"Crazy hair"

Part of Camille's ritual in the bath is to have "crazy hair," and then she looks at her reflection in the metal circle in the bathtub (I guess it's the tub overflow drain). The other thing Camille loves to do is clean the bathtub with her washcloth and then use the letter T toy as a squeegee.

I have to keep a hand on Lily's bath seat at all times because she easily topples it over. Lily loves the bath because of the abundance of floating toys within her reach.

Sisters playing

Camille is getting the idea of playing with Lily, though Camille's attention span is short. Lily will watch Camille for a long time. Camille wants to take care of Lily, which often means running over to Lily when she is crying and thrusting a toy in Lily's face and then running off before Lily has a chance to grab it. The outfit Lily is wearing in the first picture is one Camille wore at 13 months old (Lily is not yet 7 months old). Most of Lily's clothes we remember Camille walking in!

Cooking with Camille

Green jello with manderin oranges is one of Camille's favorite dishes to "cook." She gets all dressed up for the occasion.

Tummy time

Lily is enjoying tummy time much more these days. She's moving her arms and lets, trying to figure out how to crawl. When she's on her back she scoots around and we have to watch that she doesn't bang her head on the furniture. Sometimes I even find her in her bed with her head underneath the bumper pad playing.

Lily has to compete with Kady The Cat for her toys. When Lily is in her bouncing door frame jumper, Kady sit by her to play with the rings hanging off the side as Lily bounces.



Lily is even experimenting with holding her own bottle.

Let's play dress-up

Camille likes to play dress-up. Here's she's using her hospital blankie as a cape and wearing a decorated St. Patrick's day hat to parade around the house.

Let's go for a ride

Lily had a blast her first time in the Barbie Jeep. Matt disconnected the battery so that Camille wouldn't take her for a ride. Lily doesn't sit up that well, and Camille's driving skills are...well...erratic.

More wedding photos

Camille and Lily were cute in their matching dresses and bows. It's hard to get them both to smile at the same time. The last photo is of Camille drawing while waiting for all the photos to be taken after the wedding.

Doug and Sara's wedding

Camille was an adorable flower girl. Knowing how fussy she is about shoes hurting her feet, I had her wear tennis shoes until the last minute. It's a good thing because right after the wedding she started in complaining about her shoes. Bubbles were an excellent distraction to her foot discomfort until after the photos were completed and she could put her tennis shoes back on. I think the bridesmaids may have wished they had tennis shoes as well.

Matt took Camille over to Sara's house before the wedding so she could ride with the bridal party to the church in the limo. I warned Camille ahead of time not to get anything on Sara's dress. The girls were all so nice to Camille and she had a great time. When it came time to walk down the aisle, Camille wasn't sure about going. So, my mom stood up from her seat, and Camille ran down the aisle to her. It was cute. I guess flowergirls always bring the unexpected. Camille had an adorable little boquet ball of artificial flowers, which was indestructable (and that's a good thing).

Doug and Sara's wedding rehearsal

Lily slept in my arms through the wedding rehearsal and the wedding. She was such a good baby stealing a nap whenever she could. Camille was excited by the little things. She found a penny at the rehearsal and showed it to everyone.

Niagara Falls

The first picture is of the Canadian side of the falls, appropriately called Horseshoe falls. The water spray from the falls is so high that you can never get a clear view of the falls.

In the next 2 pictures you can see Lily, my sister Kristine, Camille, and Matt at the edge of the falls. It's an amazing rush of water. In the 3rd picture you can see the wind turned around and it started raining some really cold water!

In the 4th picture you can see looking back at the American part of the falls and the bridge crossing over from the US to Canada. We were so thankful to have the double stroller for the day (and for the airport travels).

The weather was warm and beautiful that day. In fact, we even got sunburned. The 5th picture is of a tour boat call the Maid of the Mist that takes passengers in rain ponchos close to the falls. We did not take the tour.

Traveling to New York and Canada

We had a wonderful, busy, tiring weekend in New York for my brother's wedding in Buffalo. We went over to Niagara Falls on Friday. We parked on the US side and walked across a bridge over to Canada.



The first picture is the American part of the falls. In the photo it doesn't look as impressively large until you look at the tiny people standing on the land at the top left of the picture. The roar of the water is amazingly loud.

In this photo Camille is not cooperating with picture-taking. Lily was sleeping in the stroller. The next picture is looking over toward the Canadian part of the falls.

When we traveled on Thursday our first flight was delayed, and we missed the connection in Charlotte. So, in the extra time in the airport Camille had fun running circles around the decorative tile floor and sitting in the big rocking chairs that were all around the airport.

Even more Carthage pictures

Camille is yet another generation enjoying Granny's yummy bread.

Camille and Lily are rocking in the chair that Papa Jamey rocked in when he was a little boy. Many other little children have since also rocked in this chair.

Cattleman's BBQ

Last Saturday night in Carthage we went to supper at Matt's uncle Robby's ranch, where he hosted a local cattleman's BBQ. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed the live music. When we first arrived I put Lily in the front pack. Matt's cousin Mary's husband Patrick is a funny guy, and he thought it would be fun to wear Lily in the front pack. I thought he was kidding, but he wore Lily around for a good long while, and she was happy to check out the evening's events.

More photos from Carthage

Lily and Granddad shared some bonding time while we were outside for a family lunch.

As part of the lunch we had a birthday party for Sam (Matt's cousin's son). All the kids enjoyed hitting the piniata, and Camille quickly learned about picking up the candy.

It was above 90 degrees so several of the kids went inside to play games in the air conditioning. Matt remembers playing that marble game for hours when he was a little kid.

Fishing

Matt took Camille fishing when we were in Carthage this weekend. Camille was so excited! Matt took her to the Bass Pro Shop before we left and they bought a pink fishing pole, per Camille's request. When we got to Carthage it was late (after at least 3 stops for Camille to go to the bathroom) and we put Camille to bed in the middle of the king size bed with Matt and myself. At 3am Camille woke up again to go to the bathroom. Afterwards she told me that she wasn't going back to sleep because it was "a little light outside." I told her that it was just a street light outside and she must go back to sleep. In a pouty voice she said I want to go fishing NOW and go play with the kids (cousins)." She flopped around and carried on for a good while before finally going back to sleep. On the way home Camille apparently had fun with the window rolled down.

It's way past my bedtime now. I'll try to blog again tomorrow if I have time. I have a bunch more pictures.