Day At the Beach Collage

Photos from our day at the beach down in SoCal. Cecily loves to be in the water! Not much fear of waves or sandcrabs.

PV Visit

We had a great visit down at my parents in Southern California last week. Unfortunately due to the swine flu we had to cancel our trip to Cabo with Erin and Juan. Huge disappointment but we made the most of it. We went down to my parents house and then left Cecily with her grandparents and Greg and I escaped to Palm Springs for a few days. Stayed at the Viceroy and had a great time, despite it being about 100 degrees out in the desert. Cecily did very well being without us for a few days (not going to lie, the first night apart was difficult for everyone) and she had lots of fun with her grandma and grandpa and Auntie Leen (and Rascal and Xena and the kitties when they werent hiding). Here are a few pictures of the newly remodeled house. When I get some pictures of Cecily from that weekend I will post them.

Me & Greg-in Palm Springs

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny

Bikini ready?

The Aunties (Jennifer and Shelly) got Cecily the cutest polka dot bikini, complete with terry coverup, matching hat and sunglasses of course. She did a little fashion show and was quite pleased with the new get up, despite it NOT being pink. Cecily loves pink. She will flip through a catalog and point to whatever is pink on the page and say she wants that one. Cecily's perfect catalog would be titled "All Things Pink". She has informed us that she wants a pink computer and a pink vaccuum cleaner. Hmmm.

This weekend we also went to the Butter & Eggs day parade with Cara and Addison.

I Love My Daddy, My Daddy loves naps

The future's so bright...

Hot Spring Days

Playing with water, definitely one of her beloved past times. Here she is on an unusually hot spring weekend. Notice the "big girl" panties!

Easter 2009

Cecily was fascinated with Easter this year, Easter Bunny, Candy, looking for eggs, Candy. We told her all about the Easter Bunny and when she saw her basket filled with treats on Easter morning she was a bit hesitant to go up to it. Sitting next to it was an adorable new plush bunny. She finally went up to look at what she had gotten and then said "thank you Easter Bunny" to the stuffed toy!

Making Muffins

Cecily making muffins with Jasmine (her nanny).

She has been very interesting in cooking lately, well she just wants to help with pretty much everything. Still a very finicky eater...although we just discovered she likes Brie cheese.

But more than actual cooking her favorite thing is "Play Cooking" or rather using all her play food to arrange elaborate picnics for all her "friends" (Ernie, Tinkerbell, Prudence (the potty doll), etc.) We, of course, must be present as well and act out the voices for all her friends. The picnic scenario, along with playing doctor are definitely her favorite games. And Little Red Riding Hood which involves both picnicking (since she brings a picnic basket to Grandma) and playing doctor (since Grandma is sick and needs medical attention along with her picnic snack) A new "game" she also enjoys is Beauty Shop. Where we use some clean makeup brushes to put pretend makeup on each other.

In like a lion...out like a lamb

The month of March was very busy for us. Full of birthday parties and thunderstorms, milestones being reached..almost (i.e. potty training), the preschool anxiety, Greg working ALOT (tax season) tears, laughter, and just everyday life.

On the preschool news, we got into our favorite one! I know, I know, is this such a hard task, acceptance into PRESCHOOL? But yes, as anyone who has been through this in San Francisco will tell you, it is a difficult and emotional process, involving applications and essays and tours and thank you letters and follow up emails and anxiously waiting for the mail everyday. And we had to deliberate over a couple of school for the one which would be best for Cecily. In the end we picked a charming school located on the Presidio, gorgeous surroundings away from the hustle and bustle of the busy city. She will be going 5 days a week, mornings (8:30-12) starting in September. She will also go to a summer program there in July, just two days a week for a couple hours a day.

Potty Training- Halfway there, probably would be all of the way there if I wasnt so wishy washy and kept her in diapers most of the time. Jasmine (Ceci's nanny) is much better with her about it and she is much more consistent during the week. As a matter of fact most things go better during the week. With her nanny she uses the potty (even goes in public places like Starbucks and the Zoo!) and takes pretty consistent naps in her crib. With me on the weekends she fights me about the potty and makes me drive her around to sleep in the car. I need to get tougher, I know.

