Ten Months

Cecily turned ten months on Tuesday, 20 August. Stacey was in town so we got to spend the day with her and Frankie! We met up with them at the Abbot Kinney Intellegentsia and did a little browsing at Firefly Kids. The babies were all over the place at the coffee shop so we ended up meeting up again for dinner in the early evening after naps. We had a really great meal but a super bad dining experience at a restaurant in Manhattan Beach. It was actually laughable!

We got Silly a new, full-size crib this month! It was actually quite an adventure getting it because, apparently, Ikea is re-doing the only crib we wanted/could afford so there was only one left in all of Southern California! We tracked it down though and actually had fun driving to Covina in my brother's car to get it. Silly is adjusting pretty well to sleeping in her new crib but still joins us in bed at some point most nights.

Levi gets up with Cecily every morning (usually around 8:00) while I get some extra sleep all by myself. They usually make coffee and go on a walk and just enjoy some good, old-fashioned daddy-daughter time. I love that they have that time together! I also love the extra sleep. ;)


At ten months, Cecily:

• thinks my eyelashes are hilarious and fun to play with.

• is a sponge and is great at repeating things I do.

• tries to snap her fingers when she sees me snapping mine (she's actually been doing this for ages, but she's getting a little better at mimicking the movement now).

• gives lots of kisses... but not to Daddy. He's scratchy.

• is such an examiner! She loves exploring objects more than most things.

• claps for real now! She loves clapping, and we clap for everything!

• still doesn't crawl, but she's trying!

• is still a music lover. I don't see this ever changing. She'd prefer it if we ALWAYS had music playing.

• can put two hands on the side of the pool while we count to five at swimming lessons.

• is super talkative and cheerful in the mornings.

• notices all the little things. I think this is why she hasn't started crawling or pulling herself up to stand. She doesnt' need to get far to have things to explore.

• sits up on her own!

• sometimes sits up while sleeping in her crib and wakes herself up.

• tugs at her ear and hair while nursing.

• squealshriekscreams a "meow" in response to Gretel.

• HATES having her diaper changed. This is annoying since she used to love it. :\

• loves Yo Gabba Gabba.

Piggie Piggie

^^cecily and piggie piggie taking a nap^^

This week, I'm working on getting Cecily attached to a lovey,  specifically a tiny, soft, pink pig called Piggie Piggie. So far, we're doing really well! Cecily really likes her! Piggie Piggie only comes out for naps and bedtime. We talk to Piggie Piggie and give her kisses. Piggie Piggie always tells Cecily that she's very sleepy and asks if she can sleep next to her. I put her in Cecily's arms while I feed her. She really likes that! She periodically stops nursing to say hello to Piggie Piggie and give her a kiss. It's so sweet. At bedtime, I've been sleeping with Piggie Piggie to get her to smell like me before I start giving her to Cecily at nighttime. My hope in doing all of this is that Cecily will be comforted by her little pig when she stirs at night and soothe herself back into a deeper sleep. Plus, every child needs an inanimate best friend, be it blanket, stuffed animal, doll, toy car, or wooden spoon! I still have my ee-ee, a tattered green blanket that I slept with into my early twenties. I used to joke that I'd take that thing on my honeymoon with me (I did not). Here's hoping that Piggie Piggie turns out to be Silly's first best friend!

35/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Cecily: 45 weeks. "Hello, fountain." We've been waving hello to everrrrything lately. People walking by. Appliances. Gilmore Girls characters on the television. The kitties. Flecks of nothing on the floor. Cecily's an extrovert.

Linking up with Jodi.

34/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Cecily: 44 weeks. Levi and I are referring to this as Cecily's senior portrait. She looks like she's pondering her future behind the bars of her crib. Such a little character. I'm just happy to have a photo that shows her face still and clear. That's a rare occurrence these days! Oh, and by the way, that lump behind her is me sleeping. Levi took this one while I obliviously snoozed this morning.


Linking up with Jodi on Che and Fidel. Every week, Jodi links to a few of her favorite portraits from the previous week. I was thrilled and very flattered to find that she shared Cecily's portrait from last week on her blog over the weekend. :)

33/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Cecily: 43 weeks. Cecily outgrew her Bloom Alma Mini crib at six months. I was pretty irritated by this because we had intended to keep her in there for at least the first year, and we didn't want a full-size crib because we live in a small, one-bedroom apartment. But we have a very tall daughter (99th percentile). Because we couldn't afford another crib at six months, we put the mini crib away and Cecily started sleeping in bed with us. It was all very cozy and sweet, but it was also completely nerve-wracking for me. I wake up every SINGLE time she shifts or moves at all. I've read that breastfeeding hormones make mothers more sensitive to their baby's movements while they're sleeping (some even say that formula-fed babies shouldn't sleep with their parents due to a lack of heightened awareness). And I'm just a paranoid person. Levi and I don't really move in our sleep at all, and we were very very careful, but it was still worrisome for me. Plus, I really missed being able to cuddle with my husband! Or talk to him in bed. Even though I had all these reasons for wanting her in a crib, I got so attached to sleeping next to my sweet baby. I loved looking over and seeing her breathing softly with her little, sweet, full lips parted. I loved seeing her smile and hearing her laugh (she's a sleep laugher, this girl of mine). There's nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby, and sleeping next to mine definitely had its good qualities. But I reached a point where I had had enough. Levi and I decided to put off some other very important financial decisions in order to get Cecily into a new crib. So all that to say, here is my sweet girl asleep in her new crib! Her new, big, GIANT crib next to our GIANT, king size bed in our small bedroom! It's pretty much wall-to-wall furniture in there, and it looks slightly ridiculous, but that's okay. You gotta do what you gotta do. Cecily is doing a great job. She's had two nights and one full day of naps in her new crib. I'm putting her in the crib after she has fallen asleep while nursing just to get her used to it. After awhile, we'll start working on getting her to put herself to sleep again. She was SO good at that before she outgrew the mini crib and her first sleep regression hit. But she likes sleep so she'll get back to a good place. I trust her. I love my sweet girl so much. Seeing her sleep is a cure for any frustrations I experience. It's good for my soul... especially when it's in her own bed. I'm so proud of my Cecily.