Christmas card efforts and cookies

This is one of nearly one hundred photos JIm and I took in a vain attempt to catch both girls smiling and looking cute for a holiday card.  (we did eventually succeed, or more precisely, my friend Lannie succeeded.  But you will have to wait for your card to see that photo! )  This one here was about the best I could manage.  Most were one baby giggling and the other one facing the opposite direction or about to topple off a chair. 
Here is miss Cecelia decorating Christmas cookies with godmother Shelley.  She got the knack of it after 5 or so cookies and several tablespoons' worth of icing ingestion.  Suffice it to say, there was a lot of running and running and screaming done last night after this activity.
Cecelia waiting for her closeup. Doesn't she look all grown up here?  The 'terrible twos' I had thought was a misnomer, now I am starting to think it is an appropriate label if a few more adjectives were thrown in.  Exhausting, hilarious, adorable, monstrous....

Bath time

October festivals

These are in reverse chronological, as this first one here is from last weekend's Harvest Festival. We had a great time. Cecelia loved the hay maze, above, and fortuneately it cost only one ticket and the ticket taking person lost track of her running out the exit and in the entrance. We spent the afternoon on a beautiful, windy fall day with cousin Eileen and her brood of 3 boys, Eamon, Declan and Seamus (can't tell we are Irish.) Rachel and John and Grandpa David rounded out our group.
Here is the previous weekend with Granny Jane and Far at Hancock Shaker Village. Cecelia didn't quite know to make of all the animals, at least when my camera was operational.
And here is Ms Cheerful playing on the chair. As long as she is well rested and fed and is a mellow pleasure. 7.5 months now and soooooooooooo close to crawling. She does scoot forwards in her own way.. gets her to the staircase, I discovered this afternoon.

Godmother and Fiona's new moves

Sorry this first pic isn't so good of Cecelia, she is constant motion and hard to capture sometimes.  She is seen here playing with her godmother Lannie, and with her horn, birthday present from Grandma Jane and musician Far.  Cecelia is speaking in full sentences these days, saying such profound thoughts as, "I pus baby dow" (I pushed baby down...a comment usually NOT true, though she has her moments), " I poop on the floor" (also not true, thankfully, though she is learning how to go on the potty and is close to getting out of diapers), and, my mother reported hearing yesterday, "What happened there?" 

Fiona is SOOOOO close to crawling.  At the moment she is at the scooting backwards phase that Cecelia went through, and she finds it equally frustrating.  She backs herself under the couch and gets stuck.  Or she sees me and wants to come forward to me, but ends up pushing backwards to the wall. Poor girl.  She is a very happy creature most of the time now.  Definately a mommy's girl, not social and attention-seeking like her older sis.  

Cece Rose's 2nd Birthday and fun with sister

Oops, I didn't notice the birthday girl was picking her nose in this one...it was meant to demonstrate that she and Anya were burying the latter's long suffering brother in pillows.  I had thought we would play lots of fun games in the basement, but that proved to be dark and a little cramped so we moved upstairs to the living room/ piano/ king size bed to jump on, kitchen for ice cream and cupcakes, etc. No pool party because it started to rain at 3, party, sorry, 'Paw-dee' start time. 
I love these shots!  They like to play on the bed together.  Well, Cecelia likes to play on the bed and Fiona likes to smile and Mom likes to help Fiona avoid getting a direct hit on the head from a flying foot or other sharp object.  
We had a good kiddo turnout for the pawdee- 11 all told.  Here are Mateo and Amiel as Cecelia tells them that the little music box with duckies is, in fact, "MINE!!" 

Sorry it's been so long...

This first pic is remarkable mostly for Cecelia's outfit...which was mine in the early 70's. You can best appreciate its polyester quality up close, but this will have to suffice.....Here is Auntie Rachel with Miss Finona. Rachel is now living in Great Barrington and we get to visit all the time.
So our post is going to have to change titles to reflect Fiona's photogenic-ness and general appeal. She is close to crawling now, has scooted backwards a couple of times...almost there!
This is her full on happy smile. She made music with her 'piano' and was pleased with herself. She is such a delight. Much more mellow than Cecelia was/is. She can entertain herself on the floor with toys as long as she isn't too tired or hungry. Much more to follow, I promise. Coming up next: some of Cecelia's newest sentences! full sentences!

