Christmas in Missouri

For Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, we were in Missouri with the Swobodas. We were able to decorate the tree with Cecilia, which was great fun - although she had no clue what was going on. She really just wanted to eat the ornaments.


On Christmas Eve, we went and saw Ben's grandma and introduced her to Cecilia. She kept asking how old she was and what her name was, which was to be expected. However, near the end of the visit, she called her Cecilia, which was wonderful to hear. They got along just beautifully, and we had a happy visit together.

Later in the day we went to see Becky sing at Elliott and Becky's church. Cecilia was pretty god throughout and was adored by all - per usual. That evening we bravely took little Cecilia Jo to midnight mass. It was beautiful this year, and Cecilia slept through the whole thing. Poor baby was really tired, even with a late nap. She was a little fussy the next day from being tired. We're not sure if we'll take her (or another baby) to midnight mass again, but it turned out pretty well and we really enjoyed sharing that mass with her, even if she was sleeping. There's something special about the night-time masses, Midnight Mass and Easter Vigil. Maybe it's the sense of anticipation or maybe it's the quiet. Whatever it is, I love those masses, and hopefully we'll be able to continue to bring our children.

On Christmas morning, we got ourselves up and out of bed, and then Cecilia opened her presents with Mommy, Daddy, Na-naw, and Paw-paw. She really doesn't enjoy wrapping paper as much as we had hoped, but she does like bows. We also opened gifts that were sent from Nebraska. Afterward, we ate Christmas breakfast, Ben's favorite meal of the year. Here are the 6 videos from that morning :).







Later in the day, Uncle Elliott, Aunt Becky, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Ashley came over and we all opened presents together. After the baby was in bed, we hung out and played games (not to say the baby didn't wake up ...). It was a wonderful Christmas with Cecilia. We missed everyone who wasn't there, but we were grateful for the people we did have with us. As Tiny Tim says, "God bless us, everyone!"

New Jobs and a Move to Cape Girardeau

Ben and I accepted jobs in Niskayuma, NY as physicists at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. They build the reactors in submarines, so we won't be able to talk much about what we do. :) We'll be moving to the Schenectady, NY area when our clearances go through, which may be about 3 months. In the interim, we'll be staying with Ben's parents in Cape Girardeau, MO. We're moving there this weekend (December 20) and are very grateful for their hospitality.

My sister, Allison, had agreed to move to NY as our nanny, which we are also very grateful for. It's a lot of big changes, and we are excited, scared, nervous, sad, relieved, and thrilled. The map below is a general idea of where we'll be. New York here we come!


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Daddy Playing wtih Cecilia

Daddy can always make our little girl laugh!

Snow Storm 2009

We had the first snow storm of the year in Madison right after Oma left. We actually had a snow thunderstorm, which is very disconcerting. Nothing like thunder and lightened that's not accompanied by the pitter patter of rain. The snow was wet and heavy and several inches on the trees. It was so heavy, that high tree branches were bending nearly to the ground. By the way - they did end up bouncing back, so to speak. We got some video and pictures while the snow was still falling. I think we got about 14 inches and it was a record storm in Wisconsin - which is saying something. From what we hear, it will be the first of many this year. UW and MATC got a snow day, which stinks because I have the day off anyway! Oh well, at least I won't have to change my lesson plans.

Christmas with Oma 2009

Because we were moving to Cape over Christmas, we were not going to see the Nebraska folks for Christmas this year. So, when Oma came to visit at the beginning of December, we had our Christmas with her. She also brought things from Allison and Libby. Cecilia did not have as much fun with the wrapping paper as we thought she would. Actually, she was a little frieghtened. Still, she loved the presents she got from Oma, Aunt Allison, and Aunt Libby and played and played with them.

There are several videos because the spliced together video was too long to upload.

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.