Monitor Mischief

This is what my daughter does when she is supposed to be napping.  I swear she is groggy and tired eyed when I put her in there.  But...she just has the urge to sing! She can't help it.

A medley of songs from story time! 

 Too much Mary Poppins.

Long Time, No See and Lego Santa. Plus Floating Lanterns.

I feel like it's been forever since I posted.  A lot of fun things have been happening, and of course I have pictures of everything...but I am far too lazy to recap it all.

We saw Santa today. Cass was a little scared at first, but ended up taking a picture with him.  Mostly she just wanted the coloring book and crayons.  Our Santa visit took place at The Henry Ford, so afterward (there was no line, so the whole visit took all of 5 minutes) we hung around for a while and looked at other things.  We quickly passed through the Lego exhibit to get to the the Lego playing room.  Fun stuff.

"That's not Santa, Mommy!"

Thanksgiving weekend we went up North and my husband surprised me with an early birthday present.  He had bought a bunch of large, floating "wishing"  lanterns to commemorate my upcoming birthday.  It was quite fun, and a unique way to celebrate.  Love him!

Of course, my kid was terrified when one veered off course into a tree.  It looked like the tree was ablaze, but after we (well, not me) knocked it down with snowballs, we quickly realized the tree was never in any danger.  The small wax square that is lit on fire to propel the lantern was simply still burning.

Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving

Man, am I thankful. I honestly have an amazing life. I don't even understand why I am so lucky. It's humbling. I want to shout, "God is good!", but I don't talk like that. So, I'll settle for, "my life is amazing!"

Thanksgiving feast this afternoon with my mother. My amazing husband should be home from work momentarily, baby will be waking from nap, and eating will soon commence! My only turkey day food foray this year is a green bean casserole. That's all I'm responsible for. Another blessing! :)

Not a fan of posting pictures of myself, but this one that my darling daughter took of me earlier captures my mood.

Treasures From My Youth

Recently, with more than a little help from my step-mom, I cleaned out my basement. I found an innumerable number of treasures - including a hand knitted, yellow sweater with the monogram, "Tracy."

Tracy was my given middle name. I changed my middle name to my maiden name and ditched the Tracy when I married, but I used to love it.

When I was about 3 years old I went through a stage where I wanted everyone to call me Tracy. I've heard stories from my mother and seen the evidence. One time, she told me, she came to pick me up from Sunday School after her church service, and the director said there was no one there by my name. When she pointed to me, the woman said, "She told me her name was Tracy!"

Another instance of my Tracy fixation is evidenced by an old newspaper photo of me and several other children. I'm standing there smiling, holding up a holiday coloring sheet from the local grocery store.  I assume I must have colored it better than any other 3 year old.  Although, I'm surrounded by other kids holding up their own, so maybe not? Regardless, my drawing and I were asked to be in the photo.

Below the picture is a list of the participant's names, and I am listed as "Tracy MyLastname." Ha ha!

I guess I was going through an early identity crisis or something. I still love that yellow sweater. So glad I found it.

Michigan for Obama!

I am fervently praying (I doubt God gets involved in the presidential election of the good 'ole USA, but still) that Obama wins by a landslide.

Most polling indicates a very close race (which is unbelievable, in my opinion), but I have a hard time trusting the polls.  I'm no statistician, but the sample sizes seem way too small to truly reflect anything.  I think the methodology that many pollsters are still using is arcane.  Gallup is especially fishy right now.  They have a history of being wrong when they are such an outlier, and thus are very hard to trust at this time.  I also don't see how even the best methodology and formula tweaking can account for the fact that there is no proof of the veracity of the respondents.  If Obama wins by a lot, then it will be interesting to see how polls are weighted in the next election.    

I also feel the media is hyping polls (these arcane things with no certainty of truthfulness in respondents), in order to keep public interest up.  A random poll coming from a random polling company will get a headline if they are enough of an outlier.  Why? It sells. 

After my desire for Obama to win big on a national level, comes my desire for him to win Michigan.  Even the polls, those ridiculous things, indicate he has Michigan in hand.  But again...I don't trust the polls.  

I've got to stay away from the news, because it's not even really news.  It's spin - from both sides.  The truth will only be known after all the votes are counted.  

So, please God, let Obama win, and please, please, please don't let anyone tamper with this election.  I'm not sure if I'm paranoid or if it is a real possibility, but I am fearful of interference. 

Rainy Day Fun

As Sandy pummels the East Coast, we just have a typical rainy and windy day to contend with. Cassie got these awesome foam letters and numbers for her birthday and we finally pulled them out.

Rainy day success!!

ETA: In retrospect, it seems wrong to have been enjoying our rainy day while Sandy wreaked havoc. What a horrible storm.  

Visiting Daddy at the Hospital

She has so much fun visiting her dad at work, that I wouldn't be surprised if she went into microbiology or another hospital based profession.

Library Story Time at Henry Ford Centennial Library

Every week we attend story time at the library. Cassie's age group is 2-3 year olds and it's usually quite packed.

First, they do a craft (today was a toilet paper roll mummy), then we go into the special story time room for songs, exercise/dancing, story telling, and other educational games.

Honestly, it is really fun and really well taught. My little girl gets a bit shy and usually just participates while sitting on my lap, or at least very, very close to me. Afterwards, she talks about it for hours. She'll say, "we did the hokey pokey!", even though she just nervously stood by me as I tried to get her to do the moves like she does at home.

I think her nerves come from limited interaction with large groups of children. She is friendly and has cousins and friends to play with, but she does not go to daycare, so she doesn't get that type of socialization.

