Ben's Birthday Celebration in St. Louis

For Ben's 30th Birthday, we went to a Cardinals game in St. Louis with his parents, brothers, and their wives. It was also Cecilia's first time in Busch stadium. We left for Missouri after my class on Friday and got to Cape Girardeau in the evening. That night, Ben went on a ride-along with his brother Nick who is a Cape Girardeau police officer. He saw the evening shift of a police officer first hand, and had many interesting stories about the people he saw. Evidently, there were a lot of intoxicated people Nick had to deal with and he used the siren a few times, which was a real thrill.

Saturday, the family drove up to STL for the big game. We stayed in the Crowne Plaza downtown, which was very nice. By the time we got into St. Louis and checked into the hotel, it was already after 3. We wanted to get to the park when it opened, so we walked to the stadium right away. There was a 20 minute or so wait to get in and then we ate in the park. Park food is not very nutrative, so everyone was still very hungry after the game - and a little sick feeling. So, we needed real food afterwards.

It was picture day, so people came out on the field and the players walked around to give people photo ops. We were going to do that, but it was really just waiting in another long line and none of us - Cecilia included - felt like doing that. I did walk down a few rows and get some pictures. The players weren't supposed to take pictures WITH fans, but Pujols started pulling people out of the crowd to take pictures with them. An announcer asked him about it and he said, "Why not? It's picture day!" in that cute accent of his. You could tell he was a real leader on the team, because one he started taking some pictures with fans everyone else did, too. We also got a picture of Molina with his arm around Pujols. See the sidebar for a link to all the pictures.

It was a great game and we got to see Holliday hit a HR. The Cards beat the Nationals 9 to 4, and Ben kept a scorecard of the game so that I could look that up :). We really love keeping stats at a game, it must be the engineer in us.

After the game we went back to the hotel room and Ben got his birthday cake. It was chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Becky baked the cake and I frosted and decorated it while Ben was on his ride-along with Nick the night before. It said "Happy 30th Birthday Ben" and my attempt at a STL cardinal. It also had 30 trick candles. Ben blew most of them out and then put out he rest with his fingers. We ordered a meal from Maurizio's Cafe Cecilia went to bed before midnight. The poor thing was all worn out. The boys stayed up late and then we all slept well.

Sunday we went to Union Station and did some shopping and had a meal. Ben got a STL decal for the car and I go some fudge. After that last bit of time for the family, we loaded up for the trek home. Cecilia was tired of driving and being away from home, so the trip wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. We all slept well when we got home. What a weekend!

See the link on the sidebar for pictures.

3 Month Portraits

We got her 3 month pictures taken. She was so good and smiling a lot! You can get to them with the link Cecilia's 3 Month pictures. Use the customer name Hannah Swoboda. You can order them there.










We got her 3 month pictures taken. She was so good and smiling a lot! You can get to them with the link Cecilia's 3 Month pictures. Use the customer name Hannah Swoboda.

Ben's 30th Birthday and Sweet Corn Fest

We celebrated Ben's 30th birthday pretty quietly. Ben opened his cards from Cecilia and I and then we went to the Annual Sweet Corn Festival in Sun Prairie, which is close to Madison. Cecilia generally had a good time, but it was a lot of noise and commotion for the little one.

Ben opening his cards!



This is Cecilia chewing on her monkey, which is her new favorite thing to do!


This is all of us at Sweet Corn Fest! We met up with a couple of friends, Brad and Sarah, there. Everyone was so happy to meet Cecilia!

We're working on rolling over!

We're working on rolling over and spending more time on our tummy. She's getting closer and closer to rolling over!

In this first video, Cecilia is playing on her back. Once again, forgive my amateur cinematography. She likes to go crazy kicking, and then she stops and waits for approval. If you are pleased with what she's done, she just keeps doing it! When we began to notice this, I really realized how kids like to please their parents. Encouraging her really seems to make her try harder.

***I couldn't get the video to upload, but I uploaded it into YouTube. Our channel is swobodafamily, and there should be some of the videos on the sidebar of this blog.***

In this video Celia was doing some dreaded tummy time, but really working on getting her legs up. She's getting better at it, and I think she's getting closer to rolling over.

Vaccines

Celia got vaccines today. We decided to do the alternative vaccine schedule that Dr. Sears suggests because it is supposed to be a little easier on the little guys. The idea is to space the vaccines out. Well, today she was supposed to get her next round, but no one told the nurses what she was supposed to get. She ended up with 4 shots (HepB, IPV,), and I realized later that she just got was she missed from her first visit (if she was on the regular schedule) and not what we'd talked to the doctor about. I should have been more diligent with bringing the information and not assuming that our medical caretakers would know what they're doing. Anyway, poor Celia had a rough night. One of her legs got red and she was obviously sore, and she got a low fever. The next day she was really sleepy and ate a lot, and on Thursday she had a lower appetite and slept a lot too. Today she was more her old self, so the ordeal seems to be over. Next time, we'll be more on top of things.

Kisses

Celia and I were doing kisses and she started kissing me back! It was so cute!

Super Baby

Celia does a cute pose with her arms up that we call super baby! We tried to get it on video, and got a half-hearted version. This is Celia the Super Baby!

Working Out

This video is of Celia working on her tummy time and grabbing for a toy. Once again, I am not the best filmographer, although I am trying to improve. I get a little excited at one point, but I figure I'm entitled. :)

Celia adores Daddy

I took this video a couple of days ago, and I love it so much. Ben's singing to Celia while she's in her swing and she's laughing and looking at Ben adoringly. I am not a great filmographer, so sorry about the quality. It kept going in and out of focus while she was swinging.

Cute bathtime

Celia has been sick as of about Friday night, and we feel so bad for her. We've had to put some saline in her nose so that she could eat and breathe at the same time. That has been traumatic for both baby and mom and dad. We took her to the clinic on Saturday because she's so small they wanted to see her. The doctor said that it's just a run of the mill cold and she should be fine. So, we're all just trying to rest and get better.

On a funny note, we took a video of her bath time and did an "interview" after wards. It was so precious I just had to share it!