Making Sentences and Making Sense

Since our vacation, Cassidy has started putting words and signs together to make short sentences. This started on vacation when while taking a break from biking to walk through the grocery store, I told Cassidy with words and signs that we were going to shop and then do "more biking".

She looked at me with an inquiring look, and signed and said "more biking".

I said yes and signed and said "more biking".

As I pushed the cart through the store, she continued to babble to herself and sign "more biking." As we biked home, she continued this, so I put together a few more sign combinations that she knows and used them in sentences.

I could practically see the wheels in her little head turning.

I didn't think too much about it until over the past week when suddenly she started saying "Buh-bye Mama." "Buh-bye Saaahhky (Sake)". "Buh-bye Da-ter (Baxter)". "Mama ghee (paint)". "Ni-Ni (night night) Dada." "Hi Mama".

She's been saying "I love you" whenever we say it to her, but this morning she hugged Bilbo goodbye and said "Buh-bye Bilbo. Wuv ooo."

At dinner tonight, Cassidy looked at my painting hanging on the kitchen wall. She babbled on a bit while rolling her eyes back and forth like she was trying to coax the words out of her head, and I caught "mama paint" among the babble. (She doesn't really say paint ... its more of a strange gutteral sound like ghhheee, but I know what it means.)

Watching this stage of development is so amazing! I'm going to strategically place my camera within easy reach to try to catch a "buh-bye Mama" tomorrow morning as she leaves for school!

Summer Break #1 - Gulf Shores

Every summer, daycare is closed for one week in June, and one week in August. For our first summer break, we decided to head to Gulf Shores for a vacation with Nana and Papa. We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo which was very nice even though it was a block off the beach. There was a bit of oil on the beach, but it wasn't horrible. It did leave a nasty residue on my legs after I walked in up to my ankles though.

As it turns out, that didn't matter for us too much because Cassidy HATES the sand. She cried every time we tried to get her to put her feet in it. She barely tolerated it with shoes on, even backing out of it while whining one day when she found she had wandered into a small patch of sand on the pavement while walking.

So we spent our time at the pool.



We brought our bikes along, so we enjoyed several bike rides. With Nana and Papa there to have fun with Cassidy, we were able to have a little time to ourselves including a 12 mile bike ride along the gulf.


Cassidy enjoyed walks with Nana to look for lizards and pick flowers,

making friends with the girls in the condo next door,

and spending time at the park with Nana and Papa almost every day!

She also enjoyed her very own chocolate ice cream cone for the first time. With a little help from daddy to turn the cone and take a lick when things were getting out of control, she managed to keep all of it on her face, and NONE of it on her shirt!

(ironically, I just noticed that she's wearing her ice cream cone shirt in this picture!)

Before our vacation, we had started giving her the occasional piece of chocolate which Jeff and I usually indulge in after dinner. Well, before too long, it became a nightly ritual. And shortly after that, she was asking for "Cccchhaawwccooo" (say this while spitting and sounding german and you'll pronounce it just like Cassidy) first thing in the morning and as soon as we walked in the house from daycare. We've created a monster! She definitely has her daddy's chocolate sweet tooth ... though since the pregnancy, I can't really judge as I've developed quite a sweet tooth as well.

The only problem on vacation was sleep. Cassidy didn't adjust too well to sleeping somewhere besides her own crib and bedroom. Mostly the problem was that we were in the same room with her. Everytime she woke up, she would stand up and cry for us. Letting her cry it out was pretty much an impossibility with us laying in bed 4 feet away. We did try for the first couple nights, which ended up with us in the living room, Jeff laying on the couch, me laying on the loveseat, and by the third night, Nana sitting in the bathroom with the fan on to drown out the noise because she couldn't take the crying anymore.

We tried a new pack n play from walmart since we were using Cassidy's small bassinet/pack n play which she is really too big for in the hopes that she would be comfortable enough to sleep through the night.

Nope.

We tried walks at 4am to get her to sleep after hours of trying to get her back into her pack n play once she had drifted off while holding her only to wake up again upon putting her back in her pack n play.

Nope.

So by the end of the week, Cassidy would begin the night in her pack n play after falling alseep while nebulizing, wake us up crying around 1am, and then spend the rest of the night sleeping while one of us held her. Our last night there, Jeff had headed back to New Orleans for a soccer game, and Cassidy spent the second half of the night in Jeff's spot in the bed.

Hmmm... so much for sleep training.

All of this not sleeping made for naps at unusual times in unusual places,

including heading out for lunch wide awake, cheerfully greeting everyone in the restaurant with smiles and blown kisses, and then passing out on the table before lunch was served.

So we gently moved her to the floor on top of her diaper mat and ate our lunch while laughing hysterically, while wishing I had thought to get the camera out to take a video of her head beginning to nod and then falling forward onto the table.

