Our 2 year anniversary

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary today. It came in with a pop - not a bang. Last night, as Ben and I sat in exhaustion with the baby in bed, I sat pumping and grading papers and Ben was sick on the recliner and waiting to take his next dose of medicine before going to bed. Ben looked over at me and asked, "Is marriage as glamorous as you thought it would be?" I have to say to him, "Marriage is better than I thought it would be!" It's not always pretty, but we have a pretty great life. A few humorous comments are in the video below.



We've been so busy lately, that we didn't realize that it was our anniversary until mid-morning after I taught my class. Someone texted us a congratulations and we looked at each other and said, "Oh yeah!" We'd been talking about our anniversary on Tuesday, but we've been so busy that Tuesday snuck up no us! As a result, there were no cards, flowers, candy, or treats. However, we went to lunch to commemorate the day. We are going to Omaha this weekend for a whole night together alone, which is our real anniversary gift to each other. Yeah! Ben's been sick since the weekend, so it wasn't too eventful. Cecilia is really coming out of her shell, and she went after my food during the meal! It's the first time she's shown real interest in what we're eating. Saying "no" just made her want it more :).

When we got home, Celia and I took a nap and Ben relaxed. When Celia woke up, Ben watched her so I could get an extra hour to make-up for burning the midnight oil working this weekend and Monday night. Then I went to teach, and when I got back we headed straight to Ben's softball game, and it was bittersweet. It was sad because it will probably be the last game he'll ever play with that team. It was exciting because they won the Fall Ball Championship! Ben wasn't feeling up to snuff since he was sick - but after a rocky start he made some incredible plays in the field. He also batted in some runs and scored a couple of times. It was a little cold and started spitting, but we made it through and put a tired baby right to bed.

Because Ben was sick, we couldn't even give each other a kiss for our anniversary. However, I look forward to many, many, many years of anniversaries and kisses. Love, I am so happy I married you. Thank you for our daughter and all the hopes, joys, trials, and tribulations that make up our life. Thank you for the past 2 years, and I can't wait for the years to come. Happy anniversary!

Conversations with Mommy

Cecilia had a lot to say in this conversation with Mommy. She is working really hard on learning to say words and is experimenting with moving her mouth. If I repeat a word over and over for her, she will study my mouth and then, when I pause, she will try to imitate me. It is a favorite game for her. Right now, she's really close to replicating the various sounds in the word "bath." She may know what the word means, since we do it every night and its a pretty obvious activity - but maybe not.

Thank you Na-naw and Paw-paw!

Cecilia got a new toy from Na-naw and Paw-paw. She hasn't quite figured out that she can use her hands, but her mouth works just as well!

And she sleeps...

The time is finally here! Our baby sleeps - at night! After weeks of difficult nights and days of a sleeping baby, we have hit upon the magic formula to put our baby to bed and keep her there. We do her bath around 8:00 pm. They we dress her in a long-sleeve cloth shirt and a sleep blanket. We turn out all the lights in the apartment, and we feed her. She is getting easier to get to sleep, too. She knows bedtime, and needs less soothing to sleep.

However, she has some funny characteristics when she soothes herself to sleep. Generally, she requires and bouncing, swaying motion accompanied by a variety of songs. We try to chose soothing songs, but occasionally we'll hit on something she very much dislikes. It turns out that "How Great Thou Art" is not one of her favorites. This process to get her to sleep works for naps too. As you sing to her, she will begin to sing along, sometimes chewing on a finger. Eventually, she'll continue singing with her eyes closed until she abruptly stops singing signaling that she's asleep.

Yes, as you may have thought, the process is also adorable. We caught some of it on video while I was putting her down for a nap. It is not my most flattering video, but the baby is too cute to pass up!

Giggles

This tickle game always gets Celia laughing.

The Scream

Cecilia has developed a high-pitched scream that she uses both when she wants something and to amuse herself. She also uses it to let us know what sort of mood she's in. In this video, she was both trying to be funny and letting us know her mouth hurt and she didn't like it. (We gave her some Tylenol later in the night so she could sleep.) We thought we'd share this wonderful, ear-splitting form of communication.

A Great Multitasker

We got a cute video of Cecilia multitasking. Here she is doing 3 of her favorite things: standing, sitting, and chewing on Mommy's finger! No wonder the child has well defined leg muscles!