remiandsteph

Weeks 23-24 Playing catch-up

Even though we are currently in week 26 of Camille’s life, here are some pictures from the 23rd and 24th week. It has been crazy busy in the Dingreville household. Camille and I are currently living with my parents in Atlanta. We came a week ago to celebrate my little sisters’ wedding and are staying on while Remi is at a conference in Ohio. He will return to Albuquerque at the end of the week to finish up work and deal with the selling of our house. In other news, we sold our house! So Camille and I will stay in Atlanta until we move to NY in mid August. We’ll go next week to hunt for an apartment, I’ll put more pictures up then of Camille’s first visit to her new town. In the meantime, when I get some pictures of Jami’s wedding I’ll post those too. Camille was an honorary bridesmaid with her cousin, Julia. They were so cute.

These pictures are the last of our time in Albuquerque and in our adorable house. We’re so sad to leave, but excited about what’s to come.

Christmastime

We had the world’s most low-key Christmas, spending most of the holiday at home in front of the fireplace. We made a nice dinner on Christmas eve, Steph handled the entree, dessert, and the baguettes, and Rémi made the main course. Then we drank sparkling water out of champagne glasses. Christmas morning we opened each others’ gifts, and played with our new toys, then we ate homemade cinnamon rolls, yummy! We exchanged gifts with Steph’s family via webcam, and Rémi’s family over the phone, so we felt surrounded by family even though we were apart from everyone. We spent a lot of time enjoying the TV that Steph’s parents bought us, we watched many movies this christmastime. Then the day after Christmas, our present from Remi’s parents and grandparents arrived, a new camcorder/digital camera. We took that new toy on a walk to test it out, and got some fun videos of Will playing in the snow. It was a great Christmas!

Haul out the holly

The season is upon us and we’ve begun to celebrate it in earnest. The house looks great with all it’s once-a-year trim, it is a cozy, welcoming place. We had a great trip to Georgia, where we celebrated Thanksgiving with Steph’s family. The drive was long, but bearable in the comfy saab. Rémi did most of the driving, and Steph mostly kept her feet up and slept on a blankets in the back seat. Will spent the whole trip snoring loudly. Being back in Atlanta was incredible, we were able to see friends and visit some of our favorite restaurants. The city has changed a lot since our last visit. Apart from spending time in Atlanta and Marietta at Steph’s parents’ house, we also visited Asheville for two days where we got to see her sister and brother-in-law’s new house (Niki and Nick… www.nickandniki.blogspot.com ) And we went down to Macon for a day to celebrate with her grandparents and extended family. Steph also had a baby shower and got to see a lot of friends who came together to celebrate the advent of Camille. (That little girl really cleaned up! She - we - were quite literally showered with gifts and love that day.) We can’t wait to see her in some of these adorable outfits, and watch her play with these toys. We’ll post pictures from the shower later. Now the spirit of Christmas is with us and puts an even sweeter light on this time of anticipating the coming of Camille.

Tags: Atlanta, Christmas, Grandmother's

Surprise shower

This weekend was eventful. Saturday morning we went to the garden nursery and bought some trees. We bought a pomegranate, pecan, peach and an apple tree. We also bought some pumpkins. Then, some girlfriends from Steph’s work surprised her with a baby shower that afternoon. It was an extremely well kept secret, and Steph was totally shocked. Little Camille made off like a bandit, with some great gear and some adorable clothes! Saturday night, after the shower, we hosted a few friends from Rémi’s work for dinner. Then Sunday Rémi planted all the trees. It was a great weekend!

Patti takes charge

We had the enormous pleasure of hosting Steph’s mom for a week, and thanks to her contribution, the baby-prep has begun in earnest. Rémi and Patti painted the nursery a beautiful sky blue, and the crib and dressers white. We used a “voc-free” kind of paint, which wasn’t a walk in the park to apply, but is better for baby and looks beautiful (after about 30 coats.) There wasn’t much time for play in between all the work, but being together made the work fun. Since her visit, not much happened until this morning, when Steph had her third (and probably final) ultrasound. The little one measured in at 2.5 lbs - just right for her age. All her organs are present and fully functioning, and she is definitely a she! She wasn’t quite so shy for the camera this time and we could tell without a doubt that the pink material Steph picked out for the bedding won’t have to be returned after all. We know her lungs are beginning to work as they should because she had the hiccups! It was adorable to see her little belly shake every couple of seconds. She didn’t seem too bothered by it. We forgot to ask how long she is now, but we know that her little feet are 5 cm from heel to toe, and her chest is 34 cm around. She’s perfect, and we’re soooo grateful.

Nesting

We finished and installed the new bookshelf, and the small dresser for the baby’s room. Instead of buying drawer pulls and knobs (so expensive!) for the dresser we bought a set of alphabet blocks and drilled them in as knobs. It turned out cute. Rémi is now considering a career as furniture maker, since the bookshelf turned out so beautifully.