Peekaboo with Rosie

Rosie is getting more social every day...She's learning to play hide and seek, peekaboo, etc. We have so much fun together. Here's an example of Rosie and I playing peekaboo in the bouncer seat. I attached a mirror that she could push aside to find me.

Rosie Rolls the Ball

Getting caught up on some videos here...This first one is Rosie rolling the ball with my mom last month. So fun!

First Steps

It's official. Rosie is stepping.

I don't say "walking" because she hasn't quite mastered the coordination of turning steps into walking, but she's definitely close! In the meantime, she's an expert at propelling herself forward on two legs while you hold both or one hand. And she's starting to take 2-3 steps to get to what she wants (i.e., Mom, Dad, blackberry, TV remote, shoes, measuring cups, etc.). She's an expert at going from a sitting to kneeling to standing position without assistance.

I'm not sure I'm ready for my baby to walk, but I don't think she's factoring my shock and nostalgia into her milestone mastery.

I'll try to capture some of this on video soon, but in the meantime, you'll just have to take my (anxious) word for it!

White House Easter Egg Roll

What an awesome time. Long lines but totally worth it. Standing under the Truman Balcony on a gorgeous (and hot!) spring day waiting for the President and First Family to emerge, I was struck by the gift it is to live in this city. For all the challenges of living far from family and friends from home, today was a reminder of the unique experiences we get to have. And it makes us even more thankful for our D.C. friends like P & J who got us the tickets!

The event was so well-organized for having 30

,000 people come to a lawn party in one day! I was very impressed. We got plenty of souvenirs for the baby book - including the traditional wooden Easter egg. We listened to the cast of Glee sing in the background while Rosie and I took a rest in the shade. Jon worked the booths and brought back a brown bag of organic fruit. The bag was Rosie's favorite part of the day!

But still it was a special time for the three of us - definitely a quintessential D.C. moment. And one we are very grateful for. Speaking of gratitude, I was also thankful that Rosie is light to carry since we carried her the whole day and for 2+ miles on the walk from the White House to the Capitol where the car was.

Can't wait till next year when Rosie can do some of the walking, but I'm sure then I'll be missing the days I could just hold her in my arms rather than chase her around a lawn with thousands of people, PBS characters, celebrities (yikes!), and rolling eggs!

Despite the fabulousness of the day, the best part of it came at 6:00 a.m. when I brought Rosie into our bedroom and she looked right at Jon and said, "Dada." First time it was really clearly meant for him. Certainly a heart-melter.

A Rose Among the Cherry Blossoms

My mom was in town for the week on her spring break. So appreciated the help cooking, cleaning, and all the Rosie care. Jon and I are very fortunate to have parents that are so willing to help and actually enjoy doing it!

After getting the big paper turned in on Thursday evening, I allowed myself to relax a bit and had a great weekend. Mom and I took Rosie for a long walk on Friday and ended up outside of Marvelous Market watching Mr. Skip, the children's musician. Jon met us thereafter work. We took some great pictures before walking home.Then Jon and I took advantage of the free babysitting and went out on a double date on Friday night.

On Saturday we got up early and headed down to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. We thought we'd beat the crowds, but apparently everyone had the same idea. It was so crowded! I'm glad we didn't even attempt to bring a stroller. We met up at the Jefferson memorial and took some pictures. It was too difficult to get the quintessential blossoms on the water picture, but we still managed to get some great ones by putting Rosie in the crook of a tree above the path. Some woman who thought Rosie was cute randomly came over and helped us get her to smile. So sweet.

The next morning was Easter. I enjoyed getting Rosie's basket ready...filled with candy (mostly for Mom and Dad), books, a soccer ball, and other fun Easter gear. I also picked out a ball popper machine from Target that I already regret purchasing. There should be a law against baby toys that sing annoying songs without the opportunity to control the volume. This contraption is permanently set to "blow out your eardrum" loud. It also scared the crap out of me when I accidentally turned it on while screwing back on the battery cover. Just about jumped out of my skin.

So, I was worried Rosie would be frightened of it. We watched her face carefully the next morning, and she was definitely intrigued/worried. But she came around quickly and now enjoys chasing the balls that fly off the track (another annoying feature of this particular model). But since she seems to like it, we'll keep it for awhile. Just don't be surprised if I wrap the thing in a towel to muzzle the music! Easter service was fun. Loved having Mom there. Rosie looked adorable in her 3-month dress. Jon and I were glad we were able to get some use out of it!

Rosie was pooped out after the service...so I didn't get the photo shoot I wanted. No family picture with Rosie this year. Next year I'll be smart enough to take the pictures BEFORE the service. All in all a great weekend...Got me motivated to finish the semester as quickly and efficiently as possible so I can get back to enjoying the family.

Maybe I should start a customer service blog

I'm thinking I should start a customer service blog. A few months ago I wrote about my challenges communicating with a certain discount travel service. Well, the current object of my frustration is a baby magazine. Can you believe it? I've taken out identifying characteristics, but I doubt this magazine is alone in its efforts - so mine is a general cautionary tale. Exercise caution when signing up for contests of any kind - but particularly cute baby contests. Read below for more details. Hopefully, this email to customer service will finally do the trick!

Dear Customer Service at @#&*()__@***@ Photo Contest,

I am completely disgusted with your aggressive and deceptive marketing techniques and plan to immediately unsubscribe from your magazine in addition to the ridiculous firehose of spam emails you are sending me and calls you are making to my cell phone.

It all started less than a week ago when I signed up for your "cute baby" contest because it sounded legitimate in your magazine, which I faithfully read. Within minutes of going through the process of signing up and uploading a photo, I immediately regretted my decision. My stomach sank as I saw your multiple emails in my inbox that appeared out of nowhere fishing for my contacts with lures of needing "votes." Then there were the emails from your "partners" trying to sell me their products and services. And, of course, the emails from the "contest" telling me that somehow, miraculously, within minutes of receiving my photo, your editors had gathered in the middle of the night to vote my little baby a WINNER. Lucky me. All I had to do, of course, was pay $69.99 and I could be the proud owner of a coffee table book heralding my daughter as one of the cutest babies in America. Puhleeze.

Despite my immediate regret, and more importantly my immediate requests that you unsubscribe me from the multiple email lists you'd attached me to, I continue to get emails from you each day ALL day. And today you actually had the gall to call my cell phone with a "restricted number" and try to tell me I'd "won" with another request for my cold hard cash in exchange for the...wait for it...coffee table book! Now I know who all those "private number" calls have been from this week. Sheesh. As I said to the poor woman at the call center forced to make these calls, take me off your lists!

As I said in my multiple unsubscribe requests, take me off your lists!

And as I said in my previous reply to one of your parasite emails AFTER the unsubscribe emails didn't work, take me off your lists!

Your customers are not stupid. We can tell the difference between a legitimate contest and a "contest" in name only where everyone is a winner as long as they hand over every contact they have for your profit-making benefit and as long as they purchase your everyone's-a-winner-if-you-pay-to-be products.

Look, this is not entirely your fault. I have to take some responsibility here. I admit to thinking my kid's adorable. Heck, I think she actually may be one of the cutest 100 babies in America. But I'm not so blinded by my new mommy bias to think that you or your contest is actually focused on finding cute babies for your magazine cover. You should be ashamed of yourselves for such predatory marketing behavior under the guise of a family fun contest. The only contest at this point is whether or not I actually manage to get myself out of your spam-happy server.

Now that I've got that off my chest, I can go back to gazing at my beautiful baby. Photo NOT attached.

Your disgruntled and disappointed FORMER magazine subscriber,

Abbey Levenshus