Happy Second Birthday Cassandra!

Cassandra is anticipating her birthday this year.  She has gotten into practice opening presents this year with Christmas only a few days ago.  She is starting to understand what we traditionally do for people's birthdays.

When asked what she wanted for her birthday, she told me "cake" so we hope we kept the Empress happy this year.  Upon further reflection, she did indicate that toys would be acceptable.  Anyway, here are a few pictures of her opening presents and having fun with them.  Some of them aren't even toys.  See the pink cat on the right?  That is a hooded bath towel for older kids.

So, now with all the present stuff done with it is on to the most important part:  Cake & ice cream!  First, she blew out her candle and then onto food.  She did a much better job than last year getting the food in her mouth.

New Daycare

We are looking into a new daycare for Cassandra and the new addition.  This morning, I dropped by with Cassandra so she could see the new place, meet the teachers and other children, and fill out paperwork.  I was ready to leave but after a mere thirty minutes, Cassandra was ready to stay the rest of the day.  Leaving was a bit of a struggle.  It probably didn't help that when story time began, she climbed into one of the teacher's laps.  This is less than thirty minutes after meeting the teacher.

Christmas With The Wendels

Cassandra is looking forward to today.  Aunt Holly and Uncles Doug and Greg from out of town are putting in an appearance.  She also gets to open more presents.

We started out the evening by getting my old rocking chair out of storage so she would have a kid sized chair to sit in for the evening.  I'm not sure she was thrilled with the rocking part at first.

Cassandra was more than happy to open presents.  She was almost too small to clear the book from the bag but after getting the book out, it was time to read.

Of course, with little kids sometimes the wrapping is worth more than the present.  With that in mind, Cassandra was given bubble-wrap as a gift.  (Well, it wasn't needed for packing anymore...)

After a while, she realized the bubble-wrap didn't pop very well on the carpet.  She brought the rocking chair over, put it on the bubble-wrap, and sat down.  Uncles Doug and Greg were impressed with her problem solving skills.

Looks like Cassandra got LEGOs.  Wonder why she is so happy...

Another book to read.  Cassandra loves story time.

And as the day winds down, Cassandra gets a cup of milk before bedtime.

Christmas With The Hodges Clan

After our "pre-Christmas" present opening, it was onto the main event.

Kensi is worn out by all the activity and this is only the first stop for us.

Cassandra did pretty well but with her wanting to help and all the cameras getting the back of some blond girl's head, I decided to get her a seat with a view.  She did pretty well...

But she is just short of her second birthday so still not much attention span...

After a while, the destruction of my dignity is the only thing that keeps the merciless whelp in check.

Well, not the only thing.  When there was not too much going on, she did a good job of passing out presents, even ones that were fairly good sized.

Of course, Cassandra also enjoyed opening presents too.  She is very happy every time she opens a present.

Christmas At Home

Cassandra woke up to a pleasant surprise this morning.  Overnight, more presents had appeared under (and around) the tree.  We were a bit lazy on the wagon and just put a bow in the corner. Regardless, Cassandra was quite excited to have her own wagon.

After breakfast (and getting dressed), we went ahead and opened up some of the presents.

In typical Cassandra fashion, she removed the bow from the wrapping paper and placed in on her own head.  The gold kind of gets lost in her hair but the important thing is that the training held.  It will be interesting to see for how many years she continues to do this.

She was very excited about this present.  It was one of the Muppet movies.

Caught In The Act

Cassandra was caught playing with the Christmas tree ornaments.  She likes the Fisher-Price and Little Tikes ornaments the most.  We've actually had to spend a lot of effort convincing her that they are not normal toys.

Big Helper On Mom's Birthday

Cassandra decided that Mom needed help opening her birthday presents.  Well, actually, she just likes to open presents.

I'm checking the bottom, Mom.  You never know with this family.