Santa comes to Chicago (a few days early)

Last night, Santa made an early stop at Cassidy's house! Since we'll be traveling for the Christmas holiday, Santa made arrangements to drop down our chimney a few days in advance. As soon as Cassidy came down the stairs this morning, she noticed the presents under the tree and went right over to investigate. She picked one up and brought it over to her mom and dad for some assistance. We tried to tell her to tear into it, to rip open the paper and see what's inside - but she didn't seem to get that idea and instead just said "off! off!" meaning she really wanted us to help get that paper off so she could get to the good stuff. She seemed to love everything she opened - favorites appear to be her new giraffe stuffed animal ("raff" - she's giving him a hug in this photo), her Wonder Pets snowglobe and her new kitten keyboard. The keyboard is in the shape of a big purple kitten and plays various instrument sounds. What makes it extra-special to her is the "kitten mode" in which every note played comes out as a "meow." She also really loves the attached microphone. She didn't notice that part at first, but at some point this afternoon she made the discovery that her voice comes through that microphone, and she has been addicted ever since! She can hardly get a word out, though, because the second she hears her voice bellowing through the speaker, she falls into a fit of giggles. Here's a video:

We're leaving for our Christmas travels in the morning and we can't wait to see everyone!!!

Gobble Gobble 2008

Thanksgiving arrived just a few weeks ago, and the holiday season officially kicked off! Or so they say - somehow it seems like Halloween kicks off the holidays since as soon as the candy is off the shelves, the Christmas decorations pop up in stores! Anyway, I love the holidays, so I'm happy for it to gear up anytime.

As is tradition, we spent the actual Thanksgiving holiday with the Brown side of the family. The food is always delicious, and the fire is always going (I'm usually found perching near it, one of my favorite spots during the winter!). Cassidy had so much fun playing with the toys at Grammy and Grandpa's house - this year they set up Erik's old wooden Brio train in the basement, and she and her Daddy spent a morning building a track complete with ramps and curves and all sorts of town accessories. I think Daddy might have enjoyed it a tiny bit more than Cassie(!), but she had fun watching it all take shape. I'm sure next year she'll get to be the engineer's assistant. (I wish I would have thought to take a photo, but somehow the masterpiece came and went without getting documented! Next time for sure.)

Once we work up our appetite for a second round of turkey, we always head over to Rockford to visit with the Reder side of the family. The Harding Family was there as well, so it was a fairly full house! We had another great meal and spent a good chunk of time watching football, taking naps, and catching up with each other. We also took in the latest Bond movie (Quantum of Solace I believe it's called?) - entertaining, but as the guys all said, not as good as Casino Royale and getting a bit further away from the Bond of the past.

Unfortunately, Cassie brought a terrible winter cold along on our Thanksgiving visit, so we had to follow her around with a tissue box and keep the tylenol dosage going in order to keep her smiling like her regular self. She managed as best she could, and three weeks later we're all finally feeling better in our house! But it seems I only came home with 1 actual Thanksgiving photo - Grandpa Reder in his annual role as turkey-carver, with Tracy and Steve lending a hand. Here it is!
Over the past couple weeks as we prepare for Christmas, Cassidy has continued to make us laugh with her latest "stuff." The other night, she discovered twirling - and she hasn't stopped since. At first she'd slowly step her feet around until she competed 1 circle, then we'd clap and she'd giggle like crazy. Then she realized if she kept twirling, the room would spin and things would feel funny - so that's her new favorite move. She'll go around and around until she loses her balance, and she cracks herself up every time! It's pretty funny, at least to mom and dad. She practices many times each day.

We've spent a lot of days indoors lately with the bitterly cold temperatures outside. So, mom has been searching high and low for new activities to keep Miss Cassidy occupied. We decided to make homemade playdough. It's an old recipe of my mom's that she used to make for us when we were little. It uses basic kitchen ingredients, so it was perfect for a day when we didn't want to trek out to the store. Anyway, we made 5 colors and Cassidy enjoyed smushing it around on her highchair. She's a little too young to be entertained with it for long, but it worked for part of a morning! She did try to eat it a few times, but thankfully it doesn't taste great so she didn't consume very much!

