Telling Off Mommy And Daddy

Cassandra is becoming better at expressing her opinion...even if that opinion doesn't bask in the approval of Mommy or Daddy.  Generally this involves her spitting at us and as you can tell, she knows exactly what she is doing.

Sometimes this also means being told off.  The finger waving makes it really hard not to laugh while she is telling us the way things are. 

We are working with spoons because frankly, if we try to feed her she gets really mad she can't do it herself.  I think forks are a month or two away.  The problem with spoons is that she gets tired after a while and goes back to fingers.  Oh, blueberry is her favorite yogurt flavor and nutrigrain bar flavor.  This works out great because Mommy doesn't like blueberry at all and Daddy thinks Strawberry is much better. 

Oops! I Missed!

Cassandra has been a lot of fun lately.  She is mobile, can follow some direction, and generally a happy little girl.  Here she is at her picnic table.  I think she really likes having something her size that she doesn't need adult help to sit in.

She really likes to be covered by a blanket (she is now tall enough not to trip over it) and walk around.  We make jokes about how noisy and lumpy the blanket is. 

Cassandra has also been learning about how large things cannot be put inside of small things.  This does from time to time lead to great frustration on her part.  She really wants to do something and gets mad when the matter of the universe doesn't cooperate.  Watch how she moves to a different location in hopes of a different result.

Finally, here is Cassandra practising her depth perception and coordination.  As you can see, we still have quite a bit of practising to do.  This photo could be captioned, "Oops!  I missed!"

The Greater Outdoors

The Overland Park Arboretum will have their ribbon cutting for a new garden this Wednesday.  It is probably Daddy's most favorite kind of garden.  That's right, a Train Garden!  We thought we'd come out and take a sneak peak before it opened.  Grandma and Grandpa Wendel joined us for the walk.

Of course, Cassandra wanted to take the long way around and check up on everything.  We just had to stop and see the fish.

Along the way through the water garden, we saw this waterfall.

On to the main event, the Train Garden.  Cassandra loved it.  They were still putting final touches on it but Cassandra was very excited.  The train was especially wonderful because it had sound effects.

Of course, we were so busy taking pictures of fish and trains and butterflies we didn't really get a lot of good pictures of Cassandra.  This one of her smiling (with her mouth full) is all we have.  Still, you can tell she really enjoyed it.

Out Cold

Nothing much going on here, just think kids get into funny positions when they sleep.

Sunday Morning

Cassandra has always been interested in her stacking cups but she is now playing with them in ways that she hadn't before.  After scattering them about, she is now putting them together.  We think this is partially connected to her starting to "pick up" after herself at home like they do at school. 

In addition, she has also taken to setting the cups out in a row and putting a piece of LEGO (Duplo) in each cup.  Not sure what prompted it but she gets annoyed when we clean up every night, stacking the cups and putting the LEGOs away.

Graduation Picnic For Anne

As if the Garden Tour wasn't enough, we also were invited to a graduation picnic for Daddy's cousin Anne.  Cassandra was not sure about all the "new" faces at first but she eventually dropped the shy routine and began to really have fun.  Uncle Greg was in town and was able to push her on the swing.

She was also chauffeured around the park in a red waggon.  No pictures are available as a combination of low lighting and exhaustion had hit the camera crew, unlike Cassandra who had taken advantage of the opportunity for an afternoon nap.

Garden Tours

Every other year, the Johnson County Master Gardeners put together a garden tour as a fundraiser for the K-State Extension Office.  This year, six gardens were on the tour...including Grandpa Hodges' garden.

Our plan for the day was to take Cassandra with us and leave her with Grandma for a nap while we finish the tour.  For the most part, things worked out but the morning was a little humid.  In Janicespeak, it "heavily misted on us."

We started with a nearby house.  Cassandra was happy to be outside.  Then, she was happy to be put down so she could run to a "playground."

Cassandra enjoyed see the Koi in the pond.  I think she also wanted to play with the water.  This house backed up to creek and they had some good size insects.

Cassandra is fond of climbing.  Playgrounds, benches, chairs, parents, and of course swings.  I think this ended up being her favorite house on the tour.  The only one on the tour she might have liked more had a pool. 

The second house we visited was in an older part of town.  The old outdoor kitchen had been turned into a flower planter.  For me, the odd thing about this is the current craze now is to have an outdoor kitchen as a party location.  Back then, it was just to get the hot oven / stove out of the house during the summer.

