Silly Cecilia

Last night, Cecilia got into the dryer and found a pair of her PJ pants. She then decided to put them on her head and run around. We were not able to resist laughing at her. 

One last visit to the pool

A couple of days ago, before we turned in our keys to the apartment, we took Cecilia back for one last swim in the pool.




She loves her Daddy!





She also loves her Mommy!



Cecilia loved drinking pool water... eww!

First Cecilia got to play in the water with Mommy, doing some kick kick kicking.

Then Daddy helped her jump into the pool on the count of 3.

Finally, she got to float around and kick with Daddy.

Cecilia drinks "champagne"

We got a bottle of champagne from our realtor on the day that we closed and we had been waiting to open it until we were at least semi-moved in and unpacked. So the night before Sue left, we opened the bottle up. We all were doing cheers and Cecilia joined in with her water. Sue and Chad were both pretty surprised that she knew how to do cheers, but I had taught her as it is the only way I can get her to drink her milk sometimes. We missed the first time on video and on the second attempt, Cecilia had a minor melt-down because she wanted a glass like ours. So we got her apple juice in one of Daddy's brandy snifter, which is this video. I promise that it is apple juice that she is drinking, not champagne!

Dennis the Menace Park

As we were leaving Monterey, we decided to stop at Dennis the Menace Park to let Cecilia burn off a little energy before the car ride home. She had mixed feelings about the park. We took her across a suspension bridge that she loved. Then we went to some long, steep, twisty slides. Chad went down first and decided that it was ok for Cecilia to go by herself. Unfortunately, Cecilia's trip down wasn't quite so smooth and she managed to flip onto her stomach and then semi-sideways as she went down. Needless to say, it was not well received. After we got her calmed down, we found a more Cecilia-sized slide to let her go down, which she liked a lot more.






Then we found the red, roller slide. Cecilia rode it with me the first time, to make sure that we weren't going to have a repeat of the first slide experience. Then, we let her go down on her own. I think that if we had let her, she would have been content to just spend the whole time we were at the park on this slide alone.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

On Saturday, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Grandma, Alan, and Gaoder. Cecilia loved seeing all of the fish, getting to touch some new and interesting things, and seeing all of the people there. I definitely think that we will be going back again!


Cecilia got to be held up high by Daddy to see all of the sardines swimming by. What a neat sight!


Later, she got to see some more fish up close. Cecilia seemed to really enjoy putting her hand up to the glass and trying to touch the fish!

Here's a jellyfish. She also liked looking at those. What really strange and beautiful creatures!

Aunt Gaoder, Uncle Alan, Grandma, Mommy, and Cecilia

One of my favorite pictures of the two of us in a while.

Family picture!

Although it looks like Cecilia is diving in to touch things here, Daddy managed to keep a good grip on her while also letting her touch things.

One of Cecilia's favorite things at the Aquarium was getting to touch things in the touch pools! She wasn't always as gentle as she should be, and there were a few times that she took things out of the water that weren't supposed to leave the water, but it all worked out in the end. You can hear and see how excited she is in these videos.





We headed up to the children's play area next and Cecilia had a ball. She got to climb up the stairs to the slide (first video) like a big girl, and then got to slide down all by herself. However, we need to work a little more on how to slide down safely. Cecilia nearly gave us all heart attacks by looking like she was going to fall and/or come down headfirst. Thankfully she got down safely though!


Then we went to the dedicated toddler area and let Cecilia run around. She really liked playing in the water and trying to fit the shapes into the different holes. However, she is still working on why a circle doesn't fit in a square hole and vice versa. :)




More touching seaweed and other things.


One last picture of Cecilia and Daddy. She fell asleep soon after this photo was taken.

Sue's Visit

Sue came out to helps us get ready to move and more importantly, to watch Cecilia the day of the move so that Chad and I could concentrate on just getting stuff done and didn't have to worry about where Cecilia was or what she was getting into.





The night that Sue and Zoey got to California, we met Alan and Gaoder in downtown Mountain View for dinner. Since we had Zoey with us, we ate outside. The video above is of Cecilia saying "ticka ticka ticka" and trying to tickle Zoey. As you can see, Zoey wants nothing to do with this. Cecilia was very intrigued by Zoey and followed her around all week.


Later that night, Cecilia was jamming out to music from Sue's iPhone.







On Thursday, we took Grandma, Zoey, and Daddy to the park with us to play in the water. In all of the times that we have been to the park and played with the water, Daddy had never come with us, so it was nice for him to see what we are always talking about. It was a very nice break from unpacking, and Zoey in particular really enjoyed going to the park and getting to chase some squirrels, after being cooped up in the house most of the week!

In this video, you can see Cecilia saying "bye guys" to a plane, saying "I don't (know)", repeatedly saying "No, no, no", chasing Zoey, and more. It was an eventful trip to the park!

Unity3D Conference

IMVU sent some folks to the Unity3D conference in the city today. It was at the top of nob hill (?), at the Masonic grand lodge temple thing. It was also across the street from a sweet Catholic church. Maybe someday we can go there.