MacBook Photo Booth and summer pics

Here is a nifty perk of my MacBook I just discovered, six months after getting the computer. there are also all sorts of effects like a hall of mirrors sort of thing, but I will spare you looking at those.....This is pretty much Cecelia's personality in a nutshell. If the mouth were saying, "NOOOOOOO! MYYYYYY! TUCKEY! (turkey, her favorite lunch food of the moment)" Oh, I forgot, 'WHY?'
Cecelia loves my parents' pool. In fact she got quite upset at me when I drove away from their house today without having had a swim. 'NO, POOOO!!!' (Do you get a sense of her personality?)

Poor Finona. I am not sure what the caption to this photo should be, perhaps I can start a contest among the blog viewers for an appropriate one?

1 year ago, Neck control and backseat driver

Here is Cecelia last July, lecturing her relatives on the various uses of the spoon. (little known fact: it is an effective means of getting the attention of a parent when it comes in contact with a hard surface.)
Here is Fiona's newest trick, along with the turning over from back to front trick, too, of course. She is in a very cute phase at the moment. Chunky, smiley, and noisy. She makes these strange guttural sounds that I have never heard from baby or adult before. sort of like growling.
And here the 2 girls share the wheel. Fiona's interested in whatever her older sister is into, and she is desparately trying to will herself into a standing/ walking position. It must be hard not to be able to keep up!

Yes, I will allow that they are cute.....

Here is Fiona nearly upright. But not enough to prevent her from collapsing forward, which put her in the middle and bottom photo positions, after a rightward turn. Several cute things from Cecelia today: the first is: A girl named Hope watches Cecelia these days for me in the mornings, and Cecelia thinks the name rhymes with poop. So it's, "Bye, bye Hoop!" The second is: I am a swedish fish addict, and picked myself up a bag this afternoon. After Cecelia and I have each had a few fish in the car, I stash the bag in the side compartment on the driver's door of the car. In which car I let Cecelia play when we got home. A few minutes later I realized my mistake and looked out the window to see cecelia stuffing the empty bag back in the compartment with a face full of fish. But she proved to be quite generous. When I said, "Well, can Mommy have a fish?" She dug around in her belly button and handed me a 'fish'.

July 4th, 2007 and 2008

This oldie was taken on July 4th last year. Miss Cecelia trying to pry the grate off of the fireplace. She hasn't tried that trick in ages, now that I think about it. Ah, those were the days. Now she has access to the silverware, to my poor, long suffering laptop, among myriad other un-kid friendly items. I like the hair swirl in front.
And cut to July, 2008. A typical morning or evening in the Clary household. Cecelia hamming it up for the camera, reading Hop on Pop ( a lesser known, early Dr. Seuss work) and refusing the sit in her high chair. Fiona enjoying the toys her sister has given her, I mean, thrown at her.
Closeup of toy playing. I think I have said it before, Fiona is much more interested in toys than her sister was or is. And she is making the funniest noises these days. Let's see what do they sound like? A little like the radio sounds when it goes into 'alert mode', or a tone deaf old lady with no teeth who still wants to sing in church.....I will work on my analogies.

Summer is here...

And the time is right for sisterly bonding. Fiona really can't sit in this position for long. In fact, a few secs after this photo was taken, she started to topple to her right. She is just about turning herself over these days. She is desparate to catch up with her big sis, poor girl! She wants to get up and go and her little legs aren't ready yet. This purple elephant toy is a favorite. She shows more interest in holding toys and objects than Cecelia did, or does. Corduroy is one of Cecelia's faves. Jim and I have it memorized. "Corduroy is a little bear who once lived in the toy department of a big store.....".
Here is Cecelia Rose on the J Bar (from Bousquet Ski Area in the 80's) swing at her great granny Barbara's house yesterday. We were there for her cousin (once removed) Katie's graduation from high school party. The young man standing behind her is Martin, Jim's Uncle Joe's three year old son. He was very kind and shared the swing with Cece. She was not so kind in return and followed him around all afternoon insisting that whatever he happened to be touching was 'My, my...no, MY!!'
Awwwwwwwww......here is Granny Rose and the two girls. Cecelia is the 'I-want-to-be-on-your-lap-too-if-she-is' phase. Fiona just wants her Counting bugs book.

Father's Day and one year ago......

