Funny that the 4 things I jotted down on my post-it note for this blog all begin with the letter C! First of all, Cassie and I have been doing some fun baking lately. I love to bake (really I love the end result of dessert!) and I'm finding many new baking mixes on the grocery shelves that are milk and nut free. Good news for Cassidy! So we are having fun baking things together, especially with the rainy days we've had lately. We mostly bake cupcakes (with homemade icing and sprinkles) and brownies. She loves to stand on her pink step-stool and watch me mix and pour, and of course she helps me out from time to time. She picks out her sprinkle color and doesn't leave one bit of icing on her plate when she's done. She almost always asks for "more cupcakes!"
Erik and I switched cell phone providers, which meant changing phones too. So as we spent one evening on the couch trying to learn the new functions and transfer contacts, Cassie became very interested (uh-oh - already???). The amazing thing is that she can work my phone just as well as I can. There is a free application on the phone that allows you to "doodle" with paint colors and input all sorts of icons (animals, hearts, raindrops, etc.) and she creates her own drawings all by herself. This photo gave me a flash-forward to about 14 years from now (probably less - who am I kidding) when Cassidy will be too busy texting (or whatever it is they'll be doing on cell phones by then) to talk to mom and dad...Gavin's biggest updates are 1) cereal and 2) crawling! He's not actually
crawling yet, but he is on all fours, belly off the ground, staring down those toys that are a few feet away, and "revving up" for minutes on end, just trying to get all the motions together to make that first lunge forward. I keep running for the video camera each day when I see him about to crawl - but all false alarms thus far. It's not far off, though. Time to baby-proof again!
Gavin is also really enjoying his rice cereal that we started about a week ago. I started out trying to feed him in his bumbo chair - which allows him to sit upright. But he was so excited 
about that spoon that he would literally lunge forward whenever it came near - usually ending up with a jab into his cheek or nose. It was honestly so difficult because of how excited he was that I ended up moving him to a reclined bouncy chair for the next attempt. Much better with that. Now, he kicks his legs and opens his mouth wide and gives me a huge smile after each bite. He just loves the stuff! I wish he was as enthusiastic about his bottles (not so)! It usually takes a few attempts and various feeding positions for Gavin to finish a bottle. But he has yet to leave a drop of rice cereal behind. In the next few weeks, we'll start trying more "solids" - mashed bananas, pears, carrots and peas!
