Waking up

It is not unusual to find Cecily here when she wakes up in the morning:

 

 

Usually, she's screaming her head off, until I throw Parker in with her, then she's usually pretty happy.

Reading

Parker LOVES books, and recently he's started reading them to himself on occasion.

 

 

I'll spare you the video, but I took several videos this evening of him sitting & "reading" stories to us.  I personally, think it's adorable, but I can see how the rest of the world might not think he's the cutest thing ever (although they'd be wrong).  Some of the stories seemed to come out of thin air, but on several he did a remarkable job of following the actual story-line in his re-telling.

Our last dinner in the old house.

 

My parents are moving out of my childhood home on Wednesday.  Since we're all back on this side of the mountains, we got together for one last Sunday dinner before they moved.

 

 

The cousins had a great time playing together.  Parker & Cecily haven't really spent much time with Joshua & Nora, but they had a great time running around together.

 

Fiona's birthday is in a few weeks, so since we were all under the same roof, we decided to celebrate her birthday as well.  (I'd love to blame the mustard-yellow color of the frosting on my camera, but it was all me; I was going for bright yellow and ended up with deviled eggs, but they tasted good)

 

We even got a shot of all the cousins.

 

...or as best as we could, you try getting 5 kids to look at the camera & smile at the same time!

 

So long 8353, it was a great place to live! 

 

Considering how I reacted when we sold the cabin, I expected to be a weepy mess this evening, but so far I'm okay.  It could have something to do with the fact that my Dad hasn't packed everything up yet and all the furniture is still there, I think I'm in a bit of denial, I might have to run through the house one more time after the moving is all done to let it sink in.  ...or maybe I'm actually just ready for them to move, but my money's on denial.

 

 

 



15 Months!

First, the stats:

Weight: 18 lbs, 15 oz (17.83%)

Height: 29.25" (11.89%)

Head Circ: 45

 

Her Doctor was commenting on her strange growth curve: born at 60%, dropping to 5% despite all our best efforts, then raising up to almost 20% when we stopped trying.  He was amazed; although he might not have been so amazed if he'd listened to me in the first place, her "crazy" growth curve is remarkably similar to Parker's.

 

 

Cecily is doing really well, we still have her on the iron drops, but she seems to be responding to them well, and we have her completely off the baby Zantac.

 

She has started walking in the past few weeks, and once she started walking, there was no stopping her.  Which is explanation of why her face is completely covered with bruises.  But, the worst war-wound so far is from when I accidentally hit her in the face with the bedroom door.  I don't think I'm winning the Mommy-of-the-Year award this week.  Fortunately she was okay and not nearly as traumatized as her Mama.

 

She's still recovering from her Croup episode, she's mostly better, but she has a nasty cough that just won't go away.

 

With each day that she grows, Cecily is showing us her (STRONG) personality.  This is a little girl who will not take "no" for an answer and leaves no one wondering what she's thinking.  Between her "communicating" and Parker's tantrums, this has become a pretty noisy household, I'm ready for a silent retreat!

 

But seriously, she is such a sweet little girl.  Like Parker, she is a very tactile girl, she loves patting Keith's beard, and when you pick her up, she'll rub the back of your shoulder (she's also been known to poke you in the eyeball if she doesn't like what you're offering, but she follows it up with a gentle pat-pat).

Happy Birthday Grandpa & Auntie Denise!

We went to Grandma & Grandma's house on Saturday to celebrate Denise & Grandpa's birthdays.  I didn't really get any photos of the actual celebration, but I did get a few shots of the cousin love-fest before we went home for bedtime.

 

Our budding photographer

 

Parker discovered my tripod a few days ago & he's been carting it around since.  So, today I thought he could use it for it's intended purpose.  I pulled out my old camera & let him go to town.

 

He had a great time.

 

90% of the photos he took were of his finger or the wall, but he did manage to get a few good shots:

Zoo Trip

 

Our favorite parts of the zoo are playing in the new playground and stopping by the elephants to eat lunch.

 

Today we saw an elephant eat her lunch, then she sprayed water all over the elephant pond...pretty darn exciting.