Cassidy's 2nd Christmas

We got to spend time with family and friends, eat good food and visit. Cassidy got tons of gifts, of course, and entertained the family with her silly faces and general antics.

Some updates:

She has so many words, it's hard to count. She knows many animals, body parts, people's names, etc. She talks incessantly and puts 2 words together frequently. She has a set of 52 cards with different things on them and she knows what each of them are - if I put down 6 cards and say "Where is the giraffe" she points right to it.

She can't say the "S" or "Sh" sound so she replaces those with an "H". So, Shayna is Hayna and Santa is Hanta. She loves the idea of "Hanta" and points him out wherever she sees him.

She knows to say please and thank you and is learning to use words to get what she wants - hopefully lessening the whining, which is annoying.

She is very outgoing and independent. She warms up to people quickly and enjoys attention.

She has a funny little dance that she does when catchy music comes on. One of her favorite things to do is to pretend to put her stuffed animals to bed. She covers them with a blanket and pats them and says "Night-night."

Here are some photos from Christmas.

more words

Just popping in to add to Cassidy's word list:

New words in italics, as of 17 months of age - some of these she has known for a while but I forgot about.

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


yeah
home
one
two
"b" (she only knows this letter for some reason.)
apple
turtle
water
milk
more
up
down
done
horse
eye
ear
head
nose
hurt
ouch
help
go
Abby (dog next door)
walk
peek (as in peek-a-boo)
shoe
sock
hat
fish
elbow
bow
bugger! (just something funny she yells)
thank you
swing
doll
shirt
bunny
chair
school
cracker
beans
tofu
grapes
juice
poop
that

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.