Sometimes on the weekends, Erik and Cassidy have "secret daddy time." This is when mommy gets to run errands on her own, and Cassidy and daddy tear the house apart and find as much trouble as they can together until I get back (ha). Then when I come home, I get all the details of the fun! The past few times, I have arrived home to a large fort, usually made from pillows and sleeping bags and any other item that seemed to fit their architectural vision. They go in their fort and read stories and play chase. I love to see them having so much fun together!

We also recently had our first sledding adventure of 2008. Cassidy was only 6 months old last Christmas, so she never made it out on a sled. This year, we've borrowed a great toddler sled from a neighbor who's outgrown it - she seemed to have fun! She was a little awestruck at the ordeal - she often just stared at us as we laughed, tossed snow and took pictures. Our side street never gets plowed right away, and there's hardly any car traffic - so Daddy did the hard work by pulling Cassidy up and down the streets, over bumps and hills and doing spins. Our neighbors and their 1-year old son Jacob came out as well, so we made it into a little sled race. When everyone was finally tuckered out, we came in for hot cocoa and Cassidy got a warm bath before bedtime.Cassidy is starting to communicate with us more and more these days. She will say "no" and shake her head if she is not interested in that particular book/food/drink/etc. Right now, it's refreshing, because it's not in a defiant way (at least not yet!) and we finally don't have to guess what she wants! She also says the names of her favorite characters: Elmo, Foofa (from Yo Gabba Gabba) and Ming Ming (from The Wonder Pets). Other words she uses each day: more, off, sheep, night-night, eyes, nose, mouth, baby, apple, owl, shoes, giraffe ("raff"), ball, uh-oh, shhhhh, light (especially when she sees all the Christmas lights), and cold - when we go outside, she says brrr, brrr, brrr - I guess I've been saying that a lot! I also find her singing songs when she plays - so far I've heard the tune for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and the Itsy-Bitsy Spider.

Well, that's about it for my summary. Since we're prepping for a move in a few short weeks, we have many things in storage - including Cassie's baby book, so I haven't been able to write things down lately! I'm trying to document things wherever I can. Those of you that have moved probably know exactly what I mean...

And speaking of the move, we're closing on the new house in just 2 weeks - time to start packing! Here's where we are heading...
But before that, we are very excited to celebrate Christmas with family - so many fun things to look forward to in the coming months. Happy Holidays!!!

Fun in the Sun!

The day after Halloween, we took off for a trip to the beach. We went to Pompano Beach, FL and spent a week with just the 3 of us, and then our final weekend there, Grandma and Grandpa Reder arrived and we got to spend a few days altogether. It's a favorite vacation spot that my family has been visiting annually for as long as I can remember (and way before that time too).

We've learned over the past 17 months that our daughter L-O-V-E-S the water! Whether it's bathtime, pooltime or even playing with the kitchen faucet, she's game. So it was no surprise that every morning when we woke up and made our way down to the pool area, she would make a beeline straight to the water. Daddy was her pooltime playmate for the most part, doing a great job of twirling, throwing and catching our little one as she giggled right along. Here's a video of the daily peek-a-boo game that always gave us a laugh:


We also spent some time in the ocean each day, and while she seemed to like it, she was a little more hesitant (at least at first!). But as the days went by, she became more comfortable and would happily take someone's hand and walk along the shoreline, picking up shells and various other beach finds. We even made a few sandcastles - she took part by placing the shells on top of each castle building.

As always, Cassidy had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Reder. She even stayed with them for an evening while Erik & I got to enjoy dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants, Sea Watch (http://www.seawatchontheocean.com). It sits right on the ocean and they have great fresh seafood - not to mention the key lime pie and strawberry daquiris! (Of course mine was made without alcohol this time, but honestly still just as tasty!) We try and make it there every time we visit.

It was wonderful to spend such a nice, long vacation at such a relaxing place. We're looking forward to heading back next summer with my whole family - they'll be 15 in all by then!

