Camilla walking for a longer period of time.

Being back in Boston, Camilla and I paid a return visit with mama duck and her ducklings at the Boston Common.




It's not enough to just see and touch the duckies, Camilla's got to have a taste as well:

For those of you who don't remember/know, these duck statues are in reference to the 1942 Caldecott Medal winning children's book Make Way for Ducklings written by Robert McCloskey.

Flashback to almost a year ago:

Camilla's getting really good at walking. She now actually gets to her intended destination without falling to the floor - sometimes walking a dozen steps to get there. I haven't been able to get a video of the longer periods of walking, but I'm sure I will soon enough:

Notice how she almost didn't make it, but caught herself so that she could continue walking to the chair.

In case anyone was wondering where Camilla's nose is...

Finally took a couple of videos of Camilla walking. She's been walking up a storm these past couple of days. I think she likes the attention:

Greetings from O'Hare! Camilla stretching her legs during a layover in Chicago on our way to Grandma and Grandad's house in Webster, NY.

I finally had the downstairs bedrooms repainted making it possible for me to make Camilla's room more her own.


I hope I tacked these letters on straight (enough)...

Next on the 'To Do' list: replace carpets

Camilla's top ten most frequently said phrases:
10. "Hi, blankie..."
9. "Up and down"
8. "Hey, Paul...?"
7. " Hey, Robbie...?"
6. "No, no, no" (with pointer finger wagging)
5. "Ok, ok!" (usually when she's caught doing something she's not supposed to be doing)
4. "Get down?"
3. "Hello?" (while holding anything resembling a phone - i.e., a remote, the meraki box)
2. "Izeeennn!" (Camilla's cousin, who apparently is in trouble often)
1. "All done! All done!" (with head shaking side to side)

I know what you're thinking, "This would be an awful lot cuter with accompanying sound clips," but alas, getting Camilla to say something on record is harder than it seems.

Here are other phrases that crack us up, but she doesn't say them as frequently:
"Say 'hi' to the baby! Hi, Camilla!"
"It's okay. It's okay. Shhhh...."
"Watch Tinky Winky, okay?" (come to think of it, she says this pretty often)
"Push the button" (we have these dimmer switches for the lights and she loves to watch the lights slowly go on and slowly dim off)

We spent a couple of days visiting with the Lesters in Cloverdale, CA. It was pretty warm up there so we went out to Lake Sonoma, hopped onto their boat, and had a great time swimming and wake boarding:


Camilla and Jason didn't appreciate the water as much as we had expected and Camilla even panicked whenever we put her in. So the two spent most of the time just sitting on the boat with their feet in the water.

Camilla did tolerate being transferred into the tube and actually enjoyed being in it.



Camilla the castaway

Cute toes.

Camilla earns her wings

Camilla as a Simpsons character:

I know it doesn't do her justice. I tried to make it as close to the real thing as possible. There just isn't a "cutieful" option available when creating Camilla's avatar on The Simpsons Movie website.

Camilla practicing her walking on a different kind of walker lent to us by Janet.



This has actually been the second time that Janet loaned us this special walker. The first time, which was around a couple of months ago, Camilla showed very little interest in it and it just sat in the corner most of the time. This time around, however, Camilla has shown a lot more interest and would actually use it without being prompted. I'd like to take this as a sign that Camilla is ready for upright mobility.