dad's sister, and now, my aunt Becky is the only sibling left. (I hope my aunt Becky is prepared to live to 100, because I want so badly for her to stick around for a long time...she is one of the only close family links left that I have to my dad.) Cindy was such a wonderful person — so sweet and loving, kind-natured, an amazingly positive attitude, always had a smile on her face, always wanted to help out everyone. She just exuded God's love to everyone she knew. A lot of hearts have been broken by her passing, especially my uncle David's (her husband). Our whole family is missing her a lot right now. I'm so thankful that I got to see her in May of this year, and that she got to meet Matthias. My mom, sister, brother, and Matthias and I all flew out to Oklahoma for her funeral. It was Matthias' first plane ride and first time meeting many of our relatives. There was a lot of sadness, obviously, but having a lot of the family there was really great and I think it helped us all to be together.

This month, something we are looking forward to is the arrival of our nephew! If he does not make an appearance by October 14, then the doctor will induce my sister-in-law, so we'll be headed down to Keokuk to visit that weekend. The little guy will be blessing #4 in my brother and sister-in-law's household, so life is going to get even busier for them very soon!

Well, that is pretty much our lives in a nutshell over the last few months. I'll try not to let 3 more months go by without blogging again...but no promises... :)

-Melissa

Who Needs Cable?

We canceled our cable TV a few weeks ago, but we don't miss it. From the following 3 videos, I'm sure you can tell we are easily entertained by Matthias!

Here is one of his latest faces (brand new, in fact...debuted tonight). It is accompanied by semi-frustrated babbling. The frustration stems from the fact that he can easily roll from his back onto his tummy, but can't figure out how to roll back onto his back. He was making a loud "BAH BAH BAH" noise, but since he always stops doing whatever he is doing as soon as he sees the camera, I had to mimic it to get him to start up again. It's a lot cuter when he does it...





If you have never seen Napoleon Dynamite, you won't get this...but cutie-pie Thi Thi (one of his many nicknames) and his sweet "tetherball" skills are still worth watching.





I have to use a large exercise ball right now to do back-strengthening exercises (I've been experiencing really painful back spasms every so often since Matthias was about 6 weeks old). Before I had even used the ball myself, Jason let Matthias break it in for me by using it as a trampoline. He loved it...he laughed so hard it sounded like hiccups. (Sorry it is sideways...I think I'll just stop filming vertically since I don't have a way to rotate it!)

Happy Father's Day (A Week and One Day Late)

I know this is a bit late, but Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!! On Father's Day 2009, I was reminded of something: though there is always a bit of sadness for me on Father's Day as I long for and remember my own dad (this year was the 5th Father's Day since he passed away), I am blessed beyond measure — my Heavenly Father has been with me every step of the way, and he brought a great father-in-law into my life along with allowing me the privilege of watching my brother and my husband become daddies.

Celebrating Jason's very first Father's Day this year brought me great joy. What a blessing it is to see my husband as a father — he is the most wonderful daddy to Matthias! He is so proud of our son and loves him so much. He is very hands-on — from changing diapers to suctioning his nose (yuck!) to taking him on walks when he is fussy, he does it all! He even likes to take Matthias to Menards. :) I am so thankful that he is such an involved daddy and loves to be with our son.

Jason had to work from 8-12 on Father's Day, but afterward, he met up with Matthias and I and our good friends Josh and Trish and their 3 kids. We went to HuHot for lunch, because we had a "Dads eat free" coupon. It was a delicious (and relatively inexpensive) meal! At home, Jason opened his card and gifts: the movie Fireproof (from Matthias, haha!) and a couples' devotional book (from me). For supper, we drove up to Jason's parents house for spaghetti and ice cream with strawberries and fudge (we ate pretty well that day!). We had a good time hanging out with the family and honoring both Jason and Bob for being the great fathers that they are.

Hiccups: Part II

I have never been able to view videos from our digital camera on my computer until recently, when I finally figured out what I was missing and needed to download. Now, I don't have to upload them to my blog in order to view them! That was time-consuming and annoying, especially when I selected the wrong video. We will probably be posting videos more often now.

