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

Rolling Along

[January 2017]

Witten attempting a photo bomb

Loves: Splashing in the bath! Camden is a total water baby. She has always loved to chill in the bath, but now she is starting to wiggle, chat, and splash! Each time she has a bath I also get one, free of charge, sitting next to the tub. So lucky.

Trying out Camden's booster seat. The tray is an ideal place for G.I. Joe trucks. Obviously.

Playing Pooh Sticks at the Park

She used a binky for almost a minute and a half! It was a one time anomaly. She normally just briefly chews on the wrong end and then chucks the pacifier across the room.

Camden has always been super social, responding to people's faces and always wanting to interact. Not only is she into adults, she is also a big fan of people her age. She and her good buddy Finn are the absolute cutest. I didn't get a picture that really captured their interactions well here (at one point they were holding hands!!), but I promise they love to play with each other. Don't be fooled, Camden isn't trying to get away, she just needed to wiggle a little before returning to hanging out with Finn and that's when I happened to snap the picture.

Mommy's face? Delicious!

Playing G.I. Joe is exhausting. You need pace yourself and rest regularly.

Hates: Bottles. There was a time a few months back when we were really good about giving Camden a bottle every couple of days, but we fell out of practice and now she won't touch them. At least solid food is around the corner and soon other people will be able to feed her without it being a monumental battle to get just one swallow.

New Bedtime Ritual: Clean up all the toys, then run around the living room. It's more fun if Dad participates!

Getting a Big Boy bed, sheet set, and pillow

How he actually sleeps--with the blanket and sheets kicked to the bottom of the bed and his hippo and pillow on the floor...

New Tricks: Camden is learning how to roll. Sometimes she rolls to her stomach for a nap and is only frustrated once she wakes up and cannot roll over to her back. At other times, though, she is able to roll over to her back on a firmer surface than her mattress. I'm hoping that she'll start to string those rolls together as a way to get around soon. Mobile babies! Exciting!

Sleeping with her feet hanging out of the slats

Making Cookies

National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center

Theme Song: Serenade for Strings, Tchaikovsky

Downtown Seattle

After a wonderful time in Hawaii, we got to spend a few days in Seattle before flying home to Virginia. It was nice to have a break between six hour flights on the way home and to show Will some of my favorite places from when we lived in the Seattle area.

The Space Needle

The Monorail

Seattle Center Fountain

 We told Grant that he could go down and touch the fountain between water shows and that he had plenty of time to go down without getting wet. I got these photos just as the water was starting up again. Grant and Liam got a little wet. Ha!

After touring the Seattle Center, we headed closer to the water and Pike Place Market. I love this place. Cheap flowers. Good food. Fun times.

The famous fish throwers at Pike Place Market

The Gum Wall, Pike Place Market

At the end of the day we got the chance to go up in the Columbia Tower. The tallest building in Seattle, it has an observation deck that allows for a great view of Seattle, Bellevue, and beyond.

Theme Song: Hello Seattle, Owl City