www.ericandcolleen.com

Wow! What a difference a year makes - check out the comparison photos below! Last year I was big, fat and pregnant squeezed into a maternity swimsuit on the sweltering hot beach. Uncomfortable and anxious, I was definitely ready to meet our little munchkin! And look at us exactly a year later - a happy family of three touring a museum (trying to hold on to a wiggle worm)!

Memorial Day 2008

Memorial Day 2009

We spent Memorial Day 2009 at the NC Museum of Life & Science in Durham with friends Trey, Sabrina and Carter. I was amazed at the quality and quantity of things to see and do there - all within 15 minutes of our apartment! Children under three are admitted free, and we had a BOGO coupon for the adult admission, giving us a few hours of educational fun for a mere $12.50.

We wanted to beat the oncoming rain, so we started outdoors with the live animal exhibitions. Neither the bears nor the foxes were cooperating, thus making it almost impossible for the adults to get a glimpse, let alone a squirmy 11-month old. Claire enjoyed the farm animals much more, getting an up-close view of the sheep, a goat and a cow.

Hanging out with Daddy by the Bear Yard

Up close and personal with Mr. Cow

Next up was the Magic Wings Butterfly House - apparently one of the largest butterfly houses in the world (so says the website). Claire loved the constant motion of the birds and butterflies moving about. She especially enjoyed any chance to touch the trees & flowers, wanting very badly to be free from our arms or the stroller to crawl around as she pleased.

Smelling the flowers in the Butterfly House

One of Claire’s favorite areas of the museum was Loblolly Park, where she could create music with drums and bells. This was oh-so-much fun for our little one who loves banging objects to make noise! I truly think she could have played here for over an hour, had we not been ready to get indoors and out of the humidity!

Making music with mommy - fun!

We actually skipped most of the indoor exhibitions, thinking Claire was a bit too young to appreciate  most of them.  Opting instead to spend the rest of our time in the Play to Learn Area, mainly the “Gentle Zone”. It was filled with mirrors, textures, sounds, soft balls and blocks, sensory toys, and classic early learning games, as well as safe, low climbing structures. A perfect place for the little munchkin to finally do what she had been wanting to all day long - explore! I couldn’t help but wish that we could have a place just like this in our apartment.

Playing in the “Gentle Zone”

We all thoroughly enjoyed exploring the museum and are considering purchasing a membership. Like always, there are plenty of more pictures in the May 2009 photo gallery.

We live in an industrial/corporate area right in between Durham and Raleigh.  It’s very quite on the weekends, which has made us wonder how any of the area restaurants have survived (seriously, it looks like a ghost town).  Apparently, they do very well during the week with all of the big office buildings containing lots and lots of hungry employees at lunch time.

This past weekend, The Taste of Durham Festival came to that industrial/corporate area which is a hop, skip, and a jump away from our apartment complex.  We decided to go, mostly because of it’s proximity to us, but also because it would provide a nice afternoon/evening “out on the town” for baby Claire.  They had restaunt vendors lined up, live music, dancing exhibitions, a wine garden, lots of aired-up play equipment for kids, and my personal favorite, a beer tasting garden.

Claire spent most of the time in her stroller just looking around.  She usually does that when there’s A LOT of stuff going on.  It’s almost like sensory overload for her because you can’t get much of a response out of her.  She’s so distracted by everything going on, where as if she’s at home with just a couple of people in attendance, she’ll ham it up and be just as silly as can be!

And because we took Claire to the festival, she is now famous!  Well, kinda sorta.  There were several photographers walking around taking pictures of all of the people, and baby Claire just happened to be one of them!  The picture below was/is posted on the WRAL.COM website, which is a local TV station.

We ran into a former co-worker of Colleen’s, Elaine, and her husband Mike at the festival.  She actually designed the Taste of Durham Festival website, which was very good if I do say so myself (with my big fancy PE degree and all!).  Since she designed the website for free, the festival organizer felt inclined to give her tons and tons of tokens for the event, which she kindly passed some on to us!  I used a good portion of the extra coins to sample beers in the beer garden, but we also tried just about every type of food available, as well as Colleen getting some ice cream for the road.  Thanks again for the hook-up, Mike and Elaine!

Overall, it was a good evening for the wiggle worm.  She enjoyed the music and all of the different types of foods, as well as her 15 minutes of fame on the TV station’s website

I had been looking forward to taking my daughter strawberry picking before she was born. My momma used to take me and my siblings when we were growing up and I was excited to continue the tradition. She took it one step further and used the results of our labor to make delicious homemade strawberry jelly. I’m not quite to the jelly-making stage yet, but maybe some day!

