"Mr. Grinch"

So, this post is not seasonally appropriate, but here is a song Stella learned during the holiday season that we wanted to share...

6 Months Old and Eating Rice Cereal!

When it was time for her first taste of food, Cille knew just what to do...

She really wanted to feed herself, but I insisted that she let me do it...

Stella, however, could not be dissuaded from lending a helping hand...

Such a good eater and a happy helper!

Please note that Cille enjoyed her first meal using her precious bowl from Mrs. Tracy Byrd.  We love this bowl!  It has precious drawings of farm animals on it along with their corresponding French names.  We have a French lesson every time we use it.  Thanks, Mrs. Tracy!

She was obviously overwhelmed by the deliciousness that is rice cereal...

Cille's First Time in the Highchair

A few days before Stella turned 6 months old I began sitting her in the high chair to let her get comfortable with it, knowing that on her 6 month "birthday" we would be trying rice cereal for the first time. Unfortunately, this bright idea slipped my mind for poor Cille until the day before her half-birthday. I did let her try out the chair on the 22nd...

She is so easygoing that she did not need a week of preparation.  She was happy and at home in her new chair right away...

Cille's temperament is truly a gift from God. She is always so content! As long as she can see people, she's happy. She loves to watch older kids and is already trying to imitate what they do. It had been killing her that she couldn't have food yet, so stay tuned for tomorrow's post when she will explore rice cereal for the very first time.

Stella's Backyard Camping Adventure

Daddy always has big plans for our family, and one of his bright ideas over the Christmas break was to take Stella "camping" in the backyard...

She "helped" him pitch the tent.  An hour later they were both exhausted.  Okay, maybe one of them still had a little bit of spark left in her..

She loved the zipper doors...

But naptime in the tent?  Better in theory than in practice...

At bedtime they did make a second attempt at sleeping in the tent. Cille and I got a free pass due to her being an infant. It was a pretty chilly night for South Louisiana, so around 2 a.m. Damon called me from the tent to come rescue them. Seems he had given all his covers to Stella as the temperature plummeted. This resulted in a warm, toasty Stella sleeping like a log spread eagle under a mountain of blankets, and a frostbitten Daddy curled into the fetal position and clutching his shorts and t-shirt tightly around his frozen body in a futile attempt to stay warm. Let's hope our next camping adventure is a little more successful...

Time is CRAWLING by...

This post is a little overdue, like several of the ones that will occur over the next few days. The holidays were a little busy for us, as you may have noticed from our end of the year flurry of posts in December. Anyway, as of a couple of days before Christmas, Cille is crawling!

Stella is always happy to get on the floor with her and give her training tips and techniques to improve her form...

Crawling is so much fun!

On a side note, Cille needs very close supervision while honing her new skill. So far it seems that she is determined to crawl straight for any item left on the floor that she is not allowed to have. Toys with small parts are not our friends these days!

The Mirror Game

I mentioned in an earlier post that one of Cille's favorite games is what I call the "mirror game." This game consists mostly of me holding her while looking in the mirror and acting foolish until she smiles. It cracks her up. I had Damon take a picture of the mirror game in progress...

My Little Helper

I've recently gotten a little more efficient at doing the laundry and I guess it's time to reveal my secret. I hired an assistant...

The only problem is that she refuses to turn things right side out before she folds them...

But she is such a cheerful helper that I don't mind all that much...

Now, if we can only teach Stella how to do dishes...