Indoor Skydiving

One of John's friends from work is getting married in July.  While we won't be able to make the wedding in Las Vegas, John was able to help him celebrate at the bachelor party.  The main activity of the day was go indoor skydiving at a place called iFly in the East Bay.  It's surprisingly fun!

Daddy's Race Car

Cassie has learned how to say "Mommy's car" (Prius) and "Daddy's car" (Explorer) and especially enjoys when we let her choose which car to take.  She usually chooses "Daddy's car" because she doesn't get to ride in the Explorer as often, and I think she might be able to see more out of the windows when we're driving.  We recently also introduced her to "Daddy's Race Car."  She hasn't gotten to leave the garage in it yet, but she's had her first taste behind the seat of the Mustang and loves it!  Hopefully she still feels that way in 14 years...

Big Girl Bed

We have achieved a major milestone in toddler development with surprisingly little (or should say NO) fuss at all.  We converted Cassie's crib into a toddler bed by taking off the front rails and replacing them with a partial toddler rail.  She can get in and out on her own and took to it immediately.  We're still crossing our fingers, but her sleep schedule has not been affected at all and she still stays in bed every morning until we come to get her, even if she's already awake.  We bolted all the furniture to the wall (in case of climbing) and installed a baby gate on her door just in case she got out of bed, but she has yet to do so.  Much credit goes to all the pre-work that was done at school where they've been napping out of cribs for several months now.

Cassie's Birthday Party

We had a big birthday bash at our house over the weekend to celebrate Cassie's second birthday.  We had almost 20 kids plus parents and friends at our house to splash in the pool, socialize in the tiki bar, ride Thomas the Tank Engine, and jump around in the bounce house.  It was a crazy fun time!  Several of Cassie's school friends were able to join us as well, which was a special treat.  You can see in the picture that Cassie and Chloe are enjoying juice boxes while visiting with Teacher Lauren and her baby, Jaymie!

Happy Birthday Cassie!

Cassie was born two years ago today.  Wishing our baby an amazing and very happy birthday!

Ponies and Swings

Around our new house in Los Gatos, we have half a dozen parks to choose from either within walking distance or less than a 5 minute drive away.  One of the many benefits of Carrie working part time is that the girls generally have these parks all to themselves on Mondays and Tuesdays.  As a result, Cassie is basically used to having her favorite toys all to herself with no need to ever share.  And her all time favorite is the swings.  We continue to work on the idea of sharing, but 90% of the time there just isn't anybody to share with and she gets to have a great time on the swings by herself.

Another recent development is "ponies."  As you can see in the picture, these are some of the first ever pictures where Cassie has little pigtails.  She refused to have anything on her head for the longest time, be it hair bands, hair clips, hats, whatever.  However, some of the other girls at school have started getting ponytails because everybody's hair is growing longer, so peer pressure influenced Cassie to want the same thing.  She now has 1-3 ponies in at any given time.

Swim Lessons Start

With the weather finally warming up after an unseasonably cold and rainy spring, we are back in the pool.  Temps are actually still a little chilly to be in the main pool with the water temperature usually around 72F, but we can heat the spa to 90F pretty quickly and efficiently.  The spa is perfectly sized for Cassie right now, with space to float on her own, or walk around the seats on the edge.  Carrie has taken on the challenge of teaching Cassie how to swim, which has been a pleasure since Cassie loves the water so much.  She is able to "eggbeater" and tread water on her own briefly, can kick both freestyle and breast stroke, likes to blow bubbles, and has even started enjoying "dunking" her face in the water.

Trains!

Without question, Cassie's #1 favorite interest right now is trains.  She loves the Thomas and Friends train TV show and movies, her favorite clothes all have trains on them, she has dozens of train toys, and many of her activities revolve around trains.  Even her class at school has adopted an entire train curriculum to encourage the interest amongst all the children. 

We had the opportunity to visit the California State train museum in Sacramento a few weekends ago and Cassie got to ride on her very first real train!  She was obviously beside herself with glee throughout the entire experience.  You can see here that we got to play with the steering wheel on one of the cabooses.

Visit to see Lauren and Jaymie

Cassie has had the same primary teacher for most of her time at Google daycare, from 6 to about 20 months.  We really love her teacher, Lauren, and have all gotten to each other really well.  Lauren recently went on maternity leave to have her own daughter, Jaymie.  Although it's been fun getting to know the new teachers and see all the amazing new things they've brought to the room, we do miss Lauren lots.  The plan is that Lauren will be moving with Cassie and the older toddlers to the new young-preschool room in August, so we've tried to stay connected while Lauren's been on leave.  She lives just a few blocks from school, so this is a picture from when John and Cassie stopped in to visit Lauren and the baby after school one day.  Obviously a fun time.

Planting Seeds

It's no secret that we think Google daycare is amazing.  Just one of the many things we like is how they come up with interesting activities for the children that would never cross our minds.  The other day, Cassie's room did a joint activity with another toddler room and planted some seeds that they'll watch grow over the next several weeks.  You can see here that Cassie immediately took to the activity, and really enjoyed scooping dirt into her cup and planting the little seeds.  Seems like all her practice in the sand has paid off!

Cassie Expanding Her Boundaries

As Cassie nears her second birthday in a few weeks, she is experiencing a roller coaster of emotions and feelings.  Toddlerhood has brought with it a great desire to broaden her horizons by seeking new (and more dangerous) adventures, to try everything by "self," to express her opinions more, and to really challenge the limits of her world.  On the flip side, Cassie also has moments where she clings to mom and dad more than she has in her entire life.  We've had the first tears on school dropoffs in over a year recently, and the most time spent snuggling into a shoulder that we can remember.  The picture here however, is her finding new adventures.  At school they have set up a riser next to a big soft mat where the children can take giant leaps and land safely.  It's one of Cassie's favorite things to do now.