I ran across a couple of videos featuring Matthias going through bouts of hiccuping, which we find very funny. We already posted one of him with hiccups when he was only a few days old, but these were taken when he was around 3 to 3-1/2 months old.

This one features Daddy and son trying to have a conversation while Matthias battles the hiccups.




Here is another one, featuring Matthias in a diaper and socks, exercising his limbs and his diaphragm at the same time. (*Note: Although our son does have big feet, they are not actually as large as they appear in this video. I think it must be the socks...)

Rollin' With the Homies

After lots of almost-but-not-quite-all-the-way-there attempts, Matthias rolled over for the first time on Thursday, June 4th! We were at Jason's parents house that night, and Jason and Darlene (his mom) were on the floor helping Matthias roll over and encouraging him to do it by himself, but it wasn't happening. They finally got up, leaving Matthias on his back. I watched him as he babbled to himself and saw him arch his back and roll onto his side. I yelled out, "I think he's going to roll over!" so Jason and his mom ran back in just in time to see him roll over onto his tummy. It was really cool, and I'm glad that so many people were able to witness this big "first" — me, Jason, Bob & Darlene, and Audrey (Jason's sister) and her boyfriend. Tonight, Adam (Jason's brother) was playing with Matthias and got him to roll over again, which was great, because he hadn't rolled over again since the first time!

Matthias had his 4-month appointment on June 3rd. He weighed in at 18 lbs. 7 oz. When we asked what percentile that was, the nurse kind of chuckled and said, "Well, that's actually off the charts, so I guess you could say 100th?" She showed us the chart and where Matthias rated, and sure enough, he was slightly above the highest percentile for his age! What a big boy!! (To give you some perspective on how big he is, a couple we know at church have a 9-month-old girl who weighs 19 lbs.) Thankfully, his height is still keeping up with his weight. He is 26 inches (90th percentile). And he did so good with his shots — he only cried for about 10 seconds afterward and was already smiling again by the time we reached the front desk. He is our little ray of sunshine!

Other news: Matthias is pretty much out of 3-6 month clothes and wearing mainly 6-9 month stuff. There are even a few 12-month things he can wear that are only slightly big on him. Also, he is scooting around a lot on his back! Sometimes, we find him in his crib in a totally different position than we put him in.

Now, I will finally post some pictures, as promised almost a month ago...

This is from about a month and a half ago, when Matthias first started scooting around. I went in to get him up one morning and this is how I found him! Now, he likes to turn a full 180 degrees. :)

So smiley!

Doing great with tummy time.


Our little fireman.

First time in his Bumbo chair. (His neck is in there somewhere under the chins, haha!)

Daddy and son.

This is what he wore on Mother's Day, the day he was dedicated at church. We think he looks like a little linebacker!

Doesn't he have the sweetest smile?

First time in his high chair. (He isn't eating solid food yet, but we put him there if he is awake when we eat supper, so he can be with us.)

Catching Up

Well, after the last post, it seemed like there weren't very many new things going on for a couple of weeks. No doctor's appointments, no exciting milestones reached, not very many new pictures (we had some problems with our camera), etc.

Now, almost 2 months have flown by and I don't know where to start!

Matthias started sleeping through the night at around 7 or 8 weeks. The first night it happened, I was very tired, because by that point I had started back at work, and Matthias' typical nighttime eating schedule was 10 or 11 p.m., 2 or 3 a.m., and then about 5:30 a.m. My brother-in-law (who was visiting) gave him a bottle for his 11:00 feeding so I could go to bed early, so I pumped and headed to bed around 10:30. I woke up around 7, looked at the clock, and ran into his room, panic-stricken. Of course, he was sleeping peacefully. Now, he typically goes to bed around 10:30, and gets up around 6:30, which is wonderful! Of course, I rarely get to bed when he does because there is always something still to be done that didn't get done during the day — or sometimes, I just relish the alone time or time with Jason — but still, the uninterrupted sleep is nice.

Another milestone: laughing! This is probably one of my favorites. It is the cutest sound in the world.

