cookin'

Recipe for a happy weekend:

1. One bath, followed by froggy bath towel.
2. One beautiful weekend in January. Note lack of snow.
3. Combine:
- One park
- Two parents
- One li'l bear
mix gently until lunchtime
4. Fold in balloon
5. Nap for two hours, or until rested. Sprinkle with puzzle.

6. Next, invert two friends until they are giggling. Add cows, celery and Tilden Park.
7. Let rest until morning.

checkout time in vegas

So we spent a weekend in Las Vegas with Cassidy. It's not the most toddler-friendly city, but he had fun cruising around and riding the monorail. He also liked the flamingos and the fountain at the Flamingo Hotel, and I did my best to encourage him to be an engineer at Hoover Dam. But really, anyplace where he can cuddle up and read seems to work for him.

strike a pose

Happy New Year, everyone!

The holidays are over, the tree is down, and January is here. Nothing to do but brace ourselves for the long months of cold and ice and snow. Oh, wait- we live in California, not Wisconsin. Make that a few weeks of rain, followed by a return to sun and warmth. Hee hee!

As for Cassidy, he's starting to figure out how to work the cute thing, as can be seen here - he's continually practicing this pose where he puts his chin in his hand and gives you a sweet smile. I predict that he's going to be quite the heartbreaker in a few years.

He's also really excited by "scaring" people (seen below), which mostly just means running up to them and saying "boo!" or "ahh!" When we had lots of people around over Christmas, that meant lots of victims for him, but now that it's quieter, he's had to resort to scaring his stuffed animals or the Christmas tree after a few hundred times of scaring me and Holly.

i should have known better

Two is a weird age. Cassidy's definitely not a baby anymore; he wants to be actively doing things, and he can interact with us, and he has very clear wants. But he's not a child yet either, even though he looks like one. Christmas was a good reminder of that.

On Christmas Eve day, we continued our annual museum tradition by going to the Exploratorium. Barb and Sara are in town, and went with us. We thought he'd like it, even though a lot of the exhibits are clearly too old for him, but he didn't really get interested in it. He was more excited by seeing the ducks outside. He did like running around, though, and the fish were cool. In a couple of years we'll take him back and nurture that inner science geek a little more.

Christmas Day was similar; he's still too young to get excited about opening presents. Not only is it not interesting, he's actively opposed to sitting still long enough for it. (I suspect that next year will be a very different story.) The plus is that there wasn't anyone (except me) whining to start opening the presents already. He did like the books that he got, and the toy recycling truck from Grandma Sonnie and Grandpa Chris. Not surprisingly, he had as much fun with the $1.49 box his crayons came in as anything else.

The rest of us made out pretty well also, and had a nice holiday together.

simple

Life seems so simple when you're two. No job, no bills, no chores. On a rainy day, you can practice your piggy face, admire the Christmas tree, race around the dining room table, pretend to feed your stuffed animals, or just have a little cuddle time with Alex the monkey. How cool is that?

how lovely are your branches

So we got our Christmas tree up today. As you can tell from the photos, we're very traditional about how the tree is decorated: sock monkey ornaments are lower, Hello Kitty is up high, dinosaurs are spread out, and the Egyptian cat is at the top, just like it is in those Currier & Ives prints. Now we get to look forward to three weeks of keeping Cassidy from grabbing all these things that look just like toys and are right next to his play area, and also keeping the cats from trying to scale it. I'm thinking about setting up a pool to wager on how long it is before the tree is pulled over and who the culprit is.

We also have some pictures of Cassidy with the stuffed pig his Aunt Barb and Cousin Sara sent him, as well as the very loud car Grandma and Grandpa Brooks sent. Last but not least, we have the pouty face that Cassidy whips out when he feels he's being oppressed - in this case, he wanted Holly to chase him around the kitchen another 800 times.

time in a bottle

Today is officially Cassidy's second birthday - as of 6:47 am, he's officially two years old! Here's a little greatest-hits montage I put together; turn up the volume to hear his song!