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

Four and Twenty

Twenty-four is my favorite number. William was 24 when we got married. Witten was born on the 24th of October. But these events just confirmed that 24 is the greatest. It's always been my favorite number. And now I finally get to be 24 for a whole year!

I am always super spoiled on my birthday. Will has a gift for making birthdays special. This year he bought me a breathtaking bouquet of lilies and told me to be ready to go at 10am. After a lot of pressing he finally admitted we were going to the greatest Starbucks in the world! Right here in Falls Church, VA!

When we pulled up to an actual Starbucks I was more than a bit confused. We went inside the Starbucks and I had no idea what to expect. A quick survey of the cafe did not reveal anyone we knew. Why were we here? Will explained we were meeting someone.

Finally a guy walked in carrying a massive black rectangle. He removed a fabric case to reveal a big, beautiful keyboard. Now I have something in our apartment to play my new Billy Joel and Beatles music on!

Witten has always loved music, be it a CD, singing at home, or hymns at church, and so of course he is a big fan of the keyboard. And I love playing with him on my lap.

The other day Witten started waving his arms around above the keys and made contact once or twice. He'll be pounding the ivories in no time. Now if I could just get him to stop crying every time I play my violin...

Theme Song: Love Me Do, The Beatles

Two Years, Sixteen Weeks, and Pre-Mother's Day

Full disclosure: This post is a week late. I am actually 17 weeks along, but this picture was taken last week. I simply haven't had the time to blog lately. So, let's play catch up.

The morning sickness is pretty much gone, thank goodness. However, it has been replaced by a near constant headache. Pregnancy is the best. 

I am starting to look and feel a little more pregnant these days. Luckily I own a lot of loose-fitting tops so I've been able to wear my own shirts, although my wardrobe options have shrunk considerably. I'm also wearing normal pants, but most pairs are unbuttoned, with a belly band. Any pants that once required a belt to stay up, now just stay up on their own. It's disconcerting.

Baby: Baby is the size of an avocado, clocking in at 4 ounces and 4 inches long. His/her eyes are functioning, although the eyelids are still sealed, and developing muscles are helping she/he straighten out. Also, apparently there is a dance party going on inside me, I just can't feel it yet.

Cravings/Aversions: Fruit!! All day, every day. I am constantly dying for sweetness, but desserts don't really do it for me. It has to be fructose. Most of the fruit I think about has some acidity to it: citrus, peaches, nectarines, kiwis, strawberries... I also think about frozen yogurt a lot. Sweet and tangy, just like the fruit my dreams are made of. I'm still not a huge fan of meat, but it doesn't make me sick anymore. I'm just never really interested in eating it. Veggie baby and I are eating meat and getting enough protein, we're just not very happy about it.

In other news, Will and I also celebrated our two year anniversary earlier this month. We're living very frugally this year, but we splurged on a Kinect and Just Dance 4 as our anniversary gift to each other. While I did do better on the majority of the songs, Will beat me soundly at a Bollywood song. He has found his calling. Also, a very embarrassing link to video of us dancing to Rick Astley can be found on Will's facebook. That's all I will say about that.

Anniversary Flowers. Will got me white roses, just like my wedding bouquet. 

We spent Mother's Day weekend down in Colonial Beach. My only "pre" Mother's Day. Very exciting. 

It was a great weekend of family, food, and fun. We had dinner one night at a restaurant that was two-thirds windows and right on the Chesapeake Bay. I had the best crab legs I have ever eaten. I'm just the world's slowest crab leg cracker. Will actually stepped in and wrangled the last few legs for me. My hero. I guess I'll just have to eat a lot more crab to get some practice in.

Yeah. It was a lot of crab...

Mother's Day proper was a family cookout with cornhole and rides on the surrey (a cross between a bike and a golf cart. the coolest. pictured below.)

Mom and Roger have the most gorgeous hand-painted conrhole boards

Will got a few pictures of one of our backyard cornhole matches. This one is me and Roger versus Grammy and Sug. This was definitely the longest game we played, but Roger and I finally snatched the win. We remain undefeated as a team. Go us!

This is my "I CANNOT believe that bean bag went right into the hole!" face.

Will and I took the surrey out on our own early in the day, and I thought I was going to die. It is so heavy for just two people! I actually had to take a few breaks on our trip around the block, and Will pedaled the whole thing by himself. What. A. Man.

But, when Will, Megan, Aimee, and I took it to the beach in the afternoon it was so much easier to pedal. Four people make light work. We were definitely the coolest people cruising around the neighborhood that day.

It was a truly wonderful weekend. A great breath of fresh air to get us through to the end of the school year. Only weeks left!

I'd like to finish this extensive post by sharing some wonderful news. This past week, within a 24-hour period, the two biggest items I have been worrying about for months were resolved: We were approved for an apartment in Ashburn and we move in just over a week. And (drumroll please) I am married to a real-life elementary school teacher! Will got the call and will be teaching 3rd grade in Loudoun County this coming school year. Such a relief.

Theme Song: Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley

Summer Photos

Will is working full time for the summer and I'm applying for jobs for next school year. Things aren't exactly exciting every minute of every day. Here are a few pictures, from when I actually remember to pull out my phone...

The last two potatoes we had before we moved to Virginia

Our first place in VA--the attic

Will barely clears the ceiling. Oh, and he has a beard all the time now. All the time.

At the new place, we're on the second story. This lizard climbed up to say hi.

Rock Band with our Nephews

Down in Colonial Beach last weekend, they were having Jet Ski racing dockside.

Theme Song: Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer, Nat King Cole