Walking, talking, climbing, oh my!

Little Miss is not so little these days. She is getting so big and has become such a little person. She says so many words and takes 4-5 steps at a time before plopping onto her bottom. She had a wonderful first birthday with a lot of friends and family and a giant hot dog bar with tons of different toppings for food. She loves the pool and is pretty fearless - she even goes under....well, let's say she tolerates me dunking her with minimal trauma. She climbs and knocks stuff down. She throw things and hides things - found my cell phone under couch after 20 frantic minutes of looking.

As for me, juggling everything in my life is challenging. I finally finished grad school (now I have to pay for it, haha.) I am also involved with an exciting project based in NYC where I will actually be paid for writing my observations and confessions. And I'm trying to formalize my consulting stuff (social media and team building services) which is taking up a lot of time and energy. Plus work...you know, my regular full time job. The busy season is coming up and thinking about that makes me feel tired. All of that and watching this little lady grow and change. I am bound and determined to do it all well - I know it's possible even if other people think it's crazy.

Here are a few favorite photos from the last month or so.

Almost 1!

I can't believe we are nearing Cassidy's first birthday!

I haven't been so great at updating this blog. Let's see if we can mention the highlights of that last month or so.

Cassidy started walking this past week. Just a step or two or three here and there from one person to another. She prefers to crawl because it's less scary and faster and more comfortable for her, but she'll take steps when she's in a good mood.

She is talking but only a few word: dadda for everything, mama when she is sad, tired, etc. She says Nigh-nigh when she means "no." She says "uh-oh" about 50 times a day Sometimes in context and sometimes not. She babbles a lot saying "whoa-whoa-whoa" and "oh-oh-oh" for no real apparent reason.

Cassidy loves animals and water. We took her to Idlewild and her favorite was definitely the water rides. She was very brave and rode some of the kiddyland rides, too. We went to the county fair in Butler County and she loved the horses, sheep, pigs, etc.

Cassidy knows to clap if we start to sing "If you're happy and you know it". She dances to the alphabet song when her music table plays it.

She is very interested in cell phones and will grab ours any chance she gets. She also tried to get to the lap top constantly. She holds almost any small object up to her ear and says "Wa-wo?" which means "hello?"

She also loves books. Her current favorites are The Belly Button Book, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Farm Animals Touch/Feel, and Pat the Cat.

Cassidy sleeps from 7:30 or 8pm until 6/7am. We are thrilled about this.