It's MY turn

Dad: You know, she really is a cute girl.
Mom: I know, she IS.
Dad: All her features are in proportion you know.
Mom: Yah, dad.

Five minutes later.

Dad: You know, she really is a beautiful girl.
Mom: It's true, it's true.






Mom: Uh-oh dad. Hold the bottle.
Dad: Huh?
Mom: DAD. HOLD the bottle for a minute ok?
Dad: oh, okay okaayy.
Mom: ah-choo!!










Mom: Ok, that's better.

Mom: Wow... look, she drink the whole bottle DAD. She's such a good eater.
Dad: I know mommy.















Dad: Now it's MY turn. Ohhhhh look at you. What a happy girl you are. What a beautiful girl you are.
Mom: I know Dad. Really. Really.

Good things come in small packages

"Who would put me in something like this?"

"I guess I'll just have to make the best of it!"

Feeding Herself

Joanne read this article earlier this week, which raises the possibility of introducing more solid foods to babies at a younger age. The basic idea is that if they can pick the food up, put it in their mouth, and then force it into their throats, they're almost definitely going to be able to swallow it. Obviously you need to closely supervise the activity and only appropriate food should be offered.

Well this made sense to us and we decided to give it a try. The first night was hysterical - basically Cecilia's mission in life right now is to grab everything she sees and put it in her mouth. And if she can't grab it she'll bring her mouth to it and taste it that way (notice the smudges on the little mirror in her room).

Thinking it would be a breeze, I put a small slice of banana on the tray in front of her. She looked at it, picked it up, dropped it on the floor, and then stared intently at the bowl of mashed bananas I had been feeding her from. This went on for 10 minutes as she absolutely refused to feed herself and kept staring at the bowl. It was like she was saying, "come on Dad, quit playing around and feed me already!".

Anyway I found it quite amusing. Last night we tried again as I was basically hand feeding her the contents of some chicken soup I had made. She loved the noodles, carrots and broth (hated the chicken) and after several attempts finally took a small piece of carrot off of her tray, brought it to her mouth, and took a small bite. We call celebrated and she was quite pleased with herself.

The only bad part of the night was when I tried feeding her the broth from a big Chinese soup spoon and she put her nose in it and sucked it up in there. She was not very happy with that but everyone survived.

PS New video camera coming for the Holidays so hopefully we'll be posting footage of her eating by herself soon.

Gratitude

On Monday night Cecilia woke up for some reason at around 2:30 and wouldn't go back to sleep. We changed her, replaced the binky, patted her back, but nothing seemed to work. Since we weened her off of the middle of the night feedings we were reluctant to give her a bottle, but after about an hour I relented.

As I sat with her on the rocking chair in her room and she gulped her first mouthfuls, she stared at me with the most intense look of gratitude and love I have probably ever received. Our eyes locked for a few minutes, in the kind of moment you can't really have with another adult.

The experience was well worth the exhaustion I had the next day.

Six Months Ago

Smallwood

We went to Smallwood with Heather and Cassie two weeks ago. It was great to be at the place and see our friends but unfortunately some idiot dropped our camera on the top of Slide Mountain, so these could be the last images captured by our once steady companion.

Luckily Heather has some really good pics too and I will get them on here eventually...here they are - some are pretty nice.



On Sunday morning I took her for a walk around the lake in her stroller. I enjoyed it profoundly while she slept. Saturday she stayed in with Mom while we had our excursion to the peak, and everyone had a great time.


She really liked looking at the fire.

Thanksgiving

We went to my mom's house for Thanksgiving and had a great long weekend. Cecilia got to meet her cousins and Joanne and I got to take Saturday morning off and go to Queens for some fantastic Dim Sum. Overall it was a great trip, although by the end Cecilia was a little overwhelmed and was definitely happy to get home on Sunday. It is amazing to see her develop like this - a few short months ago she would not have known the difference where she was.

Joanne took lots of great pictures - along with the one above this is my favorite.

The only bad part of the weekend were the people who were not there. Ben and his family went to Worcester to be with Jen's dad because he is sick and this was my first Thanksgiving without Uncle Marty. Last Thanksgiving was when we announced that Joanne was pregnant, so at least he got the good news even if he never got to meet her.

Doctor Visit

Cecilia had her six month checkup on Friday and got some shots. Everything checked out fine and Dr. Kerbel even remarked that she seems like a very happy baby! I don't know if he was being sincere but I still liked hearing it.

