I love it when we're cruising together

As been our tradition since we've been married (except last year when Celia was small and we were lucky to get out to dinner), John and I planned to take a trip over Thanksgiving.  We originally planned to go with just the two of us, but a few weeks before our departure, we decided we couldn't take a full week without seeing Celia.  So we added her to our flight and our cruise and we were off.  We left out of Fort Lauderdale and stopped at Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Bahamas.  Celia was a huge hit on the ship, both with the staff and other passengers.

Buzz like a Bee

Celia was a bee for Halloween.  We went to the NRH Halloween Carnival and trick-or-treated on our street.  She got lots of candy that mom and dad ate :)
We did give her an M&M, but she spit it out.

Our next door neighbor and Celia's friend Aubrey was a bee too!

Catching up on 2010

So as usual, I'm really behind in posting.  Celia is napping so I will try to get in as much as possible and hopefully wrap it up with Christmas 2010!  So many things have happened since I last posted including our first trip to the zoo, Celia's first pony ride, more camping, Halloween and Celia's first cruise!

First pony ride:

A Central Texas tradition, hanging out at Sefcik Hall with dad:

At the zoo.  Celia LOVED the monkeys.

Picked out her own shoes like a big girl.

Camping.  It was really cold this time, but we had fun anyway.

The smartest baby EVER!

So I used to get annoyed when parents, grandparents, people in general went around talking about how smart their kids were.  They would say something the kid did and tell me that the kid was just so smart.  Duh, I would think to myself, kids are like sponges, they are all smart.  They are soaking it all in and learning new things all the time, of course they're smart.  Well I now know what they mean.  Celia is the smartest baby ever!  Just kidding.  But I understand why they say it.  Kids are like sponges and it is so amazing to see how much they actually learn on a daily basis.  She does things and I wonder where they came from.

Like today.  John picked up a box of kleenex.  She gave him the sign for "more" so he put the box in front of her.  She took a kleenex.  She put the kleenex up to her nose, blew in it (really made more of a blowing sound with her mouth, but wiped her nose) and then went and threw the kleenex in the trash.  And not just any trash, but the trash in the kitchen where she had to lift up the lid.

And yesterday.  We were having a snack.  Celia was having nilla wafers and water from her straw cup.  I was having oreos and milk.  I was dunking my oreos in my milk.  Celia starting reaching for my milk so I went and got her a little cup of milk.  So she started dunking her nilla wafers!  It was too cute.

And tonight. A friend and I trade baby clothes (her baby is 6 months older than Celia so I let her borrow the hand-me-downs my other friends gave me that Celia hasn't grown into yet and she lets me borrow the things her daughter has grown out of).  Anyway, she gave me some little sandals and they were sitting on top of the bag.  Celia picked them up and said "shoes."  She says shoes a lot, but I clapped and said "Yay, shoes."  She shook her head no, walked over to me, handed me the shoes, looked at her feet and said "shoes."  It was obvious she wanted me to put the shoes on her so I pulled her into my lap and put the shoes on.  She was so happy!

So there, I told you she was the smartest baby ever!

One-Year Pictures

Happy Birthday Baby!

Celia's first birthday was August 2.  We had a great party at the house with some friends and family.  She loved when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her and she of course loved being the center of attention all day.  She ate lots of strawberry cake (probably more than she should have) and opened lots of presents.

First Flight

I am REALLY behind on posting.  So I'm going to try to do a little catching up.  Back in August Celia took her first trip out of Texas.  We visited our friends Elsa, Frank and Leo in Atlanta.  Celia was great on her first flight.  We stayed in downtown Atlanta and walked to the aquarium, the Children's Museum and CNN.

Entertaining Daddy on the flight:

  

 At the Children's Museum, riding the tractor:

LOVED pushing this cart around!

I think she actually took the cart from this guy.  Or maybe he was trying to take it from her.

 Leo helping Celia out with her paci.

Family pic at the aquarium.

Atlanta had these cool fountains.  So we put Celia in her swimsuit and let her play.  There were a ton of other kids running through them.  She had so much fun and wasn't at all scared.