This was late afternoon today in the back yard. Doggie Alice checking out sweet-smelling Fiona here. As you can tell, Fiona is somewhat more chunky and shall we say, 'filled out' than her sister was at the same age. She has prominent big, brown eyes, as you can see in image #3.
Cecelia has a new slide for the yard thanks to our neighbors, and she enjoyed standing on it and walking down the slide. Luckily it is about 2 feet off the ground. Here is her hands on hips, imitating Mommy stance. She is coming out with new words nearly every day now. The last few days the favorite was 'dirty', more like 'durry', usually about feet or clothing. Today she came out with 'shursh', as in 'Where's Mommy?' - 'Shursh' (church).
Aforementioned big brown eyes here. Fiona's new skill is grabbing and holding onto anything in her grabbing radius.

And here is a golden oldie. June 22nd, 2007, in Harvard Yard, Cecelia Rose 9 months old and Fiona hadn't even made herself known yet..........And Baby #2 is now, at 3 months, wearing this dress.

Three months old Fiona and new tricks by Cecelia

This first photo was taken this morning. Cecelia is very cute with her little sister in the mornings when we are all at our freshest. Late afternoons are not our best times. Fiona is looking more like her mommy lately, so they tell me. She is fitting into clothes that her sister couldn't wear until she was 5 or 6 months, and she just turned 3 months on May 27th. I went through a nasty bout of food poisoning this week and Fiona was my faithful, easy companion, satisfied to nap on the couch all day long.
Cecelia's latest trick is putting on her clothes and shoes! She insists, "Idoddit" ( I got it) and manoevers her right foot into the left sneaker, sandal, etc. She does better with dresses.
Here is the little one. She is mellow and smiley, making gurgling noises and charming us all.

Franklin and Mothers Day

Fiona and Mom went to Colorado to visit my Peace Corps friend Linda and her boy Franklin, Fiona's soulmate. They were born on the same day! This pic is Linda's mom and daycare provider, Ann, holding both babies when Linda and I returned from a quick escape to Starbucks. Pic #2 is self-explanatory; Cecelia studying doggies on cuteoverload.com. And pic #3 demonstrates Fiona's not knowing what to make of her funny Grandpa David at our Mothers Day brunch. Spring is here and next time we venture onto the playground I will bring the camera, promise!

Good times (w/ a touch of competition) with cousins

On Saturday we had a great visit from my cousin Eileen and two of her brood, Eamon and Declan. Eamon is six, Declan three. Cecelia was a bit shellshocked for the first hour or so of the visit. Not used to rambunctious boy energy in the house. (or 'sharing' her toys. She showed interest in objects long forgotten as soon as Declan occupied himself with them.) It was traumatic to watch the boys get their turn on the lawn mower, too. And Cecelia thought Mommy's car was HER car. (Her regular mantra these days is, " Mommy, Daddy, baby......MY.")

My favorite of these pics is the last one. Eamon and Cecelia collaborated pretty well on pushing Fiona's stroller, although Eamon had to step widely to avoid colliding with her. The verdict of the day was, we really like playing with cousins.

Daddy and his girls take 2

Fiona is fitting into the clothes her sister wore at 4 or 5 months. (Fiona will be 8 weeks on Wed, April 23.) She is very fond of her older sister, and is starting to smile more often and more clearly for all of us. She turns her head to Cecelia's voice, even when it is raised to a screech.

Cecelia got a bit too much sun yesterday during our visit to Jim's Dad's lake house in Connecticut, unfortuneately, and she was out of sorts this morning. But as you can tell from pictures two and three, she is recovered enough to enjoy a jump in the wheelbarrow, and a try at her new drawing toy. (thanks to cousins Jim and Lisa Brady!!)

Focus on Fiona

People tell me that baby#2 gets, if not ignored, then neglected in the photo taking department. I am trying to prove them wrong, but I don't seem to be toting the camera around as much as I did with Cecelia, it's true. Fiona is already much bigger than her sister was at 6 weeks, more than 11 pounds. And she continues to be a good sleeper, although we think some of her 'good babiness' comes from our ' more relaxed parentness' the second time around. Cecelia is crazy about her little sister, and kisses her constantly, when she is not poking at her eyes and ears and nose and feet and leaning on her belly. We are all very glad it is finally spring, and we took full advantage of the 70 degree temps today to have a family picnic and hike. (sorry no pics of the picnic, didn't bring the camera.... I assure you it was lovely.) We are looking forward to swimsuit weather. Well, the babies are, I personally am not looking forward to the swimsuit part.