There are plenty of strawberry patches in our area, including one right around the corner from us at Page Farm. We went Saturday morning before Claire’s nap, which she seemed to be ready for on our drive over, thus I was a bit worried she wouldn’t be in the best of moods. To our surprise, the little munchkin loved picking strawberries, and was quite the expert if I do say so myself. She immediately grasped the concept that the big, red ones were the best and once picked they should go into the bucket. She did taste one, but apparently it wasn’t to her liking because she didn’t try it again.

We didn’t stay long and picked just over a pound. But for only $2.36, it was a good family outing! Below is a video and a few of my favorite pictures from the day…

More strawberry picking pictures, as well as lots more from the past couple of weeks, are in the updated May 2009 photo gallery. Enjoy!

Life in the Stafford household has been pretty busy for the past two weeks, thus I’m just now getting around to updating everyone on what we’ve been up to.

We spent Mother’s Day weekend with family at the beach. Nan & Jay cashed in their “free babysitting” Christmas gift, so Saturday we hung out with both kiddos while Jay and Nan rode down to Myrtle Beach for bike week festivities. We entertained Cash & Claire with stories, play time, a trip to the playground, a wagon ride, and swinging in the backyard. The whole family, Grandma and Grandpa included, returned that evening for a fabulous cookout - burgers, corn-on-the-cob, beans, deviled eggs, potato salad, pasta salad - all the good stuff!

We spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa Sunday morning before joining everyone for lunch at Max’s Pizza (yum!). The mommies were even given a free piece of chocolate cake - which we did not share. I truly had a wonderful Mother’s Day - I’m a very blessed mommy! My sweet husband brought me 2 dozen beautiful pink roses and a book from one of my favorite authors on Friday, and I opened a card from him (and one from Claire) on the drive back home Sunday.

This past weekend we joined friends Sabrina, Trey and Carter in taking Claire to her second Durham Bulls game. It was amazing to compare the difference between this time and her first game last July. There was no napping or sitting calmly on our laps. This girl was ready to MOVE! She cruised around on the seats in between us, fussing when she ran into one of our legs, which were firmly blocking her in. She really liked the crowd clapping and joined in a few times. She even got to meet Wool E. Bull, the team’s mascot. She wasn’t sure what to think of him, and was a bit too distracted to smile for the camera.

Thursday night all three of us dressed up to attend the Dillard Drive Middle School fall sports banquet. Daddy did an excellent job of speaking about the basketball season and presenting some members of his team with awards. The presentation was pretty long and Claire was hungry and sleepy, a fact I was a bit slow to catch on to. Once I figured her out, she drank a bottle in my lap and drifted off for a 10 minute nap, waking up in a much better mood. After the presentation we enjoyed a delicious bar-b-q meal complete with banana pudding and peach cobbler for desert. Claire had some chicken and green beans, but was full on her bottle and distracted by all the people to eat much. She looked absolutely beautiful in a gorgeous boutique dress - a gift from her Aunt Nancy. We took several pictures of her and I, but somehow forgot to take any of her with the man of the night. And although it’s hard to tell from the one shot I got of him on stage, take my word for it - he looked incredibly handsome.

Whew! That brings us to this weekend - which has been busy as well. AND - our little munchkin is now 11 months! Look for more posts soon…

Note: If you are reading this in email or on Facebook, you’ll need to visit our website, www.ericandcolleen.com to view the video. If you’re already here, welcome!

Back when Claire was just a little sugar bean growing in my tummy, her LeLe bought her an absolutely adorable outfit. Pink and trimmed with tulle and rhinestones - it truly is a girly getup! In fact, it’s SO girly that Claire’s daddy demands it be worn only at home. Such a waste!

Thus Claire donned her ballerina-esque outfit for a day at home with mommy last week. I personally think she looked absolutely precious, and from the look on her face in the pictures below, I think she’s a fan of it as well.

You think this is cute? I’ll show you cute…

 
Check out my belly button!

Using my crib as a substitute dance bar - don’t I have nice form?

News Updates: Claire’s lower right tooth came in, making a total of 8. Also, she can clap! She’s been banging objects together for quite a while, but last Friday she finally started clapping her little hands together. I think it’s the cutest thing ever! Hoping to get a good video of it soon. In the meantime, enjoy the ones below!

Note: If you are reading this in email or on Facebook, you’ll need to visit our website, www.ericandcolleen.com to view the videos. If you’re already here, welcome!