Our Halloween Flower

We had some really fun visits with all of Cassidy's grandparents in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Grammy and Grandpa Brown drove in one Saturday to join us for a trip to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and the Lincoln Park Zoo. The main attraction at the nature museum is the amazing "butterfly haven." Butterflies have been a part of Cassie's life from very beginning - she has a butterfly mobile hanging over her crib as well as butterfly bedding. Since she seemed to love them so much, we made butterflies the theme of her 1st birthday party a few months back! So, we couldn't resist plopping her into this huge butterfly chair for a photo in the lobby of the museum.Once we got into the warm sunroom full of butterflies, Cassie was able to come face-to-face with them at every turn. She was pointing every which way and using her babbles to tell us all about what she saw. It was a big hit. She even spent some time eying the literature - flipping through all the pictures of butterflies like a studious little zoologist. She would have loved to catch one and give it a big, squishy hug, I'm sure, but thankfully they're much quicker than her tiny hands.This museum also has an educational water play area called "river works," and she had fun splashing her hands around in that as well. It was quite the place! Afterward, we walked over to the Lincoln Park Zoo and visited the sea lions and a few other highlights - by now, it was time to head home for naptime. She had such a fun time with Grammy and Grandpa Brown (and continues to be very curious about Grandpa's sling and hand-exercise ball that's attached to it - she and her dog-cousin Cooper both want to get their hands/paws/mouths on that in any way possible!).The following weekend, we drove up to Poplar Grove to spend the morning at Edward's Apple Orchard with Grandpa and Grandma Reder and the Harding Family. It's a nearly-annual tradition to take a trip to Edward's, since it's not far from Rockford and it has the most amazing warm apple cider donuts around! We paired those donuts with some tasty apple cider, then visited the petting zoo - which was definitely the highlight for Cassidy. She meandered from fence to fence, literally squealing with excitement when the pigs would force their little snouts through the wires and lick her outstretched palm. She absolutely loved it and probably could've stayed all day, despite that pleasant barn smell...
Next up, Cassie got to take her turn at the tractor wheel and pose for some quick family shots.
We ended the outing with some shopping at their general store, which has all sorts of festive home decorations and lots of homemade jams, jellies, candies, etc. My particular favorite is their fudge, which they make on the premises - it's chocolate heaven! I can't leave without a batch (or two, or sometimes three - who's counting?).
We drove back to Rockford and spent the rest of the weekend relaxing with family. Grandpa Reder is somewhat of a clock enthusiast, and he has a particular clock in the kitchen that Cassidy has come to love. It's an antique German cuckoo clock that belonged to my grandparents. At the top, it has a tiny bird that pops out of a little door and says "cuckoo!" every 30 minutes. And of course on the hour, it cuckoos out the appropriate number of times, and then when that's done, a set of dancers set themselves in motion along with some music. Cassidy claps and squeals, and sometimes just stares in amazement. It's gotten to the point that no matter what she's involved in (watching a favorite show, building block towers, playing piano, whatever the case may be) she drops everything to run into the kitchen and catch a glimpse of those wonderful dancers! It keeps us all laughing, and as mom pointed out during our last visit, my Grandpa and Grandpa Reder would've gotten such a kick out of it all. Besides the cuckoo excitment, Cassie also got to spend lots of quality time playing games and reading books with everyone. She enjoys sitting in Grandma's lap to read stories together.
We miss seeing the Burkholders of course, who are living down in sunny El Paso - we can't wait to see you all at Christmastime!

Next up came Halloween 2008! Our Monday playgroup had a costume party, so Cassidy got dressed in her flower outfit and played alongside a kitty (Molly) and a monkey (Gordon), among others. We chose a flower this year because one afternoon when we were out costume-shopping, I picked up the flower outfit and held it up to Cassidy in a mirror. Right away she said "flowa!", and since that was one of the first times she had used that word, we decided it had to be the one. It continues to be a favorite word that we hear pretty often! On Halloween night, we joined our courtyard neighbors for the annual Halloween Potluck Party, where we all bring out food and drinks and greet the trick-or-treaters with candy. Cassidy had a blast playing with the neighbors' ride-on toys and chasing after the dogs that were out to play. She didn't have any candy this year, with her various allergies and teeth that have yet to arrive, but judging by the way she was eying that candy bowl, we might have a sweet tooth on our hands (wonder where she'd get that from???).

The day after Halloween, we headed down to Pompano Beach, FL for a great beach vacation. More to come on that in my next post!

Getting Back to the Blog!

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I've written a blog entry! Time has been flying by, and we've been extra-busy at the Brown house. Still, I need to do a better job at writing, because if I delay it too long, I start to forget all the things I wanted to write about!