I learned a bit at the conference, but it was mostly focused on art teams. IMVU's UGC isn't a great fit for their pipeline.

Sent from my iPhone

Cecilia eats an apple

Cecilia has learned how to eat an apple, skin and all, in the last few days. This is a video of her eating her apple at lunch today.

I know that we have not been good about updating the blog over the past few weeks. However, I am going to try to get some updates posted soon and hopefully we will have some pictures of the new house to share soon as well!

Moving Day

Moving day began with us packing and eating Amici's pizza at Alan and Gaoder's the night before. Cecilia was apparently STARVING. She furiously shoveled pizza into her mouth. She ate an entire New York slice and a half before declaring "all done".

We went home, resumed packing, and went to sleep. I was packing my computer when I heard Laura yell "Chad! Help!" Laura was covered in mostly undigested pizza and vomit, and Cecilia wasn't quite done yet. I ran around, grabbed some towels, and helped them get in the shower. Then, a dehydrated Cecilia drank a whole bunch of water and promptly vomited it onto the floor. We wouldn't let her drink much water after that, even though she was tearfully crying "Wawa! Wawa!" and pointing at her bottle on the shelf. I let her have a sip and took it away, so her cries turned to "More! More! More!"

After some coaxing, Laura got her to sleep.

Morning comes, Sue and Laura did a little more packing, and the movers arrived. Packing up and loading the truck took three hours, primarily because our apartment was so far from the parking lot. But when moving in, we backed the truck up onto the sidewalk right up to the gate by the lemon tree, and it only took 90 minutes to get everything into the house. The movers were great (albeit pricey), and we'd use them again.

Tonight, Cecilia's stomach still wasn't feeling that great. She kept making gagging sounds, but didn't throw up again. She even ate some mac and cheese without issue. But when we got back to the house, I heard Laura say "Oh no... I think I just heard diarrhea" Sure enough, it was leaking out of her diaper onto her shoes and floor. Laura's trying to clean her up, but we have no idea where anything is. The conversation went something like this:

Laura: "Where is the changing pad?"

Chad: "I don't know!"

Laura: "I need a plastic bag to put the diaper in."

Chad: "Where are they?"

Mom: "Should I start the bath?"

Laura: "Sure"

Mom: "Should I kill the spider in it first?"

Laura: "Where are the towels"?

We desperately unpacked and corrected the situation. However, we noticed that the hardwood floors, that presumably hadn't been mopped since the previous owner lived here four months ago, were turning all of our feet black.

Tomorrow Laura and Sue will get us a little closer to making this place home. :)

Cecilia at 17 months

Cecilia just turned 18 months, so here are a few videos from last month.

Delicious coconut soup!

Alan suggested going to Amarin Thai, and while we'd been there several times, I'd never noticed the coconut soup before! I got duck coconut soup in a young coconut with the coconut meat. :D It was everything I'd hoped it would be.

Cecilia climbing in Zoey's cage...

Our new house

Everyone wants to see our new house, right? Well...you are going to
have to wait a little longer. The house has some termite damage, so we
had to get it fumigated. These are some pictures of the garage (1st
picture) and house (the rest) while it is tented. We will post more
pictures so everyone can actually see the house after the tent comes
off.

Whiskey party!

We got some nice bourbon and scotches to send the interns back to school. Also, note the green one on the left. It's a brandy made of douglas fir cones, and it is NASTY!

Cecilia singing in the car

And Cecilia is ready to move too...

Laura trapped herself in the storage closet :D

Cecilia helping us shop for appliances!

Our fancy dinner

Last night, we went to The Grill in San Jose with Alan and Gaoder. We
had helped our friends out after an accident about 3 weeks ago and as
a thank you for the help they got us gift certificates to one of their
favorite restaurants. So we decided to head down and check it out. We
all thought the food was great (although a little expensive.
Definitely a "special occasion" place!), Cecilia seemed to love being
there and ate like crazy! Also, there were other kids there too, so
she wasn't the only one being a little loud at times!

Eating a burger!

Tonight for dinner, we took Cecilia to Hobee's, a restaurant like Denny's, but better food. First she played and drew circles with Daddy.

Later, she ate a turkey burger. She does not really want us to feed her anymore. She wants to feed herself (as you can see here!)

Squealing at the water

Today, Cecilia and I took Gaoder to the park with us to play. Cecilia loved showing her Aunt Gaoder the water play area, the slide and play-structure, the swings, and the wood chips. While Cecilia was running around in the water area, she was just squealing and giggling and trying to play with the other family in the area with us. The other family was playing "Monkey in the Middle" and Cecilia apparently wanted to be the Monkey! :) Thankfully, the older kids kept an eye out for Cecilia and there were no collisions.

A few videos of Cecilia running around.

Later, Cecilia decided to climb on the frog statues in the water area. She was so happy sitting there!

Aww!

I love the expression on her face here!

Eating a Turkey Leg

On Saturday, we went to Palo Alto for an Art Fair. While we were there, Chad ate a LARGE turkey leg.