10 MONTHS?!?!?! Actually, let's start with 9...

Where has the time gone?!?! I cannot believe that Oliver has been born longer than I was pregnant. Pregnancy seemed to last forever, but I feel like he was just born yesterday. Amazing.

Anyway, I am FAR behind on posts concerning the little guy. And since he just turned 10 months yesterday, I figured now was as good a time as any to try to catch up and at least share pics from his 8th month. We start with some photos from early February (just after our Italy trip). We had a few unusually warm days and Oliver and I decided to take advantage and visit our park at the end of the street. Although we went several times in the fall, this was a whole new experience for Oliver now that he's mobile. He was seriously interested:

And was determined to leave the blanket at explore the unknown, of course:

When it occurred to me that this was my child's first time to actually play in grass (does that make me a bad mom?), I decided to let him go and enjoy:

I even let him taste some leaves (again with the bad mom??):

A couple of days later, we had another playgroup (we love our playgroup friends!). Oliver and Stephanie are always holding hands... Is there something there?

And then Oliver showed off his new-found love of sitting up on his own. He's been able to do so since about 5 months, but he was so uninterested in it that I couldn't ever leave him alone. He would quickly get distracted and flop down onto his head... But at 8.5 months (yes, a full month after he became mobile), he's finally decided that sitting up is ok.

And he even gave himself a round of applause:

Around that time I also decided that Oliver should try feeding himself a little. Me and my OCD had not let my poor child feed himself before because I didn't want to clean up the mess... But we stripped him down to his diaper and gave it a go.

He had more trouble actually getting the apples into his mouth, though, than I had hoped:

But he seemed to have fun, at least!

And he showed off his sippy-cup skills. Long drink:

Pause to breathe:

Even more fun than food is playing with daddy:

His most fun thing is watching himself walk in the mirror (he's facing a floor-length mirror in these pictures):

Does life get any better?

And one more thing he was doing around 9 months is playing hide and seek with his books. Before bed each night we read at least one book and when we finish, we hand it to Oliver to hold for a bit. He started playing peek-a-boo with us around Christmas time. Although he usually stops if I go for the camera, I managed to kind of capture the process here:

At least I tried! Truly, though, I think each month gets better. He's playing, laughing, crawling, eating, sleeping (praise God!) and smiling all over the place. Love him so much!!

UK Trip: Oliver and Karis

The friends we visited in Cambridge were Will, Vanessa, and Karis. Vanessa and I met 9 years ago (OHMYGOSH!!) on the way to Texas A&M's fish camp. Crazy. She was one of my bridesmaids, and I thank God for the friend she was to me in college and the way we've been able to stay in touch, especially these past couple of years as we both became wives and moms overseas! In fact, Karis was born just a week before Oliver... So cool.

So, of course, during our short (less than 24 hour) visit to their adorable home, we had to snap some photos of the babes. Due to nap schedules and such, we only got a chance right before we were about to leave to catch our train, but I think we got some cute ones anyway. Here are Vanessa and Will with both the little ones:

Since the kids weren't smiling at Chris's attempts to entertain them, Vanessa offered to take over (since I was hiding behind the camera). Will and Chris could hardly contain themselves at Vanessa's antics, but the babes seem rather nonplussed:

So we decided to sit them down for some pics. Karis is taller than Oliver, but I have to make a note here that she was actually sitting in a Bumbo while Oliver is sitting on the floor - she's not that much taller than him:

And yes, they look a bit scared... too many people trying to get them to smile. Like I said, we were on a deadline.

Oliver: "What's wrong with these crazies?!?!"

Karis: "I have no idea..."

Both: "Whooooaaahhhh.... they've sunk to new lows..."

Oliver: "They're beginning to scare me."

Oliver: "Get back! I'll protect you from these psychos!"

Thankfully, they eventually got over their fears...

But Karis got tired of Oliver, it seems:

He didn't mind, though; he was too busy practicing his "To be or not to be..." from Hamlet:

Karis was much happier with her mommy:

Oliver seems pretty happy with Karis' mommy, too:

I guess Vanessa just has the magic touch!

