Calista Catherine and Cassandra Claire Brady: Favorite Pasttimes & Potty Training Commences

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!)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Favorite Pasttimes & Potty Training Commences

Calista still loves reading - and we think it's darling that she reads to her dolls and stuffed animals now too. In the video she's reading Fancy Nancy (from Aunt Susan) to Cookie (aka "Cuh") here. She has shortened Elmo to "Mo," Turtle to "Tuh" and Froggie to "Froh" too.

Big news! We started potty training on Saturday, June 6. Daiane was able to get Calista to have a pee on her potty again (it had been a while) so on Saturday we went to get her a fully furnished dollhouse I found through a mother's listserve I am on. You might notice the family is Asian. Scott jokes that it might inspire Calista to take after her Aunt Kiki's penchant for cute Asian boys. Eh hem. I will say no more. We told Calista that everytime she had a pee or poo on the potty she could get a new toy for her dollhouse--picking one out of the set. It worked like a charm! That same day she was exclaiming, "Calista is peeing for a new toy!"

When she has the share care with Eden here, then they can have one M&M for going on the potty, which is also very exciting for the girls. Calista has realized that they all taste like chocolate (at first it was very cute because she would only pick the brown colored M&Ms). Claire has done a great job encouraging her on the potty, and basically for the first week stayed very close to home!

Although she continues to have an accident now and then, she is really getting the hang of it, and we are very proud of her. Occasionally she has even told us that she needs to use the potty before we have to ask her if she wants to go. Making progress... Missy has to be fully potty trained by August 1 before she starts preschool at Pacific Primary in September, so we feel confident that she will be ready by then. Phew!