Birthday Week Post #1

We have two birthdays this week, Daddy's was this past weekend.  These are the last in our little family of spring babies for 2011, made all the more meaningful by the prospect that these will be the last that we spend together as we are now.  Though recent events certainly cast a heavy shadow, I think we all enjoyed the day.  It was a day when we all felt good, laughed and played, and we even managed to capture some cute moments.  What a gift it was.

 The Grands were here to share it with us...

 Daddy, C & H enjoy the view of Great Falls on the MD side, we've had a lot of rain lately so the water was quite high...

 C seemed to enjoy the rushing water...

 Daddy and H enjoy the view from the look out trail...

 H hitches a ride with Grandpa...

 Big smiles...

 H in her Ming Ming shoes...

 Clapping...

 High 5...

 Showing rocks to Grandma...

Rock hunting...

 "It's on your head!"  This is one of C's favorite games, he'll put something on his head and wait for us to notice and exclaim, big smiles and laughter ensue....

 Shake, shake, shake!  He played with us this way during most of the car ride home...

 Late lunch following our walk from Joe's Noodle House in Rockville, MD...

Birthday cake, "Huggs" from Victoria's Cakery...

During our walk we saw another family affected by pediatric brain cancer wearing their Race for Hope shirts, and also ran into another family who walked near us and actually remembered C from the race, what a small world...

Ordinary?

Over the last couple of months, C has decided to take a break from the extraordinary and start pursuing some plain old ordinary infant / toddler activities in his free time.  He is a joy to watch, and a challenge to keep up with.  He has music in his soul and starts bopping his head, raising his arms, clapping and "dancing" in his own manner upon hearing anything with a beat.  He is definitely making the most of the time he is unhooked from feeds.  :)

 

 Crawling and exploring...

 

 

Helping put away (?) dishes...

 

 

 Playing with H...

 

Still working on eating and drinking, but we clap like heck every time he brings a cup to his mouth and he's responding by raising it more and more, now just need to get the drinking part going...

 And a grand love of climbing, again and again...

 

H cheers him on, a good big sis...

Flight home, Easter, guitar hero and Race for Hope DC!

A very abbreviated photo catch up of the last week or so...

Something that reminds me of my youth, back when pilots let you come up front to check out the cockpit if you were a kiddo, how lucky H was (and we all were!) to be able to have an experience like this in this day and age!  :)

C enjoying a bunny, it was all good fun until he surprised us all, himself included, by swallowing the ears. He was fine, we tried to applaud him for actually swallowing something that vaguely resembles food!  :)

 H is a pro, the ears came off immediately...

 My guitar hero!

H & I holding hands while walking the Race for Hope earlier today in DC, C is in front with Daddy.  Lots of folks came out this morning to support C and a great cause, and lots more folks donated to our team to help support brain tumor research. What a great way to start the day!