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'.