Little Steps

Cecilia has begun to take little steps when you hold her up. Actually, she's loving it more and more each day. She'd love to run, if she could. Over Thanksgiving, we caught some of these first steps on film. We'll record more to document this process. I have a feeling she'll be running before crawling.

Sidenote - this video is funny, not just adorable. Ben's behind the camera. I don't want to give it away, I just want to say that it's funny.

Thanksgiving in Nebraska and First Foods!

This year, we spent Cecilia's first Thanksgiving in Nebraska. During this trip, we learned that Cecilia will sleep the whole way if we put her to bed in her car seat after a normal night-time routine and drive and night. It worked like a charm, although mom and dad were tired because she was up at her normal time! We had Wednesday to recover (yea grad school and no class on Wednesday) and on Thursday we went to Columbus for a Thanksgiving feast at Hannah's Aunt Karen's. It was a fun day, especially since Hannah got to play Settlers of Quatan twice! She didn't win at all, though. Cecilia was a big hit with the family, and she laughed and cooed at all the attention. Everyone commented on what a wonderful baby we have, and we, of course, agreed. After a fun, but long, day, we drove back to Oma's and enjoyed some quiet. On Friday, we headed to Lincoln to visit Grandpa Yount. We had a seafood feast and hung out. Cecilia enjoyed Grandpa's banjo and even tried to play it a little. We had an enjoyable visit, and made it back to Oma's in time for Cecilia's bedtime.

In addition to all the Thanksgiving fun going on, Cecilia also got her first taste of solid food. As it turns out, it was not a roaring success. Although, looking back on it now, she liked it more that day than she does now. Now, she does not like solid food and will not eat it. The videos of solid food eating are on youtube - some of them should be in our sidebar. They are too long for the post, so I just uploaded several videos.




Later in the day, Daddy gave it a try. At this point, she was still slightly interested.

Uncle Jarrod Playing for Cecilia

Here's a video of Jarrod playing the guitar for Cecilia. She loves it and all music!

Practicing B's

I got a cute video of Cecilia practicing her B's with Ben. The Husker game is in the background (go Huskers) so you can hear some of that, too. She's been trying to imitate the words "Bless You" (she sneezes a lot) and "baby". The video is on the sidebar and our YouTube channel.

6 month pictures and family portraits

We got family pictures taken today for Cecilia's 6 month milestone and to have a family picture. You can use the link below to see all of the pictures. Use the customer name Hannah Swoboda, and it is on the JCPenny Portraits website.

The pictures we ordered are:
E3, E4, P2, P4-P6, P9-P11, P16-P21
-P7 and P8 are the color versions of E3 and E4 (sepia) which we didn't get
-P12-P14 we didn't get because my necklace was very obviously and distractingly askew
- P15 we didn't get because Ben and Cecilia were looking at two different places and Cecilia wasn't really smiling

It was too bad, but Cecilia was very tired during the photo shoot and Mommy was in the first and middle stages of a migraine. Cecilia WOULD NOT nap today! It is not like her, and we aren't sure why, but she would only go down for a few minutes at a time, maxing out at a half-hour later in the afternoon. Normally, she sleeps 1.5-2.0 hours in two morning and early afternoon naps and then a half hour late afternoon. This means she was fussy and splotchy all day. She still pulled out a few smiles, though. The photographer this time wasn't as good as for her 3 month pictures, but our little girl is beautiful no matter who is taking her picture! :)

https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0151114099JCP

Link to our Videos

Here is a link to the Swobodafamily Channel on You tube. You can also use the URL below or the link in the sidebar. We generally put extra videos and long videos on our YouTube channel. You can follow the link to see all of the videos we've put on YouTube. The most recent of these are what appear on the sidebar of the blog.

http://www.youtube.com/user/swobodafamily

Trip to the Zoo

We have a free community zoo in Madison, and today was beautiful (when we left) so I took Cecilia to see it. I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised at how extensive the zoo was! A lot of animals were indoors (they have several buildings too), but we walked outside and saw giraffes, polar bears, brown bears, black bears, a Tiger, otters, penguins, camels, an osterich and its egg, bison, and a lot of monkeys (sorry Allison - primates?). We went inside the PRIMATE house, and saw chimps and orangutans. We had to leave the stroller outside, however, so we only went inside one place. I took a picture of Celia in a polar bear cutout (cute!) and I also took a picture of the solar panel. You don't see many of those sitting in the middle of the zoo.


I got video in a few places, although it was just me so pardon the videography. Celia was interested in things at times, particularly the giraffes, but she got more tired as the day went on (her afternoon nap wasn't long enough). After the zoo, we picked Daddy up at work and went for a nice family dinner at The Great Dane (boy, we'll miss that place). It was a wonderful afternoon!

This video is of us and the polar bears.

This video is of us and the brown bears.

This video is of us and the otters. She really enjoyed the otters. You can't tell as much on the video, but the otters made her babble a lot.

New Game

Cecilia and Daddy really enjoy playing the game you can watch in the video. Cecilia realized that if she speaks while bouncing, it makes a funny sound. Now, when she's on Daddy's knee, she will make a long sound and expect Daddy to bounce her. It took a few takes because the video camera distracts her, but it is the cutest thing! I actually had to sort of hide the camera from her to get this video. What a clever baby!