I feel the weekly story time is very important for her social development. As long as she is potty trained, we plan on putting her in pre-school within the next 10 months, so story time is a great precursor to that.

I had to laugh today when she pulled out a book and sat down to "read" by herself after today's session.

Ava Gardner

Well, we have a new member of our family. Her name is Ava Gardner (she came with that moniker, and I quite like it), and she is a 2 and a half year old pit bull mix. Her life story is not well known, considering she can't speak and was found as a stray. She is gentle, sweet, and very loving. We are so happy to have her!

Neither my husband or I expected to get another dog this soon, but the opportunity presented itself and it just felt right. So there ya go.

Cassie's Very Cold Clubhouse (and a very, merry Mickey birthday party)

When I left the hospital on October 8, 2010 with my newborn baby daughter, I was shocked to find that it was warm out.  I don't remember the exact temperature, but it was in the 70's.  Lovely.

Last year, for my daughter's first birthday party, I bought her a cute sweater dress and leggings to wear.  The day of the party dawned and she instead wore a sleeveless summer dress to match the 80 degree weather.

I knew it would not be that warm this year, but I was cautiously hoping for 60's and sunny.  See, our house is kinda small.  And our combined immediate family totals 20 or so people.  Add on friends and their children and we would be pushing at the seems of our abode.

We have a nice little backyard and a great garage, so the plan was to have a Mickey Mouse themed party and make a little "Cassie's Clubhouse" in the garage.  We would put up a few canopies, set out the slide and playhouse, tables, chairs, etc.  Add a few cheap Mickey decorations and you have a party waiting to happen.  But not if it's freezing out.  Because that would suck.

Unfortunately, it was freezing out.  The adorable Minnie Mouse dress, gifted to Cassie by my late Aunt Linda, was covered by a jacket and we went through innumerable pots of coffee as everyone tried to keep warm.  It's honestly only comfortable for approx. 10 people to even be in the common areas of my house at once.  So, outside we went!

Luckily, the menu included warm pizza, so the cold salads sat uneaten as we all tried to keep ourselves warm with carbs.  I didn't even get out the ice cream (although a few individuals still had some...teeth chattering or no, some folks just need ice cream with their cake) to accompany the M&M covered cake.

I was bummed that the weather was poor, but my brother-in-law pointed out that the adults didn't mind and the kids didn't notice.  He is right.  I think the kids had a blast despite the chill in the air.  I hope everyone did! A friend mentioned that even with the perfect weather, it's the people that make the party.  Another truism.  Had it been bright, sunny and warm, but lacking in friends and family, it would have been a lot less fun.

Of course I was running around too much and forgot to take many pictures.  Below are a few for posterity's sake!

("My name is Mickey Mouse and I approve this party.")

Stranger Anger

Have you ever been unaccountably pissed off by a stranger's bad attitude? You know you will never see them again, so the anger serves literally zero purpose. Yet...it still festers.

Today mine was aimed at the crabby, rude cashier at Target. I worked in customer service for so many years, including as a cashier and student fundraiser (i.e. telemarketer), that I always make it a point to be extra polite and say thank you. I don't forget. I don't slip up. I am always on my best behavior.

On the flip side, as a customer service employee I never took my bad day or unhappiness out on customers.

So, when confronted with a super rude cashier today, I honestly almost lost my sh*t on her. No lie. I had my polite toddler with me who was saying, "thank you very much," before it was even our turn. And when it was our turn, she just sat there quietly. No whining, crying, or throwing toddler tantrums. There was honestly no reason for the cashier to be a jerk to us.

As I was driving home I was ruminating on the things I wish I had said to her and seething with anger. I had been so surprised by her rudeness I had settled for storming away in a huff (thus forgetting my milk and having to storm back and angrily mutter, "oh thank you so much!"), and saying loudly, "don't worry, Cassie. Mommy will teach you how not to be rude even when you are having a bad day." ugh. Not my finest moment.

By the time I got home I was still mad at her. This nameless lady who I wouldn't even recognize even if I ever did see her again.

This brought on the realization that I may have been acting like a bigger jerk than she was. Oops.

So, I had to let it go. I still wish I had some witty rejoinder to her rudeness, but next time I think I'll settle with just ignoring the rudeness. That way I don't have to be so disappointed in my own behavior as well as that of said jerk.

Taste the rainbow

It's much cheaper to buy a mixed bag of m&m's over buying the colors individually. We are talking $10.99/lb. for the individual colors, versus $3.99/lb. for the mixed bunch.

That being said, I went ahead and bought all my colors separately at $10.99 a pound. I had literally just finished telling my husband that I felt stupid for letting my laziness get in the way of saving a few bucks, when I went to show him my nicely separated, colorful m&m's.

I picked up the bag of green ones and...yeah. Let's just say I returned every one. And I couldn't even find my receipt. They took them.

You don't want to know why, do you? Nah. I wouldn't want anyone else to have to throw up in their mouth like I did.

So, now I sit here separating m&m's by color. Only a few more bags to go. Let it be know that they really skimp on the yellow and red.

Almost 2

It is inconceivable to me that two years have come and gone since my darling little girl was born.  Two??? I don't even know how that is possible.  The date proves it, though.  Sunday is October 7th, 2012, and my Cassandra was born on October 7, 2010.  So there you have it.  It's math.  No denying it.

The joy that this tiny human has brought to our lives cannot be described in words.  I won't even bother to try.

Minutes after she was born

 Three days old

The Last 6 Months: 

Lately, she's taken to saying, "I need Mommy," pretty much every 5 minutes.  While it's hard to get things done, it is heart melting and I don't mind one bit.  My baby is going to be an only child and I will take every chance I can to hold her close.  Even if it's every 5 minutes.