Carrot!

So we went to the public market on Saturday and we passed a booth selling these huge carrots. It was like 5 of them for $1 or something crazy. Avery was screaming for one so Gabe went over and bought just 1 carrot....Lord knows we don't need 5 of them!

When we got home, he peeled it for her and girlfriend went to town!  The thing is huge I tell ya!

And no, she didn't eat the whole thing! We still have it in the fridge (which is why we didn't need 5 of them!)

Pasta Please!

Someone decided that she likes pasta!

Fifteen Months Old!

Baby girl Cass turned fifteen months old yesterday!

She's still in 9 or 12 month clothing these days. She's just a peanut! She had her doctor's appointment Monday and she's only 28.25" long (Avery was 31" at this age) and she's 18lb 10.5oz! She's only in the 5th percentile for both...yep, a little peanut! And I love it!

Cassandra is still a good sleeper at night-11-12 hours typically. She's down to just one nap now. Usually it ranges from 1-3 hours! I'd say most of the time it's about a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.

 She's only nursing once at bedtime now. I did start mixing in whole milk a few weeks ago and she's doing just fine with the transition like Avery did, which is a relief!

Cassandra is still a great eater. The only new thing I can think of that she tried this month is hummus. And she loved it! Honestly, she'll try anything you put in front of her!

My girls were both early talkers and Cassandra is picking up words left and right. Some new ones this month: "Mommy" (instead of Mama), ""wa" (walk), "pretty", "egg", "yellow", "flower", "bay bo" (belly button), "cookie", "doctor", "Doda" (Dora). Some new animal sounds this month: "Neigh", "woof", "baa", "moo" and an elephant sound. She also started signing "please".

Also this month, Cassandra got 4 teeth...bringing her up to 9 total (Avery had 16 by now!). Poor Cass cut 5 of them at once-I felt so bad for her-it has to hurt!  Another first-she pooped in the bath! Avery did it once but she was an itty-bitty baby when it happened. So it's funny that Cass just did it now for the first time!  She has also been standing by herself and can go from a squat to standing!  She loves walking while we hold her hands. If you are carrying her and try to set her down, she says "wa" (walk) and stiffens her legs so she can walk! Too funny!  She is obsessed with belly buttons and always has to see them! She has started trying to use a fork now. She has done it a few times by herself which is great! And on Monday morning, Cass took 2 steps all by herself!  We might have a walker on our hands soon! Uh oh!

I took her photos a day early because I had to work yesterday. Here's what we got:

Hi Avery!

Hugging the giraffe:

Falling over because she got the chair rocking really fast!

With her fave bear "buddy"

This is how she is a LOT lately....sucking one thumb and twirling her hair with the other hand. It's so.freaking.cute!

Happy girl:

Yay!!

Flashback: Avery at fifteen months

Green Thumb?

Every time I've been grocery shopping over the past few months, I've been tempted to buy a mini garden kit for kids. I've seen them every week at the store and for some reason never picked one up.  This past weekend, they had them on clearance so I thought "what the heck" and got one. I figured it would be something fun for Avery and I to do and something she would enjoy over the next few months.

They had a decent selection of things to grow....fly traps, strawberry plants, daisies, "fairy" flowers, etc. I decided on the strawberries since my kids love their fruit!  I showed it to Avery when I got home and she was very excited about it.

Of course when she woke up this morning, the first thing out of her mouth was, "can we plant our strawberries?"

So, I got the baby strapped her high chair to eat breakfast and while she ate, Avery and I got to planting. They included everything you needed-the "germination disk", container and seeds.  We got the dirt all ready to go...

...then added the seeds, buried them a little bit and put the lid back on. 

Don't you love the PJ's and mess of hair?! Yikes!

Then to the window sill they went!  Avery sat right by them and said, "I'm going to watch them grow!" Poor kid would be sitting there a long time!  I'm hoping we get something out of this...she would get such a kick out of it if we do get some berries!! Here's to hoping!

New Games

We've had a few random new games around here lately....

Avery went through a phase for about 3 days of having us pretend to sleep. And the funny thing? Cassandra played along too! It cracks me up!

Then they both wanted to go in the pack n' play for awhile....

And Cassandra really wanted to play in the cupboards. So I showed her the "safe" cupboard where all of their dishes are and she loved it!

