Hello sweet sleeping bear. You're all tucked in and I wouldn't be surprised if you were dreaming about kissing your cousin Baby Jones on his head. After all, it's one of your favorite things to do these days.

Auntie and Jones are visiting with us, and this is really your first opportunity to spend any time with him up-close-and-personal. And you really like to get up close! You love kissing him, covering his legs with a blanket, and pushing him in the swing. I think Jones likes all these things too, except maybe the swing. Sometimes you push a little too hard, so we've been trying to teach you to give very gentle pushes. Last night, he was chilling in the swing and you gave him a perfect little push, and I praised you for it. In your excitement, you jumped up and down, waved your arms and yelled, "YAY! MILLE DID IT!" Jones nearly jumped out of his skin.

This month, you and I have begun cooking together a lot. You got a super cute apron for your birthday, and we put it to good use. On the days when I don't go to the office, we like to cook pancakes or waffles for your Daddy. Another specialty is your banana pudding - the hardest part is getting you to put the bananas and cookies in the bowl instead of your mouth.

"Whisk, Mama! Need whisk!" you say. Then the best part, of course, is letting you lick the spoon when we're done. Mmmmmmmm.

This month, you were also introduced to ice cream cones. We were visiting Boo, and on a trip to Dairy Queen, she and I got ice cream cones and I got you a bowl of ice cream. I don't know what I was thinking - of course you wanted a cone like Mama and Boo! And Boo couldn't resist.

I'm not sure you'll ever want to eat ice cream out of a cup again if there is a yummy cone in a 15 mile radius.

Another first this month was your first trip to a comic book store with your Daddy. He's already done a fantastic job describing this experience on his website, so I won't even try. But you not only loved your first trip to the store, you have loved, loved, loved your new comic books. We read them every day, and it's what you always request for your bedtime story.

The other day, I asked if you wanted to go to the grocery store with me. "Go comic book store?" you asked, hopefully. No, sadly, they don't sell milk and bread there, but I'm sure you and your Daddy will go back again soon.

When we do go grocery shopping, we always have to stop at the lobster tank so you can watch them swimming around. And you make me laugh every time because at some point, you'll inevitably say, "Lobster go night-night mama. Need paci. Need blanket." And I can just picture you reaching in there to lovingly put a blanket over that poor lobster's shoulders. You're pretty sure nearly everything needs a blanket and a paci. You repeat that phrase for the snake at Oatland Island, the owl, the eagles ... pretty much anything that might require sleep at some point. Funny girl.

You are talking so much more this month, and I love it! You chatter all the time in the car, and I must pay rapt attention to everything you say, because you want me to repeat it. I think you really enjoy being able to communicate, and you like the confirmation that you're understood. If I'm not paying attention, it goes something like this:

You: "Mille see sunshine. Mille see sunshine mama. Mille see sunshine. MILLE SEE SUNSHINE. MilleseesunshineMilleseesunshine MilleseesunshineMilleseesunshine."

Me: "Camille, do you see the sunshine?"

You: "Yeah."

You've also begun singing this month, and as much as it pains me to admit, I owe a big thank-you to Barney. I never really liked that purple dinosaur's show and we never turned it on here at home. But you watched it occasionally at school, and apparently really dug it. One day you and your Daddy were playing with playdoh, and you handed him the purple stuff and asked him to make Barney. He did, and you made that playdoh Barney dance all around your table while you sang, "I love you! I love you! I love you!"

That's just the first line of his trademark song, but you've since expanded to include a few more lines. Now, we regularly get to hear you singing, "I love you! I love you! We're a happy family. Won't you love me too!" Sure, you've left out a few phrases, but I love your version and would be happy to hear you sing it all day long.

We've crossed a threshold this month - one I thought we wouldn't reach so soon. You're totally and undeniably into princesses. I'm not sure how it happened - we don't watch any princess movies at home, but I guess the other girls at school have influenced you. I didn't know we were already in such a peer-influence stage! We were in Target looking for sunglasses, and I picked out a perfectly cute Hello Kitty pair, but you pointed toward the rack and said, "Princesses Mama! Want princesses!" I was shocked - after all, I didn't even know you knew what princesses were. Now, anything you see with princesses on it is an instant attraction. And it's ok - I just thought we had another year or two before princess fever took over!

