Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas with Keith's family in Healy this year. Cecelia got a fun toy, with more toys than she can focus on at this time attatched. Uncle Craig helped with the assembly. Thanks Craig!





Cecelia got a really cute sweater from Uncle Kevin and his girlfriend, Hannah. I absolutely adore it. It's amazing how hard it is to find dark colored clothes for babies instead of pastels.

I also had fun baking cookies with a special set of cookie cutters that Keith's mom gave me last year. I love people who have the same twisted sense of humor that I do!

Hope you all had a great holiday. Cecelia and I are going to Arizona, so we'll be blogging from there next.

Beary smiley

Here's our smiley little girl. Keith thought this was a hokey picture with the bear, but me being hokey like I am, I loved it.

Leech-lover

Cecelia and I went to her first movie last week. We saw Twilight opening weekend with some other mommies. My friend, Lara, brought her daughter too. We're raising the girls up right. They love their vampires and werewolves!

A ninja, immodesty, and a bunny rabbit

We watched Kung Fu Panda last week and Cecelia picked up some wicked awesome, lightening fast moves. I was barely able to catch this one with my camera. She now only answers to the name "Ninja Baby."

I keep telling Cecelia that "modest is hottest," but that doesn't stop her from pulling at her dress. I think it might be the influence of her friend Saige. Saige told us this week that her favorite princess is Jasmine because she's immodest! Yeah, it was hilarious. And yes, she does know what immodest means.

Last of all, is our little bunny rabbit. I had to include this because the hat is so cute. Thank you, Aunt Cassandra. It's all about the accessories!

No Exploitation this Year

Unfortunately, despite the fact that I dressed Cecelia up, we did not get to use our baby girl to obtain free candy this year. Darn! I hear that 1 year olds are good for this purpose though. They're cute and they're walking, yet they don't notice as much when their candy is snitched by their parents. ;) We'll test that theory next year.

Keith and I watched this really cool clip last night about the true meaning of Halloween. You should check it out.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_has_halloween_become

Sleeping Beauty

Our little girl is amazing. I'm starting to think that I will be shocked and appalled by any other kids we have because she's turning out to be so wonderfully good. She's started sleeping through the night this week. She's had two nights of 7 hours or more of sleep. It's been absolutely deliteful.

You can even see a trace of a smile as she's wearing some of my favorite baby pajamas.

4th folder, 4th photo

So, my friend Allison told me about this on her blog. You go to your fourth folder in My Pictures, and pick out the fourth photo there and post it with an explanation of the picture.

I laughed really hard when I tried this because it was a tsunami picture. When I first got my computer and brought it out to college it had the standard pictures that came on it like the convention center in Sydney, Australia and the Eiffel Tower. Interspersed with those pictures on my screen saver were these pictures of people running for their lives during the tsunami. My roommates teased me endlessly about being so morbid as to have those, yet I thought they'd come on my computer. I certainly hadn't put them there. It was over a year later when I found out that my mom had downloaded them in an email from a science colleague when she was testing out my new computer. Thanks Mom!

Gato's in trouble

It may not be today, tomorrow, or even several months from now, but eventually Cecelia is going to show Gato who's boss. At that time she'll get even for times like this when Gato thought that her feet were his playthings.

...Or she might be like her cousin Violet, and the cat will be her best friend. Because what cat doesn't like a little girl who drops food for him?

Cecelia's First Snow

Believe it or not, and I'd prefer not to believe it, it has already snowed here. This year has the record of the earliest snow since we've moved here: September 27th. Yeah, September! Ug. Keith was excited. We got about 6 inches in Healy. Most of the snow has melted in Fairbanks already, except in the shady spots.

So, Cecelia has already experienced snow. Like Mommy, she didn't like it very much. I warned her that she "ain't seen nothin' yet" and that the snow usually wasn't as wet, but was usually colder.

So, happy winter. And for those of you who won't have snow for several months, or even better, won't have any at all, don't brag! If you do, you might end up with some permanent house guests. I've often told Keith that I would make a great "snow bird".

Family Nap Time

They say that the family that naps together stays together...or something like that. Keith and I strongly believe in Sunday afternoon naps. Here's Cecelia in one of her pretty dresses napping with Gato and I.
Gato actually recognizes when I am napping and comes to join me most of the time. Yesterday he was napping on the back of the couch, but when I laid down with Cecelia, he claimed his spot behind my knees.

He also naps with Cecy alone too.

Chubby Cheeks

Our little Cecelia is becoming a porker! Sometimes she eats 4-5 times in one sitting. Her little cheeks are chubby, and we're happy to see her gaining weight.

The Poo Trail

Earlier in the spring, Keith wanted to go on a walk on some old dog mushing trails near our apartment. I didn't think anything of it, but was very glad once we had started that I had worn a pair of Keith's boots. Littered, or in piles, all over the trail, was moose droppings. I was not too surprised over a few piles, but when I stopped counting at twenty piles, I announced to Keith that I was christening this "the poo trail."

On Monday, we took Cecelia on her first walk outside, on the infamous poo trail.

Luckily, she was asleep during the walk, so she wasn't scarred as I was on my first walk there.

All kidding aside, it was fun to get out on a walk together and to see the gorgeous fall colors.

Burritoing the baby

I've coined a new phrase for little Cecy. It's called burritoing the baby. Whenever I wrap her up tight in her blanket, I tell her that I'm burritoing the baby. Keith says that I'm turning cannibal. I think that I just miss Cafe Rio! Only 4 months until I get to eat there again.

Wanted: one terrorizing kitty!

Overall, Gato and Cecelia get along well. We knew before she came home that we'd have to hide her stuffed animals until she was ready for them because Gato LOVES stuffed animals. What we didn't know was how much Gato loves pacifiers (and bottles). Something about the rubber on them is very attractive to him. He's already bitten off a chunk of one pacifier, and carried around another. So, now I have taken defensive action and always keep the diaper bag zipped so Gato can't get them. On the positive side, Cecelia doesn't seem to mind. She doesn't care about pacifiers yet. When she gets older, she might even hand them to the cat herself :)