34

Yesterday was my birthday-I'm officially 34 now (holycrapwherehasthetimegone?)!

I'm officially at the stage where when someone asks how old I am, I have to really think before I answer-my age doesn't roll off my tongue like it used to. And seriously, when did I turn 34?! Wow....some things just throw you for a loop. Like when people mention the 90's and you realize it was 20 years ago...yeah 20! How is that possible? And another thing is that I now remember my parents being my age. When they were 34, I was 9-so I remember them at my age which just seems weird! And I digress....

It was a good day....

The girls and I went to a local play place for the first time. The weather outside was not good at all so we had to find something indoors to do. So we went there for about 2 hours in the morning. The kids had a ball-Avery was all over everything and Cassandra spent a lot of time just scoping the place out. Most of the stuff was too big for her, but she did have fun!

Then we came home and the kids had lunch and went down for rest time. I took the time to do absolutely nothing-which was wonderful! I watched a show on TV, read a little and just relaxed. Perfection!

After naps, we actually went back to the play place (they let you return if you keep on your bracelet which is cool) for another hour. This time it was just us and one other girl! It was really nice! I actually climbed on some stuff with Cassandra so she could partake in the fun. It was a good time!

We came home and got dinner started-steak, baked potatoes and broccoli.  Gabe brought home some cupcakes for dessert so after dinner they sang to me.  I also opened up my presents-2 new belts and an iPhone 5! Nice!!

The kids went to bed shortly after and Gabe and I just relaxed-we watched a show together then went to bed shortly after.

Nothing over the top, but  my kind of day!  Avery kept asking me all day when my party was....sorry kid, but when you get older, you just don't have parties! This was just a perfect day for me!

My Girls

Just some cute pics of my lovelies over the past few days for ya!

Cassandra enjoyed some blueberries and made quite a mess!

We did a girls tea yesterday, which was a lot of fun! Avery picked out her outfit all by herself-a nice dress with sweater, black leggings and her Jordans....girl has her own sense of style that's for sure! But tell me how adorable she looks!

This little girl melts my heart....

she used to just suck her thumb when she was tired. Now it's all of the time! And within the past few weeks she has added in the hair twirling with the opposite hand. It's just too darn cute!

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Dip

There is a recipe going around like wild fire on facebook/pinterest these days. Of course it caught my eye because it's peanut butter....and cookie dough. Bonus! 

When we went to our friends' house a few weeks back, she actually made it and it was delicious so of course I had to investigate  the recipe. After looking at it, it looked familiar. You might remember this recipe from way back when. Well, it's basically that exact recipe with some peanut butter and peanut butter cups added in. Exactly the same!

I have a get together to go to tomorrow so I made it to bring along!  Looks and tastes good so far-just from licking the spoon!

So if you want to make this, just make the old recipe and add in some peanut butter (probably 1/3 cup) and some peanut butter cups (as much as you like-I did about 1/3 cup). I served it with some mini graham crackers and pretzels!

Easter Weekend

We had a very nice Easter weekend!

Saturday was my Mom's birthday (and my late Grandmother's too!) and Sunday was my Aunt's birthday so on Saturday we went to Buffalo to celebrate some birthdays!

My Mom and Aunt made us a yummy lunch/dinner and we just hung out with the kids!

Cassandra and Nama

I brought out cupcakes for our dessert (and they were delicious) and of course we had to sing!

Singing to Nama

Avery all dressed up

Everyone playing

Sunday was Easter. Avery woke up to a note from the Easter Bunny saying he hid some eggs and their baskets for them. So of course it was the first thing we did!

Avery found most of the eggs first then was on a mission to find her basket. It took her quite awhile (we found Cassandra's and mine first), but she finally found it in one of the cupboards!

Cassandra and her basket
 

Then we got the kids dressed to go to my in-laws' house for brunch. Cassandra of course dressed up:

but Avery wanted nothing to do with dressing up. She told me, "Mommy, I wore a dress yesterday." This coming from a child who went through a phase of wearing a dress everyday a few months back!

So we went to my in-laws' and had a delicious brunch. After, we did an egg hunt for the kids and then they got their baskets from Pa and Grandma:

We stayed until about 5pm so we were there most of the day. The kids had a ball of course so it was a really nice holiday! Happy Easter!