Visits, rearranged rooms, and growing up

It's amazing how consistently life gets away from you when you submerge yourself in the day-to-day routine. But, with one friend visiting from Rwanda, another travelling in Vietnam and Thailand and several others preparing for the road rally adventure of a life-time, it feels like more and more we are surrounded by the siren song of travel. But, for now, it still remains mixed with the competing choruses of work, a possible basement remodel and the realization that we might -unfortunately- need a second car.

But, enough fretting and dreaming. Let's talk about what we've been up to recently...

The weekend before last, my brother and sister-in-law were in town, which provided for plenty of opportunities for Stella to spend time with her Aunt and Uncle. But, also provided me with an opportunity to head into the woods with a bunch of buddies and drink too much beer.

Me, Trav and the gang.

Lodging was provided by our buddy, Jason, who's family has a cabin outside of Enumclaw (incidentally, this was where I proposed to Sarah on New Years Eve, many moons ago). And, smoked ribs were provided by Todd.

The following day, Sarah, Stella, and I went over to my parents with Stella's Uncle Trav and Aunt Meg. I was feeling a little worse for the wear, but its a rare opportunity these days that the entire family is in one place, so it was good to get together.

The Hill Clan, circa 2010.

Finally, on Monday morning, before Trav and Meg had to catch their plane, Stella had a chance to show them around one of her favorite places, The Seattle Children's Museum.

Stella explains how a waterfall works to Travis and Meghan.

Why babies don't usually get to drive buses.

Also, in recent news, yesterday Sarah and I bought Stella a new organizer for her toys. Over the last 17 months, Stella's toys have been slowly taking over the entire house. So, in an attempt to reclaim some floorspace, we bought this handy little shelf organizing system, and rearranged her room so that -despite its small size- it might be a place she'll spend some time and play.

Stella's "new" room... we've moved the crib to the far side of the room to make space for her new Play Corner.

Stella's new Play Corner. Hopefully, this makes her little room more of "her room" and less just somewhere to sleep and get her diaper changed.

We know that -ultimately- it will be a futile struggle, but it's still nice to have our Living Room back for a day or two. And, honestly, it's sort of cute to watch Stella sitting in her little play area, enjoying her room.

As for Stella herself, life has been filled with Highs and Lows. Unfortunately, for Sarah and I, the source of these highs and lows is a mystery known only to Stella. And for every seemingly random outburst of joy there is what we've dubbed a period of "unfocused misery" where from Stella's perspective the Universe is crashing down around her, but from our perspective nothing seems to have changed from the previous 5 minutes.

I think a lot of Stella's frustration stems from the fact that she's starting to get close to talking, and while her array of baby-signs is helpful, they aren't quite letting us know what she reeaallllyy wants us to know. Also, Stella's pretty convinced that she's now an adult, and that we can do away with highchairs, bibs, car-seats and other infantile devices. And that, instead, she should already have her own set of keys, cellphone and be allowed on the computer whenever she wants.

Recently, Sarah and I asked ourselves "what are Stella's favorite toys?" And quickly realized that we weren't sure, because she spend all her time trying to play with our stuff.

They grow up so fast.

Hopefully, in coming weeks, we'll have more to report here. We have another trip to Walla Walla planned, at least one camping trip, and a slew of Birthdays ahead of us. So, we'll definitely be busy at least.