She weighs 17 pounds and 2 ounces and is 26.5 inches tall. That's pretty amazing when you consider she was only six pounds, six ounces when she was born.

As usual I forgot something. This time it was my wallet for the co-pay and any diapers. It's a good thing she didn't have a big poop!

One thing he said about her sleeping pattern was that she should be able to start sleeping through the night. He said if she really cries to feed her, but to start pushing her to be able sleep for about ten hours without eating. We did it last night and it worked pretty well. Instead of responding and feeding her as soon as she started making noise we left her alone and she would fall back asleep. Eventually she woke up and was really hungry, but the difference between her wanting to eat and needing to eat was pretty obvious. Dr. Kerbel is really good - we are lucky to have him.

Can't resist it

Naked baby picture! Otherwise known as "Why I'm going to hate mommy in 12 years." That's okay. It had to be done. :)

My Daughter is a Genius

She is in the 99th percentile for page-turning in her age group. She is a real champ at it! Sometimes she wants to turn the page right away, but I swear she will do it when I say "turn the page" in a certain tone too. Of course after reveling in this phenomenon over two books the other night I gave her one of those little rubber books to hold herself, expecting she would know to open it and look at the pictures. She tried to eat it.

HELP!

Funny Video

Not sure what to say about this video. She is pretty much past the activity mat now, and this video is actually about a week old.

I can play piano!

But my piano only has five keys :(

Lazy Sunday Pictures in Cecilia's Room

)

I took some pictures of Cecilia in her room this weekend. I like this one in the laundry basket, and also this one sitting on the rocking chair with Michael the Monkey (that's Mary Anne the Monkey's Monkey-Boyfriend). She really doesn't like to be in the bouncy seat any more - I guess it restricts her movement too much. She can't quite sit up by herself yet but if you prop her, like in the rocking chair, she does pretty well.

Here is a funny video Joanne took earlier this week, trying to show how well she sits up now. It didn't work out too well!

Making the Best of It

Cecilia still wakes up every night for a snack sometime between 2 and 4 am. She usually falls back asleep pretty quickly afterward so that is not generally a problem. The problem is that whichever one of use gets up to feed her can't fall back asleep when she's done!

I have spent too many nights tossing and turning for hours so tonight I decided to do some work, which is what Joanne usually does (although she does have this odd habit of emptying the dishwasher in the middle of the night too...). Anyway, we might as well make the best use of the time.

To confess though we are both realllly looking forward to her sleeping through the night. Some "experts" feel it's ok to start forcing your kid to do it at this age but neither of us are comfortable with that approach.

Drinking Water from a Cup

The simplest things seem so amazing.

Hi Everybody!

Haven't posted in a while and really liked this picture. That's all.

Happy Halloween!

Story Time

We do our best to read to Cecilia every night. Here are some pictures and video of Joanne reading "Moo, Baa, La La La" last night.
She loves to try and turn the pages and is usually pretty good at it. She started doing that on her own at about three months - it was pretty cool. From what I understand she is instinctively trying to imitate what she sees us doing.

We used to read her "Goodnight Moon" every night once we put her in the crib but have gotten away from that a bit. We got three copies of that book as gifts when she was born - I guess it's popular. I think some of the books we have been reading her are too advanced, the best ones for her now are really big and have simple pictures in them.

Here is the video.

2 little monkeys sitting in a tree...

These are my two favorite monkeys in a tree. One of them isn't very happy about it... can you guess which one? :D

Apple Picking

We went apple picking with Ben and everyone on Sunday. It was a perfect day and nice to get outside. Plus, the apples are delicious (I just ate one). There are lots more pictures here and I think Jen took some too so when she sends them I will consolidate.

More Eating

Here are some more eating highlights - it is amazing how quickly she caught on to it. She really likes the food and opens wide as soon as you start feeding her. She has been on a strict diet of rice cereal and bananas since her tummy got upset, but hopefully soon we can start giving her other stuff again.

She is always trying to take the spoon away from me. She even tried - very unsuccessfully - to put it in her mouth.

Camera Shy

When Cecilia starts crying because she is hungry I have this trick where I stick out my tongue and give her a big rasberry and it (almost) always temporarily stops her crying. I wanted to document this phenomenon on video last night so when she started to cry I started the camera rolling, ready to go. As soon as she saw the camera pointed at her she stopped crying...I tried it three times and then gave up and gave her the bottle.

