ice ice baby

Being the second part in our young squire's adventures in the Frozen North:

- Cassidy had a lot of fun climbing the stairs at Grandma Sonnie's and Grandpa Chris'. He also liked chasing Grandma Sonnie while she crawled around.

- He had a great time seeing his Aunt Barb and cousin Sara - they let us stay at their house, and Barb even gave up her bed for us. (Thanks, Barb!)

- Cassidy got tons of presents and toys. His favorite was a half-empty Aquafina water bottle. (He can be seen here "sharing" it with Tigger.) He played with it for days, and it kept him occupied for at least half of the plane flight home. We plan to sell all of his toys and just collect recycling for him from now on.

- We had a fun time visiting Jody and Todd and Raina and Keelee - Keelee was especially excited to meet Cassidy, and gave him a walking tour of their house. We also took Cassidy on his first toboggan ride down the tiny hill to the side of their yard; he was not entirely impressed.

i come from the land of the ice and snow

So we spent a week back in Wisconsin over New Year's seeing friends and family. Faithful Wisconsin readers who we didn't get to see - sorry! It was a fast trip, and there's only so many hours in the day. We still love you all.

Cassidy did really well - he handled the plane flights, the strange environments, the new faces, and the disruptions to his schedule with very little crying or whining (less than Holly and me). He did agree with us that the weather in Wisconsin in January is highly suboptimal, and now has a better appreciation for San Francisco's 50-degree Decembers.

We have lots of photos, so I'll break them into a few installments. In this batch, our young hero can be seen meeting his new friend Tigger, enjoying toys and presents with Grandma Sonnie and Grandpa Chris, and showing his general disdain for winter clothing.

shake your groove thing

Hope you all had lovely Christmas, or Festivus, or Friday, depending on your persuasion.

Holly got Cassidy (and me) a couple of really cool musical presents - a ukelele and a set of maracas. We're both very excited about them and are planning for a jam session.

a very merry christmas and a happy new year let's hope it's a good one without any fear

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Holly and I have had a long-standing Christmas Eve Day tradition of going to a museum and getting Indian food. Last year we missed the museum, since Cassidy was only three weeks old, and I honestly have no idea what we ate.

This year we went out to Golden Gate Park with Grandma Rachel for some time on the swings. (Oh how we love not being buried in snow!) We stopped in at the Botanical Gardens for a snack -- according to the sign, the Gardens are "a museum of nature", so I guess the tradition stands. We got food from Little Delhi on the way home just to make sure.

Cassidy had a great time, and was happy to pose for the camera. He just keeps getting cuter.

blah blah blah

Life continues on for the Young Prince. He's getting bigger, and even cuter, if that's possible. He's able to occasionally stand on his own for a few seconds, and has made some sounds that may or may not be words, depending on who you ask. (His grandmothers are sure that he's speaking complete sentences in perfect Queen's English.)

Jenny and Pete stopped by for a quick visit last weekend; it was great to see them again, and Cassidy got a chance to show them his cool new shoes. He's also been modeling his new bibs pretty frequently; his molars are starting to come in, which causes an incredible torrent of drooling, so it's either bibs or many wardrobe changes every day.

wild horses

Cassidy inherited Freya's rocking horse from her (thanks, Freya!) although he's more interested in using it to balance his toys than in riding on it. He's also been experimenting with wearing shoes - he likes his new slippers that he got from Kim and Sean, but in general he prefers to go au naturel.

He can also be seen here in one of his favorite activities - opening the TV cabinet over and over. Perhaps he'll be an engineer, or a safecracker, or maybe a doorman.

once more with feeling

Here's some more pictures from Cassidy's birthday, thanks to Nancy! Careful observers will note: Holly got to be in a picture with the cake (she's usually on the other side of the camera), Freya was quite willing to help with the unwrapping, Georgia and Cassidy shared a little moment, and Cassidy was impressed with the whole cake concept.