Author Archives: Caitlin

Who’s Who?

If you saw my FB posts today, you already know the answer. But if not, scroll all the way down to find out.

top: Sam

bottom: Campbell

Grandpas

Sam, Campbell, and I were so excited to see our grandpas on Friday! Grandpa Chuck (my grandpa, Sam and Campbell’s great-grandpa) and Grandpa Pat (my dad, Sam and Campbell’s grandpa) stopped by on their drive up from Atlanta to New Jersey.

Rolling Over!

Last night before bed, I put Campbell in her crib for some tummy time. I was snappng pics because I was so impressed with how well she was holding up her head, and then all of a sudden she rolled over! I was so surprised! I put her on her tummy again and took a video with my camera on the off chance that she might roll over again…and she did! This is about 2 months earlier than Sam learned to roll over, so I am really hoping this doesn’t signal an early crawler–I am in no hurry to have TWO mobile kids!

Two Months!

Our little sweetie pie is two months old! We had her 2 month check up today and she is doing great. Poor little thing had to have two mean shots and she was SO SAD! She wouldn’t stop crying for the longest time. And even after I finally got her to calm down, she would get upset again and have another little bout of crying. It was a little traumatic for mommy and baby.

Here are Campbell’s stats:

Height: 24 inches (96th percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs, 11 ounces (75th percentile)

(Look at those rolls!)

Sleeping/eating habits: Campbell just started sleeping through the night!!! WAHOO! For the past week, she has been sleeping from 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. I give her the last feeding of the day at about 8 p.m. and then wake her up at 10:30 for a “dream feed.” She is often really fussy between 8 and 10:30, so I have been experimenting to make that better and the last few nights she has been sleeping better during that stretch (I think she just needed to have her feedings spaced out a little more before the 8 o’clock feeding). Right now daytime feedings are 2.5-3 hours apart. She is awake for about an hour to an hour and a half and naps are 1-1.5 hours long.

Developing some great head and neck control! I think she’ll be using a Bumbo in no time! We haven’t been great at tummy time, but she gets it in here and there. The problem is she likes to spit up when she does tummy time.

(Sam likes to do tummy time too!)

Smiling and making funny faces all the time. I love seeing all of her expressive faces!

She has started doing a lot of cooing which is fun to hear. Sam thinks it’s hilarious! Here is a video of Campbell “talking.”

Campbell is kind of obsessed with her mobile. If she is at all fussy, you can put her in her crib with the mobile on and she will cheer up immediately. It is a great tool when I am trying to extend her awake time. Fair warning, this video is pretty long and it is a lot of the same, so feel free to not watch the whole thing. I am leaving the extended edition up for the grandmas!

Campbell spends a lot of time on her play mat. She is usually pretty happy there, but she would definitely rather be held!

She has started to find her hand! In the last few weeks, Campbell has discovered that if she turns her head to the size, her hand is usually there to suck on. But in the last few days, she actually started purposefully moving her hand towards her mouth. She seems pretty coordinated–maybe she’ll be an athlete?

And here are a few more pics…

Happy Spring!

We have had a wonderful spring/Easter/Passover weekend over here at the Miller house! The fun started when Auntie Becca (or Auntie Betta, as Sam says) arrived. The weather has been great so we took several trips to the playground.

On Thursday, we went to an Easter egg hunt at Upton Hill Park with our friends Deirdre and Evie and Ellen and Katie (and little Susie too!). It was really funny trying to get the kids to stand still for this photo!

Before the egg hunt began, they had lots of fun activities for the kids like coloring pages, a moon bounce, and the Easter Bunny. But Sam headed straight for this tractor (it was not part of the planned entertainment, just a tractor that they use for park upkeep)!

Then Sam told Auntie Betta that he wanted to sit with the Easter Bunny. I knew that the moment he actually got to the front of the long line, he would decide the Easter Bunny was scary, but sweet Auntie Betta humored him and waited in line with Sam. And since we waited in line, I decided we needed at least one pic…

As predicted, he was not a fan. But then when he saw his pal Evelyn doing it, he decided it wasn’t that bad. Everything is better with a friend!

Finally, the actual Easter egg hunt began! This was so stressful because I wanted Sam to get at least one egg, but I also didn’t want him to take any eggs another kid was going to get! We decided next year it would be easier to just hide some eggs in one of our backyards and have a much smaller Easter egg hunt.

Thursday night, Ben and I went on a date night while Auntie Becca stayed home to babysit. It was sooo fun to go out to dinner just me and Ben!

