A Cecilia Potporri

What an amazing time of developmental strides for Cecilia! I posted a couple weeks ago about some new milestones she'd reached, but the list keeps growing. She is exploding with personality and new tricks in the last few weeks - what a delight she is!

She started playing peek-a-boo with us recently. She will hold a blanket in front of her face when we say "hide," and then when she pulls it back down and we shout, "Peek-a-boo!" she has the biggest grin! The funniest thing is when she tries to hide behind something small, like a washcloth, and ends up holding it up so high that her eyes are not actually hidden!

I really do think she is saying her first words - "baba" for baby and "mama" for Mommy. She may also be saying "dada" for Daddy, but it's hard to tell. We went into the Sears portrait studio to pick up our photos the other day, and she saw a picture of baby on the wall and got very excited, swinging her legs and squealing, and sying, "bababababa!" She says it about the baby pictures on our fridge, too.

She has little temper tantrums now, too... much earlier than I remember Caroline having them! If we go inside after being outside, she will cry and cry. The worst is when we go out, and then I realize we need warmer coats, or I need to get something like the key to unlock the storage room... when I go back in with her after such a short time out, she cries as if I have seriously hurt her feelings. And if she can't have Caroline's cup - major meltdown! I am trying to help Caroline learn not to tease her - not to give her the cup one minute but then not let her have it the next minute.

Cecilia's 7th tooth can now be felt with a finger. I could see it there, visible just at the surface of the gum, but now it is really coming through. Hard to believe that at this same age, I had a kid with no teeth at all! Speaking of Caroline's teeth, she had her first trip to the dentist at the beginning of this month, which went great! It was just a check and a bit of tartar removal, bot an actual cleaning yet.

Cecilia is also getting more daring about letting go - she will let go of the furniture and just rest against it, or stand for a split second before she sits down. I have to keep Caroline's cups off her little table, because Cecilia will let go to hold the cup with both hands, and then she will try to tilt it back and drink while standing - which will cause her to fall after a couple seconds!

And she's now crawling oddly... she is using her right leg normally, but often she uses her left foot instead of the knee to push off while crawling. It looks like she's limping (if one could limp while crawling, that is), but she doesn't appear to be having a problem... guess she's just experimenting.

I just realized recently that there are things we need for Cecilia that I hadn't even thought of... I added them to her wish list, which is something I hadn't even thought of doing. She's the second girl, so I always think, "Oh, she doesn't need anything." She's really pushing it on staying in these diapers much longer... and she can't just use Caroline's old diapers, because they have been literally worn to rags! Poor, forgotten second child!

I am sure we're going to encounter some big fun once we put the tree up... I am trying to decide if we'll need to gate it off or what. Obviously I will put soft ornaments on the lower branches. We put up our lights outside today, so the tree will come next. I am sure Cecilia won't know what to think!

Cecilia, I am going to have to stop calling you Bit-Bit soon, because you are not itty-bitty anymore! I noticed this last night as you fell asleep in my arms - you are so long and heavy now!!

ETA: I forgot to mention that she can find her tongue on command - when I ask, "Cecilia, where's your tongue?" she will stick it out and try to grab it. It's very cute. She also has been trying to give kisses... she just opens her mouth and puts it against my face sometimes after I kiss her, or when I say, "Can you give a kiss?" It's amazing how she suddenly seems to be understanding words - she definitely knows the meaning of the words Mommy, Daddy, Caroline (or sister), eat, nurse, bath, tongue... so neat to see how her little brain is picking up on things!