Christian & Emma: 12/01/2008

Hello everyone. I'm sure grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends alike have been wondering why the delay in pictures. We apologize, it's simply difficult to get a few minutes to do this these days. But, we are back and just in time for the holidays :) This time I will try to include all those wonderful pictures with those in the Campbell family who have come to visit.

So, in terms of an update, the internship process has gone well for me. I did not receive an interview offer at every site, but those that I wanted the most (in terms of "best-fit") I got. In total, I got 6 interviews and they happen to be in 6 different states. Idaho, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. Therefore, I will be traveling a lot in the month of January... something that I am feeling ambivalent about. For the Idaho visit there is no ambivalence as Christian and Will will be joining me AND we get to see all of you out there!! :) But, for the other trips I am both excited and worried. I'm excited to see the sites and meet the people and I am really excited to be able to stay the night in a hotel and get a whole night's sleep! ... but, I am also quite hesitant, worried, .... and, can I say, feeling a little guilty? I've never been gone from Will over night [except once with grandparents] and he's begun this thing where he refuses now to take a bottle and will only be nursed (yeah, wonderful weaning months ahead :). This is probably because he hasn't had to have a bottle in a couple months now, but we're going to try putting formula in a sippy cup/nubby cup to see if that will make a difference as he does drink water from those. And, I must admit that this hesitancy is not simply due to my worry that Will will miss me, but that I will miss him... yes, even miss (in an odd, disturbing way) those middle of the night feedings. Of course, last night he slept 9.5 hours straight for the first time in months, so may be he'll be fine?... ahhh... the joys and worries of motherhood.

William took a break there for while in saying 'dada' and 'mommom,' but he's beginning again and he's now a bit more discriminant in saying them! I must say, it's a lot easier to get out of bed to pick him up when he says, "mamom" than when he's just babbering about something else unknown. :) Also, he's still cruising and not yet standing on his own or walking, but we are constantly amazed at how mobile he's become and how interactive he is. Over the Thanksgiving holiday Will began teaching his parents a new game. He'd flash a silly mychievious smile, crawl quickly toward us, and break off at the last minute... laughing all the way. It took Aunt Kathy to point out to us that he was probably wanting us to chase him and tackle him with tickles, but sure enough we wisened up and the rest was blissful, exhausting fun. This game of William's now includes a crawling chase between us as we take turns with either him chasing us or us chasing him. The fun parts of parenthood have truly begun. :)

And now we begin preparing for the holidays and a new chapter in our year (plus) of transition. I will take a couple classes in the spring to finish out my academic life (which will be weird, as aside from a couple week-long intensives, I haven't been a fulltime student since Spring 2007!), and I will be working on finishing my dissertation in the midst of interviews, planning to move, classes, and any domestic, child-training-figuring-out-a-good-schedule-overall-parenting stuff too. Whoo... good thing we can sit back and have a good humor about it all, right? :)

Anyway, can't wait to see all of you in Nebraska and Idaho! We love and miss you all.

A visit from William's Aunt Bridget: