Sunny Days

Amazingly we had a beautiful sunny day here yesterday. Yes, in Seattle! Then amazingly it was sunny today too. Woohoo! So after preschool I called up Jeremy and we had a picnic lunch at the park. Cassidy has really grown in her ability to play with other kids. She is not as timid. So she had a great time going down the slide. I realize that I really need to get Keira some shoes for outside now that she's walking. She was all right today hanging out with Mom and Dad, but that won't last long. All afternoon she did laps around living room and upstairs. Any time she would plop down, she would get back up instead of crawling. No more of that baby stuff.

Cassidy Soup for the Soul

I have been feeling a bit down lately, so today I decided I should make some chicken noodle soup. Not from a can, but from the odds and ends of chicken and veggies and stuff I had lying around the fridge. I enlisted the help of Cassidy since Keira was taking a nap. Now it's not so much that I needed her help, but that if I don't have her helping, she's more hurting the process. So I started by chopping up some onion and putting it into the pot. Well, Cassidy thought that was pretty cool. So I chopped celery and carrot, put it into a bowl and then she added them to the pot. Everytime we added a new ingredient I would ask her what was in the soup now. She always knew, and never even forgot the garlic which you couldn't really see. She helped me shred the chicken too, although she ate more than she shred, and finally helped me add pasta. Then I decided we needed hearty bread to go with our soup. So we headed out and got a nice loaf from the bread store (and some scones I can't wait to try). When Daddy got home, Cassidy was happy to tell him about making "Cassidy Soup". She had already told me she didn't like chicken noodle, but she readily attempted to eat her "Cassidy Soup". Well, it's a good thing she had eaten all the chicken earlier. Although Keira happily finished Cassidy's bowl, plus part of my bowl, and a slice of bread!

Keira's walking!

Keira has earned the title of 'walker'. I decided to give it to her on January 21st, 2005. (Sorry it didn't get blogged sooner. But mood dictates some of my writing.) It was easy with Cassidy, she just let go and was off. No more interest in crawling at all. Keira is doing things her way and she still thinks crawling is great fun. So she has been teetering along and then will drop and crawl, so I haven't called it walking. She's still dropping to a crawl quite a bit, but she has made a change. She now walks when holding something in her hand. That to me was worthy of the title 'walker'. Now I just have to start potty training her. LOL!!

All powerful Moms and make-up

It's another two story blog. Sorry, folks, but I don't have the chance to write every day. Besides it makes for interesting titles. :) On Friday Jeremy had an appointment so I had to take Cassidy to school. Things were going well, until we turned a corner and the sun came pouring into the car. Well, Cassidy has no tolerance for sun in her eyes. "Aaahh! You turned the sun on Mom!" Do you know how hard it is to not laugh at that?? "The sun came out from behind the clouds." "No! You turned the sun on!" "I wish I had that power, Cassidy, but I can't turn the sun on." "Yes, you did. You turned the sun on." So perhaps Cassidy is buying into the idea that 'Mom' knows all, sees all, and can yes even control the sun. Let's hope. LOL
Friday night also happens to be 'date night'. When Jeremy and I escape the house of fussing children and hit the town. Usually dinner, as movie times haven't been working out well for us lately. Last night I decided that I should put forth some effort and actually put on make-up. Cassidy was watching me, and I had to answer all the "Why" questions of a toddler. So after awhile (10 minutes of non-stop pleading) I gave Cassidy an old blusher and brush so she could put on make-up too. She did look awful cute with rosy cheeks. All was fine until this morning when she wanted to put on MORE make-up. "No, Cassidy. See, Mommy isn't wearing make-up today. It's a no make-up day." "NO!! I need make-up. It makes me pretty!!" Amazing what kids pick up from a conversation you are just getting through to finish your date preparation.

Life is but a ... stream?

Cassidy has a unique take on song lyrics. For example, "Row, row, row your boat, Life is but a stream." When you think of it, that makes much more sense. Life is a stream for us. Sometimes we run fast, sometimes we bubble along, but always moving. Cassidy is really liking preschool, and I would like to be enjoying my free mornings more, but I keep fighting off whatever colds that Cassidy is bringing home. The change in her schedule has caused more sleep issues, so that Jeremy and I are on edge from lack of sleep. Keira is a wonderful copy cat and learned how to do an ear piercing screaming screech that would make your ears bleed, except our ears are immune thanks to Cassidy. So we are rowing along.

Go Pats!

We had the other Cassidy and her parents over today to watch the playoff game. The New England Patriots thankfully beat the Colts easily so we didn't need to watch the game too closely. The Cassidy's played together very well, and Keira took a nice long nap in the middle of things. It was just a nice day, even if we didn't do a lot. Keira did manage to sneak out about 7 steps, but she is still taking her time. She's not a runner like Cassidy. Perhaps she won't bounce as much either. LOL. Although I doubt it.

