Catching up

I have not blogged in so long! I feel guilty about not capturing more of Cassidy's milestones. She has been learning and growing so much! She is 16 months old this week and we have much to record here.

Words she knows and says on her own in context:

mama
dada
pappy
mamie (Grammie)
Tait (Kait)
Henny (Henry)
Ted
eat
cheese
peas
bottle
ray-ray (raisins)
bow (hair bow)
ball
dog
duck
hi
bye-bye
binky
blanket
gentle
tickle
sticker
monkey
book
hug
Animal sounds for (horse, dog, cat, cow, sheep)
no
Ok (she says this a lot when she means "yes")
please
Wee!
Yay!
Good girl


Body parts she can point to:
eyes
ears
nose
head
hair
knee
foot
hand
mouth
teeth
belly
belly button


Things she likes to do:
have books read to her
fold toys up in a blanket and carry them around
pretend to put people, animals and toys to bed
play with cell phones and remote controls
empty the contents of purses
go through contents of my wallet
play with the computer/laptop
play with her toys in the bath tub
dance to music on the radio
have the song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" sung to her
walk around the block
Climb up and slide down a slide - she is fearless

She has no concept of or interest in colors or shapes or letters

She can run very fast and climb a lot of stairs

She can stack large blocks in high towers

She can take off her shoes

She helps to clean up books/toys and will hand us objects we ask for

She can turn on the music on her Sound Machine

She is learning to wash herself in the tub

She is learning to wipe her hands and tray off after eating

She wore a kitty cat costume for Halloween

Back, kind of like the Republicans. (but more fun.)

Howdy folks. Sorry it's been a while.

I've been working on this project: www.brightzoo.com

I'm blogging over there in a more "official" capacity. You should check it out because it basically rocks.

So, Cassidy is huge and amazing and talks almost as much as I do, except she is limited to 2 word sentences and is fixated with the words "ball, bow, no, Momma, yay and book."

I am trying to decide what to do with her hair, which is super curly in back and wavy in front and basically in her eyes all the time because her "bow", she likes to THROW whenever possible. Cutting her hair feels like a really big decision. It is so perfect and beautiful. But it's in her little eyeballs. Ugh.

She started "school" recently. She goes to daycare a few times a week and she seems to really like it - she actually cries when I pick her up. I am not sure how I should feel about this.

Baby girl has somehow turned into Little Girl.

How did she get so big and smart, seemingly overnight. She now walks, nay, RUNS. She talks - actual words in context. She can now say dada, momma, no, cheese, bye-bye, hi, hey, uh-oh, hello, duck, dog, gentle, hot, up and hat. She might know the word $hi+. Oops. There was a vegetable tray forgetting incident - realized 40 miles away from home where said veggie tray was sitting peacefully on the counter, so "the word" it just came out...and guess who repeated it? We tried very hard not to laugh.

She loves to take a bunch of things out of something - cards out of a box, blocks out of a bag - and look at each one and throw them all around. She has learned to say "up" when she wants picked up which is very helpful. The alternative is that she tugs on my pants until either they fall down or I pick her up.

She loved the beach when we took her last month. She especially enjoyed the ocean and spending time with lots of people who love her. THere were wagon rides, bike rides (daddy towing her in a bike trailer) and trips to town for ice cream. Good times. A trip to the beach with a one-year-old is not very relaxing but it is still very fun.

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.

Apparently daycare = horrible illnesses

Well, Cass spent her second day at the daycare provided for "emergencies" by Kevin's employer. And like clockwork, just like the last time, 3 days later, she has come down with some virus. Gawd, don't they wash stuff there? She has a fever and yucky diapers and is just miserable. She wants to be held for about 4 seconds, then squirms away and then cries to be held, and the cycle repeats. Ugh.

sometime I feel bad for not posting more often...

...then I remember the baby journal thing my mom had that she recently gave me to check out has about 3-4 entries per year in it up until I'm 3 and then there is about 1 entry every year or two up until about age 8 or 9, and the rest is blank. So slacking for 2 weeks as we near the end of the first year really isn't so bad. I do feel bad about not having that baby scrapbook, though.

Cassidy is growing like a weed and acquiring more words. She repeated a 3 word sentence the other day - not that she knew what it meant or anything, but it was kind of awesome.

She is still not into walking. She will stand for a few seconds, maybe do a slow squat and then plop down into a sitting position. She loves to crawl and does so often and fast. She has figured out she can go faster if she puts whatever she is holding, into her mouth instead of carrying it in her hand. She shouts out things like "ha haha ha" and "wawawawawawa" and "nanananananan." She also yells "nine!" or "nein" which makes her sound German. She is in a stage where she doesn't always like to be held. She struggles to get down so she can be free and explore. She explores electrical outlets, power cords, glass things, sharp edges and anything expensive that breaks easily. She likes to "run" (she really does have this fast crawl/trot thing going on) to the cats' food bowl and grab pieces of cat food. She then picks up the bowl which is ceramic and kind of heavy and throw it. It has, thankfully, not broken.

She enjoys her reflection, which we refer to as "little girl in the mirror" which is kind of creepy. She also enjoys black beans and bananas.