Lots of Firsts!

Yeah- so, it's been awhile!  Sorry for the lengthy gap.  November and December, and the beginning of January were insanely busy.  Between holidays, family visits, school vacation...  We've been having lots of adventures, and many firsts: Cecily's first Thanksgiving and Christmas, our first Gingerbread house, Maia's first Bruins game, Cec's first teeth...  The photos below are most recent to longest ago.  I'll try to share some stories, but I know most visitors just want to see the kiddoes!  (And would you believe I don't have a single photo from Christmas???  How is that possible?!)

Cecily is doing fabulously with food!  We've been making all our own, and she certainly seems much more interested in it than Maia was at this age.  (Of course, all this yummy food in her tummy isn't helping her sleep.  It's a great night when she's only up every three hours!!!)  One of her personal favorites is... sweet potato!  (And her big sister is more than happy to finish what she leaves behind.)

The next two photos are from a week or two after Christmas.  Santa brought lots of toys.  What do our kids want to play with?  A paper bag and a box...

Further down in the post we have some photos from Maia's first professional sporting event- a Bruins game.  She LOVED it!  And now loves hockey!  One morning (I hope it was in the morning as she's still wearing her ballerina jammies) she suited up in her bike helmet, grabbed her golf club and a golf ball, and had a lengthy game of floor hockey... with herself...



Daddy and Maia spoiled me by making a delicious birthday cake.  Behold the beautiful Brown Butter Baumkuchen, yum!
So, we love hockey.  We love ballet.  We love tools.  We love make-up.  The lesson learned from this photo... markers are not make-up!  (And yes, it did take a few days for all traces of these gorgeous colors to be gone!)
What to do when faced with more than two weeks of vacation from preschool????  Start with a gingerbread house!  We had a blast making this.  We made the dough, chilled it, rolled it, cut it and shaped it, baked it.  And then the fun really started.  We got to decorate it... with candy.  Maia was in heaven.  Her first exposure (that we know of!) to candy was this past Halloween.  She was delighted to discover even more of it, and also loved getting to create and decorate the house.  (The photos posted in reverse order from what I expected.)


Cec had fun watching the decorating from the floor.

Cecily has been aware of our kitty, Maddy, for a while now.  She loves watching her, and would that she could crawl, I know she would be after her at all times.  Soon!  It's only been in the last month or two that she's become aware of Gritty, however.  She's a huge fan!  She loves to watch him, pet him, and even snuggle with him.  Grittster is pretty amazing and patient with her, most likely due to the insane number of Cheerios she feeds him on a regular basis.  And there's also the fact that she laughs hysterically when he licks her hands, making us all laugh and permit what would otherwise be a big no-no.  (Have no fear, we sanitize her chubby little hands before they touch anything!)  Here is a great series of photos of our beautiful girls and our beautiful dog:









And here are the photos from the Bruins game.  It was a Saturday, and Dad and Maia took the train into the city.  Maia adored the train ride, and couldn't believe that the day got better.  She sat through the entire second and third periods, and left with the thrill of a victory.  She keeps asking Daddy when he'll take her to another game.  (I'm sure the gigantic ice cream sundae she had while waiting for the train home has nothing to do with her love for the sport!)


A week before the hockey game, I took Maia to see The Nutcracker!  I've been looking forward to getting to do this since the day we found out Maia was a girl.  Nonni took me to see it when I was little, and I couldn't wait to get to do it with my own little girl.  We got the music and some books ahead of time so that Maia would understand the story.  Nonni, however, gets the gold star for getting her a book and paper dolls of the story.  She and Maia spent untold hours playing Nutcracker over Thanksgiving.  And Maia knew the story in and out, complete with the name of each and every dancer during the Land of Sweets.  We had a wonderful time!!!  Sadly, Mommy was so excited that I left the camera at home and didn't get any photos of us on our big girl adventure.  Next year!

We had the excitement of Cecily's first snow storm!  She thought it was pretty cool, though she mostly loved watching the big kids play in it.  Maia LOVED it.  She could barely contain herself as she got suited up in her snowpants and boots and all that cold weather gear.  She spent hours outside, only finally coming in when she was freezing and knew hot cocoa would be waiting.


One of the perks of Maia's vacation was that she got to go to our Friday playgroup.  She had a wonderful time catching up with old friends, and enjoying an impromptu dance party:
Here are a bazillion photos of Cecily.  She's growing up way too fast!  I need my baby to stay a baby for a while longer!!!!








Cecily and I were able to visit Maia's school for a sing-a-long just before the vacation.  The video is below, and here's Maia so excited to have us in her classroom:
Goofy girls at mealtime:

Maia scrutinizing the Christmas trees:
I had a great time taking photos of the girls to use for our holiday card.  Here is the winner, followed by some other potentials (the one of Cec in the high chair posted out of order, but is too cute to delete):



The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Cec now gets crazily excited when she sees a Starbucks cup.  She'll literally try to leap out of my arms to reach one:

And finally, the backpack is back!  Cecily loves it, and Mommy is hoping to be back in shape to hike this summer!

Happy New Year!  Here's to a happy and healthy 2009, filled with adventures and many wonderful stories.