halloween: a monkey and a princess

halloween 2008 - drew was a great sport putting on his monkey costume (at 6 months old, you really don't know enough to be embarrassed, even when walking around with a squashed banana on your head!). celia could not wait to be a beautiful princess. this was the first year she was actually excited about putting on a costume. we trick or treated with all of her cousins in aunt jacki's neighborhood.

celia turns 3!

can't believe my baby girl is 3!  we had a typical little family party at our house with all of our cousins (which actually adds up to be quite a houseful!) celia was super excited of course, as the girl loves a party! she couldn't make up her mind what kind of a cake she wanted me to make this year, so we ended up with a butterfly. it turned out pretty cute :)

at the end of the night, as I was saying goodbye to everyone, Celia had snuck onto the kitchen island and, unbeknownst to me, began finishing off her birthday cake and stamping up her arms until she looked like a little tattooed woman.  so funny!

paci fairy

Celia turns 3 in a month - high time to get rid of the paci! We decided to write a letter to the 'paci fairy' and put all of her paci's in the mailbox for her to come and get for the new little babies who need them. Even though she is extremely fond of her paci's, Celia did surprisingly well. Had a great time gathering up all of her paci's from their hiding spots,

writing her letter,

and taking to the mailbox.  I was so proud of her! She only had one sad moment when she had to go back out to the mailbox and "see her paci's one more time" - then she leapt into daddy's arms and sobbed (drama!!).  I had a special slumber party with her that first night since I knew that's when she'd be missing her paci the most.

In the morning, she was so excited to run out to the mailbox and see what the fairy had left her (in this case, it was a spongebob balloon, make up kit and a stuffed dog she named 'jackpot').  There were a couple of rough patches after that, but all in all, not as bad as we had thought it would be. Goodbye, paci's!!!!