So, going back to the last time I wrote, Cassidy had just taken her first steps at about 15 months old. Things have really progressed since then! She is very stable on her feet these days and loves to walk anywhere and everywhere. She takes laps around the house, roaming from room to room, loving all the freedom. She used to be so content in her stroller, but now she'd much rather push the (empty) stroller than ride in it! She's also expanding her little vocabulary at a rapid pace - every day she seems to surprise us with a new word. Her favorites to say are, "baby, car, hi!, bye-bye!, water, cup, more, and ball. She knows animal names too, but she never actually says the animal, she just makes the sound of whatever animal is mentioned. The new one this morning was when I asked her "What sound does an owl make?" She followed with an adorable little "wooohh wooohh!" We've also made a transition from 2 naps per day down to 1 - and I find the days are easier! I know lots of parents dread losing a nap, since those naptimes are the only breaks of the day - but I've found that having one longer nap allows me to get SO much more done than I ever could with 2 short naps. Anyway, Cassie made a great transition - it only took about a week for her to adjust and now she sleeps for 2-3 hours every day right after lunch. Sometimes mommy takes a little nap then, too!

So, as I mentioned, we've been very busy over the past few weeks - with all sorts of fun activities! I can't bear to skip over things, since this blog is really my main way of documenting our daily life (wrecks my whole sense of order or something, chalk it up to a Reder trait), so I'll have to break the past few weeks into a couple different entries. Going back to October...

We had a great outing to the Lincoln Park Zoo with our friends Holly & little Owen! The highlight was definitely the sea lions, where you can walk underground and come face-to-face with the sea lions in their enormous pool. Cassie and Owen stood with their noses an inch away from the glass, just mesmerized and squealing every time one would twirl on by. Also, October brought about football season, and the annual sense of hope for Da Bears. Grammy and Grandpa Brown gave Cassidy an adorable Bears cheerleading outfit, so we decided to head to a neighborhood park a few hours before gametime on a particularly sunny Sunday, with Cassie trying out her new super-fan clothes. This park happens to be across the street from Carlos Zambrano's house (Cubs ace pitcher for those non-baseball fans out there!), so of course we had to ever-so-casually make our way along the sidewalk to take a peek at big Z's place. We saw his black SUV parked out front, with the license plate "TORO 38" - a dead giveaway, considering toro means bull in Spanish and 38 is his jersey number. He also had a sign in his window stating "It's gonna happen..." - of course this was before the Cubs went on to blow the whole thing and leave us waiting, yet again, for next year. Even so, Cassie had a great time cheering on the Cubs this past season, clenching her balloon very tight and clapping when the audience clapped! In our house, I guess she is destined to be a tortured sports fan, waiting year after year for those Cubbies and reciting the super bowl shuffle as she and her Daddy look back to the '85 Bears...

We also spent some time rooting on the Illini in October! We headed down to Champaign for Homecoming weekend and had an absolute blast reuniting with our college friends and their little ones. Cassidy, Ella, Madeline and Kainoa kept the 8 of us very busy - we all stayed in 1 house together - 8 adults, 4 babies, and 1 boisterous, lovable dog, Jag - it was hilarious and so, so much fun. We managed a great tailgate (Cassie's Bears outfit made a repeat appearance - we needed some blue and orange!) and we stayed for nearly half the game before heading back to the house to accomodate much-needed naptimes. We also took some great trips down memory lane - Tara, Jamie, Meg and I made our way over to the DG house and had pumpkin pie with our lovely house mom, Teresa - we walked the halls and laughed as memories rushed back. Such fun! We also stopped in the bookstore, walked the quad, and posed for a photo with the alma mater. We also made our way over to Acacia for their alumni BBQ - saw lots of old faces and I know Erik really enjoyed chatting with his great frat buddies. The best part of this annual weekend is always catching up with great friends, and we had plenty of time for that - it was a wonderful trip.

(Baby #2 on the way for all 3 of us - fun fun fun!!!)

Well, nap time is over, so that means this entry must end as well. Lots more to write about, and hopefully soon!

Off and Running...

