Team Smith

We had a birthday party for Cass in the lounge of the building we live in. It was perfect for what I like to think of as one big play date! I will let the photos tell you the story :

Our baby is 1 year old! These pictures are from a mini celebration in the housing office. Her first real taste of sugar was an experience for everyone! She began by timidly using one finger to swipe at the frosting and taste it. Her eyes, pools of chocolate themselves, grew big as the sugar hit her system. She looked up at me as if to say "Really? I can eat this?" I encourgaed her to take a bite of the cake part and her smile grew as sweet as the crumbs around her mouth. Then she went for it! I was expecting her to be very hyper for a moment, but she wasn't. As soon as she was finished licking the last little bits off of the cupcake wrapper, she fell asleep. Her birthday party is this Sunday and I will write a much more detailed blog after that with photos from the bash!

We bought some pears from the grocery store and they were perfectly ripe! Cassidy loved them and was able to eat hers and half of mine! These were at work, I had brought her with me one day last week because she was too sick to go to daycare, but to well to sit at home! She hung out with me all morning and was super well behaved. Recently I embraced technology and received a second monitor...so while I caught up on email she watched Veggie Tales a la Netflix! And then we had to have our snack of pears :)

These photos are from this morning. We went to the Easter egg hunt on campus hosted by the alumni association. Had a blast! We knew quite a few folks there. It turned into a playdate :) There were eggs all over and it was all sectioned off by age. The largest group was hers, so we snuck down to the oldest group because there were virtually no kids in that area. I set her down in the grass and she picked up one egg for each hand. And that was all. She game me a look that said, "Ok, mom I have al I need" and proceeded to play with those two eggs for about an hour! I love watching her and learning something! Our lesson today was take what you need. She came up with that all on her own :)

We went to Denver to see my family and go to a Red Wings/Avalanche game! Matt thoroughly enjoyed being an obnoxious fan in a sea of Colorado love. He carried Cass around out of pride and because, well, she's pretty adorable! But I think another reason was because who would hurt a man with baby? It was great for Cass to finally meet my family too! She has a lot of family in Denver and most of them showed up the firt night we were there at a buffet dinner. Good Times had by all :) I also got to finally meet one of Karl's daughters- my stepsister Karlotta. She has three cute kids and the youngest is a one year old girl named McKayla. Kayla and Cass got along famously.

This past weekend marked the end of what I fondly call "Birthday Week". That's right, birthday celebrations last a week around this home! The following pics are of great times! Taking Cass to church, where she is quite attentive for a 9 month old, is always heartwarming because she is really into it. She loves the music. Sometimes I take her up to the organ and she is nearly hypnotized while watching the organist play. She loves to interact with the other kids. We go to the children's service so there are a lot of kids, different ages, and families. And when it's story time, all of the kids go to the altar. A few of us take our small ones up and Cass is in the moment, learning about God even though she has no clue what's going on. I do think she understands. It could be the cadence of the reverends' voices, or the stimulating artwork and lights. but Cassidy is quite and taking it all in during the reading. There are plenty of pics from our park outing toda...

Cassidy loves to eat. No surprise there. She has sampled most fruits and veggies. She loves asparagus tips! She doesn't like the texture of pineapple. In this video, Cass is trying salmon for the first time. She really liked it! It's soft, flavorful, and easy to gum. Cass also likes scrambled eggs. We're waiting for her first birthday before we give her processed sugar of any kind. Yay for birthday cupcakes!