10 Months!

Well, Cecilia turned 10 months yesterday. She can now walk 30 or so feet without falling down. We are going to have to get her shoes soon.

She also discovered that she likes pizza - at least the cheesy saucy part. She also likes spaghetti with tomato sauce. Shocker.

Here are her 10 month stats - 28 inches long and 18 pounds and 14 ounces. No wonder my arm gets tired so fast now.

Today we are going to visit the Franciscan Monastary in D.C. for some strolling, praying, viewing and maybe a bit of shopping.

In brief though, Cecilia is doing very very well. She is walking almost as well as mommy or daddy. She enjoys all sorts of foods from fruits, chicken, pasta, hotdogs, peas, carrots, and mashed potatoes! She loves waving to anyone and everyone and playing peek-a-boo. She babbles different sounds to herself as well as others. She loves music - especially country, the Veggietales theme song and any music that has a nice upbeat rhythm to it (she bounces to it). She also likes books - she helps turn the pages when we read at night - although they can find their way into her mouth so we have to be careful.

Unfortunately, her teething has been giving her a very hard time lately. Tuesday night she barely slept at all. She woke up constantly crying. Fortunately for all of us last night, between the Motrin and how tired she must have been, she only woke up once! Here's to hoping we see those new teeth soon!

First Thanksgiving!

Well, Cecilia had a lovely first Thanksgiving. We drove to my aunt and uncle's house where a number of relatives gathered to give thanks together. Cecilia got to spend time with both of her great grandparents as well as one uncle, great uncles and great aunts and several second cousins! She also got to meet three dogs - two Golden Retrievers (both of whom I think she would have liked if they weren't quite so anxious to get to her crackers) and a yappy little Dachsaund. She discovered she loves Townhouse crackers and likes turkey. My cousin also made chocolate chip cookies so Cecilia tried her first chocolate chip cookie too! She loved it!

Cecilia Walking Video

Here is a small (18 second) video of Cecilia practicing her walking. Not bad for only being 9 1/2 months old and walking only a couple of weeks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iBQ4ZXdL90

Sleep Update

Well, After 8 difficult nights and days, some of the techniques we have been implimenting from the No Cry Sleep Solution have been having a very positive effect. It definitely did get darker before it got lighter. She was waking up 8 or more times a night up until last night and her naps would last no more than 30-40 minutes.

However, after moving her bedtime to between 7 and 7:30, stabalizing her bedtime routine, and working on teaching her how to sleep without nursing, last night she woke up only 3 times in the span of 10 hours and the past two days has improved her naps by 15 minutes and 60 minutes! We haven't quite gotten to where she can fall asleep on her own yet and hence sleep in her crib, but it is a definate improvement!

Since she is sleeping longer now but can't sleep in the crib quite yet, every time I heard a peep over the baby monitor I had to run to make sure she was okay and not awake and going to fall off the bed. So, as much as this exercise was fulfilling, we invested in a video monitor which lets us watch her as well as listen to her. We just thought until we can get her sleeping in a secure location like her crib, it is better to shovel out the $150 than have The Cuteness fall off the bed.

Veggietales!!!

Well, over the course of the past few months, Cecilia has become a very big fan of the Veggietales Series, created by Big Idea (www.bigidea.com). Thanks to grandma, she now has every single (CGI) Veggietales DVD there is and loves every one of them. She recognizes the songs that play in each one - the music with the icon of a little girl named Ali walking at a picnic when the words "why we do what we do" at the beginning of each film, the theme song and the "what have we learned" song. She will get very excited when these come on and bounce up and down and smile and just become enraptured with it. She loves Veggietales and I must say I find them quite enjoyable myself. We are all very thankful for Big Idea and all the hard work they have done and continue to do to bring such wonderful videos to life.

One More...

One other first I have to mention began a couple of weeks ago...Cecilia began initiating Peek-a-boo. She will grab a blanket or my skirt and hide under it until we notice and then unveil herself as we say Peek-A-Boo! She loves it!

And the Firsts just keep on comin'!

As if she hadn't had a busy week already, yesterday Cecilia waved for the first time on her own to friend from Church named Norma (I've moved her arm before for her but this time she did it all on her own!).

And today she stood up from a sitting position without holding on to anything - and then took a step!

She has seemed to be on a roll lately.

On another note, with her winter coat, she has become too big to ride in her carrier car seat. So we switched car seats today to her converitble one (still facing backwards) bought for her by her great grandparents. Simply Cecilia has gotten too big for her first car seat.

She has also gotten too big for her swing, so we are in the process of cleaning and storing it.

All this growing has brought a very harsh reality to the forefront - Cecilia doesn't know how to simply fall asleep on her own. She has always used motion or nursing to fall asleep. So we are working on teaching her how to fall asleep on her own. We'll keep you posted on how that is going.

A Week of Firsts!

Yesterday Cecilia did another first. She clapped her hands! And then clapped some more!