We must be getting weaker

I feel like my arms are getting stronger. You wouldn't believe how many things I can carry out to the car in the morning. And lately we've been feeling like Casey's been growing a lot. We weigh her on our terribly innacurate home scale and she's up to 23 pounds sometimes. But I just got back from the doctor's office for Casey's 2 year old appointment.

Boy does that girl hate to get on the scale. She looks at the scale and starts crying. So this time, we brought our faithful DogDog and he went first. He's 5.25 ounces. He didn't cry. Casey is 21 pounds 12 ounces. She's only gained 7 ounces since her last visit 5 months ago. We thought she'd be at least 22 pounds. She's in the 2nd percentile for weight, which is off the chart. We really thought she was getting heavier!

Then it was time to measure her. Again, DogDog went first, and didn't cry. He's 12 inches long. Casey went second. She wasn't impressed at all by DogDog's painless and quiet experience and she cried hard. She' 31.75 inches tall, which is the 7th percentile. If Eric's family's theory is right, she'll be twice that, or 5 foot 3 and a half inches as an adult. We'll see.

She's in the 17th percentile for BMI. The doctor said she's doing fine and we shouldn't worry.

She got her mumps shot and the last of her DT&P shots, and she cried about as hard as she did on the scale, but after the shot I said the magic word that made her stop crying. Lolly. How did she remember that from five months ago? What a sticky orange mess. Yuck.

Baby's first tailgate party

We went to Gilroy Gardens with the grandparents and Veronica and Kyle. We picked up sandwiches and ate in the parking lot before we went in to check out the park. Casey and Kyle went on a bunch of rides, and the parents and grandparents got to ride their share, too. Casey's favorite part was driving me around in the car. I could see the realization coming over her as as the car started moving.

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"Casey?"
"Yes, Casey is driving the car!"

"Mommy?"

"No, Mommy is not driving the car."

"WOW!!"

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I know what she was thinking the whole time, too. "See, I KNEW I could do it!" Even though she couldn't see over the steering wheel.

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An amusement park with the grandparents, drinking lemon Icees, driving a car, riding in a train with everyone, watching a bird show and seeing a giant condor, riding a merry-go-round. And Kyle. What more could a girl ask for? We brought a stroller for her but she preferred to ride in Kyle's stroller. On his lap.

The nannas and the papas

Casey was so sad to see the grandparents leave. On her way out the door, Nanna Micki said "I was going to make you banana bread but I couldn't find a cookbook." I showed her where the cookbook was and she whipped up a loaf of banana bread. All the bowls were cleaned, dried, and put away, along with all of the ingredients, and we had fresh banana bread (nanna nanna bread) baking in the oven. It was like Mary Poppins was here.

Casey is 2!

Casey's birthday was a big production. We had it at a park that has a toddler playground, a water play area, and a bigger kid playground. We reserved a group of picnic tables in the shade and put out a ton of food. It was catered by Nanna Micki and Nanna Carol, with a lot of heavy lifting done by Papa Ron and Papa David. The grandmas had an assembly line going at the house, making wraps for the adults and sandwiches cut into the shape of dogs using a variety of doggie cookie cutters. They were delicious (and still are -- we'll probably be eating them until Casey's 3rd birthday).

She had a blast. There were almost 70 people there in all. At first I thought she might not come over to the party area because she had the steering wheel of the car in the playground and was transporting several passengers, but I think hunger won out in the end. The big kids chased her and climbed with her on the playground and she went on the slide with all of her friends. I don't know what else to say about it except that it was a great party. Good food, good friends, good time.

We kept her up WAY too long without a nap. She fell asleep about one second after she hit the car seat to go home. Poor baby. It's tiring being 2!

Boys & cars

This morning DogDog was sitting on Casey's lap. She was patting her lap, saying "lah".
I said, "Is DogDog sitting on your lap?"
"Yah!"
"Do you sit on mommy and dada's laps?"
"Ky-oh!"
"You sit on Kyle's lap?"
"YAH!"

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On Sunday we went to lunch with Veronica, Ted, Kyle, and Cami and then played in the cars at the mall. Casey loves Kyle and asks about him almost every day. Casey also loves those cars. She's pretty quiet about it but she manages to get the seat with the steering wheel almost every time. If you have the seat, don't stand up for a second because she's watching you and her little tush will be in it before you know what hit you. She loves Kyle, but not enough to let him drive.

Baby's first job

http://bittybowsboutique.com/item_220/Spring-Bling-Butterfly-5-colors.htm

Casey's first modeling gig. She got paid in barettes. Too bad we already lost that butterfly one. It was cute.

Galloping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ob7gGGkw0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CAblSoNlvk

When Casey watches the video, she answers my questions (the answers are "yeah!" and "neigh!").

Lazy day

Today we were supposed to go on a bike ride but we were so tired we couldn't do it. Well, Eric and I were. Casey, of course, got up at 6am. Eric and I tried to convince her it was still time for night night. Then we fed her breakfast and tried one or two or three more times to convince her. Nope.