On Friday, we dyed Easter eggs, got ready for Passover, and enjoyed a delicious Seder meal. The matzo ball soup was great! Unfortunately we didn’t take any pics.

On Saturday, we made up for the previous day’s lack of pictures. The amazing Kelly Crawford came over to take Campbell’s baby pictures and also got some of Sam and the whole family. I can’t wait to get those back and I will be sure to share them here.

In the afternoon, we went to our neighbor Jack’s 3rd birthday party, which included a petting zoo right outside our window!! Sam was a little hesitant to pet the animals at first but warmed up to it!

After a little while, he wanted to go play on the playground and while we were there he saw his friend Elizabeth flying a kite with her family. He was so excited when they invited him to come play with them!

(Are you tired of hearing about our weekend yet? It’s not over!)

Saturday night, the Easter Bunny came and made a special delivery for Sam and Campbell!

Sam was very excited. Campbell, not so much!

Then on Sunday, we put on our Easter best and headed out to brunch.

We had a delicious Mexican brunch at Rosa Mexicano at National Harbor. They even had a special Passover menu for those not eating leavened bread. After brunch we strolled around for a little bit and took a bunch of pictures. The weather was perfect.

Auntie Becca is on her way to the airport now. Bye Auntie Betta!!! We’ll miss you!

Jogging

Last week I got the all clear from my doctor to start exercising again. The weather has been so lovely, I couldn’t wait to load the kids into the stroller and start jogging again. It had been about 9 months since the last time I went running, and it was rough!! Obviously, I am out of shape. I managed to run for about 20 minutes and then I was beat! But also, a few things have changed since the last time I ran. For starters, it’s much harder to push a double stroller and two kids. Campbell may not weigh much, but her and the extra stroller weight made for more work. But the main difference is that the last time I ran, Sam was not talking nearly as much!! He is big into asking questions right now. “Why is there a firetruck? Where are we going? Time for the playground now? Why are we going slow?” (Yeah, that last one was a real boost to my self confidence!) It is very hard to answer all those questions when I am so out of breath. Plus I have to keep putting my music on pause to hear him.

But as hard as it was, I am glad to be running again. For now, my plan is to run every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon. I’m writing it here to hold myself accountable!!

Happy Anniversary!

On March 25th, Ben and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Hard to believe we were newlyweds just a mere 6 years ago! Well, yet again a baby has gotten in the way of our traditional anniversary trip to Mexico. At just 7 weeks, we weren’t ready to leave her for a 4 night international vacation, and actually, we weren’t even ready to leave her with a babysitter. So this year our anniversary was very family friendly!

We went out for a lovely brunch at one of our old favorites, Chef Geoff. On Sundays they have a lovely jazz duet, which Sam was quite entertained by! Campbell just slept the whole time and Sam was on his best behavior.

Then for dinner, we decided to go to Columbia Firehouse. It is a semi-family-friendly restaurant for brunch/lunch but is pretty fancy for dinner! I was a little nervous when we walked in with TWO young kids at 7 p.m.! Campbell slept the whole time (that’s kind of her M.O.) and Sam was amazing. We couldn’t believe how grown up he was. And this was not a rushed dinner. We had wine, a cheese course, salads, entrees, and desert. Sam was sweet through the whole thing, didn’t once raise his voice, and ate, or at least tried, all of his food (including stinky cheese!). At the end of the meal, the waitress actually thanked us for raising such a well-behaved child. Sometimes the stars align!

So all in all, it was a very good anniversary! And hopefully in a few weeks or months, we’ll be ready to leave Campbell with a sitter (and Sam too!) so that we can have a proper date night! And maybe then I’ll actually get a picture of the two of us.

I love you, Ben! It’s been a great 6 years!

Big Baby

There are some moms who have their act together enough to take monthly, or even weekly, photos of their children in the same position/outfit to document their growth. I would love to be that type of mom, but I’m just not!

But the other day, I put Campbell in the swing and could instantly see how much bigger she’d gotten. I hadn’t put her in the swing for a few weeks, so it was a noticeable difference. I snapped a pic to remember it.

Week 2

Week 7

March 31 is the LAST day to order a summer shirt or onesie!

If you are not a fan of Handmade By The Millers on Facebook yet, go like it here: www.facebook.com/handmadebythemillers.

And if you want to order a summer shirt or onesie, do so by tomorrow, March 31st! The shirts and onesies are $20 each + $4 shipping. You can place your order by emailing me at bythemillers@gmail.com. Orders will ship out late April/early May.

Girl Sand Pail: