Surviving Summer Camp with an Eight Month Old

Go Poke Thursday

Swimming at the pool with Daddy

Abigail makes an appearance in her 1st Fourth of July Parade

Bobbing for Abigail

Ready for the Barnyard Bash

If you would have asked me this spring if I thought life was busy and hectic trying to raise a 4 month old while working full-time, I would have said yes without thinking twice. Ask me now what life was like this past spring with a 4 month old and I would respond by saying "piece of cake". The difference? Summer camp! Never in a million years did I imagine myself running a summer camp from 7am to midnight 3 months straight out of the year while also running around chasing an 8 month old. In case you're wondering, yes I do question my sanity at times. I often wonder what in the world I used to do with all of my "free time"? Long gone are those days. Despite it all though, I wouldn't trade my life for anything in the world.

Needless to say this summer has been an experience in and of itself. With two weeks left to go we are beyond the point of exhaustion and looking ahead with much anticipation to the time we will get to spend together as a family. Although it's been a long summer, it's been an incredible one...one we will forever remember. I went into this summer anxious and worrying about how we would manage to take care of Abigail while also taking care of our campers, our staff, not to mention ourselves. My worries and anxiety were quickly put to rest however. With the help of some incredible friends and our amazing family adjusting to camp with an 8 month old has been fairly smooth.

Abigail is changing daily...just when I think she couldn't possibly get any cuter, she does. Her smile continues to melt my heart each and every day. She has one of the most easy going, flexible, loveable personalities of any baby I know and I attribute that to the campers and staff of Deer Creek Camp. If she wasn't a people person before summer began, she sure is now! When it comes to camp she is the life of the party.

She is a little over eight months old now and seems to be hitting a new milestone every day. She crawled for the first time last week and is now crawling all over the place. I'm quickly finding out for myself how fast paced your life truly becomes once your baby is on the move. There's no turning back now! She loves to wave, attempts to clap (quite spastically I might add) and occasionally will try to give you a high five. Her favorite word to say is "da da" although I will say her first official word was "ma ma". She absolutely loves being in water whether it's a pool or a bath. While she loves playing with toys her favorite things to play with over the last few months are spoons, nalgene bottles, whistles, and name tags.

All in all, I think it's fair to say she's a "Happy Camper".