Christmas Cookies

One of the big traditions in the Cassidy household is baking Christmas cookies. Since we will not be coming back to Georgia before Christmas, Nana decided it was as good a time as any to make some cookies. She made Ella Ctherine her own little Christmas apron to wear. We had anticipated that she would be covered from head to toe in flour. However, half way into it my mom and I looked at each other and just laughed. She and I were covered in flour but Ella Catherine was as clean as a whistle. She liked cutting out the cookies but by far her favorite part was decorating them. she was VERY particular about her decorations too. She added 1 spronkle at a time to each cookie. We were there a while! Nana and I just knew that she would eat the dough and some of the sprinkles (her cousin Cori did at this age), but she didn't and wouldn't even eat the finished product. The rest of us did and enjoyed them. I know she had a good time though because when all the dough was gone she was NOT a happy camper. I can say for certainty that this is one tradition that will continue on.

Out on the Farm

One of the big hits when we visit Nana and Pop's house is to go out to the cabin. She loves the outdoors and all the animals she can see out there. This visit she fed the fish with daddy at the pond and got to see ducks too. My parent's neighbors have horses and Ella Catherine LOVES to go visit and feed the horses. Matt, Pop and myself took her up the road to feed the horses some carrots. We rode Pop's hunting golf cart and that too was a hit. As you can tell from the pictures below the horses liked the visit as well. She loves to see them eat the carrots but is a little skeptical about actually holding the carrot for them. Can't really say I blame her as the horses heads are about the size of her whole body.

First Haircut

We went to Georgia for Thanksgiving. Wednesday before Turkey day we took Ella Catherine for her first Haircut. It was the perfect time not only becuase she needed a haircut but also because my sister's best friend is a hairdresser. I knew Wendy would be great with her and she was superb! I got my haircut first so that she wouldn't think it was too scary. When I was finished she jumped up in the chair without hesitation. she was so good that Miss Wendy gave her a "Prize" after she was finsihed.

Tales from a Warehouse Sale

I had heard that Kelly's Kids was having a warehouse sale in Nashville this Saturday, November 22nd. You dads out there may or may not know what kelly's kids is but I am confident that you moms know what kellys kids is and are thinking Wow a warehouse sale. Those were my thoughts exactly. So, I made arrangements with Matt to watch Ella Catherine so I could go. It started at 9am and I wanted to be there when it opened to get the best deals. Well, I didn't take parking into account and so I was 5 minutes late. I thought 5 minutes isn't a big deal, there will be plenty of good deals left. I could not have been more wrong. When I opened the door I was completely taken a back. I thought I had walked into the set of a TV sitcom. Seriously, it reminded me of the Friends epsiode where Monica goes shopping for her wedding dress. You know the one, she takes Rachel and Phoebe along and gives them whistles. When the door opens, Monica goes to it scavaging for her dress while Rachel hides and Phoebe stands there completely overwhelmed. I was Phoebe. I was completely overwhelmed and flabberghasted at what I was experiencing. Women were running around grabbing what they could and looking at sizes later. By the time I located the girl's size 2 rack it had been wiped clean. I was a rookie and these women were pros. 10 women had gotten together and when the doors opened they split up and grabbed everything they could off of every rack they could. They then went and sat in a circle at the back of the room and dispersed their goodies. If there was any item left after their group had rummaged through everything they would offer it up like crumbs to the women hovering over them like vultures. I couldn't help myself, I found myself among the vultures looking for a crumb to be tossed my way. In the end I left with 3 cute items and a very BIG lesson learned. I will never go to one of these warehouse sales by myself again. So, any of you moms interested in coming to Nashville for the next sale just let me know. I'll provide the whistles and buy the margaritas at lunch.

Wrestling, Vanderbilt, and Spaghetti

Friday started like every other day until I went to go pick up the girls from daycare and from Vanderbilt. The adventure started when I got Ella Catherine from the day care and the teacher tells me that she had an “incident” today.

(Background Info)Ella Catherine has a buddy that is the same age but a little bigger than her and his name is Reese. Reese and Ella Catherine are buddies, the lady at the front desk in the mornings always tells EC if Reese is here yet or not. So now with this background the incident is not as bad.

The teacher tells me something that as a father I am proud of but as a parent I am embarrassed. “Ella Catherine and Reese were “wrestling” today and she was sitting on Reese so to pin him down and Reese bucked her off and she punctured her tongue.” I just started smiling trying not to laugh out loud. I was so proud of her showing that boy who was boss.

From there we gathered our stuff and went to mom’s work so all of the people at Amy's work could meet Ella Catherine. To say the least she was a hit as soon as we entered the door all of the co workers started talking baby talk and commenting on how pretty she was. One of the ladies ask Ella Catherine if she could wear her pea coat and EC just looked at her like you are crazy. The girls went around the office meeting all of Amy’s coworkers.

When we got home, we had spaghetti for dinner and this picture describe how it went.

We have created a Prize Monster

For those of you who know me well, you know that I do not believe in giving babies/toddlers a lot of sugar. For this reason, our daughter did not have anything considered a sweet (that I know about) until her first birthday. Since that time, she has been allowed to have cake at birthday parties, an occasional cookie with her multiple sets of grandparents and most recently has enjoyed her Sunday doughnut hole at the social after mass. However, on a daily basis her life consists of your basic fruits, vegetables, dairy and meats with a few graham crackers thrown in every now and again. Halloween came and I believe in trick or treating and letting kids be kids. We went trick or treating and she was allowed to eat a few pieces of candy that night but then we hid the bag of "prizes". Since that time we have given her a piece of candy as a "prize" when she eats all of her dinner or doesn't throw a fit in the bath tub (tub time is a nightmare at our house). Yesterday I told Matt that I didn't want her to think she would get candy everyday because let's face it Trick or treat candy doesn't last all that long (especially when daddy and mommy are helping to eat it). Well, she is a smart cookie and had it all figured out! She went pee pee in the potty last night and took her bath beautifully (not one tear shed and Matt even washed her hair). We were praising her and telling her how proud we are of her and she smiled and said "Prize!" I definitely think we have created a prize monster.
Sadly, she has inherited her mother's sweet tooth.