One last thing before I go to bed. Most nights we take a family walk to one of our neighborhood parks, and one of my favorite things in this universe is watching you play there with your Daddy. At some point while we're playing with sidewalk chalk or pushing the stroller or walking the dog, you'll suddenly take off running and yelling, "I get you! I get you!"

You want us to chase you and to say, "I'm gonna get you!" And it's so cute. Your Daddy will run all over the park, staying just a little distance behind you, until he catches you and swings you up into the air. Then he tickles you as you dissolve into giggles. As soon as your feet touch the ground, you're off again, saying, "I get you! I get you!"

Oh sweet girl, I'm so glad that I get you. That I get to spend another day with you. That I get to be your Mama. That I get to hear you sing your Barney song and tell the lobsters night-night. That I get to watch you fall in love with princesses and comic books and ice cream cones. Thank you for another great month. I love you so much.

Yesterday we were partyin' fools, with two different birthday parties on our social calendar. The first was for a friend's 7-year-old and was a beach shindig. It was GREAT! Not only did our sweetie hang out contentedly on the sand and play, but when she did want to get in the water, there was a large swath of very shallow water leading out to a sandbar that was just right for a toddler. I think we've found a new favorite section of beach, as long as we can time our trips with low tide. The party was fun, and the hosts were renting a beach condo so we even had a place to bathe our beachy child before putting her in the car seat for the trip home.

That night, we were invited to a birthday party for our friends' 13-year-old twins. We dressed Camille in her hippest clothes, and Lee got this somewhat-fuzzy photo from his phone as we walked out of the house.

I wondered how we might be received by this young bunch, and whether or not it would be "cool" to bring a 2-year-old to this affair, but my fears were unfounded. We'd barely begun walking up the driveway before a red-headed flash came rocketing toward us - it was the birthday girl so excited to see Camille at her party.

There were nearly 100 kids invited to this party, and from the looks of it, most of them came. At first, Camille stuck close by our sides, munching a Cheeto, but she couldn't ignore the thump-thump of the bass for long. The DJ was blasting hip-hop from the garage, and suddenly Camille was jumping and spinning and waving her arms to T-Pain singing "Buy U A Drank." I'm sure he's talking about milk, or perhaps some lemonade, right? As long as Camille thinks so...

She danced and danced and danced some more, smiling so big and getting lots of smiles in return. I kicked myself about 4,587 times for not having a video camera to capture that scene - Camille bringing down the house, while all the 13-year-olds tried to keep up.

Unfortunately for our fly girl, she has an early bedtime so we couldn't party for long. But she had a blast - almost as much fun as I had watching her!

We were in a store fitting room, and as I checked out a new shirt in the mirror, she pointed and said, "So cute, Mama! So cute!"

We traveled up to see the Valleses, and as usual, it was a ton of fun. It's fun on two levels - I really enjoy getting to spend time with one of my best friends, catching up, hanging out, and watching her family grow. I also love watching Camille play with Nia and Nate because she has a BLAST.

They were constantly in motion, but I managed to get a picture with all of them in it as they tore around the front yard on their bikes/jeeps.

And Camille was introduced to the fine sport of tee ball, with her excellent coach Mrs. Nikki.

The trip also rocked because Lee and I got to see The Hold Steady in concert at the 40 Watt in Athens. I've really begun to like the band a whole lot, but I was also excited to be at the 40 Watt again. Lee and I used to love going to concerts there when we were in school, and it holds a lot of good memories.

I was afraid going there would make me feel old, but was pleasantly surprised to see plenty of other thirty-somethings and even forty-somethings in the crowd. The 40 Watt is always good people-watching.

Another pleasant surprise was the "no smoking" rule enacted since my college days. I used to hate leaving the club reeking of cigarette smoke and the stale beer that was inevitably poured down my back at some point. But I could breathe! Hallelujah, I could breathe!

And can I just say - The Hold Steady was AWESOME! These guys not only play good music, but have so much fun doing it. Their energy was contagious, they were hilarious to watch, and I really enjoyed seeing them perform.

A really, really good weekend.

As we continue to search for the right child care situation for Camille, I've found a state website particularly helpful and wanted to share a link in case it helped anyone else. It's the website for Bright From the Start, which is Georgia's Department of Early Care and Learning.