Eric put her in the backpack to go water the plants and she was pretty happy until he finished and took her out of it. She kept pointing at it and patting her back and saying "ba pa" and yelling "mine mine mine!" Then she kept bringing us all of our shoes. Hint hint. We finally put our shoes on and she cheered "yay!" (no joke), so we decided to go out for a hike. She cried when we took her backpack outside without her in it -- we tried to explain that we were just taking it to the car.

Then we got home and Dada took a nap while Casey made a few calls.

Keeping busy

We've been trying to keep busy since returning from our little vacation. Wednesday night we got together with some friends so Casey could swim and picnic with her buddies Oskar and Baby Ellie. She managed to squeeze herself into one of Ellie's little chairs and wouldn't get out of it. When we go swimming Eric says "one two three" and dunks her under the water. She comes up saying "two! two! two!"

Then Friday we got together with Jeanine and Brynn to check out the Palo Alto Junior Museum. It was an odd little museum on the inside but the girls seemed to love it. The place was packed. On the outside there was sort of a sad little zoo with a beautiful peacock and some geese and turtles, an owl, a couple of bats, and a couple of raccoons. The girls had a great time, like they always do.

The July birthday girls

The highlight of the weekend was the birthday party for the three girls born in July. Casey (2), Allison (3), and Grandma Fagel (91). You can see them in the last picture. Casey sang along with the birthday song quite loudly and she sort of knows the words. She is a very serious and loud singer. But then when it's over she smiles and cheers enthusiastically.

For dinner we had Rubino's Pizza. If you're born in Bexley, you love Rubino's Pizza. It's what you eat after every football game and it's thin and delicious. But I have to say that most people from outside Bexley aren't big fans. Thank goodness Casey loved it!

She got a lot of cool books and presents and one of them was sidewalk chalk. Evan drew a hopscotch on the patio and everyone was trying it, even Grandma Fagel. Casey went right over and jump jump jumped all the way to the end. It was hilarious. Everyone cheered, including her. She really felt comfortable there and was walking around on the grass and hanging out with the kids and just having a fantastic time.

Fourth of July

Casey made her first trip to Ohio and got to see the Bexley Fourth of July Parade. She wasn't quite sure what to think and I ended up holding her a lot of the time. We taught her that you should eat candy off of the street if strangers throw it to you from an old fashioned car. She loved the "smarties" and we tried to stay away from the tootsie rolls, which seem to be the main parade candy. She was also excited when she saw the final police car pass and yelled "neenaw neenaw", which is the sound a fire engine makes in one of her books.

She liked the van dressed up like a big fluffy dog, especially when it pooped in the street and a guy came around with a shovel and rake to pick it up. About two minutes after it passed, she said "poo poo!"

It's nice to be in Ohio but on California time because we could keep her up late enough to see the fireworks. We pulled over to watch in a parking lot on our way home from dinner. We weren't sure if she'd be afraid of the noise so we tried to tell her there would be "boom boom!" She liked the fireworks but I think she liked yelling "boom boom!" just as much.

We're back

We made it home from Ohio last night at midnight. It was funny because the parts of the trip that you hate the most, the train from one terminal to the next at the Dallas airport, the shuttle bus from the San Jose airport back to the car, those are her favorite parts of the trip. During the whole car ride home the converstion went like this...

Casey buh!
Yes, Casey rode the bus!

Mommy buh!

Yes, Mommy rode the bus too.

Dada buh!

Yep, Dada was on the bus.

DogDog buh!!

That's right, DogDog was on the bus.

And repeat. Until you get home. And then in the car again on the way to daycare.

More about the trip later, but we just wanted to announce a couple of new members of the DogDog family. That's Donkey DogDog (Eeyore) and Teddy DogDog. They pitched right in with the driving.

Self-portrait

Last night was my best restaurant experience in 8 months. We went to dinner at Fuki Sushi for Tyler's birthday and sat in one of those private rooms where you sit on the floor and your feet are sort of underground. It's perfect because Casey was about eye level with everyone, and she could walk around and pass out her Dora puffy stickers without disturbing the other customers.

We were ordering drinks and I ordered milk for Casey and tea for me. Everyone else ordered tea, and Casey started yelling "tea! tea!" because she likes to drink tea (mostly milk). Then the waitress came back with the drinks and knelt down to take our orders and Casey backed it on in and sat right in her lap! Oops. In my defense, it was while Casey was making her rounds and she was on the other side of the table. Then the giant sushi boat arrived and she was beside herself with excitement "I boat! I boat!"

She got ahold of my camera and it was just easier to let her have it. She was snapping away. Then she ran into something and dropped the camera and she started crying. Everyone thought she was really hurt because she was crying so hard, and I said, no, she didn't hit that hard, she wants the camera (someone had handed it to me when it fell on the floor). Yep. Having your camera taken away is much much worse than running into a table.

I couldn't wait to see what she was taking pictures of. When we got home, Eric and I flipped through the camera and I realized that I didn't show her which way the camera should face. Oops. It was hard to pick the best one. She took quite a few shots.