Trip to NYC in January

6 months ago now (yikes) we went to NYC for the annual Lerner Winter Holiday, which was held after Hanukkah/Christmas this year to accommodate everyone's schedules. Unfortunately we don't have too many pictures of that time since we were on the more exhausted side with a 4-5 month old, but I have a couple shots of Phillip with Arlene and Jerry, and one with Cecilia:

Children's museum

Last weekend it was super hot, and we took Cecilia and Phillip to the Children's museum. Cecilia is a master of the central climbing structure now, and can get all the way up to the tippy-top in like 10 minutes.

We took Phillip to the toddler-only room, and he had a FANTASTIC time. He really like the fish tank (both the fish and the bubbles at the top), and he found this drawbridge he liked to go across, and kept going up and down the single stair that led to the drawbridge. Past the drawbridge, there was a bumpy incline that he couldn't quite master on his own yet, although he -did- try to grab another kid's leg to try and pull himself up the incline. As you will see in this video, he also likes to put things in his mouth (puzzle pieces, his shoe...).



Within the toddler-only room, there is a space just for crawlers. Phillip loved this part too, especially the mirror, where he tried to kiss himself, clapped with himself, and generally found it really funny to interact with himself. I wonder if he thought it was a totally different baby playing with him? It was super cute. :)

Sledding with Aaron and Jacob last winter

Disney on Ice

Just after Christmas, I took Cecilia to see Disney on Ice. Grandma was going to come, but was sick, so last-minute, we were able to take Bronwyn with us! The girls had sooo much fun. Here is a conglomeration of videos I combined of the show and of them:



The best part was at the end when they finished with The Lion King, which is of course, Cecilia's favorite movie. You can imagine her excitement. I think Bronwyn was a little surprised when Cecilia belted out "Can you feel the love tonight" at the top of her lungs along with the show.

Cecilia singing

We heard from Cecilia's preschool teachers yesterday that she has a beautiful voice. It seems like she's always singing now! Making up songs, or singing existing ones. This video from 6 months ago is completely dark, but you can hear her singing.



She sings much more often (and much louder) now...

Christmas in Sacramento 2012

We made the trip to California for Christmas this year, and as usual, it was a ton of fun! I think one of the first days we were there, we made our annual trip to Fairytale Town. Cecilia still asks to go there all the time.

While we were having some fun with Cecilia...

Grandma and Grandpa were all too happy to push Phillip around:

Grandma and Grandpa also enjoyed spending time with Phillip, who they hadn't seen since he was born! In this video, Grandma is having fun making Phillip move around:

Phillip also got to meet a bunch of family members for the first time. Uncle Bruce of course...

Auntie Karen...

Cecilia had a lot of fun with some of her favorite Aunties too. She thinks of Auntie Karen as a big kid, I think. When we ask her, Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, and Uncle Bruce are all old, but Karen is not. Hm.... She also loves Auntie Eileen, although I don't have any pictures of them hanging out together.

Grandma and Grandpa threw a small banquet for Bruce and Eileen one night so that the extended family could help us celebrate since many of them couldn't make it to the wedding in Chicago. We met a lot of their kids for the first time, and they met ours. It was fantastic to catch up with some of our cousins - Ronald and Bobby, Wayman and Roland. Unfortunately my cousin Danny and his family couldn't be there.

We also had our annual visit to Dove Court to see the Christmas lights:


 
Christmas Day was fantastic, as usual. We did our Jang tradition of opening up presents one at a time, which takes a long time, but thankfully the adults were limited to 2-3 presents each. We AGREED on two presents each (except for the kiddos), but somehow it creeps up there. :) Not surprisingly, it was super exciting to Cecilia to get to open so many presents at once.

She got a lot of Dora and Doc McStuffins presents. Here are a few of her favorites:

And as the finale, here is our traditional family photo after opening presents:

Here are the complete set of pictures from the trip.

Decorating our Christmas Tree 2012

We didn't get quite as big of a tree as the one at Faneuil Hall, but we did buy our own small tree this past Christmas, and Cecilia learned how to decorate it! It's harder than you think... you have to learn how to put the hooks in the ornaments, then you have to figure out how to hold the hook, but the let the ball drop, so that the hook doesn't fall off. Then you have to learn how to actually hang it on the tree.



But by the 3rd ornament, Cecilia had it down.



Here are some pictures of the final product, although the camera and lighting don't do the tree justice.

Phillip in December 2012

Phillip continued to learn how to smile and laugh - by the end of December he was 4 months old, and could lift his head up consistently while on his belly and look around, and even try to grab things. He liked to make sounds with mommy and daddy, especially a raspy ggggggrrrr sound coming from the back of his throat. He also learned how to roll over from his tummy onto his back (which has been shown in this previous post).

Here a short video of him laughing, followed by some pictures.

Even from the very beginning, Cecilia was so good with Phillip.

This was when Phillip was 4 months old, but even now, if he starts crying, Cecilia will go to him and try and make him laugh, or feed him something. She is such a good big sister.

Making Christmas Cookies

We had a lot of fun making Christmas cookies last winter. Cecilia was so good at rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters. The best part was putting on the icing:



Here's the finished product!

Faneuil Hall at Christmas time 2012

We wanted to take Cecilia to see a big Christmas tree this year, and they had a whole display on at Faneuil Hall, like they do every year. So we bundled ourselves up and went there at night one weekend. Not only was there a big decorated tree...

A lot of the other trees were also covered in lights, and it was super picturesque.

At the other end of the mall, there was also a light display that was coordinated with Christmas music. It was fantastic and both Cecilia and Phillip were captivated. If I remember correctly, it would play every 15 minutes, and we had to stay and watch it twice, despite the cold. This is best shown in this video (you'll see Cecilia, and eventually I get a shot of Phillip - both watching intently):

Hanukkah 2012

It was nice that Hanukkah didn't overlap that much with Christmas this year. This was Phillip's first Hanukkah, and Cecilia really enjoyed the Hanukkah traditions.

Such as putting up Hanukkah window stickies (kidding, kidding...):

 
Cecilia also enjoyed lighting the candles. She learned how to light them all by herself. I have a (rather shaky and blurry) video, and a few pics.

She got to see Daddy recite the prayer (which he had to find on his phone first every time), and understood that these weren't candles to blow out, like on a birthday cake. Most of all... she liked the presents! :)

Cecilia in December 2012

Here are a few random pics and videos of Cecilia in December 2012.

Here she is going crazy on the bed!!



Doc McStuffins (Disney) became one of her favorite cartoons, and Daddy was so nice as to download a bunch of them onto his iPad for her to watch. The music in the show is actually fantastic, and she learned the theme song pretty quick.



By now, many of you know that Cecilia just doesn't require as much sleep as a 3 or 4 year old normally requires. It is not uncommon for us to go into her room and find her playing by herself, often as late as 10:30 or 11pm. Sometimes she's reading a book, but more often, she is playing with her stuffed animals. For this particular night, I remember she had arranged them all and said they were going to school.

She now probably has close to 30-40 animals on her bed, including her huge bear, and sometimes she drags up a toy stroller and some other things. There's sometimes barely enough room to sleep! Here are another few shots where she had arranged her animals late at night:
 

Finally - here is Cecilia with her new cow sleeping bag from Carol Trombino, at Aaron and Jacob's new house.