Cassandra like this house for the large open area in the back yard.  Daddy would put her down and she would try to run past Mommy to get at the garden or the tree swing.  She was having a lot of fun.

Next, we headed off to a "Japanese" garden.  Cassandra didn't like that she wasn't loose.  However, with the amount of grace inherited from Mom and Dad, letting her loose with all this hardscaping would have been a really bad idea.

After lunch, we dropped Cassandra off with Grandma.  Grandpa was busy with all the people touring his garden.  We did get this shot though.  Usually, clematis doesn't bloom on command so having this during the garden show was really nice.

After eating lunch and dropping Cassandra off for a nap, we headed off to visit more gardens.  What is interesting to me about this picture is that the creek overflowed a few weeks before the garden tour and took a lot of the mulch and a few plants downstream.  They did a good job of getting things back together again, didn't they? 

This lot had a lot of relief which is what you would expect with a creek in the back.  Don't want your house to flood after all.  They have a rather tall deck that a lot of people wouldn't be very happy with.

They also had instructions on how to make one of those mixed plant pots.  These have become pretty popular in the last few years.

Cassandra was still asleep so we went to the last garden without her.  This is the scenery you would see while relaxing in the pool. 

They also had a raised vegetable garden we forgot to get pictures of.  That had been taken out by a hailstorm a few days ago but they had replanted.  We did get the idea to try "Irish Spring" as a deterrent to bushy tailed rodents stealing our tomatoes.  We'll see how that experiment works this summer. 

Hanging Out At Grandma's

Cassandra had so much fun yesterday with Grandma that she decided she to hangout with her other Grandma to even things out.  Here is Cassandra giving Grandma one of her world famous hugs while simultaneously holding a stuffed frog.  She really likes that frog.

Cassandra likes to be a helper.  Here she is helping to unwrap Grandma's present.  She generally doesn't unwrap other peoples presents but she does try to steal their bows.  She just really likes bows.

Dinner Out For Mother's Day

Cassandra decided that we should go out for dinner with Grandma Wendel for Mother's Day.  Cassandra really likes Mexican.  Not only do they put food on the table as soon as you get there, you can get cheese dip.  Yum!  See how her face lights up?

We give her the cheese dip covered chips and she shoves them in.  We do need to work with her though.  Her default behavior was to lick the cheese off of the tortilla chip and try and re-dip.  Yuck!

Yogurt...And Daddy Induced Trauma

Cassandra has been eating with utensils more and more.  Her aim leaves something to be desired and she hasn't quite figured out that you get more food on your face than in your mouth if your tongue is hanging out.  What is odd about this is that she doesn't hang her tongue out when we are feeding her, only when she is feeding herself.

She as also become very independent.  Witness the aftereffects of Daddy taking her spoon and cleaning her face.  You'd think I had yelled at her.

Still Having Fun!

Cassandra has pretty much stopped playing with anything but the tunnel and stuffed animals.  She likes to stop in the middle to hide and just starts to giggle.  I think she is going to enjoy building forts...

What happens if I put this in here...

I Got One!

Cassandra seemed to have so much fun with the tunnel yesterday that we got out the one we had been saving for her.  It was a gift from Luke and Jen.

She loves it.  Wait until she finds out about the tent!

Noah's Birthday Party

Cassandra has completed another road trip...and it is not as easy as it used to be.  Cassandra is at the age where being confined to a car seat for three hours (even with a nap in the middle) is not an enjoyable event...for anyone.  Still, she had lots of fun when we got to Noah's Birthday Party.  There was cake and a candle (fire) and everything.

Afterward, presents were opened and the kids played.  Cassandra showed interest in Kylie's keyboard and Noah's trains (GeoTrax).  Both of them looked after Cassandra and were careful not to knock her over.  Of course, since she doesn't watch what she is stepping on, she ended up falling over a lot anyway.  She also liked the tunnel.

As the afternoon wound down, we attempted to get pictures of the kids.  Cassandra wasn't really interested in sitting still.  I think Noah was getting tired of trying to get Cassandra to sit.  Can't really blame him.  I get tired of it too.  For that matter, just watching her run around makes me feel tired.

I had to break out the trusty old golf swing to distract her enough to get a picture.  Still, you can tell she is trying to slid off of the bench.  I feel tired just writing about getting her to sit still.