Matthias has also started trying to roll over. He gets his back arched and then gets frustrated and lays back down. One day, while I had a migraine, Jason was taking care of Matthias. At night, Jason gave him a bath and was getting him ready for bed. He laid Matthias on his tummy to lotion his back, and Matthias held his head up almost 90 degrees! Ever since then, he has had no problem holding his head up for tummy time. It is fun to watch him hold up his head and look side to side and make noise. Jason will assist him in rolling over, which is fun for Matthias. It is like he thinks it a game! :)

On Mother's Day, Matthias woke up at 5 in the morning with his first cold...Happy Mother's Day to me!! Thankfully, it hasn't been too awful, and I think he is pretty much over it now. The worst part has been suctioning his nose, because it is gross and he doesn't like it all that much. But his temperament hasn't changed all that much...maybe slightly fussier than normal now and then, but overall, still a happy boy!

Here are a couple of fairly recent pictures. Once I get pictures and videos off of our camera, we'll post some more new stuff!

-Melissa

2 months old!

Matthias is two months old now. We can't believe it! Over the past few weeks we could feel his car seat getting heavier and heavier to carry. We were anxious to see how much he weighs now because he is so chunky. His two month doctor visit was today. After a nail biting walk down the hallway to the weigh station, I guess that's what you call it, he was weighing in at a whopping 13 lbs 14 oz.!! So to break it down from his last doctor's visit when he was 2 weeks old, he has gained a pound a week! He is also 23 3/4" tall, which with his weight and height, he is ranking over the 90th percentile for his age. That's my boy!

Melissa had a baby shower on Saturday and had a good time. Matthias got some much needed clothes that actually fit him, and some toys. Melissa's mom, sister, Becca, and Terri got Matthias a 3 in 1 play gym. We can lay him on his back to play with it, give him tummy time, and also make it into a tunnel for him to crawl through once he starts to do that. He absolutely loves it! I took a pretty fun video of him playing with it.




Until next time,

Jason

Smiles and Skin Issues

Matthias is now 6 weeks old...I can't believe how fast the time has gone, or how big he has grown! He has gotten so chunky. :)

Each day, he seems to have a few "smile sessions" where he is just the happiest baby and can't stop smiling. Today, I was positive that he tried to laugh. He made the cutest little cooing noise while smiling a couple of different times! I didn't catch the laughing on video, but here is a short clip I recorded today that shows a few of his big smiles.




For the last few weeks, Matthias has had some sort of skin problem on his face. It started out as baby acne, then he started to get little red patches/bumps that we thought might be an allergic reaction to something or a heat rash. The baby acne disappeared, but the red spots/patches got worse and his skin got very dry and flaky (his ears were actually kind of scaly!). We finally figured out that he had eczema on his face...both Jason and I have had eczema (Jason's is more severe than mine), so I guess it's not too surprising. Plus, it is very dry in our house, so I'm sure that doesn't help. This past weekend, we stopped using the scented Johnson's baby lotion and started applying lanolin and a non-scented Aveeno brand baby cream to his face a few times a day, and his face looks so much better. He is almost back to his original soft, flawless baby complexion he had for the first couple of weeks. :) He has also stopped rubbing his face against our shoulders so much...poor kid, his face must have been very itchy!

Here is one more video. Last week, Matthias was sound asleep and we were trying to wake him up because it was time for him to eat. He was propped up on Jason's legs, and every time Jason would pull him up, he would make this little grunting noise...but he would not wake up at all. It was pretty funny. You can't hear the grunts very well, but his other noises are pretty audible.

Hiccups and Random Updates

I can't believe it's been almost a month since we last posted! We'll try to be better at keeping up with this. :) Here is a video and some random bits of information.

Matthias gets the hiccups all the time...poor kid! This video shows one of the first times he got the hiccups once we got him home from the hospital. If I remember correctly, he was only a few days old. (Sorry that it is sideways...I can't figure out how to rotate it upright since it's a video.)





On February 9, Matthias had his 2-week doctor's appointment. He is 100% healthy and we found out that he weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces, which meant he had gained almost 2 ounces a day since coming home from the hospital!! Makes sense, since he loves to eat... He is probably over 10 pounds now, or maybe even 11? He is getting pretty chubby and has already outgrown a couple of newborn items of clothing.

