Look At The Garden Gnome

Cassandra seems to really be enjoying Halloween.  We took her down to the Farmstead for "The Night of the Living Farm" and she was enthralled.  She wasn't really sure what to make of all the costumes but she enjoyed seeing all the jack-o-lanterns.  Also, there were lots of flashing lights (safety lights for kids).  We got her one and she held on to it like it was a lucky charm.  Unfortunately, if her plug came out, the light went straight to her mouth.

We found this great garden gnome costume.  When given the choice between this, a lady bug, and being a bee, this was the costume Cassandra picked.  It was what Mommy and Daddy wanted anyway as a result of past outfits, but aside from the hat she has been very happy with the outfit.

What Is A Gourd?

Cassandra got the chance to play with a couple of gourds Grandma Hodges brought over.  She is not exactly sure what to make of the not quite round "balls" with handles.

She does however seem determined to escape from the family room.

Silly Baby

We've been playing around with the video function on the camera.  The lighting isn't the greatest but here are some videos of Cassandra running around the family room.

Cassandra "talking" as she crawls to Daddy.  She repeats the "da" sound but isn't quite making a word.

Cassandra being silly...and then denying it.  She has started to shake her head at a lot of things lately.  I'm sure it is only a matter of time before we are told "No!"

Cassandra has started to take a few steps.  We are working with her to get her walking.  Right now, she moves slowly and can get ten steps or so before falling or sitting down.  However, if she gets excited or in a hurry, she crashes pretty quickly.  She seems to like being passed back and forth, especially since we cheer and clap for her when she makes it to the next person.  She even joins in on the clapping sometimes.

I'm Not Sure About You

Cassandra has not had much exposure to animals up close and personal.  She doesn't seem too horribly fascinated by our four legged friends.  However, when one gets up close, she starts to pay attention.  She is also getting old enough to understand patting people. 

While over at Aunt Kristi and Uncle John's, Cassandra and Molly got to spend some time together.  Cassandra seemed alright with Molly after Molly calmed down from the excitement of having people over at her place.  Cassandra seemed interested in Molly and tried to pat her.  Unfortunately, she also wanted to grab Molly's fur like she grabs people shirts.  Anyway, I don't think that Molly is too sure about Cassandra.

Friends Come For A Visit (And Apple Crisp)

We bought 2 bushels of apples which turned out to be 254 apples.  That's a lot of apples.  We started off with making the traditional apple sauce and apple pie but we weren't getting them used up fast enough so Janice made an apple crisp.  Due to scheduling conflicts, only a few people were able to come over to have some. 

Cassandra was excited to host the Tipton's because she got to play with other people about her size.  Anyway, the girls seemed to enjoy the food and we can hope that their ability to pickup toys and put them away rubs off on Cassandra.  (The sooner, the better.)

Anyway, here is a group shot we got.

This Kind Of Looks Bad...

OK, these first few pictures look kind of gory.  Really, we were feeding Cassandra beets but it certainly seems appropriate that we got these pictures just before Halloween.  (Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

We also had to post this.  Cassandra seems to eat just about anything we put in front of her.  Here she is eating crab cakes.  She seemed disappointed when they were gone. 

I know some of you will be surprised she likes seafood.  Last week we did boiled shrimp.  She was not to sure about the texture and after eating the pieces of shrimp at first, she contented herself with sucking the seasoning off of them.  I never would have thought I'd see a baby sucking Zatarain's off the food.  I would have thought the seasoning would have been the part most objectionable.

Pumpkins!

One of Janice's projects this year was to grow enough pumpkin for her harvest loaf recipe (pumpkin bread).  It is the only pumpkin bread I eat and I think part of the secret is the chocolate chips.  Good stuff.  Anyway, she let Cassandra touch the insides of the pumpkins and Cassandra seemed fascinated.

Janice was able to get five pumpkins to the oven.  We might have had more but some borers got into the stems and started killing the vines.