Calista Catherine and Cassandra Claire Brady: Nonni visits

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, December 14, 2009

Nonni visits

My mom arrived October 23 and spent the next week taking care of me and Cassandra. It was such a luxury to have my mom here -- not only did she get up early with Calista every morning, she made us breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, cleaned, and basically totally pampered me. It was a sad day when she left. On the 24th we went to Scare Grove (aka Stern Grove) for some pre-Halloween festivities. Calista was in heaven running around, making a Harry Potter wand, getting her face painted, dancing, etc. It was quite the party!

The next day my mom and I took the girls to another Halloween party at Julias Kahn park, organized by the Golden Gate Mothers Group in SF. This time Calista dressed up like a ballerina, and spent hours jumping in the bounce house. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and thankfully my mom was there to run after Calista!