These folks inspect every licensed child care facility in the state, and they're the ones who follow up on complaints too. A facility's latest inspection report is usually online, and I'm glad for the ability to read up on a prospective daycare or preschool (here's a link to the provider search page). Of course, it can't tell you everything you'll ever need to know, but it has told me enough about some of them to know I shouldn't waste my time there.

For example, there was the one daycare with inappropriate child-to-teacher ratios (a class of 39 three-year-olds with just 2 teachers). Another daycare was cited for having barbed wire hanging from the playground fence - what the heck? Yet another had a complaint filed after a one-year-old wandered, unsupervised, into an empty room and hung out there for a while, and was only discovered after his mother arrived to pick him up. Some reports even had statements like, "Teachers should watch their tone of voice when redirecting the children." All I need to know, thanks.

We still haven't decided what we're going to do about Camille's daycare situation, but I like knowing this resource is here as we look around.

But that's how rotten our last beach experience was. It seemed like a lot of hassle to drag all our beach stuff across the dunes, only to have a baby who didn't enjoy hanging out on the sand.

So we decided today to break our beach moratorium and give it another try. Camille hadn't forgotten about the beach, because as soon as I walked down the stairs in my swimsuit, she asked, "Beach?"

I said, "Do you want to go to the beach?"

"Yeah! See ocean!"

We were very relieved after crossing the boardwalk that Camille wanted to play on the sand, and didn't immediately rush into the ocean. She definitely still wanted to swim, which is fine because I like swimming too. But this time, she was willing to get out of the water too - and without a fight.

So I'm feeling very encouraged that our beach trips can be fun again! She really enjoyed herself, and I really enjoyed playing with her. Lee tried to get some photos, but she was a blur of action - so here's a beach pic, up close and personal.

Now I'm hoping to get a chance for a few more beach photos before the season is over!

This is what we get now when we ask Camille to smile. Cute thing - she's trying to smile so big that she ends up with her eyes closed! She makes me laugh. Cutiepie.

Now onto business. We've been doing some school shopping these days - not shopping for clothes or supplies, but literally shopping for schools.

Overall, we're still pretty happy with the daycare Camille currently attends, and it's the only one we've ever personally known. But there are a few things about it we've never loved (too much TV in the classroom in my opinion, and we don't always agree with the school's religious doctrine). But they really seem to care about Camille and she usually appears to enjoy herself, so we're ok on that front.

But they only offer a five day program, so we're paying for 5 days of daycare even though we only use 3. That's annoying, not to mention expensive. Cost isn't the overriding factor for us in choosing childcare, but it is a factor. And the religious doctrine thing bothers me more as she gets older and may be more aware if certain ideologies are taught in the classroom. So we started hunting back in March.

On the recommendation of a friend, we discovered what seems to be a great daycare that offers a 3-day program. No TVs in the building at all (except for the security camera), religious but not overbearing, a seemingly loving staff, and it's right between home and work so it's very convenient.

But we're not the only ones who think so, because they've got a serious waiting list. We've been on it since April. At first they thought we might get in in August when their new building opens. Now completion of the building won't happen until at least January, and even then, we're not guaranteed a space.

So yesterday we checked out a local Montessori academy that offers a 3-day program. We liked a lot of things about it, and I think Camille could be happy and well cared for there. But there were a few issues too, like the fact that they don't serve a hot lunch. I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it does. I mean, Camille's not really into cold cuts and doesn't particularly like PB&J yet, so what do I pack for a 2 year old's lunch? Cheese and fruit, but what else? Doritos? I don't think so. And it's across town, so that's a negative.

But the atmosphere was nice and the director was wonderful, so it might be worth the cold lunch and extra commute. I'm so picky, but it's such a big decision, trying to determine who can best care for your child while you're working. Determinig who will help shape her during these formative years.

So do we wait on the one daycare we really like? Do we enroll in the Montessori school and see what happens? Do we keep looking? I don't know.

The thing is, these jeans are actually a little big on me. And she says everything is too tight on her. No matter what I put on her, she almost always remarks "Too tight" at some point as I dress her. But why does she have to now direct those comments at me?

Not too long after, she watched as I put on a little makeup.

Camille: "Mama put makeup!"