So after all that, no pictures of both smiling... I tell you what, though, I know that non-moms are probably ready to puke by now, but there are few things more entertaining to me than pictures of my baby and my sweet friend's baby playing together... warms my heart.

UK Trip: Cambridge

Why we have random preferences, I have no idea. Why Chris, for example, who grew up in Lubbock, TX, has been a Red Sox fan since he was five years old.... Or why, for years, I've always liked the sound of Oxford more than Cambridge. Maybe because we had some distant family friends that lived there? Or maybe because I had heard that it was older? Or... maybe because I'm just crazy. In reality, I actually found Cambridge much more appealing than Oxford. The town was smaller, a bit more quaint, and had a less touristy feel. Plus, as icing on the cake, we had a local to show us around (and he had a student ID so we didn't have to pay to visit any of the colleges - even better!).

First stop: King's college. The grounds, the chapel, the river - sheer perfection.

King's College was founded by the pious (yet borderline insane) Henry VI, son of Shakespeare's famous Henry V. The chapel was not finished during young Henry VI's lifetime, though, so its construction continued all the way until the reign of Henry VIII (yes, the one with all the wives). Probably my favorite feature was the ceiling, which was apparently not part of the original plans:

The straight rectangular shape (rather than the cross shape so popular especially in Gothic churches) follows the model of St Chapelle in Paris. I felt right at home. :)

One of the most interesting details I noticed was the half-red half-white roses in some of the stained glass windows. This speaks to the completion of the chapel under Henry VIII as his coming to the throne was finally the end of the War of the Roses - a battle of royal succession between the Yorks (represented by a white rose) and the Lancasters (represented by a red one). Since Henry VII (Henry VIII's father, the first "Tudor" king) was of the Lancaster line and he married Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII was technically a combination of the two - hence the red and white rose:

All the stained glass was stunningly gorgeous, though:

And I loved the site of students just strolling the grounds of their historical college on a Sunday afternoon:

The town itself, though not as impressive as the college's grounds, was charming nonetheless:

But we did spend most of our time admiring the colleges. Oxford and Cambridge are both on the "college system," which simply means (in Rachel's simplified-but-probably-not-totally-accurate description) that there are smaller, financially independent entities that admit individual students and then provide housing and student-life amenities. The studies (nowadays, though this used to be part of the individual colleges, as well) are run through the university conglomerate, but all other aspects of college life take place within the college that admits you. Each college has particular strengths and personalities, of course. For example, King's College is particularly famous (and well known) due to its gorgeous chapel. Apparently, though, according to our guide, it is also struggling financially because of the upkeep of the chapel, so its student fees are higher than other colleges. Trinity College, however, is the wealthiest college, and its beautiful grounds and many accolades attest to its success:

Trinity's chapel (and our tour guide):

My favorite stop on the tour, though, was St John's College. It also happens to be the college of our friend Will, which meant that we could access the entire grounds, not just those open to the public. One of the oldest and wealthiest colleges, St John's was spectacular:

With a beautiful chapel (and apparently doctoral students at the college are actually given a key to access the church bell tower which, as you can imagine, provides breathtaking views of the town... unfortunately, we had Oliver in the stroller, so we declined the opportunity, but isn't that cool?!?!):

Though dark, the chapel had a lovely, intense peace about it - probably due largely to the organ music being practiced while we visited:

In the back parts of St John's grounds is a beautiful gothic building that supposedly was a favorite of Hitler's. Whether that's important because, as St John's students purport, his liking of the building kept him from bombing Cambridge during WWII or, as St John's rival - Trinity - suggests, because it reveals that St John's is akin somehow to Hitler... we may never know. Either way, a gorgeous scene, no?

And, next to the above building, Cambridge sports its own bridge of sighs:

Where my hubby and I snapped a photo:

Honestly, I could imagine living in Cambridge - it was adorable. I'm so glad Will and Vanessa get to enjoy it! Thanks for having us and showing us around!!!

And, just to round out the trip (though some more pictures of Oliver with Will and Vanessa's daughter Karis are coming soon), here's sweet Oliver reading books with dad on the train ride home. Poor thing, it was three hours past his bed time, but he was such a trooper!

Definitely a successful jaunt across the Channel.