Matthias is now 5 weeks old and is very expressive. He makes all kinds of fun faces and noises. He is starting to smile more and more, which completely melts our hearts! Here is a recent picture of one of his smiles (I'm hoping to catch one of his really big, open-mouth smiles on camera soon!)



For his first few weeks, one of his favorite things to look at was a set of black wrought-iron wall decorations, probably because they hang on a very light-colored wall. Experts say that babies see black-and-white patterns best as newborns and prefer to look at them over anything else (except human faces), which seemed to be true of Matthias. Now he is starting to focus more on our faces. He seems to be more awake and alert every day. Most of the time, he is pretty content to just look around the room at everything and everyone, taking it all in.

Jason and I got some wonderful news last week from my brother and sister-in-law...they are having another baby! It was a big surprise, but a GREAT one! :) I'm so excited to meet him or her (due October 20, 2 days before my birthday) and become an aunt again for the 4th time. I'm also very excited for Matthias to have a cousin right around his age. I can't wait to see them play together and become good friends.

Here are a few more pictures of Matthias, from 3-4 weeks old. Isn't he precious?

-Melissa

Being a dad

Well, Matthias is 13 days old today. I can't believe he is almost two weeks old. It's been an adventure with him so far. He has been such a great baby compared to some of the war stories you hear from other parents! Most of the day when he is in his bouncy seat or when we are holding him, he is very good. He hasn't cried hard since the day he was born, and he only fusses a little when he is hungry or has a little gas. We are starting to learn his different fusses and faces when he is hungry or gassy or needs a new diaper. It is a lot of fun being a dad...more than I thought it would be. I can't wait until he starts smiling back instead of smiling because he is pooping. And then when he starts talking, it is going to be a lot of fun! What a blessing Matthias is to us!

-Jason

Jumping on the blog bandwagon!

Because so many of our family members and friends live far away from us, we decided that creating a blog would be a great way to keep everyone updated on life in the Campbell household.

The most recent and exciting news we have to share is the birth of our son, Matthias Robert Barry Campbell. (Most of our posts on this blog will probably be about him!) He was born on January 21, 2009 at 8:18 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs. 13.4 oz. and was 20-3/4 inches long.

The birth went really well...I couldn't have asked for things to go any more smoothly. I was induced at 9:00 in the morning, so it was about an 11-hour labor. I made it to about 2:30 p.m. before asking (okay, begging) for an epidural! The pain was about a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 by that point, but after the epidural I felt so relaxed that I took a nap. During my hour-and-a-half nap, I dilated from 6 to 9 centimeters and a nurse woke me up because she thought I might be at 10 and ready to push! Jason, my mom, and Jason's mom and sister were all eating in the cafeteria at the time, but thankfully they showed up right after the nurse checked me. I dilated to 10 quickly after that. My doctor was delivering another baby right then, so they let the contractions do the hard work until he showed up. I pushed for about 30 minutes and then Matthias entered the world! It was the most amazing feeling holding him on my chest and hearing him cry for the first time. There is truly nothing that compares to it.

Matthias (pronounced Mah-THIGH-us) is such a sweet baby and is so laid back! He loves to eat, but he loves to sleep just as much, which sometimes interferes with eating. He was born with a little blister on both wrists from sucking on them in the womb. He still tries to suck on them but tends to find his fingers first, so the blisters are pretty much gone now.

Some people have asked how we came up with our baby's names. Funny story...Jason saw a billboard one day that said "Matthias Construction" and really liked the name. We looked it up and saw that it meant "gift from God," which is completely how we feel about our little boy. Also, we discovered that in the Bible, Matthias was the apostle who was voted in to replace Judas (Acts 1:21-23), which we thought was really cool as well! As for his middle names, Robert is in honor of Jason's dad, and Barry is in honor of my dad.

Speaking of my dad, today would have been his 59th birthday. It has been a day of both remembering my dad and rejoicing in this new little life who bears his name!

-Melissa