Bye-bye

Keira had her year exam the day after her birthday. Is she walking yet? No, but any day. Is she talking yet? No, but she does make sounds. Suddenly I started to feel a little behind. We get home and Cassidy and she start playing. They are working on the puzzle Cassidy got for Christmas. It has fish with magnets that you fish out of the puzzle. Very cute. Keira is sitting there using the rod to dangle the magnet over the fish and pull up the fish from the puzzle. Wait a minute?! That's pretty complex stuff. Then I think back to Christmas when Cassidy got a doll that takes a bottle to stop her crying and I realize that Keira has been giving the doll her bottle. Well, all that walking and talking stuff might be over-rated when you consider my child's problem solving skills. :) Then she surprised us the next day by saying bye-bye and waving back to us when we said bye-bye. She's made the 'buh' sound before, and with babies they usually repeat the sound several times. So I think she's known this one for awhile, but just made it real obvious that she does know what she's talking about. "Bye-bye"

Look at My New Shoes

Jeremy's Mum has a story about when she was a little girl she got a new pair of shoes. Some friends had come over for a visit and she decided to show off her new shoes, and came down wearing her shoes...and nothing else. Today, we picked Cassidy up some rain boots. She has been putting them on and taking them off all by herself this morning. This afternoon we had some friends come over. Remember the other Cassidy?? Well, looks like we're getting along swimmingly. About 5 minutes after they left, Cassidy jumped into the living room wearing her new rain boots...and nothing else. Jeremy and I had quite the laugh, and then another laugh as we recalled his Mum's story. Like Nana, like Cassidy I guess.

Happy Meals

Okay, this is like the 20th blog that mentions McDonald's. I'm not sure what it is, but McDonald's causes Cassidy to say/do the funniest things. I was never the all organic type of Mom, and I don't think I'm too bad when it comes to fast food. Really, whatever it is they put in the food there makes my daughter funny. Look into that FDA! So here it is, the story of the Happy Meal.

We had Keira's 1st year doctor visit today, and after we wanted to run to Target to get Cassidy some slippers for her preschool class (no shoes inside the classroom). So we decided to swing by McDonald's on the way there. Jeremy places the order, "A number 5 meal with diet coke. Chicken Selects. And a Happy Meal with chicken and apple juice." Seems easy enough. Some questions about whether the toy was for a boy or girl, and we were off. As we cruise towards Target Cassidy calls from the backseat, "Mommy, you are having a Mean Meal and Daddy you are having a Sad Meal." Excuse me? Did she just say that? Jeremy, "Is that because you're having a Happy Meal?" "Uh-huh." So beware consumer, only one 'Happy' meal per car. Although I think I like the Mean Meal better than the Sad Meal.

Happy Birthday Keira!

Keira turned one today, but without much ado. We are recovering from colds, and I have it the worst. So no cake, no ice cream, just a rousing hoarse chorus of Happy Birthday at breakfast this morning. Jeremy determined that we should celebrate this weekend when all are feeling better. The big news is that Cassidy started preschool on Monday. When I walked her into the classroom, the teacher prompted Cassidy to say "Goodbye to mommy". Cassidy waved at me and turned her back without looking back. What a trooper! The weather has turned quite cold and her first day we didn't send her with her thick jacket. I wasn't too worried until I was in the parent orientation and found out that they head outside to play, a quick look at my watch and I realized she had been playing outside for 30 minutes. uh-oh. Bu the time I got out of the meeting, it had been 45 minutes in the 30 something day. She was a little ice-pop!! Today she had her jacket and was much happier.

Viva Las Vegas! and Paris?