Singing-One of Cecily's obsessions is watching movies. We let her watch a movie or two on the weekend and she much prefers a movie to an episode of Word World or Angelina Ballerina. She can stay interested for the whole movie, although plays and dances around and talks about it while watching it. Her favorites: Nemo, Tinkerbell, Sleeping Beauty (which is very scary), and all time fave: Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Her favorite part is to sing the songs from the movies, to which she memorizes the words pretty well. Her favorite songs to sing: "Once Upon a Dream" (Sleeping Beauty); "You've Got a Friend in Me" (Toy Story); "I've got no strings" (Pinnochio-she's not seen this one yet); and "Prince Ali" (Aladdin). Its very cute, maybe I'll figure out a way to post a video.

TV Trance

Happy Valentines Day 2009

Cecily and I made home made Valentines to send out to people. Well, actually I made them and she threw a tantrum unless I let her have the glue stick and lots of tape. And then we didnt send them out, since it was already Valentines Day so they would be late. But we had a good day anyways!
Greg had flowers (for me) and chocolate covered strawberries (for Ceci) delivered while he slaved away at work on the rainy Saturday.
We ended up having to take Luca to the emergency vet that night because she was acting very sick after stealing and eating alot of food, but she turned out to be fine, just too much banana! We did discover from the xrays that she has very bad arthritis though which is why she was crying at the foot of the stairs. Poor baby girl, she is on glucosamine and Rimadyl now.

Cecily is having some big advancements in the way of potty training. After reading Once Upon A Potty she decided she too would try to 'poo poo' in the potty, which she has been doing now almost more times than not! We still have diapers on her bc I havent taken the plunge to start dealing with accidents, but I am thinking about doing it soon. She'll be 2 1/2 in April so I havent really worried about it yet, but she is very ready to be potty trained. Though she seems happy to still go in her diaper as well, she announces it very loud so that everyone knows what is going on.

She has started saying the cutest little things, such as instead of "I dont know" she always responds "I dont know either" (I guess if we're asking her, she assumes we dont know, why else would we be asking?) She also loves Sleeping Beauty and will sing "I know you, walked with you p'once a time" (her version of the song) over and over while spinning around.

Bedtime is definitely a challenge of late, and more nights that not we end up with a little snoring girl in between us in bed.

Tahoe Weekend

We enjoyed a fabulous weekend in Tahoe hosted by Scott and Cara. There were four couples and 5 kids and it was a wonderful time. The snow has not been great, but there was enough for snowmen, sledding, and snowball fights! Cecily, Addison, and Ryland (Steve and Andrea's son) are all about the same age and they had lots of fun running around, doing art projects, watching countless movies (Brave Little Toaster, Tinkerbell, and Nemo of course) and fighting over toys. The pink strollers were the fave toy, especially for Ryland.

Cecily hadn't been to the snow since last January. She loved it! The weather was very nice (sunny, not too cold) so they didnt have to have as much bundling up to go play outside. She especially liked sledding, and screamed with laughter as we'd race down the hill and snow sprayed in her face. She is quite the little daredevil. (Should I be worried?)

Favorite friends

Cecily is starting to appreciate the value of friendship and really enjoying time with others BESIDES mommy and daddy. She and Addison, her "best friend" get to see each other alot and play very nicely together. Cecily has a hard time sharing sometimes, but is working on her oh so important social skills.

Her language has really snowballed. She went from having an ever growing vocabulary, to short three word sentences to now full sentences that get more complicated every day. I watch her as her little brain furiously works to add in more words and communicate more complex ideas. Such as before it might have been "go zoo, saw giraffe" now it is "mommy, i went to the zoo, and there was a giraffe, and the giraffe ate food, he was hungry, giraffes eat leaves". It makes for a very impressed mommy.

Below are some pictures of Cecily and some of her favorite people.

Playdate with Addison

At a Christmas event at the Firehouse with her Nonno

"Auntie Leen" came to visit

With beloved Berit. Her nanny from April to now. Sadly Berit moved to Seattle this week to pursue nursing school. Cecily loved her lots and we will miss her terribly.