Calista Catherine and Cassandra Claire Brady: An Early Thanksgiving

About Calista and Cassandra

Calista Catherine was born at 5:32 am on February 15, 2007. She weighed 8 lb 1 oz and was 21" long. She was born with a "true" knot in her umbilical cord, which is rare (it only happens in 1 out of ~8,000 births) and is supposedly both auspicious and a sign that she will be wise. She was excited to show up for the birthday of her grandmother Eloise, so they now have that in common along with a middle name.

Cassandra Claire was born at 5:37 am on October 17, 2009. She weighed 8 lb 4 oz and was 20.5" long. She is a quintuple Libra - her sun, moon, rising, Mercury and Venus are all in Libra - so we think she will be very fair, balanced and aesthetic. Her middle name is Brisen's paternal grandmother's middle name (Evelyne Claire Vannice).

Both girls were born at the wonderful CPMC in San Francisco, in Laurel Village, in the exact same delivery room (one of only two big rooms!) which their mom thinks is a very special thing.

Calista and Cassandra both derive from Greek mythology. Calista means "most beautiful," and is part of a myth involving Zeus, Hera and the Ursa Major constellation. Cassandra was the daughter of Hecuba and Priam, the king of Troy, and endowed with the gift of prophecy but fated by Apollo never to be believed. (We've promised our Cassandra to take her predicitions seriously!)

Monday, November 10, 2008

An Early Thanksgiving

Mike and Eloise had a trade show out in California, so we had an early Thanksgiving with them last weekend, and Uncle Matt came up as well. Calista can say, "Grandpa," "Weezie," and "Uncle Matt." She is still very into naming people and their things ("Weezie's soup," for instance) and looking at magazines and pointing out everything she knows --baby/parenting magazines are ideal for this, although we've been known to do this with "Daddy's book" when desperate. On Friday, Scott took his parents for a hike in Marin. It looks like a beautiful walk with waterfalls (apparently it was quite steep). On Saturday we cooked a big turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin muffins and pecan pie. Yum! Our friend Pete stopped by too, and we are hoping he will move back to the Bay Area. The next day Matt came over and took Calista to the Eureka Valley playground. She is quite the dare-devil on the slides these days, and also likes to do pull ups like her daddy (she hangs from the bars and grunts and everything!). Fortunately the holidays are around the corner so it won't be long until we see everyone again!