Yes that is a 1 minute video...

of Cassie Laughing! She does this so rarely that we thought we would get it on video to share with everyone :)

and what was she laughing at???? Why Daddy throwing a big bowl in the air of course! Sheesh who wouldn't laugh at that ... if I thought it would work again I would have him throwing bowls around all the time cause I just LOVE that sound! Till that sound becomes more of a regular thing though I will just have to hit play :)

Backyard Picnic

*They* say "home is where the heart is" well lately my heart has really not been in the house that we have been calling home for a while now. We are trying move into our forever home a.s.a.p., but we cant make the move until we sell this place. Sooooo that means making the best of everything and being grateful that we at least have a roof over our head!

One of the things that I do indeed LOVE about our right now house is the backyard...it is down right humongous for the area and we fenced almost all of it in last year so that Sirius could have a place to run and jump and play with out having to be tied up. We can pretty much just sit out there and it is like having our own little world...however, we very rarely do that, we always get caught up doing something inside the house or what not and the yard gets forgotten about until it starts looking like a jungle and we have to mow it.

Well yesterday we were *supposed* to go to do some volunteer work for the local Food Bank Farm and help with the harvesting with Daddy's work, but we got the time mixed up and missed it. But the day was entirely too nice out to be spending it couped up inside, especially since we are heading into some more hot/humid/generally not nice even though it's sunny out weather, so we picked up some fancy hot dogs, got some yogurt for Cassie and a quilt and had ourselves a little impromptu picnic outside. Heck, even Sirius got in on the action.

It never ceases to amaze me watching Cassie as she takes in the world around her, especially now that a) she can sit up on her own outside b) she isn't really bothered by the sunshine as much so she sees more and c) if she sees something she wants to investigate now she can go after it! She was having a grand old time putting her fingers in the grass and pulling it up for a taste test, then giving the same taste test to the couple of leaves that fell onto her blanket.

On another note we also picked up a set of the Avent Magic Sippy Cups® for Cassie to try, we haven't really been having any luck at all trying to get her to drink from bottles no matter what the brand or flow nipple or what we put in them or how hot or cold it was, so we decided to give sippy cups a try, but had no luck with the Playtex First Sipster® or the Tommy Tippee Closer to Nature First Sips Weaning Cup® either. I think it is because both of these have pretty hard no spill valves. So when we went to BRU Friday night to get gates I saw the Avent Cups...it was actually the word *Magic* that caught my eye, I will admit...I figured I would pick them up and give them a try. Well it turns out that these are still the no spill variety, but the valve is actually soft and flexible and low and behold Cassie is actually getting it! We have only tried (heavily) watered down grape juice in it so far but she seems to like it much more than the bottle because she can actually hold the handles and tip it up and better than the other sippies because she can you know, drink out of it :) hopefully this means we are headed in the right direction!

Oh and did I mention Cassie's newest tricks?? Raspberry Blowing and Clapping, her new two favorite and completely adorable (not that I am biased or anything...) things!

Friday Firsts - Crawling Cassie!

Cassie is crawling now and she is great at it! There is no keeping this girl in one place anymore. If she is awake she is on the move, usually headed toward every power cord and/or any other non child proofed (yet) hazard she can find. In a way its so exciting to see her moving around but it is also sad in a way...another milestone bites the dust...

Today a break from the pictures, here are some videos! I admitt these are pretty poor quality, but still fun!

Friday Firsts - Finger Foods

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy's Girl

This mommy reads

Almost hitting my goal! Going to have to make a new one soon maybe 30 books by the end of 2010?

1) The Battle of the Labyrinth - Rick Riordan
2) Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
3) Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
4) The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner
5) Many Bloody Returns - Various
6) Evermore - Alyson Noel
7) Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne
8) Marked - P.C. and Kristen Cast
9)Betrayed - P.C. and Kristen Cast

10)Chosen - P.C. and Kristen Cast

11)Untamed - P.C. and Kristen Cast

12)Hunted - P.C. and Kristen Cast

13)Tempted - P.C. and Kristen Cast

14)Burned - P.C. and Kristen Cast

Currently Reading

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (this is turning out to be so much less interesting than I had imagined! I am finding it to be depressing and kinda boring...though I have never seen any of the movie versions of it either so I had no idea what to expect...)

