A visit to Duke Gardens

This afternoon I took Livia to Duke Gardens. She enjoyed strolling and running around to see the flowers and plants. We also went to visit Daddy at work. Livia is just like Grandma Marilyn-- she likes to carry water with her when we are out. I didn't realize that this quality was genetic.










And here Livia is playing piano with Daddy

Playgroup

Friday afternoon playgroup
(Livia, Katie, Callie, and Isla)

Here is a photo from our playgroup this afternoon. Everyone is 17 months old (they were all born within 2 weeks of each other-- Livia is actually the oldest, but only by 9 days).

We haven't taken many other photos lately. I did have a cute video of Livia dancing, but I accidently erased it before I could upload it anywhere :-( Livia is a very dramatic dancer (lots of quick stomping and clapping), but once she sees the camera, she suddenly gets shy and stops moving. So hopefully we'll get another good video soon.

Hi, Bye-bye, and A LOT of Florida Grandmas

Last weekend we made a quick trip down south to see Grandma Marilyn, Grandpa David, GGs Nana Dotty and Papa, and Elyse who also came down from NYC at the last minute. Livia did great on the trip! She met about 100 different grandmas, who came to visit, stopped on the street, and even interrupted their card games to say hello to her. Livia said "hi" and "bye-bye" to each one of them. Many of them gave her a book or small toy, so by the end of the weekend we had almost as many things for Livia to play with in Florida as we have at home (considering the number of things that Grandma Marilyn borrowed and bought for Livia as well).

One of the most exciting things about the weekend was a trip to the pool. On the first attempt, Livia started to fall asleep on the 2 block ride to the pool, so we turned around and put her down for a nap. But on the second attempt, she was awake and really enjoyed the water for the first time ever!

Here we have four generations of women (plus Dan)

One of Livia's favorite gifts was an individual Cheerios box. It went along with a Cheerios book that someone gave to her. She wasn't too interested in the book at the time, but she LOVED the mini Cheerios box and carried it around all day.

Livia loved wandering throughout the house, and she was especially drawn to the front door. She kept trying to get out, and a couple of times the screen wasn't locked and she succeeded! Luckily we caught up with her pretty quickly.

Livia LOVED this doll stroller that we borrowed from someone. She drove it around all weekend (sometimes without the doll) and often crashed it into Grandma and Grandpa's nice walls.

Hard Times for Cassidy Dog

A few weeks ago we celebrated Cassidy's 49th birthday. She got to wear the traditional "birthday dog" hat.



She also had a cupcake cookie. We tried to get her a doggie cake but it turns out that Gourmutt's bakery moved and I didn't have time to track down the new location (for anyone who lives in Raleigh though, it's now on Falls of Neuse and the place is awesome!)


Unfortunately, 49 has not been a good year/seven years for Cassidy so far. Right around her birthday we noticed that she was limping a little. The vet thinks that she tore a tendon in her knee. She ordered one week of rest and anti-inflammatory medication. The "rest" involved staying in the crate all day and only coming out for walks. Cassidy was not too happy about this (Livia did first think it was funny that Cassidy was in the cage and she wanted to bang on it or try to poke her through the slats, but we wouldn't let her tormet Cassidy when she was down). The worst part was that we had to cancel Cassidy's vacation at Camp Bow Wow last weekend while we went away. Instead, she had a "staycation" at the vet.


Cassidy has not been allowed to run for 2-3 weeks now. She is VERY pent up and is getting frustrated. We now have a baby gate on the bottom of the stairs to prevent her from coming up and down (I guess we should have done this much sooner anyway, considering we also have a toddler-- but figuring out how to deal with stair gates and a dog has been hard up until this point). Dan thinks that we need to focus on teaching Cassidy new tricks. Here he is teaching her how to balance the green thinger on her snout.

Cassidy is actually pretty good at the new trick!

We really hope that Cassidy can run again soon! It snowed on Monday, and Cassidy wasn't allowed to play in it. She stared out the window and cried -- it was very sad to watch. And Livia might stop saying "go go go" if she doesn't see Cassidy running anymore.