Camel. A retrospective.

Camel entered our house on Amelia's first Christmas. She was a gift from Ben and came in a set with a spider, tarantula, and vulture. Initially, Amelia did not favor one over the other. She loved them all. Her first word was spider.

Eventually, she latched onto camel and carried her everywhere. Camel had a tag that Amelia would rub between her thumb and finger as a soothing mechanism when she was sad or tired. Eventually the tag completely wore off. She then managed to rub right through the fabric, exposing the elastic, which she then pulled out to create a sort of bracelet, as seen here:



Camel usually just went by "camel" until Amelia finally decided to give her a name, Stan. She eventually realized that this was not exactly a girl's name, so she renamed her Clara Stan. But she still called her camel. Around the time that Elsa was born, she started referring to her as "my baby" and she would nurse her and bathe her and change her diaper. Pretty much anything I did with Elsa, she would do with camel. Elsa is introduced to camel:



Admittedly, camel became rather annoying at times. She was ALWAYS around and we were constantly having to stop in the middle of various tasks so camel could be retrieved. And then there was the dreaded question "where's camel?" We have returned to parks, movie theaters, grocery stores, malls, friend's houses, and hotel rooms to find camel. Surprisingly, she was always right where Amelia left her. We finally were able to enforce a rule that camel either stays home or stays in the car.

The details on the night of her disappearance are fuzzy. We went to the fireworks downtown. Amelia firmly believes that she had brought camel along in the car, but we never saw camel during the evening. We of course returned to the scene of the crime the next day and thoroughly scoped out the area where we parked and where we had our blanket. We even checked the garbage cans. No camel. As annoying as camel has been, it actually made me sad that she was gone. And sad to see Amelia's disappointment when we weren't able to find her. She is substituting the old spider right now. But something tells me this story isn't over yet...

I thought I would go back and find a few photos of camel...it turns out camel is in nearly every photo I've ever taken of Amelia.


Camel reading with Amelia.


Camel as a black cat for Halloween.


Camel's first day of school.


Camel with her friends.


Camel in the car.


Camel vs camel

Camel is gone?

White House Easter Egg Roll

We were lucky enough to get tickets (thanks Mom) to attend the White House Easter Egg Roll yesterday. It was a crazy frenzy of parents and strollers and tired kids and waiting in lines. It was fun to hang out on the lawn of the White House though and take part in the historic tradition. And one day Elsa can tell all of her friends that she had her diaper changed on the White House lawn.


Waiting with the masses.


We finally made it onto the lawn. But so did 6,000 other people.




Ben cheering on Amelia during the Egg Roll.


Amelia was really into the Easter Egg Roll and was very determined to cross the finish line.




James Cromwell (aka Farmer Hoggett from Babe) reads "Goodnight Moon"


Listening to Ziggy Marley. Thankfully we missed Fergie's performance earlier in the day.


Amelia was so excited to see all of her "friends" from her favorite PBS shows. She admired from a distance though. I don't blame her...Sid the Science Kid's big head was a little frightening in person.


The shameful smurf.


Elsa's first smurf encounter.


Although Amelia didn't want to approach WordGirl, she kept talking about her all day.

Easter photo shoot...

Easter festivities...

We had a lovely Easter weekend coloring eggs, enjoying baskets full of goodies, hunting for eggs, and indulging in an Easter feast.




Elsa was pleased with her basket full of balls and empty eggs.


Amelia usually sports some pretty awesome hair in the morning. She was thrilled with her basket full of My Little Ponies.


My family has a tradition of making a bunny cake. The bunnies are usually hand-made using marshmallows, but I spent too much time making the cake and resorted to peeps.




Amelia couldn't wait to cut into the cake. After filling up on ham, cheesy potatoes, asparagus, deviled eggs, and homemade rolls, we had to wait awhile before we could handle the cake.








Elsa experiences a deviled egg.

Fireworks in April!

On a whim, we decided to head to the waterfront in D.C. Saturday evening and check out the fireworks that conclude the Cherry Blossom Festival. We will definitely be making this a tradition. We didn't know what to expect, but what we got was a lovely evening with no crowds and a huge fireworks display, rivaling the Fourth of July. It was fun to be so close to the launch spot on the water.

Cantilevers. And why I love my small house.

On Friday I surprised Ben with an afternoon date to tour Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House which is not too far from us. We have wanted to visit it for a long time and it just never happened. I was particularly excited to see this house because it is the same size as our house. This was an example of Wright's innovative designs to create a modestly-sized and affordable single-family home in 1939. Every space in the house was designed beautifully with a specific purpose in mind and although it is small, it felt big inside. Part of that was due to Wright's use of only four materials (wood, brick, glass, and concrete).

Houses have become so large. I think about the houses that my parents grew up in. They were not big. And even with 4 or 5 children, they managed to survive in them. Today, you need an extra bedroom just for your Costco membership. Lately, I have really been embracing my small house. I love that it takes me little time to straighten. I love that I don't have to travel far to return all the clean laundry to its proper place. I love that it prevents me from accumulating too much stuff. I love trying to organize a small space and I have actually gotten my home to the point where I have extra storage space. It is just right for our little family. Wright was against basements and attics and garages and felt that everything you use on a daily basis could be easily stored somewhere in your house. I really like the idea of living more simply.

The other great thing about the Pope-Leighey house, as with all of Wright's houses, is the way it is made to blend in with its surroundings and bring the outside right into the home. You hardly notice when you've transitioned from the outside to the inside. One of my favorite Wright features are his corner windows and doors. They are seriously stunning. There was some beautiful (and versatile) furniture inside as well. We left the tour and Ben immediately had all sorts of ideas for tearing out walls in our house to open up the space.


Notice the raised herb garden right outside the kitchen window. Perfect.


This photo shows one of the corner doors opening up onto the patio. Why don't they build more houses with corner windows and doors? They are amazing.




(This was the only photo I managed to sneak inside, because photography was not permitted in the house.)




This was a corner window in one of the bedrooms.