Darkfever - Karen Marie Moning

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Friday Firsts - Saratoga Racetrack

On the 15th we took our first trip to the Saratoga Racetrack with Cassie. We went for an outing with Daddy's work, it was a grey kind of a day, but we didn't let that stop us, we had a good time and Cassie loved being entertained by Daddy's Boss's daughters :). We didn't stay for very long since it was so grey and rainy, but we did stay for 3 races (won a grand total of $23 ~ $20 of which was made when the teller miss-heard daddy when he was placing his bet and put the bid on the wrong horse...though daddy thought everything happens for a reason so he stuck with it.) We were outside for two and Cassie barely even noticed the horses lol, oh well, maybe next year :)

Wordless Wednesday - Word of Mouth

So Big - So Fast

I can hardly believe all that has happened in the last year...we go from being baby free to having a beautiful baby girl who is growing and learning faster than I ever thought was possible. Sure everyone told me to hold on to every little moment because it goes by too quickly but I never imagined it would go by as fast as it is!

She is just past 7 months old and is sitting up, rolling all over the place, beginning to crawl, starting to wave and trying to figure out how to pull herself up to stand. Its just unimaginable how fast this is happening!

Her favorite mode of transportation at the moment is rolling, she can get across the living room in no time at all if no one is looking and she has been crawling backward for a while now but now she is beginning to do the army crawl forward (scratch that, even in the two days it has taken me to do this post she is getting really good at the whole crawling thing).

It's kinda scary I thought I would have a bit more time for the child proofing but it looks like I really need to get on that! And on top of the child proofing the floors now need to get vacuumed at least once if not twice a day thanks to Sirius and his clumps of shaggy black hair. I cannot wait to get into a house that has hardwood floors, make it so much easier than lugging the Kirby around all the time :)

On top of the new and improved mobility Cassie is now (consistently) saying MaMa, DaDa, BaBa (though she still wont really drink from one...) and I could swear she was saying KiKi (Kitty Kitty?) at Prissy the other day. She has the most adorable voice, I love listening to her chit chatting away when she is in her car seat or just laying on her blanket for tummy time.

She is finally starting to actually get ticklish around her ribs :) but we have yet to hear her do some true belly laughs. She will giggle and once an a while her daddy can get laugh but its all so random.

She is eating almost all of the stage 2 purees, her favorite being Apples and Apricots, her least favorite is Bananas (blech! I don't blame her :) ). We tried yogurt (Gerber Yogurt Blends, pear favored) for the first time last night as well and she LOVED it. On the other hand we also tried some cherry flavored Gerber Puffs and she hated them, not sure if it was the flavor or she just had no idea what to do with them once she got them in her mouth :)

That's about all I got for now, so till next time I'll leave you with some pics of Cassie and her first Yogurt...

Friday Firsts - County Fair

So I know I am a couple of weeks late with this, but it's okay, better late than never right?

So on Saturday the 31st of July we took Cassie to her first County Fair. We went to the Schoharie County Sunshine Fair in Cobleskill, NY. Hopefully we will soon be members of the picture perfect Schohaire County so we figured we would check out our future stompin grounds and we had a great time! Cassie was great with all the animals and wasn't scared of any of them (unlike her mommy :) when she was the same age...).

Our first stop was the chicks, Cassie was mesmerized by them all hopping around, the little black one in front of her was pecking at the glass trying to be her friend.

Next stop was the fluffy bunnies...

...and by fluffy I mean really truly fluffy!!

Next was the big fat pigs...I don't think I have ever seen a pig with ears as big as this guy's ears!

Took a walk through the cows as well, Cassie didn't really have much interest in them, but they didn't know what to think of her either :)

Next was the mini horses and donkeys...

And of course the big horses...She wasn't so sure about these beauties either, but daddy showed her they were a-okay.

and of course there was fried dough for mommy and daddy...maybe next year Cassie can have her first try.

She spent her time waiting for her first tractor pulls by practicing her new found waving abilities.

Not so sure what she thinks of the noisy tractors, but at least no crying! She may just be a country girl after all :)

Oh and almost forgot, the trip down to Cobleskill was her first ever in her new big girl car seat...which she is still getting used to...

That's about it for now...more next week!