Peanut at first real Halloween

Cecelia's Grandma Jane made her the CUTEST COSTUME EVER this year!!! She was a peanut, as you can see from above adorable pictures. Strangers called out, " Let's get a better look at the peanut!" We trick or treated in Housatonic with our friends and their toddler twins. Cecelia was the youngest candy-seeker out there, as far as I could see. We will have to put her in the outfit again for the entertainment value. She didn't mind wearing it at all, except for the hat. Mom and Dad got some candy out of the venture and she got to stay up an hour late.

More Italia

Here are: fussy and squirmy in Perugia with patient Daddy, in front of the 2,500 year old well that we went deep underground and paid the equivalent of $6 to see. Perugia was my favorite town/city we visited. Very young, hip and fun. Good food, too, which is a necessary prerequisite in my mind.

Then..Erica, Sheela and Cecelia, who stood still long enough to take this photo in front of the beautiful cathedral in Orvieto. She LOVED the piazza in front of the church and spent many fond minutes running through, around and up and down it. Then....Cecelia eating her own little gelato cone. She doesn't get to eat sugary foods at home, but who could deny a child on her first trip to Italy, or any trip to Italy, a taste of gelato.

Belated Italia

I was having camera tranferral issues, so our pics from our October Italy trip are 2+ weeks late. But as they say...So here are some cute ones from, a) lounging with Mom and Dad on the grass opposite the 'Bocca Della Verita', which is near the banks of the Tiber River, and at which one must pay and wait on a long line for the priviliege of sticking one's hand in the mouth. Cecelia didn't care if we were in Rome, Timbuktu, Cleveland or Great Barrington, grass is grass and worth playing on. b) Cecelia unimpressed with the Colliseum, one of the 7 wonders of the world, at the age of 13 months....a sad commentary at our jaded youth of today, don't you think? and c) her car seat, (though the photo looks more like it should be accompanied by a bio, like, " Distinguished author Cecelia 'Chickpea' Clary teaches Infant's Literature at the University of Peanuts. She lives in Housatonic with her parents and doggie Alice." ) She spent quite a lot of time in her car seat in our little Renault, but luckily she had Auntie Erica to entertain and feed her on our long jaunts to Urbino, Perugia, Todi, Gubbio, and San Marino (to see what was so special about it to make it a whole separate country. Turns out, not much.) More photos will be forthcoming.

Grandpas

Bath time lately is in the big bathtub, and it is soooo much more fun than the little kiddy one! We like turning on the shower and splashing mom and dad and falling down repeatedly Grandpa David put Cecelia is a gift bag and lifted her up for a kiss. It is reminiscent of anecdote my dad tells of when his mother, Nana, gave a big wet air kiss to me when I was little (or was it Rachel?) and she or I responded, "Yucky, Nana!"

Here is Cecelia's favorite chair, her new rocking chair from Grandpa Jim and Terry. She crawls into it and rocks, then slides out and does it all over again. Slouchy is her preferred position in it.

First birthday

Here are a couple of pics from the little 1st Birthday party we held for Cecelia on Sunday. Granny Rose is cutting the very rich chocolate cake which Cecelia ate pieces of from nearly every guest. She had certainly never had that much sugar, and we reaped the (ahem) benefits after everyone left and we were left with a whirling dervish in the living room. On her actual birthday she was more mellow, especially after getting blood drawn at the hospital to test for lead levels.

So she is now formally entering her 2nd year of life. Incredible! Her extensive vocabulary you will not find in any traditional English dictionary, but it sounds to me like a combination of, maybe, Turkish? and Xhosa, with a little bit of Hebrew and Gaelic thrown in for cultural color.

Walking and talking

Cecelia has been walking, more confidently every day, for about one month now. She now goes up and scoots down stairs backwards, and climbs down out of bed and off of the couch. As for talking, her babbling sounds more and more like real, recognizable English words lately. It could be our imagination that when I say, "I love you, Cecelia", she responds, "Iruvruuuuu", but she is certainly mimicking us. A budding mimic like her Auntie Rachel! This first pic demonstrates her diva side and the second shows off her bottom teeth and impressive pinching strength on poor Lannie.

Vermont

Well, not the usual image of a bucolic lake scene that Vermont usually conjures up, but...This is Cecelia in the little cabin we rented for a couple of nights up in the woods near Stowe, Vermont. It is just after her bath, and she is a little overtired, hyper and trying to squirm away from me. (I had also spiked up her hair for fun.) The little trip to Vermont was our only real getaway of the summer, but we aren't complaining because our Italy trip with my high school friend Charleen, her husband Tim and their toddler Leo, and our local friend Erica Mielke, is coming up very soon! Today is Labor Day, and I recall that last year on this day I was praying to go into 'labor' with Cecelia, but that didn't happen.

Cute new thing that Cecelia does....when Jim pulls into the driveway, I say, "Who's here?" And she gets excited and giggles and toddles towards the door.