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.

Future Plans

I have decided Cecilia will become a Geo-Physicist, so she can discover a new planet and name it after me.

CORRECTION: Apparently Geo-Physicists study the earth (I guess that's the Geo part), so Cecilia will have to become an Astro-Physicist.

Her First Book

A Night Out

Our friend Dylan is in town with his new girlfriend, visiting his sister Marta, his new nephew Langdon, and us LuBangs! Dylan, Christina (the girlfriend), Joanne, and I went to the Red Sox game while Marta and her husband George babysat the kids. We had fun at the game, but I felt so guilty leaving Cecilia for the night. With her in daycare full time I feel like I should be spending most of my free time with her. I don't feel this way when she's with family though, but somehow it feels different with a friend looking after her.

I am pretty sure this guilt is a new parent syndrome thing though. Probably by this time next year a night out will be unadulterated pleasure and I will look back on this post and laugh.

Hit the Toucan!

Cecilia has a bouncy seat with an attachment that has a toucan and a monkey which hang in front of her. If she hits one of them, it makes the music play. For a while now she has been able to make it go by hitting them with her knees, but she was never able to use her hands to do it, except very occasionally by accident. I can't tell you how many hours I have spent guiding her hand into it saying "Hit the toucan! Hit the toucan!", like some kind of idiot.

Our friend Marta was baby-sitting her last night and remarked on how she uses her hands to reach for things, in contrast to her son Langdon, who is two days older than Cecilia. So this morning I thought I would give the ole toucan a try, and sure enough she reached for it right away and made the music go. Of course I wanted to capture this on video and get a clear shot, so I grabbed the camera and took her "blanky" (cloth diaper) away and started filming. Here is the result:

Hmmm...something tells me she wanted her blanky back...so of course I happily obliged. Here is the final magnum opus, which I will entitle "Hitting the Toucan while Wrestling with my Blanky".

Her First Hike

We took Cecilia hiking for the first time on August 1, 2009 in Noanet State Park just outside Boston. It was a quick hike, maybe a mile each way, up a hill that has a view of the distant Boston skyline. It was a really nice day and we had a great time. Next time we pack a picnic though!
Here are a few more pics from the day.
One interesting thing happened on the way up. We were passed by a mountain biker, older guy probably around 50. He stopped us and told us that he and his son had hiked up here more times than he could count, but that now his son was 22 and living in Argentina. He was sad and told us to treasure the time we have now with Cecilia. We hear that a lot and are doing our best!

Good Morning!

Joanne leaves for work around 730 so I usually take care of Cecilia in the mornings. Lately she's been getting up around 715 and I feed her soon after. It can be hard because I like to drink my coffee and read the news first thing in the morning and I don't want to neglect her. When she was first born I would read the paper aloud to her, but I can't do it when my mouth is full of cereal! Also, she didn't seem too interested :( Anyway the mornings are nice and she is always in a great mood as this picture shows. I pack her up and we're out of the house by 810.

Here is the song I sing to her when we leave, to the tune of When the Saints Come Marching In.

Cecilia goes marching on to school today, hoorah, hooray! She's going to learn a lot today, hoorah, hooray! She's going to see her friends and play, it's going to be a wonderful day, Cecilia's marching on to school today!

Meeting My Dad's Family

We took Cecilia to my Aunt Adelle's unveiling on Long Island yesterday and she got to meet the family. Everybody loved her, of course :) She was very well behaved and we all went back to Karen's house for lunch and it was a nice time.

I took her to Adelle's and Joe's graves and touched her hand to them so she could meet them. It's crazy to think that was her Great Grandfather's sister.

Rolling Over

The little girl rolled over for the first time last night! From her back to her stomach, going to the left. She did it like a million times, it was so cute. She actually did it one night before when she was like five weeks old, but never did it again. Tonight she even had a new technique for it and seems to be getting the hang of it. I know it's silly but we're so proud of her.



The only problem now is what I have dubbed "The Paradox of Rolling Over". As soon as you put her on the ground she rolls over. She plays on her tummy for a while and then gets tired and gets upset, but if you put her on her back she immediately rolls over again!