The whole fam headed into the desert to celebrate Christmas. And I mean the WHOLE fam. Jeremy's parents flew out and we all stayed with my parents at their new digs. I was expecting some warmer weather, but it was chilly (my parents claimed it was a dry cold, lol). On the big day my grandpa (the girls great-grandpa), my aunt and my cousin came in too. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone and watching the girls. My parents sent Jeremy and I along with his parents on a helicopter ride into the grand canyon. It was awesome! http://homepage.mac.com/chrisnoonan/PhotoAlbum45.html
That night Jeremy and I headed into town on our own. We started at Bellagio, which was fantastic, then crossed the street to Paris. We decided to grab some dinner, but had to wait 45 minutes for a table. Well, what are you going to do? So we sat down at some nickel slots. We each put in a dollar, but upon realizing you need $2 to bet all the lines, we put in 20's. Well, I doubled up pretty quick, and Jeremy was steadily losing. 5 minutes had passed. So we cashed out and decided to look for something else to do. That's when I saw it. The Tiki Torch slot machine seemed to be calling my name. We walked over, and Jeremy announced it was a penny slot. Oh. We did a walk around, but I thought no, let's play it anyway. $40 in a penny slot. That should kill another 30 minutes. The credits were in, and I hit bet max. That's when something strange happened. Three little pearls lined up, and there were free spins, and the winnings started adding up as I pressed the automatic spin button, and 'coins' started shooting out of the image on the screen. Jeremy announced I had one $10. Wow. But the thing was still spinning it's free spins, and then I had more free spins, and more coins and Jeremy is laughing in my ear. I hear him say, "$1, $10, $2, $10" He's reading off the winnings from all the lines that won. The next thing I know, we're looking at the winnings count, which is much higher than my credits remaining. In fact, it says over $100. But it's still spinning. I'm just laughing at this point. There was well over $300 by the time it was done. Jeremy asked, "You want to cash out?" I wanted to, but I had only pushed 2 buttons! I made a couple more spins because I felt like I should. And cashed out with $321.50. Not bad for penny slots! We then headed to the gift store, got me a t-shirt, and had a fabulous dinner and still had plenty left over. So if you ever make it to Las Vegas, head to the Paris and find my penny Tiki Torch slots machine. It needs some more deposits for my next trip out!

Going to school?

Cassidy went to her new preschool yesterday for an 'assesment'. She passed with flying colors. But when she walked into the classroom without me, my heart started to break ever so slightly. At least the crack started so that I am going to be very thankful to have Jeremy with me on her first official day, so someone can hand me tissues. It's a great Montessori school, and they have a great playground with a few goats, chickens and a duck. I'm sure Cassidy will have a blast.

Hanging with the Cassidy's

Yesterday was a very rainy day that meant no trips to the park, but we did get in touch with the other Cassidy's parents. They gave us an invite to come over for some food and drink last night along with some of their other friends. Our Cassidy proclaimed, "I want to go to the other Cassidy's house, and I want to go in the wagon, and she will say, 'Wow! You came to my house in a wagon.'" So we decided that was a good way to go since the clouds had finally cleared. All the kids played and seemed to get along well. No screaming fits, and only one person cried because of toy swipping. The parents all hung out in the kitchen and just ate on munchies and had a few drinks. Well, Jeremy had water, and Robyn had 2.5 glasses of wine. It was over several hours, and I didn't feel it until I got home. Thankfully Keira went down easily and Jeremy got Cassidy down without much trouble. We had adult conversation and talked about the kids with them. It was a nice mix. Hostess even pulled out a camera to take pictures of our Cassidy. I'm guessing she wanted proof to show family and friends. When Keira started fussing at 6:30 on the dot (her bedtime) every one was talking about getting together again after the new year. Woohoo!

How to start your own business in one week

Once we moved to Washington we realized why fleece is so popular out here. A) It's cold. B) It rains. We had some problems going for walks with Cassidy though. She would always kick off her blanket and it would fall under stroller getting caught up in wheels or dragged through puddles. Makes it so you don't want to put it on your baby anymore. So I came up with a "sock" to put over her that wouldn't fall off. I was so amazed that I couldn't find what I wanted in the stores. Well, Jeremy and I talked about trying to make it and how we could sell it, etc. Then we were moving into our house and then oops! 'out of commission' for the next year. Well, this fall, I busted out Cassidy's old "sock" for Keira. Again, amazed that no one had put it out there yet. So on Tuesday I whipped up a new and improved version. Which caused Jeremy to REALLY start talking about how to get them on market. I threw out the ever optimistic, "Yeah, but how do you find the place to make them and to do all the stuff that needs to get done?" Well, I threw down the gauntlet and Jeremy took the challenge. We have a web site reserved, a trademark registered, samples coming from fleece and tag companies, pricing for sewing contracts, and packaging options. How did this happen?? I'll post a link and some pictures soon. And I expect everyone to order one for every baby and pregnant woman they know!

Cassidy meet ... Cassidy?