6 Month Doctor's Appointment

Cecilia had her 6 months doctor's appiontment today. I uploaded her revised growth charts. It looks like her length is leveling off but her weight is holding steady. I question the length measurements, though. They stretch her out along a bumpy table, then hold a tape measure and measure the "crow's flight." As a scientist, I cannot believe it's accurate and it's probably off by an inch or so. They also screwed up the head circumference measurement. She recorded it as 41.3, but I was pretty sure it should be between 42 and 43 from what I could see. After the nurse left, I measured it myself and it was 42.3 cm which keeps her along the same growth curve instead of leveling off. I think Ben was a little appalled when I measured it myself, but I wanted to make sure her head was still growing.

Summary:
weight: 18 lbs 9 oz; 91.32%
length: 26 in (or so they say); 60.49%
head: 41.3 cm (officially, really 42.3 cm); 18.6% (should be around 50%)

Yesterday I put a pony-tail on top of her head for the first time, too (is there a word for that?). It's in the picture we took a picture while we were waiting (cute!). Cecilia also got a DTaP shot, which didn't even make her cry. We have such a good girl! Leah (our doctor) was also impressed that she was hungry and tired and was still so happy and interactive. What a wonderful girl we've been blessed with. She was pronounced perfect.

6 months flies by so fast. She's now learning so quickly, and everyday brings development. Today, for example, she was trying out really loud sounds. I'd be sitting with her, and she'd look at me and just "speak" really loudly for a long time. Then she grinned at me. I wish I could capture every moment on video, but then we wouldn't be living it :). We're just so happy with our baby and couldn't love her more. Happy 6 months Cecilia!

Daddy's Feet

Cecilia is obsessed with feet lately. She loves investigate people's feet and, of course, try to eat them. If she's fussy, stick a foot in front of her and it will gain her interest for a while. We try to keep her from eating them if they are not recently washed (yuck!), but this is a cute video of her going after Ben's feet. It's so cute that when she wants something, she leads with her mouth!

No Socks!

Cecilia worked very hard this morning to take her socks off all by herself! And I got it on video! It took her awhile (3 minutes), so the video is too long to put in the post. Keep an eye on the toolbar, though, and it should turn up there on our YouTube channel!

Check a few of the earlier posts. I try to keep things in chronilogical order so we can preserve some of this time accurately (if I ever get around to archiving it). There are a couple of cute videos from earlier.

Plumber's Crack

Cecilia had a case of plumber's crack first thing in the morning!

Highchair at a Restaurant - We've Hit a Milestone!

Well, we hit a milestone tonight. Our baby sat in a highchair at the table for an entire meal. She wanted to be held at the very end, but Mommy and Daddy got to eat first - at the same time! Wow, what a wonderful family meal! She is so curious now that she spent the whole meal watching people and chewing on her toys. She threw some on the ground, but for the most part she played quietly and watched us eat.

She is getting really interested in us when we eat. She watches closely as we put the food in our mouths and chew. When we started eating, she started making chewing motions, too! She's definitely getting closer to getting ready to eat, but we aren't rushing into anything. I think that Ben is perfectly happy to wait for the diapers to need to be rinsed out :)! She behaved so well, and we got complements on her all night. We may be able to take more family outings like this in the future!

Daddy's Softball Games

I found a few pictures from Ben's softball that I thought I'd share. She really started enjoying it once she could sit in the stroller with her toys. We have a couple of the baby with Daddy at the softball games (big sigh, they're over).


Here we are with Daddy and the Fall Ball trophy for the last game of the year! It was cold, but fun. Yeah champs!

New Chew-Toy

Cecilia has a new favorite chew-toy, and it is an old washcloth. She was getting ready for a nap when we took the video, but she loves to chew on this. I guess the old saying that the simpler toys are the best is true!

Upside-down

I want to be upside-down! Cecilia loves this play-time position now when she plays with Daddy. What is it with kids and being upside down? Different view I guess.

New Carseat

We got a new carseat for Cecilia. She outgrew the old carrier, so we got her a convertible carseat that should last for quite a while. It is rear-facing until 45 pounds, and front-facing until 65 pounds. It should last her for quite a while, so we decided to go with the "girl" design, since it is unlikely it will be shared by another child. The old carrier will be stored until it is ready to be used again if needed.

Torro! and a High-chair

Cecilia laughs and more things everyday! Here, Ben was playing Torro! with the old washcloth Cecilia's been using as a chew-toy.



Oma also finished the high-chair that we used as kids for Cecilia. She got us a chair cover, too, and it is all set-up as of today! It looks great and fits her perfectly. We've been using it without the cover, but she slid down on the slippery wood. We sit her in the chair while we work in the kitchen. She's happy because she can reach the toys and see us at the same time. Mommy's happy because she can wash dishes and make dinner. Funny what makes you happy when you get older! Now that the cover's on she doesn't slide around and is much more comfy. Yeah for sitting!

Halloween 2009

Aunt Allison visited this weekend over Halloween. We took Cecilia to the pumpkin patch, but it was a little cold and windy. We still took a gander around the barnyard and went on a hayride. Cecilia touched a goat and fell asleep on the hayride! That night, we carved our pumpkins and handed out candy to trick 'o treaters. Not a bad first Halloween for the baby!

This video is of the corn maze. It was actually just some corn in a barn. It was too windy to go through the corn maze outside.


Here is the hayride.


Here are the jack-o-lanterns and Cecilia in her Halloween outfit.


Sunday we celebrated the Feast of All Saints with a giant turkey dinner. We roasted a turkey breast, and had mashed potatoes, amish corn, green beans cooked with onions and bacon, honey glazed carrots, sweet potato casserole, and dinner rolls. Ben had a sore throat so he couldn't eat much, but we had a delicious meal! It turned out too many of the dishes were sweet, so next time I will make more variety of flavors and not so much sweet.