14 Months Old and Walking!

Camille is officially a walker! While she has been taking many steps for awhile, she is finally at the the point of gettting back up any time she falls and takes several laps around the house for fun each day. :) She especially loves to try and run away if it is time to get dressed or go to bed. At least we are still faster than she is... for now.

Here are some pictures we took of her today- on her 14th month birthday. It was a special day. We got to celebrate the 100yrs of Nanny's life. While it is always sad to have to say goodbye and attend a funeral, it was amazing that Nanny had such a full, long life. AND she got to live long enough to become a great, great grandmother. Camille was her first and only great great grandchild. What an honor!

Camille loves to ride on her Daddy's shoulders. She also loves snuggling up to mommy or pretending to wrestle. She was cuddling up to me while we were taking pictures and we thought it was hilarious the way she positions herself next to me- especially with that big belly poking out!

She loves her "fairy mobile" still. She pushes it around herself and hits all the buttons with the music, but she also loves to sit on it and be pushed around the house. And check out the hair. Every night after her bath, we comb & comb to straighten the back, but no matter what- it flips right out. I think this is the baby Justin Bieber look :)

This chair is about 75yrs old. I had some pictures taken in it when I was close to Camille's age. Mimi let us have it for Camille. She looks so cute sitting in it and she loves that it is her size. It is hard to capture a picture of her sitting because she loves to stand up and then sit back down, over and over and over :)

Camille's New Class

Camille was moved up to the "big girls" class at school this week. We knew the move was coming, but didn't think much of it, since her new teacher & classroom were just next door to where she is used to. She had the opportunity to bond with her new teacher Mrs. Margaret last week when there weren't many kids at school due to the holidays. Camille's new class is still all girls and one of which she new from her infant class.

Mrs. Margaret has sent comments home each day saying what a cutie pie Camille is and how she is such a sweet child. I wish I could take the credit for that, but she was just born that way :) Mrs. Margaret said she knew she would love Camille once she served her her first meal. She was very impressed with Camille's appetite and love of food- she said they had that in common. She loves that she is such a great eater and will try just about anything. Let's hope she keeps that up.

With my injury, Nick has had to take & pick up Camille from school everyday this week. He said one day when he picked her up, she was just walking around from table to table..... She won't do that at home!! So we see she shows off her big girl skills at school and then resorts back to laziness at home :)

We have noticed a complete change in her demeanor this week though! She is super energetic when she gets home & happy as can be. She wants to play up until bedtime and even doesn't act sleepy then either! Her playing is more like a ball of energy- shaking her head/dancing/going from toy to toy/clapping/waving her arms around. I'm not kidding- she can do this for hours at night! She is also starting to be even more independent than usual- hard to imagine. She wants to feed herself with her spoon and doesn't want you to hold it at all. She points to what she wants to eat and pushes what she doesn't want off of her tray. She is pretty much 100% sippy cup now thank goodness! She loves to mimic us and then laughs when we mimic her back. She is still super observant- we can't get anything past that child- especially when we try to sneak a dessert :) She takes about the same amount of steps, but does them with a little more control and confidence. She now just starts walking to us on her own, rather than us encouraging her, but that is only when she wants something. Otherwise, she is fine to keep crawling or hold our hands.

She is getting even more fun with her little personality though I can tell she is going to be hard headed as can be!

I will try and take some updated pictures soon and need to video her with her new found energy- it is quite entertaining!

Ski Getaway.... and an unwanted memento to bring home!

Nick and I got each other a weekend getaway at the Wintergreen Resort in VA for Christmas. We decided to take our trip on New Years eve weekend. What better way to ring in the New Year? Since Mimi's Christmas wish was extra time with Camille, we didn't want to disappoint her :) So Mimi had Camille for the whole weekend- a first for us! We knew she was in great hands. MawMaw & PawPaw even made a visit to Camille too- so she had lots of good care while we were away.

Nick and I loved the 4hr drive to Wintergreen. We took some back roads through many small NC & VA towns- which was so much fun. We were in no rush to get there, so it was very nice to go at our own pace. We got to stop for lunch in Lynchburg and found a great cafe in downtown. We were a bit worried about the temperatures since it was supposed to be such a warm weekend in Raleigh. Though the temps were warmer than usual for the mountains, they were still plenty chilly for us, coupled with the wind! Brrr!

