Calista Catherine and Cassandra Claire Brady: Trick or Treat

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

Trick or Treat

Yes, Calista can now say, "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat." I promise I did not teach her that -- am thinking she picked it up at school perhaps? In any case, Halloween was a blast! We went to Liz, Gabriel and Alex's and trick or treated on Belvedere in Cole Valley. It was amazing, and the perfect place to go for Calista's age. The houses were decorated to the nines -- even the garages and trees! One of the biggest highlights for Calista was meeting Cookie Monster (we didn't have the heart to point out the beer he was carrying...). She was really brave and loved saying, "Happy Halloween! Trick or treat!" at each house. We were so proud of her. Scott had been telling her stories for months about costumes, which I think prepared her for the big day. In each story Calista was a kitty cat, I was a ladybug, and Scott was a dinosaur. Et voila, guess what we were for the actual day!?