Me: "Yes, baby. Mama is putting on makeup."

(pause as she watches)

Camille: "More. Need more makeup, Mama."

This continued the entire time I was applying makeup. Thanks for the input, little stinker!

She also opened a birthday card that had been sitting on her windowsill and shouted, "Happy Birthday to you!"

What a cutie.

Yet the label says my jar may also contain peanuts, cashews, almonds, filberts (what the heck is a filbert?), pecans, brazil nuts, walnuts, pistachios and sunflower seeds. Apparently I should've just opted for the cheaper jar of mixed nuts.

Here's baby girl watching Elmo once we got back home, with a bandaid on her finger and a sticker on her shirt:

She loves bandaids. She had to have her finger pricked, which she fussed less about than having her measurements taken!

Funny thing is, that isn't even the finger that got pricked. She moved the bandaid around from finger to finger all afternoon, always carefully holding up whichever finger currently held the bandage. Silly girl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY sweet Camibear! We had so much fun today celebrating your birthday. With all the the presents, the balloons, the cake and food, the friends and the water games, I think you really enjoyed yourself. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching you!

Your party was an animal theme, and I wanted to make your cake again this year. Your Daddy and I decorated it together - it was a simple idea and not quite ace-of-cakes, but you loved it.

I couldn't help but think about your party last year, and how you dug into your cake with your hands and weren't quite sure what to do with it all. But this year, you knew exactly what to do with cake!

After eating and opening gifts, we took the party into the backyard where you got to play with your new "animal splashers," and they were a hit!

It's an elephant, alligator and giraffe that spray water in various ways, and all your baby friends seemed to have a very good time. It was impossible to get a picture of all of them at once - here you are with Elsie and Hart, and Faith and Baby Thomas were playing too.

The only thing you didn't like about your animal splashers was the occasional spray-in-the-face!

But a quick toweling-off fixed the problem, and you played so hard all afternoon. I think you'll sleep well tonight!

Speaking of sleeping well... I've been afraid to address your recent change in sleep patterns for fear of jinxing things... but this month you've begun sleeping in! Until now, you've always been an early bird. For a long time, you got up between 5 and 5:30, and that was pretty rough on Mama and Daddy, who aren't early birds. Then gradually you shifted to a 6 a.m. wake-up time and stayed that way for months. Six is much better than 5, but still a little early. What really made me wish you'd sleep in was that you often woke up grumpy. You'd turn into my happy, sweet girl soon enough, but it took you a little while to wipe the cobwebs away and I thought you'd feel better with more sleep. But you were not interested in going back to bed.

Then we went to Colorado, with a 2-hour time difference, and at first we really had to work to convince you not to get up at 4 a.m. After all, that was 6 a.m. Georgia time, and your little internal clock was pretty strong. But toward the end of your trip, you made the adjustment. Now I wonder if we scrambled your internal clock enough to allow you to reset a bit once we returned. The first few days after we got home you still woke up at 6, but then suddenly one morning you slept until 7:30. And since then, you've been sleeping until 7 or later just about every morning. This morning you didn't get up until 8! And on top of that, you're stretching your former 2-hour nap into 3-4 hours!

It's funny - in your one-year-old letter, I talked about the new leap you'd made in sleeping, which was that you would go to sleep without a fuss. And you still go to sleep like a dream, and we're very grateful! And who knows - with this new change, you may be going through a growth spurt or something that requires extra sleep, so if this is temporary that's ok. But it sure has been nice, because you wake up so much happier, and Mama and Daddy wake up more rested too!

This month you got to see your first movie at a theater - what a big girl thing to do! A local theater is offering a few free kid movies this month, so I thought that'd be an easy way to test the theater waters. My suspicion was that you would be interested, but only for a little while.

You sat in my lap at first while we were waiting for the movie to start. Then you wanted to sit in the seat by yourself, and you were hilarious. The seat kept folding up on you, and you kept making it open and close. I snapped this pic with my phone camera.

There was a pre-movie cartoon with an unfortunately-named main character. It was called Cami Island, and it was about an island ruled by a big monster named Cami Monster. I couldn't believe it - that was not the big-screen introduction I'd hoped for, but you didn't seem to mind. Then the main movie, Wallace and Gromit, came on. As I predicted, you liked the movie but wanted to walk around, so we didn't stay long. But it was a fun experiment, and I look forward to taking you to movies when you're older and can really enjoy them.

