Thumpers

Chris takes Cass to a soccer class every Saturday morning. He is currently in the "Thumpers" class, which is the class for kids that are 25 - 36 months old. It's funny, because except for the warm-up at the beginning of the class, they don't even touch a soccer ball. They play a lot of games and run around though, so it is good for the kids. Cass is the newest member of the class and he is a little bit younger than the rest of the kids (we signed him up for this older class because his friends, or actually Daddy's friends that have kids a few months older, go to this class), so he is still getting comfortable with things. He is a little timid and watches the other kids quite a bit, but has fun once Chris gets him to participate.

I can't remember why Cass was just sitting on the field in this picture - it may have been one of the times when he just was watching the other kids. However, it may have been when the coach was giving instructions. We have learned that although he isn't the most active participant, he is a very good listener and has more of an attention span than the other kids. I imagine this will change when he gets more comfortable and starts running around more.

First time away from Cass

I've been very fortunate and have not had to travel for work since Cass was born . . . until this week. I went to Atlanta for 2 nights for a training. It was so hard to leave him since I had never spent a night away! However, I ended up being fine, and so was Cass (at least for the most part). He and Daddy got to spend some quality time together. The second night that I was away Chris heard him crying at 1:30 in the morning, and had to go lay down with him for a while. He didn't sleep much the rest of the night. We don't know what caused it, but we wonder if he was missing mommy. Who knows!!!?? Anyway, Chris took this picture of him the morning after I left, and emailed it to me - I thought it was so thoughtful of Chris to dress him in this shirt and send it to me while I was away - what a good hubby, huh?

Fountains

On Friday I took Cass to Birkdale, which is an outdoor shopping center that has an area with fountains for kids to play in. It was the first time that he had been there, so he spent a lot of time just watching all of the other kids play. He tends to be timid in these types of settings, but I was able to get him to play in the water a little bit. I'm not sure if it was the heat, or all of the activity (probably both), but he was worn out after this - he took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon!!

Reliving the prom days

It's not very often that Chris and I get dressed up like this! We had a black tie event to go to for work (for my fellow EY blogreaders, it was the Carolinas' Regional EOY Awards Gala). It felt like we were going to prom or something, except we're in our 30's and I'm almost 8 months pregnant!! :) Anyway, we'll count this as the latest belly pic . . . these days the front view is much better than the side view of my belly - similar to when I was pregnant with Cass, my tummy sticks straight out in front of me! Strangers keep asking me how many "days" until the baby is due, and I have to let them know that it is a matter of WEEKS! So, back to the event . . . it is an awards banquet honoring entrepreneurs - I interviewed one of the finalists for the competition. She owns a baby accessory company called Bella Tunno (her website is www.bellatunno.com) - she's a young mom that started making things for her own kids, and people started commenting on them. Now she has several different lines that sell in Nordstrom, Target, the Gap, etc. Her products have been included in the Golden Globe gift baskets for celebrities, so Courtney Cox, Dustin Hoffman, and other celebrities are now her customers. She has a neat story, so you all should check the site out . . . my favorite products are the headscarves for toddler girls and the diaper bags.

Beach vacation

We went to North Myrtle Beach for a short vacation last week. Cass loved the ocean. He also loved chasing the ducks on the boardwalk. For more pics, see the slideshow above.

Allergy test

The last few weeks, Cass has had really red, itchy, watery eyes. We finally took him to the doctor, and the doctor said his nose was a little irritated too, so it was probably allergies. They took blood (from both arms as you can see) so they could test him to figure out what he was allergic to. He was so brave - he didn't even cry, and they took quite a bit of blood! Anyway, we found out that he is allergic to absolutely nothing! Go figure. The doctor said that certain pollutants (like pollen) can cause allergy-like symptoms in some people, even though they aren't really allergic, so that must be what is going on. We are relieved to know that there are no allergies, now we're just hoping that whatever is bothering him stops soon.

Falls Park

Last weekend we took a little roadtrip to Atlanta. One of my favorite places - Greenville, SC - is halfway between Charlotte and Atlanta. We stopped there and went to the park, then had ice cream on Main Street.

Here's Cass checking out the river that flows through the park.

It's kind of hard to see, but if you look closely, you can see that Cass is chasing (or I should say terrorizing) a bird.

Here's we are (including my belly at 31 weeks prego) in front of a waterfall in the park.