The Evolution of Cassandra

I did this post for Avery and thought it was cute to reminisce so I decided to do it for Cassandra as well!

I didn't choose my favorite picture...my criteria was that I could see the sticker and the giraffe was included in the picture (except for 0 months-I didn't do any with the giraffe for some reason!).

So...here is the first year of Cassandra's life:

What is it with month #1 looking nothing like them?!

Wow, baldy!

I think this is when she starts looking more like her Daddy!

Yes, she has a neck!!

First Birthday Bash!

Yesterday was a big day for us.... we got to celebrate a very special birthday! It was time for Cassandra's 1st birthday party!

Gabe's parents were so wonderful and decided to host the party for us since we invited 75 people. We ended up with about 35 showing up (yes I was a little bummed-we had around 60 for Avery's)...the number dwindled the closer the day got due to a lot of illness going around.

Gabe, the girls and I headed to his parents house around 2pm. Cassandra went down for a nap shortly after we got there (and slept through the first half hour of the party!) and we did some decorating and setting up. Gabe and I ran out to get balloons filled and when we got back, my Mom, Aunt, and Dad had shown up already! 

We did a balloon theme for the party-sister loves her balloons! When we got them filled at the store, we knew she would be so excited when she saw them....look how great they look (we had another set of them just like this too!):

And here is her beautiful cake we got (courtesy of Cakes by Karen):

Avery and Cass ready to party (love the faces!):

The very happy birthday girl!

Once everyone got there, we brought out the food-we had the meats catered and did the side dishes ourselves (with our parents' help of course!). Everything turned out delicious!

Cassandra eating some dinner

After we ate, it was time to open presents!

What's inside?

New clothes!

Helping rip the paper

Giving hugs to her new stuffed animal

My sweet girl

Clapping when she was done!

After gifts, we sang! I wasn't sure how she'd react to everyone singing, but she did just fine! Along with the cake, she had her own little cupcake to smash/eat.

This face cracks me up!

Hmmmm...what's this?

I was a little disappointed in the frosting on the cake/cupcake...it was way too hard, so it didn't make a mess like you would like it to do for a 1st birthday. It had the consistency of a fondant frosting, but it was buttercream. It tasted fine, but was just too hard to smash! So that was a little disappointing...I wanted her to put on a good show! At least we let her have a cupcake on her real birthday as well and she did get a little messy!

Too much cake!

Playing with her cupcake!

After cake, people started to head home. We all had a really great time and Cassandra received some wonderful gifts from everyone. Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated with us!

Cassandra was very happy to have all of the balloons home with us....here she is today enjoying them, even though they're deflated!! I'm sure they'll be around until there's nothing left to them!

Twelve Months Old!

Yesterday, our baby girl turned one! What an emotional time for parents...goodbye to the infant, hello to the toddler stage. Even harder when this is your last baby! No more first times for things (which is good and bad depending). And honestly, I think I baby her more than I did Avery-probably my way of holding onto my baby. With Avery I already had her weaned from breastfeeding pretty well at this age and with Cassandra I'm in no rush. She can take her sweet ol' time crawling, walking, etc. I just want to savor these precious moments because they fly by and soon enough, my baby won't be a baby anymore....heck, she isn't one already!

Anyways...on to our monthly updates. She's wearing mostly 9 month clothing, some 12month stuff depending what it is. She's in size 3 diapers for daytime and 4's for overnight.

She's finally consistent in sleeping through the night *insert happy dance* which means I've been getting some decent sleep....well, sort of. I think it takes awhile for your body to adjust to being able to sleep as I still wake up frequently overnight.  Cassandra is still napping twice a day most days. She'll go in spurts of taking only one nap, but then will go back to 2 so who knows.  

She's nursing 4 times a day now-wake up, both naps, and bedtime. I probably should wean her from the naptime ones and start getting her better with the sippy cup, but again, I'm in no rush to cut her off. I'm struggling with what to do on this!

Cassandra's been having 2-3 meals a day depending how our mornings go. Some days it's hectic so she doesn't always get breakfast and others she does. She typically has a snack though if she doesn't get a meal first thing. Some new foods for this month include: broccoli, steak, french fries, pork, baked potato, chicken pot pie, crackers, sausage, eggs, pizza, pancake, pickles, cereal bar, animal crackers. She's just like Avery and loves her fruits and veggies!

Let's see....new things for this month! Her first Christmas! She shrugs her arms as if saying "where is it?" She plays peek-a-boo and covers her eyes with her hands! She has 2 more teeth (4 total now)! Cassandra went from lying down to sitting up! She points at things. She says the "ba" sound for ball, balloon, baby, book. She's crawling on her hands and knees now! Sometimes she goes back to her silly crawl, but she's all over the place! We dropped her crib mattress because she started pulling up to kneel. She also started giving hugs (*love*) and making kissing sounds. Cassandra has signed "more" and "eat". She randomly drank from a straw one day too...guess I'll have to see if she can do it again! She can find your nose and point to it. And one funny thing is that she took Gabe's phone and put it up to her ear and I'm pretty sure she said "Hi!" Too cute (and too smart!)!

Here are her pics!

My faves:

With her "buddy"

And here is a flashback to Avery's 12 month pics!

Happy 1st Birthday, Cassandra!

Today was our baby girl's first birthday! It's so hard to believe! I remember this day like it was yesterday, and to think it was a year ago already is just insane!

I took the day off of work today to spend it with my sweetheart. Even though she doesn't know the difference, I do! It's such a bitter sweet day when your baby turns one. So happy they are growing, happy,and healthy, but at the same time sad to see your baby gone. I had a few moments of tearing up throughout the day, but lots of happy moments too!!

Avery went to daycare like normal. Cassandra ended up taking a really long late morning nap from 11-1!  She got up and we had lunch then it was off to run some errands. We picked up some cupcakes for her birthday treat then went to Babies R Us to buy a shower gift. Then we picked up Avery a littler earlier than normal.  Came home and played until Gabe came home from work.

After dinner, it was time to sing!  This is the face she gave me when she saw the camera come out...silly girl!

Then she broke out a silly smile!

The girls posing before we sang-yep, Cass is mesmorized by the cupcake!

Singing "Happy Birthday":

Cassandra's special cupcake (got it here):

Then the fun began and we let her dig in! She was so excited when we put it in front of her, but wasn't quite sure what to do either!

Then she discovered the frosting and had fun with it! I tried giving her pieces of the cake and she wanted nothing to do with it....just like Avery!

After we got them cleaned up, we let Cassandra open her gift from us.

The girls and I

I was surprised that Cassandra actually was ripping the paper! At Christmas she was clueless and did nothing...but today she was helping!

Checking out her new books:

And her big gift-the Little People Pirate Ship!

We let them play with it a few minutes, then it was off to bed for both of them! It was such a fun, special day!

Happy 1st Birthday Cassandra! We love you so much!!