Cassie hit a big milestone this week - she's an official walker! She took a few first steps about a month ago, but since then she has melted down to her knees as soon as Erik or I take away the pinkie finger that she's been gripping onto so tightly as she walks from place to place. At her 15-month check-up last week, her doctor and I were discussing the usual milestones for her age, and I mentioned that she still prefers to shimmy around on her knees rather than walk on her own two feet. At first the doctor had a look of concern, which in turn gave me a moment of panic. But seconds later, after taking a peek at Cassie's muscle tone and observing her for a few moments, she laughed and said, "Give it 1 week - she'll be all over the place." Here we are, 3 days later, and she is gleefully taking off across the room, so proud of her accomplishment. Mommy and Daddy are very proud of her, too! Here are a couple videos of her showcasing her new skill. I'll give a warning that she is only wearing half an outfit - she walks best unencumbered by those silly pants and socks!

Apple Holler Apple Orchard

Isn't that a great name for an apple orchard? We got a kick out of it! Last weekend, we decided to head up to Kenosha, WI to spend the day at Apple Holler. Living in a big city, you don't often hear about orchards anywhere nearby, so we did a little research and found that this one was about an hour drive and it seemed like it would be well worth the effort.

We arrived to find rows and rows of apple trees, a big pumpkin patch, tons of activities for small children, and of course apple cider donuts! We started out at the petting zoo, and Cassidy squealed and kicked her legs every time a baby goat would approach her as she sat in her stroller, leaning right up to the wire fence for licks. Next, we went on a hayride through the orchard, pulled by a big tractor. Erik was telling Cassidy about all the apple trees we were passing, and he asked her if she saw all the red apples. She responded with "app-o!!!" She's learning new words every day, and this was the perfect place to master that one! Once we got to the outer edge of the orchard, the hayride makes a u-turn through what they've named the "Enchanted Forest" - basically a setting of huge, old trees that form a big canopy over the trail, and they've adhered wooden cut-outs of all sorts of storybook characters to all the tree trunks as you pass them by. All the little kids on the ride where shouting out left and right to their parents, naming all the characters from the stories they knew. It was a fun ride! After the hayride, we had lunch and donuts - then off to the pony ride. At first we thought Cassidy might be too little for it, but we saw other little kids her age sitting on the ponies with a parent's help, so we decided to give it a try. I took pictures while Erik held Cassidy onto "Buttercup", her chosen pony. I don't think she quite knew what to make of it, but she seemed to enjoy herself!

We tried a few times to get a nice family picture, but it seemed some of the folks spending the day at the orchard were, let's say, camera-challenged. We first tried with a nice man in line at the pony ride. We got all situated on some nearby hay bales, and got Cassie to look the right direction, and he counted down and said he got a great one! Come to find out a few minutes later that he actually didn't take a photo. So, onto the next nice lady who was just resting in a chair - she was happy to get up and take our picture, but she was holding the camera backwards - trying to find a viewfinder on the front of the camera. I got up and turned it around for her, trying to kindly show her again where the button was - but when I sat back down, she flipped the camera backwards again. Eeeek, this was really becoming a lot of work for the orchard folks! We righted her once more and she eventually snapped a photo. The picture took - hooray! - but the 3 of us were over in a small corner of the shot, about 12 feet away - so much for centering! Thank goodness for photo cropping, what a great little tool. Anyway, here's the result! Certainly not our best, but pretty good given the circumstances. Erik and I had a good laugh after that lady made her way back to her resting spot...

We visited the petting zoo once more before heading home. We came away with a big bag of honey crisp apples and some extra donuts, and have been enjoying them each day since. We're thinking we'll make the orchard an annual trip - maybe Apple Holler, maybe others - there seem to be a bunch out there in the far suburbs that had a lot to offer! And of course we love Edward's Orchard near my parents house in Rockford - we try to get there each year as well.

As I mentioned in my last post, I had not done a great job of taking pictures recently - so this week I kept the camera out and took some shots of Cassidy doing her day-to-day things. Now that the leaves are falling around our courtyard, she absolutely loves to toddle around and collect them, or even better, to sit down and have them piled all around her! She also really likes to play with the rocks that a few of our neighbors have around their trees. She takes them out one by one, then puts them back, usually trying to take a lick or two before I take them away. She is also really into wearing dress-up jewelry and playing with items from the kitchen. This picture is a typical afternoon for her, wearing her necklace and using wooden spoons and pots and pans as her drum set. She keeps us busy - we're having so much fun with her! Hope everyone is enjoying the start of fall...