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!