First Spring

Loves: Camden is turning into a little social butterfly! One of the highlights of her day is when Daddy comes home from work or tennis practice. She wiggles and smiles, and buries her face in my shoulder when the joy and excitement becomes too much to handle. Once she recovers, she's back to smiling and wiggling and chattering away. It is very sweet.

Witten is also an extremely important part of her life. Sometimes he will play peek-a-boo with her and she giggles almost uncontrollably. She may even laugh just because he walks by where she's sitting. He is also gradually coming to accept her increasing presence in his life, now that she's more vocal and mobile. He even likes to go into her room in the morning to say "Good morning, Camden! Have a good sleep?" (Side Note--Two is definitely my favorite age so far. Just about everything he does is the cutest.)

She is still such a happy baby. Smiling, playing, wiggling, splashing in the bath, "talking," life is just one big adventure!

Her easy-going nature has been a real blessing where the baby carrier is concerned. By eight months, Witten was done with being placed in the baby k'tan; it was just too constricting for his taste. On the other hand, Camden is perfectly content to be wrapped in it for hours at a time. She was quite happy, strapped to my chest, looking at all the people and trees along the tidal basin when we went to see the cherry blossoms this month. She is an especially happy camper when grocery shopping in the baby carrier. Witten sits in the grocery cart, directly in her field of vision, and she squeals and kicks with excitement the whole time. Hooray for big brothers!

Chilling in the Baby Carrier

Witten was pretty concerned about the noisy waterfalls in the FDR memorial.

"Wash DC," as Witten says, really wore them out

Hates: Mobility is a difficult thing right now. Camden is agonizingly close to crawling but still no forward progress and she finds it intensely frustrating. When she is on her tummy, she curls her toes under, rolls onto her side body one way and then the other, reaches out her arms, lifts her bum in the air...and she is no closer to her goal. Sometimes she pushes up on her arms with such force that she moves backwards, especially when she's on the kitchen floor, but that isn't her intent and it makes her angry. She is very good at rotating around at least, and can access a wide array of toys, and keep an eye on Witten, no matter where in the room he happens to be.

Showing off one of her new outfits that Granna made for her! And drooling. Always drooling...

Camden is also experiencing some frustrations around food. Lately Mom hasn't been quick enough to accommodate her when she decides it's time to nurse. Her mouth is open, and nothing happens for a full five to ten seconds. The horror!! As soon as the situation is resolved she is just fine, but it is one of the great struggles in her life right now.

As far as solids go, she is a champ. She has eaten every vegetable I have offered, as long as the puree is perfectly smooth. She insists on a silky texture and any time I have tried to add a few lumps to the mix she refuses to eat another bite. Girl knows what she wants.

Spinach, broccoli, and prunes. The dinner of champions.

We are on the cusp of Camden enjoying reading books. Sometimes she'll actually look at all the pages for an entire board book before getting distracted. She does still spend a lot of time looking at mom or dad as they read or grabbing at Witten. We'll get there.

New Tricks: Camden continues to experiment with her vocal chords and noise making abilities. She has learned how to blow raspberries and hums and "aaaaahhhhhhs" whenever she's playing with toys. She is also into growling--very low, guttural sounds that sound pretty funny coming out of her angelic face. Her tongue continues to be very important in her life, twisting and turning all day long. She has even started to "da-da-da-da" occasionally! Hooray for tongue control.

Witten's favorite quiet time activity

She has also made some impressive progress in the sitting up department. Camden's core is rock solid and I'm confident having her sit and play without a pillow to catch her. However, a few weeks ago there was one day where this became a problem. Camden figured out that she could fall back onto the pillow and then roll over to grab a toy she couldn't reach while sitting up. Then, one time I forgot to put a pillow behind her, and she slammed backwards. Poor baby.

The plus side of that incident is that she has learned a more safe variation. She falls from sitting to the side and slightly forward, landing softly on her tummy and forearms so she can get on with the important business of reaching whatever toy was previously inaccessible.

Tooth #2 popped through this month!

Camden is also improving her motor skills. She loves to wiggle her wrists back and forth, both while holding a toy and not, and I think it's vibrato preparation for when she becomes a concert violinist! She has also finally mastered passing a toy from one hand to the other, and remains a huge fan of banging two toys together as noisily as possible.

Her poor fingers are starting to scab from all the sucking.

Theme Song: April Come She Will, Simon and Garfunkel