Nick & I decided to hold off on the skiing for Friday, since we had to check in, get situated and scope everything out. Our accomodations were so nice- we lucked up and got a condo right next to the lodge!! We could walk to EVERYTHING, including the slopes. Very cool! We did spot the ice skating rink, and though it was somewhat small and seemed to be the hangout for a younger crowd, we wanted to try it out. It had been a long time since either of us had skated. We had such a great time! We both picked it right up and had fun dodging all the kids learning to skate for the first time. After about an hour of skating, we were exhausted and sore and ready to call it quits! Since most of the local restaurants were booked for NYE, we decided to stay close and have dinner at The Edge.... a bar that overlooks some of the slopes. It is embarrasing to admit, but we didn't stay out until midnight... we wanted to hit the slopes early and were exhausted from the long work week :) Are we getting old?

We woke up early and ready to ski on Saturday!! We hit the slopes around 8:30am. Most of the other skiiers must have partied hard b/c we were some of the only folks out there! It was so nice to have the slopes & lifts to ourselves for awhile. The snow was fairly slick & icy since the weather had melted the real snow that was there. By mid morning, the ski schools had started up and folks started to come out from hibernation, so it got fairly crowded. After making sure we weren't too rusty.... we moved from the beginner slopes to the intermediates. It was quite fun until our last slope before our lunch break..... Nick had gone down ahead of me, so I got going and before I had gone a few feet down the slope, I had decided to slow myself down just for safe measure. Well... I turned my ski, but the rest of my body went the opposite way. Result- a bad fall at the top of the slope. Ouch!! I thought I broke my leg, so some extra prayers were said as I tried to figure out what to do. Nick was calling out to me, but I was in too much pain to get up. Someone flagged the ski patrol and I was Carroll's first accident of the season :) Lucky me! After some time had passed and I was collecting myself, I realized I hadn't broken anything and the pain was isolated to my knee. The ski patrol wanted to get me checked out and since I couldn't walk, I got taken down the slope in the ski patrol sled. Best part of that was they put me in a body bag looking thing to protect me from the snow. Boy that turned some heads. :) I then got taken by a snowmobile to the ski patrol building. I'm glad I hadn't broken anything b/c that was one bumpy ride. It is the ambulance of the slopes... they blow whistles and wave the ski poles and everyone moves aside. Ski patrol iced my knee and put me in a cardboard splint until Nick could get to me. They urged us to go to the hospital. I knew my injury wasn't an emergency and told Nick once he got me settled in our room, he could go back to skiing for awhile. I was certain nothing was broken so I figured what the heck. Nick got another 2-3 hrs in. I told him to avoid the black diamonds b/c we didn't need both us us layed up with injuries. While he didn't listen to that advice, he figured to call it quits once it got foggy b/c he could envision himself getting hurt and me not being able to do anything :) Good thing. We then made our way to the hospital.

The hospital is 20 miles away in Fisherville. We had to take these steep, narrow roads to get there. Again, glad it wasn't an emergency! We pulled up to the hospital in shock, it was HUGE! I guess I was expecting some small town clinic of some sort... boy was I wrong. We did have to go in the ER, which is always an interesting experience. The people waiting all seemed to know each other and had some interesting dialects. :) I had a guy try and tell me about the show "1000 ways to die"- nice ER conversation! I had some xrays done which confirmed nothing was broken, but revealed the swelling that I felt. The doctor was Dutch and very interesting- we really liked her. She was very honest and very personable. She felt like I had a bad sprain, but nothing torn. Only an MRI would confirm that, but she felt fine with seeing how I did over time before doing that. So, I got a brace & crutches- the unwanted memento from our trip. After getting released at 9pm, tired & hungry, Nick & I enjoyed a New Year's Day dinner at McDonald's. :) We'll have to make up the black eyes & greens later. Nick kindly reminded me that what you do on New Year's is a reflection of the rest of your year... I quickly came back with well, mine will be full of resting with my feet up :)

So, a somewhat crippled Mom is not what Camille was expecting when we got home. She kept pointing to my brace & crutches and then would hold her arms up wanting to be picked up. She was very upset when I couldn't pick her up, and is still angry today about that. Poor thing, can't understand why mommy is walking funny and not playing with her much. So, Nick is Mr. Mom this week :)

I shouldn't be out of commission for more than a week, so I am counting down and hoping for a quick recovery!!!