We've done a tiny bit of potty training in this last month. We're not pushing the issue, but a few times, the potty-training stars have aligned and you've actually used your potty appropriately. When you do, we heap tons of praise on you. And now you return the favor! Whenever I go potty, you encourage me with a very upbeat, "Good girl, mommy!" Oh how you make me laugh!

We've been working on sharing and taking turns this month too, and I'm so proud of how well you're learning this tough toddler skill! I realized you'd finally grasped the concept when I saw you projecting it on your own toys. You were playing with your toy farm animals the other day, and you had the goat eating hay. Then you said, "Sheep's turn!" and removed the goat and let the sheep eat hay. Later, you were having a tea party on your new table, and the panda bear was in the other chair. You said, "Ok, doggie's turn!" And off the panda bear went to make room for the doggie. It may seem like a simple thing, but I was very excited to watch you practicing what we'd been teaching you, and without any prompting from us.

Oh sweet Camille, while watching you play today, there were so many times I thought, "I can't believe how big she is!" You are playing and running and talking so much - and I'm so glad one of your favorite things to say is still "Hi Mommy!" This year, you seem so much more like a little girl, and less and less like a baby. I think you know this too, because whenever I scoop you up in my arms and hold you like a baby, you say, "Mille baby!" and you laugh like it's a funny joke. I feel very mixed about that, because I still love holding you like a baby and cuddling you close. But at the same time, I'm so excited to watch you grow and to experience your childhood with you. You are an amazing girl, and everything your Daddy and I could have wanted, and we will cherish each phase of our lives with you. Thank your for blessing my life so much. Sleep well, little two-year-old ... my big girl who will always be my baby.

Miss Camille got to be the birthday princess at baby school today when we had a little classroom birthday party. Last year we brought cupcakes and I thought about doing that again, but her hands-down-favorite treat right now is a popsicle. I felt a little badly for a millisecond that I wasn't baking her party treat myself, but I got over it pretty quickly because it's her party and it's what she'd prefer anyway.

So this afternoon we had a popsicle party! All the kids were so cute seated at their tables, waiting for their popsicles. Some waited quietly and patiently, while others kept shouting "popsicle!" at me us as we distributed the goodies - but I thought they were a pretty well-behaved group for a bunch of toddlers!

I like this picture, because the birthday princess is happily eating her popsicle while the others are waiting. As it should be.

The party went well enough until it came to a crashing halt. Literally. Camille finished her popsicle, got up from the table and started running around the room, laughing. She'd run from one end to the other while everyone watched, and if I had to guess I'd say she was showing off a little, because it was her party after all. But then she got going a little too fast and ran smack into a wall (the popsicles were sugar-free, I swear!).

I couldn't tell at first if she'd really hurt herself or just her feelings, but she was bawling pretty good. Then we saw the blood. Poor thing cut her tongue, and her top lip was swelling.

So there were plenty of tears, but her teacher got her some ice chips and that seemed to calm her down. Poor little kiddo! I felt so badly for her. Here's hoping her party here on Saturday is all popsicle and no tears!

When I left my government job to join Lee at Heideldesign, I also left our government benefits behind. I haven't regretted the decision to leave once, but finding adequate private health insurance was tougher than I expected.

I did a lot of research online, talked with friends, and even asked a couple of doctors for recommendations. I was surprised by how difficult it was to find an insurance plan with maternity benefits. We wanted to keep our options open in case we wanted to have another child at some point, but many plans simply didn't offer maternity coverage. The ones that did seemed outrageous. One company had decent family plans, but maternity coverage alone would cost an extra $160 per month, and the MAX it would pay out in maternity benefits was $4,000. I know with Camille, my OB/GYN bill alone was $6,000, and that didn't include the hospital stay and associated surgical charges. Four grand is a drop in the bucket.

We finally applied with Assurant Health Care, and while the coverage wasn't as good as my state benefits plan, we felt we could live with it. The application process was long and painful, but finally - my last day at work in my old job - we got a call from Assurant. Basically, they said congrats, you're covered! Except...

