Busy Mommy

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....or so goes my life right now as a PhD student trying to juggle grant applications, conference papers, and a walking toddler. Since Holden started daycare, my academic work has kicked into high gear, and I've had hardly a moment to fully process--and put into words--my thoughts on this first year as a mother. That said, I really do have much to say on the matter, and promise, after a whirlwind round of deadlines passes in the next couple of weeks, that I will reflect back on the year.

Mea Culpa

If you haven't noticed, for the past few weeks Mike has been the primary contributor to our blog, leaving some of you to wonder, perhaps, what happened to "mommy" in this little adventure. Rest assured I'm still the doting parent, and have much to say about Holden. But I am also the busy academic. Between teaching my first class and writing an article due next week, I have had little time to wax poetry (or prose) about the wee one. My apologies. I promise to reemerge from the books and papers covering my desk soon.

5 Weeks: swings, slings, and other things

For the first 3 or so weeks in the life that is Holden's, our little guy's world mainly revolved around a swaddle blanket, our arms, and the occasional bright light or ceiling fan. In the past couple of weeks, this world has started to expand. Not only is he starting to coo and grunt as he gazes into our eyes, but he's finally the age (and size!) to test out the various gadgets we've accumulated. For instance, he's started to take an interest in the dangling bears above him in the pack-n-play and the sweet art cards of animals we own. And, just this past week, he's decided he likes the swing that he, admittedly, barely fits in:

And as you'll note in the first picture, he's also discovered his hands. In fact, for the past couple of days his soul interest has been slobbering all over his fist.

Yet nothing has been more wonderful for me, anyway, than the bliss he finds when he's nestled in our sling. Without the sling, I'm not sure I'd ever be able to find time for breakfast. There's no way to capture his joy pictorially, so instead, here's me, many months ago when still pregnant with Holden, test-driving one of these things at the store. Try to imagine a baby in the sling, instead of my belly:

Those ears!

While both Mike and I think Holden is the cutest thing from head to toe, one of our favorite features on our little munchkin are his wonderful elfish ears. So much personality in these little dangling lobes! These I'll claim as a Campbell feature--I'll admit that underneath my thick brown hair I have quite the lobes myself, though not quite as wondrous as my dad's, which were nearly as cute as his sweet hairdo in his baby pictures (see previous post).

Without further ado, I present a few pictures in honor of these little lobes:

And obviously, Holden's partial to his own ears too:

"boy, he looks just like ________"

Holden went out for his first "outing" today, since it's still unseasonably warm for November (and we need to take advantage of every minute of it before it's freezing cold and rainy ... like next week). We strolled down to the Gelateria down the street, and said hi to owners Dana and Chris (who confirmed that their daughter Nora would be able to eat Holden, he's so small). But most importantly, now that we're a bit more out and about, people are saying the infamous phrase: "boy, he looks just like _______."

This post has been a long time in the making, as we've spent months collecting baby photos of ourselves and various family members to see where Holden is getting his dashing good looks. Here is the visual data, so you make the decision. Most agree (including me) that Holden looks most like a Campbell; furthermore, that he looks very much like his mommy. However, I'm more recently making the argument that Holden also looks a decent amount like my brother, and a little like me (although not much ... sniffle, sniffle). Let us know what you think.

Pictures of Holden during his first 9 days (above).
Baby photos of Bryna (above).
Baby photos of the Campbell boys/men (from left to right, we have Bryna's brothers Bob and Will followed by her dad, now Grandpa John).
And finally, the Murawski brothers (me on the far left, and two pics of my brother Mark in center and to the right).

Mostly, Holden looks like Holden ... and that's OK.

40 week bump goes walking

This week's bump pictures come from one of our long walks in the MO Botanical gardens--the perfect remedy, so we're told, for the overdue baby.

