Chauncey's firm hosted a family picnic on Saturday, and we had a lot of fun there. The firm went all out. They had a balloon man on stilts (for some reason Camryn thought that a strange, sweaty man who was over nine feet tall looked scary when he bent down to give her a flower-shaped balloon), face painters, a frozen custard bar, a luau buffet, bounce houses, mini bungee jumping, a rock climbing wall, a caricature artist, and a photographer with a green screen who could put tons of different backgrounds behind your pics on the computer. The bartender at other firm events usually just serves alcohol, but this was a family activity, so he had mounds of juice boxes and other soft drinks for the kids. Maxwell loved the bungee jumping and rock climbing. I forgot to bring a camera, but luckily we got some free pics from the photographer and some free caricatures from the artist as well--one of me & Chauncey, one of the kids. She made us look like we are 40, but she definitely hit Chauncey's eyebrows and my cheekbones on the spot.
Here are some of the green screen pictures that we had fun with. The caricatures are too big to fit in my scanner. Maybe I will get around to posting some pics of those sometime soon. Chauncey doesn't want to have to take family pics again for the Christmas card, so if you're lucky, you just might get a copy of this beauty at Christmas this year.
Maxwell started taking piano lessons in mid-February, and he played in his first recital tonight. He was really excited. Here is a little video of him playing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and "All the Stars are Shining." His bow at the end is the best part.
We have felt very blessed with Camryn's progress with her language development over the last few months. She is still behind and is in speech therapy twice per week, but she is starting to say new words and is understanding a lot more of what we say. We are thrilled that she is starting to find her voice.
Just a few months ago, we felt like she understood very little. She showed intelligence with practical things and the way she plays (she pushes her baby around in a stroller and pretends to cook things in her toy kitchen), but for some reason, she just wasn't attaching meaning to words, babbling much, or trying to talk. And until recently, she was not pointing at things or nodding her head to yes and no questions.
Now, though she is still behind, she is surprising us with what she does know. The other night, Chauncey told the boys to get ready for the prayer. They ignored him and kept talking, but Camryn immediately folded her arms, bowed her head, and closed her eyes. We were shocked. Most of the time we need to do a lot of gestures and body language to her her understand what we are trying to tell her, but she knew what Chauncey was asking the boys to do before they did it or showed her.
Sunday was her second birthday, and we bought her a bubble machine. She said "bubble" for the first time that evening. She said it many times, and over the next few days said it every time we turned the machine on.
Now she can say "bubble," "mama," "dada," "baby," "uh-oh," "hi," "bye-bye," "shoes," "eyes," "happy," "apple," "up," and "gucky" (for gross). She can also do the sign for "more" with her hands, and shakes her head yes and no.
Here is a video of her from Sunday saying "bubble" and a few other words, and another video I took of her saying a few other words in February.
