Over the past few weeks, we've had some great playdates and get-togethers with friends that live
in the area. It's been such a nice welcome to the new city! We all have kids that are about the same age, which makes it really fun to get together for some playtime. We had a wonderful dinner over at The Elliott's home in Vernon Hills and another fun night at the Hoffmeister's house, which happens to be just 3 streets away from us! We're so happy to have friends that live nearby, and they've all been so helpful as we seek out things like local doctors, plumbers, etc. They've also introduced us to some new friends, and we look forward to getting to know everyone here even better in the months to come.We've also had some of our friends from our old neighborhood up to visit. It's about a 20-30 minute drive, depending on traffic...so we appreciate them taking the time to come up! We hope we can continue to have fun playdates and dinners even though we're a little further down the road (or Wii competitions in funny shirts, whatever works!).
[These are pics of Cassie with two of her best guy friends - Owen and Luke! The crazy people in the group photo are our great neighbors from our old home!]
With the weather so cold, we've been spending a lot of time at the local indoor play areas - particularly the Exploratorium in Skokie and the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview. They are both less than 10 minutes away and offer Cassie an entire morning of playtime! She just loves to run around and explore all of the exhibits - especially the water areas. We've learned to bring a change of clothes!
So...the latest with Miss Cassidy. She is showing a very playful personality these days. Much of her time is spent doing one of the following: playing peek-a-boo/hide and seek, giving or receiving tickles, singing songs, dancing while daddy plays guitar, squirting and splashing in the
bath (sometimes squirting daddy!), laying out all of her stuffed animals on the floor and laying down with them for pretend "night-night", wearing hats and playing dress-up, and experimenting with pigtails (actually this is only mommy - we can only get them in if she's really distracted!). She really, really loves music. She has a few different musical toys and rotates through them during playtime. Each evening, we take a 5-minute car ride over to the train station to pick up daddy, and if a song ends while we're driving and the DJ starts chatting, she will literally start crying, actual tears, saying "musiiiic!!!" in this sad little voice - until I can scramble to find a station playing another song. The instant she hears singing or at least an instrument sound, the crying is over and smiles return. So funny to see all her little "quirks" start to emerge. She has also discovered counting and will count anything she sees - the crackers I put 
on her tray, her toes, her "guys" (stuffed animals), the boats in her bath, pretty much anything. Every once in a while she gets through 1-10 in order - but most often she'll say "1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10!" I've also noticed that whenever she bumps herself (enough to get the whimpers going), she'll say "I'm sorry" as her little lip turns down and quivers. She must have gotten used to me saying "I'm so sorry you bumped your head/toe/elbow, etc.!" and thinks this is just what you say when something hurts. It's so interesting to see how the mind develops! And lastly, we've been working a lot on manners, and she has caught on pretty well with please, thank you and you're welcome. I was prompting her to say it at every appropriate time, and then yesterday I helped her open her fruit snack paper, and she blurted out "Thank you, mama!"Well we are down to 2 short weeks until Cassidy has a little brother or sister, and we can't wait!!! Our great friends Meg and Rob just welcomed their new little boy, Charlie Vlach - and it sounds like big sister Madeline is adjusting wonderfully. We wish them all the best and can't wait to join them soon!