A gorgeous day here finally, after two of the ugliest, wettest days of the season in STL:

39 Week Bump

So while Bryna is at her final yoga class this afternoon, I am posting her final bump pictures (... gotta be optimistic, right?). This is a bit past 39 weeks. We have some pictures we also took this weekend when it was all sunny and nice, but we can't find the cable that connects that camera to the computer (I really hate that every camera has its own unique adapter! What's up with that!). Anyway, enjoy ... as we enter the final home stretch to welcoming the Short Stranger into this world.
Oh, and congrats to us ... this is our 100th post to this blog! Pretty good, I think, especially since we've only been doing this for about 23 weeks (yes, you count life in weeks when you're expecting).

37 Week Bump

Autumn chilly weather bumpage, 37 weeks.

35 Week Bump

In the hubbub of finishing up my oral defense, coupled with a week of rain and gloom, we completely missed last week's bumpage post. So to make it up to you, we thought it would be fun to do a little compare and contrast of 12 weeks of growth. Especially for those of you on the East Coast who last saw me in early July.

On the LEFT: me at 23 weeks, during our 4th of July trip to Shenandoah.
On the RIGHT: me today, at 35+ weeks.

The good news about this comparison: the weather here in St. Louis is now very much like that pleasant afternoon in the mountains.
The funny news: I can still (sort of) fit into that T-shirt.
And the not-at-all-surprising bad news: there's no way I could hike those 5 miles anymore!

33 week bump

Got a little behind on the bump pictures since my exam was last week,
but now we're caught up. Here's week 33.
There will undoubtedly be more pics up shortly...from the second of our baby showers, tomorrow!

31 Week Bumpage

31 weeks and a few days...or exactly 7 months!

Sorry on the delay on these. The temps have been awesome here, but the accompanying gray skies have made for poor picture-taking conditions.

28 Week Bump

Shortly before going out with friends to a fabulous dinner for the father-to-be's birthday.
Happy belated birthday, Mike!

Baby Shower Silliness

As Mike noted in his post about our first shower, any Campbell get together includes what Mike calls "Campbell-ing," which includes lots and lots of picture taking - a tradition I plan to continue in the Campbell-Murawski household once the Short Stranger arrives.

This time, my cousin Beth and I had a chance to model our dueling pregnant bellies. We're 10 weeks apart; I'm 27 weeks, and she's a svelte 37 weeks (with her third boy), looking fabulous and not at all ready to pop. We tried to be serious for our pictures, but needless to say, silliness ensued:

From the side:

And in a pose requested by my brother William:

You Asked, We Deliver

At the request of some of our friends who read this blog, we have decided to post baby bump pics for the third and final trimester--to go along with the weekly progress reports.

So without further ado, I give you the Short Stranger bump at 27 weeks:

sometimes, pregnant women just plain rock!

I mean, take for example, my wife Bryna. We went on a weekend camping at Shenandoah National Park this past weekend (for the 4th of July, you know, to celebrate patriotism and all), and she freakin' hiked more than 5 miles in the mountains . . . and being 23+ weeks pregnant. How awesome is that?!?! Sorry to gloat, but I'm very proud of her. Must be all the yoga or something. Hopefully, Mr. Short Stranger will enter this world just rearin' to get to the woods and do some camping (right?).

While on our camping trip, I also was able to play a little back-and-forth game with Short Stranger. I tapped a couple times on Bryna's bump, and he'd punch back . . . and we did this about 5-6 times in a row (he was probably thinking "hey man, cut that out"). Very cool, though.

While I'm thinking about camping and friends, I wanted to share our re-visit to the beloved Rose River Trail in Shenandoah. Such a great trail, lingering along the river with several nice spots to just sit and chill as the stream rushes by. We hiked there in 2006 during our last group trip to Shenandoah, and returned to get another group picture this time. While life's events have changed the group slightly (and will perhaps soon lead to fewer of us being able to make the trek), I thought it was worth making the historical comparison for memory's sake. Here goes:

One final lesson learned from camping that related to quality parenting (due to our friends Jen and Jeremy and their adorable daughter Zoe) -- MUST BUY LARGER TENT WITH MULTIPLE ROOMS!

And a picture in honor of our friend Becca . . . the only person I know who owns fire gloves and brings them camping (maybe because she works for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and knows more than we do about what catastrophic events are in store for us in the future -- just kidding : )