Peek-a-boo!

Who's there behind daddy?

Oh, it's Cecilia!!


Look, I'm flying!!!

Sick

Poor Cecilia has been sick :( She had diarrhea and a bad diaper rash most of the weekend. I think we went a little too fast on feeding her different types of baby food. The worst part of it all was on Friday night and I wasn't paying attention when I was changing her and I hurt her when I was cleaning her off. She cried and cried and I felt really terrible about it, but I learned to be very gentle and careful from then on.
She is getting better though and luckily her demeanor barely changed at all, she was as lively and happy as ever.

Grandma Visit

My mom was in town this weekend for a visit.

Here is a video of her feeding Cecilia. There is a lot of background noise as some of Jen's family was in town for a wedding and we had a big dinner. It was fun and the boys were really happy to have all of their first cousins at their house at once - Abigail, Olivia and Cici - too bad we did not get a picture.


There are a few more pictures on Picassa.

Mother and Daughter

Too Fast

Our little girl is growing so fast... Here she is in her new Exersaucer! She was pitching forward a little bit at first, but now we stuff a towel in there with her so she stays upright and she loves it!


She doesn't quite understand yet that you can play with all the toys on the Exersaucer, but she's getting there. :)

Cognitive Dissonance

I swear parenting is like being in a constant state of cognitive dissonance. I was taking care of Cecilia most of the day yesterday (it was Columbus Day and daycare was closed), and when she went to sleep at 745 I was soooooo relieved to be able to relax in front of the TV and not have to be responsible for her. Now I just dropped her at daycare and got home to start work - and I miss her so much!

After a Bath

We have lots of adorable pictures of Cecilia after her baths, but here's one from Jen that stands out. It was kind of funny too...we were at their house for dinner last week and she had a HUGE accident. She pooped and it got everywhere, and then peed on herself when Joanne was changing her! So we gave her a bath in their sink and here she is afterward.

My Best Friend!

Cecilia has a new best friend! Her name is Mary Ann the Monkey and as of yesterday she gets to go to school every day too! Thanks very much to Aunt Arlene who brought Mary Ann home from the zoo to be friends with Cecilia.

I got some good advice too, which was to find Mary Ann's twin and store her away just in case something happens to the original.

First Bites

We started Cecilia on "solid" foods last Thursday. So far she has eaten rice cereal, sweet potatoes, pears and and applesauce. She is definitely getting the hang of it but I am not sure she enjoys it really. There are lots of really cute pictures and some more video on Picassa, but without further ado here is video of her very first bites!

Visiting the Lerner Homeland

Ben and I coordinated a trip to the Lerner Homeland (aka the Hudson Valley) last week for all of our families. We stayed at Jerry and Arlene's on Saturday and then visited Uncle David and Linda on Sunday. Joanne, Laurel, Zachary and Rachel stopped by too. We had a really nice weekend - it was great to see everyone and it is a really beautiful area, especially this time of year.
Cecilia was totally uninterested in Lucy (the dog) and Jacob was very protective of her. I guess he doesn't think dogs should be around babies and he would run over and stand between them anytime Lucy got near - it was adorable.
We did not get many pics, here are a few more and I will add to this post if anyone sends us more (hint hint).

Cecilia laughing

There's nothing better than your daughter laughing:


Thanks, Ben, for taking this with your iPhone! :)

Rough Night

My little friend has not been sleeping well :( Last night she didn't want to go to sleep at all. She would fall asleep after/during eating and then wake up like 15 minutes later crying and wanting attention. This went on until around midnight and then she woke up at 5 am ready to eat again. Poor us! Hopefully this is just a stage.

To put an exclamation point it - the doctor told us today that she should be put to bed at 730 - ha! We'll see.

I Like To Sleep On My Stomach

"The Book" says she should be on her back, and they actually sell special cushions to stop her from rolling over...I guess we're permissive parents, but hopefully this is not the start of a long slide into juvenile delinquency.

Pondering the Meaning of Life

Pictures She May Resent Later in Life

I will miss the post-milk coma when she's older.

Boston Botanical Gardens

We visited the Boston Commons and Botanical Garden on Sunday with our friends Dylan, Christina and Marta. I will add their pics when I get them.


























UPDATE
Dylan sent us his pictures. Here we have the whole group, the LuBang's having a picnic, and Cecilia meeting Langdon for the first time. Those two are only two days apart and live close by so hopefully they will become friends.