No coverage for Lee's allergies or any related sinus trouble. No coverage for anything having to do with Camille's ears (there is a good chance she could have to have her tubes replaced at some point and that would be a hefty bill to pay out-of-pocket). And no coverage for a c-section.

Well that's crap, because my doc has already told me I have no option but a c-section if we have another baby. I asked them, "So you're basically telling me your maternity coverage is worthless to me?" "Yeah. Sorry."

I was so mad. They had, in essence, denied us. I mean, what good was their so-called coverage if it wouldn't actually cover the things we'd be most likely to need? Here I was, willing to pay steep prices for private health insurance, and getting such a crappy deal. And I was terrified the next company would give us the same answer.

Finally, we were accepted by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ga, with coverage for Camille's ears and maternity benefits that don't exclude c-section (still no help with Lee's allergies). Our health insurance bill is considerably higher than my car payment, and even so, we'll still each have to spend a couple thousand dollars in a year before we get a penny in assistance for anything other than checkups. But if something major happens, I feel much better to know we're covered. And I was pleased to find out that all our regular physicals and checkups are covered, so at least they're encouraging preventive care.

I don't know the answer to all our healthcare problems, but it's much easier for me to understand now why so many people are uninsured. It's tough to get accepted, and tough to pay the premiums. Our country ought to be able to do better.

You know. Grass. Sod. A nice green lawn in the backyard.

When Lee and I bought this house almost three years ago, we knew the backyard needed some work. But we had bigger fish to fry (the kitchen overhaul), and then our lives got really busy (had a baby) and not much happened to the backyard.

At one time, it was probably a really nice backyard. The info sheet that came with the house when we bought it listed dozens of exotic plants, etc., but the house hadn't been lived in for a bit and the backyard resembled a jungle more than a garden. Then it became the dog's yard, and the little bit of grass that existed between the vines and bushes got trampled.

Then we had Camille. Then she got older and learned to walk. Then she decided being outside was AWESOME! And then we really wanted a kid-friendly backyard.

I would never let her in our old backyard. I'm pretty sure the weeds choked out any of the exotic plants that were once there, and some poison ivy may have grown in as well. There were mysterious mounds of earth that I feared the previous owners used to hide the bodies. There were lots of mosquitoes, and probably snakes, spiders, and even a sasquatch. And dog poo.

We have several great parks in walking distance of our house, but I got tired of packing a diaper bag just to go outside. I really wanted to be able to go outside with Camille in my jammies with a cup of coffee. And as much as Camille loves water, I wanted to be able to turn on the sprinkler and just let her run. I didn't just want that, I felt like I NEEDED that.

So thanks to Uncle Sam's economic stimulus check, we decided to re-do the backyard. We didn't particularly want to spend all the money it would cost to have something really nicely landscaped, with flowers and water features, etc. And frankly, I didn't want a bunch of fancy stuff that I'd have to tell Camille not to touch. We had 2 basic requests - get rid of the jungle. Have a kid-friendly backyard with a lot of grass.

I'm kicking myself for not taking any "before" pictures, because it really was a mess back there and these photos do not begin to do it justice. Lee snagged these as the work got started and the bulldozer was brought in to help remove several large trees and the sasquatch.

Note Millie's little "fence within a fence" configuration at the bottom of the photo. That's another long story for another post. But at least it's keeping her from destroying our new grass.

Another "in progress" photo.

Lee and I also wanted a small patio, and decided to save a few bucks and do it ourselves. Not sure that was a good idea. We stayed up many a late night laying those stones - each one weighed 21 pounds and leveling them was a total pain. But at least we have a place for our table and chairs now!

I love sod - an instant backyard! Here are a couple of "after" photos.

We didn't put sod under the holly tree because it provides such wonderful shade that the grass wouldn't likely grow. So we're going to fill it in with pine straw and eventually let that be a kid play area with a kid-sized table and chairs, etc. And maybe the straw will help cushion the falls of any kids who try to climb the holly tree in the future.

Best of all, Camille loves her new backyard. We let her look out the window while the workers were laying the sod, and she exclaimed, "Grass! More grass!"

And this is the "after" picture that I love best - our girl enjoying her very own backyard:

We did have a minor setback yesterday when she was running around barefoot in the grass and apparently stepped on a bee. But we all survived, and this weekend we plan to enjoy even more time in our grassy backyard haven.