Surprisingly, even with the disruption in sleep habits, returning home brought us a full night of sleep on night one, 2 hours of crying/sleep training on night two, and sound sleep all night long almost every night after!

We also figured out that she was getting cold at night. Most nights when she did wake up, she would cry until we'd go in by her. She'd then hand us the blanket and lay down for us to cover her back up and go right back to sleep with minimal fussing. We already keep the house at 76 at night, so we decided to buy a couple of toddler sized sleep sacks for her. We put one of these on over a long sleeved onsie, or two piece pajamas plus socks. Since we've started this, she's slept all night, EVERY night!

We had a GREAT time on this vacation!!!! Thank you for joining us Nana and Papa! It was wonderful to have you along, both to spend time with as well as to give us a break from Cassidy so we could have a few moments to ourselves! We can't wait to do it again ... in August?

Proud

Tonight I am proud of myself.

I've been doing some interval workouts since January, including a lot of walkinig, quite a bit of jogging and some sprinting.

But tonight I ran without intervals for the first time in years! I ran a mile and a half (once around my neighborhood) in 15 minute and 33 seconds including quite a sprint at the end as I tried to make it under 16 minutes. I cooled down with a 2 minute walk and then a two minute jog. I'm sure for all you runners out there, a 10 minute mile is no big deal... but for me it's awesome... even for me ten years ago a 10 minute mile was a challenge.

When I got home, I downed 600 mg of ibuprofen and iced both knees, but I FEEL GREAT!
And proud.

Mommy's Night Off

Since I'm not signed up for any volleyball leagues this session, we have agreed that occasionally I should take a night to myself to do whatever I want to. Tonight I painted that huge, intimidating canvas which has been on my easel for months!

I still plan to do some touch up during the day so the light is better and I'll add some more pictures with daylight to give a better representation of the colors. My intention was red tulips, but once I got the background started, I couldn't be swayed from purple which popped into my head once I started painting! Once again, I planned to be more abstract but as soon as I started, I went straight for well defined flowers.

Hmmmm.

Maybe I'll have to start with a smaller canvas to practice "abstract".

Mommy's night off was a good idea with the exception that when Jeff and Cassidy got home, Cassidy went to pieces because she couldn't paint on my canvas with me. She painted with her paints for a little while, and then we let her use my paint brush and paints on some poster board which appeased her until it was bath time. Then she went to pieces over and over again because she wanted to paint more.

Recently, coloring with markers or paints is all she wants to do. Crayons cease to exist in her mind, unless it's for biting the tips off of them.

My little artist!

Happy Father's Day

Jeff's desk at work has become overrun with pictures of Cassidy randomly tacked up to his desk surround; quite the proud daddy he is. So for father's day, I made him a collage of 21 months of Cassidy.

Happy Father's Day, Jeff!

You are a wonderful father and husband!

Painting with a Twist

Two weeks ago, the girls and I went to "Painting with a Twist" in Hammond to paint our own masterpieces! You start with a canvas with an outline drawn on it and an instructor shows you step by step what to paint. She then walks around to give everyone suggestions and answer questions while you are painting. Everyone chooses how closely to follow the instructions and color suggestions given by the instructor, so the paintings can either look very similar, or completely different.

This was my first time painting in a long time ... I guess since I finished my hibiscus painting for our kitchen. It renewed my excitement for painting, and painting with acrylics (so easy to clean up!) so I'm planning to start on my next large canvas sometime very soon.

Mother's Day in Milwaukee

or Mother's Day, we visited Milwaukee for the first time with Cassidy. We were only there for 5 days and our days were packed full of friends and family visiting and stopping by to meet Cassidy. Thank you to all of you who came to visit. We appreciate your coming to us so we could maximize the number of people we had the chance to see.

I also want to thank all of my parent's friends who generously lent a high chair, stroller, and many, many toys for Cassidy to play with while visiting. You made our traveling load so much lighter... thank you!

While in Milwaukee, we also had a chance to have our traditional date night with Jeremy and Jamie! I don't think I have ever laughed that hard before. My voice was hoarse and my ab muscles were actually sore the next day. Thank you friends! We miss you both every day!

Practicing Portraits

My weak point in drawing has always been people ... faces in particular. I've had a lot of trouble with proportions, shading, and mostly just people looking like cartoon characters rather than actual people.

However, I've been practicing ... Pictures from magazines, and especially pictures of babies while I was pregnant. More recently, I've been drawing Cassidy and friends' children.

Here's a look at some of the drawings I'm happy with (along with the photos I worked from)...

I've also done a few pet portraits, including one for a woman who used to work at LSU with me, and a few random drawings of Sake.