So quite an amazing thing happened just over a week ago, but I keep forgetting to blog it. And when I say quite amazing, I'm not kidding.
I needed to get out of the house, and since the weather was awful, we thought to try McDonald's so Cassidy could play on the playland (see previous blog about when we finally got there). Well, apparently it was an early release day for all the schools, so Mickey D's was like a zoo. We just hit the road and ended up at a park near Jeremy's work. As we headed towards playground a little girl who looked around Cassidy's age, started running towards us. Her Mom said she was excited by the prospect of a playmate. So I prompted them to start conversation and Cassidy said, "I'm Cassidy. What's your name?" The other girl replied, "Cassidy". We looked at her Mom, and she said, "Did she say Cassidy?" "Yes" "Wait, her name is Cassidy too?" "Yes"
Well the Cassidy's started to climb on the equipment and us Mom's got to talking about the girls. How our Cassidy will turn 3 in February. At which the other Mom asked, "What day?" "The 21st" Turns out her Cassidy turns 3 on the 23rd!! Well folks, buckle your seat belts because we're just getting started.
Other Mom, "So where do you live?" "Education Hill" Other Mom, "Yeah..." "Abbey Road subdivision." "Yeah.... We live on 108th" "We live on 110th, which I think turns into 108th if you follow it around." Turns out she has also had a hard time meeting people besides a few neighbors. She also found a similar problem with her neighbors that we have, NOSY! Other things in common: She was on her way to be in her best friends wedding, and I just got back from doing that. I mentioned we were in Hawaii, they were there in April. Her mother lives outside of Boston, just like Jeremy's parents.
We are anxiously awaiting their return so we can get together with them. It's a small world after all.

Cassidy at McDonald's Playland

I was feeling under the weather today, and thankfully Jeremy took the day off of work to take care of his 3 girls. I decided I wanted 'bad' food for lunch so we figured McDonald's would be good. Plus they have an indoor playland so Cassidy could go down slides and generally run around and have fun. We were the first ones there, and Cassidy took awhile to venture in to the tunnels. Then more and more kids started to arrive. At first, Cassidy would just yell, "Daddy" and hope he would chase them away. It seems that she thought that this playland was ALL hers. After several attempts, she finally went in again, and actually played a little bit with some of the other kids. Then a few more seasoned playland 'vetrans' arrived. Well, they could tell Cassidy was a little more timid, so if she was starting to go for the entrance they would race around her and scoot on up before she could make it there. After one boy really cut her off, Cassidy made a disgruntled, "argh!" turned to us and said, "I'm very frustrated!" Then took off and in for one last time down the slide. Needless to say, Jeremy and I were laughing, and I'm pretty sure the other parents were green with envy that our little 'princess' not only put her emotions into words, but had such vocabulary to boot!

Operation: Sleep through the night

After Keira pulled an alarming wake up 3 times in one night, and since Jeremy always brings her in to me if he goes to check on her, we had to come up with a new plan of attack. We decided to go with the 'extinction' method. Sounds hard-core and tough because it is. We knew that Keira could handle it though. So after putting her down for the night, we closed her door, instead of leaving it open like we normally do. That way when she woke up at 2:30 am her screaming wouldn't be too loud for us or her sister. After 5 minutes, all was quiet. Then at 3:30 am, she tried a second attack. This time Jeremy broke down and went in, but he only returned her pacifer and was out of there. About 10 minutes later, all was quiet again. 6:45 am, which has been her too early wake up time the last 2 weeks, which was another reason we decided to stop with the waking up at night, she's sleeping like a baby. Of course, Cassidy woke up then. Keeping our fingers crossed that last night was the worst of it.

Batteries

It's amazing how quickly kids learn. Cassidy understood at about 18 months that if a toy wasn't working, that it probably needed batteries. So it's not surprising, that she tells me when a toy needs batteries. Yet, she surprised me yesterday. She was playing her harmonica and pulled away a little bit so the sound sort of went soft. Suddenly she looked up and said, "Mommy, this needs new batteries." "Really?" She puffed in half-heartedly and the harmonica made a squeally sort of sound. "Yes, it needs batteries."

Mini of Wheats

Cassidy's new favorite cereal is Frosted Mini Wheats. For some reason, she thinks they are called "Mini of Wheats". Which sounds so "My lady would like the Mini of Wheats for her morning meal". She also calls it brek-Fast. After all, when you explain how to pronounce words to a toddler, you catch yourself wondering why it's spelled break fast, but pronounced brekfust.

Thanksgiving went well for us. Jeremy and Keira both woke up with colds. So I thought the day was going to be tougher, but the 2 of them took a nice long nap so Cassidy and I could head out on a walk. That seemed to make the day go smoothly. So much for having time to relax though, as Cassidy was sick the next day and had a fever on Saturday, and Jeremy is still awful sounding.

Giddy-gift-itis

I'm going to be writing the New England Journal of Medicine later today to tell them to look into a disease, Giddy-gift-itis. I know that I have it, and I know it must be genetic as my Mother has it too. I can't count the times my Mom has called me all a titter over some gift that she has just found. Doesn't matter who it's for, but it does seem to be worse if it's for me. Then I have the same problem. I usually blow the greatest gifts for Jeremy by giving him a hint, which he guesses right away! This year I have 2 perfect gifts for him. One that I already told him b/c he guessed it. Jeremy has learned that I do this and now, he is very kind and offers up that he doesn't want to guess. I know he could get it, so that's why he doesn't want a clue. He can be good to me. But really, it is the PERFECT gift. Now let's see if I can hold out until Christmas!