Cassie spent the night with my parents so Tim and I could have our date night. I was planning to take Tim to the movies (to see I am Legend) but with our winter storm we decided to stay home and watch American Idol episodes we recorded from earlier in the week. I only made it through one...I can't handle seeing them make fun of real people who have feelings, emotions, etc. I know many people claim the Idol contestants 'deserve' it since they go on TV but it still hurts me to watch them...I'm way too empathetic, I suppose! Anyway, it was nice to have a quiet evening with my favorite guy!
Cassie was so fun to be with yesterday! We had much to accomplish yesterday so I bundled her up and we headed out the door. Right before our last stop, as I snapped Cassie in her car seat and she said, "sleepy sleepy". I was surprised..."are you sleepy, Cassie?" Her response, "night night". Am I blessed or WHAT!!?! I am SO glad I have a baby who can tell me when she's tired and ready for a nap. We went ahead into Safeway, but I made sure to be quick and to distract her with the fun of a ride in the car-cart. She LOVED it...said "beep beep" all through the store!Earlier, while we were in Walmart she made some connections too. I was trying to match toilet paper with my coupons so admittedly, I was distracted. Cassie pointed to the roof and kept saying, "loon" which is her way of saying "balloon." I didn't look up but sorta dismissed her "loon" as a jibber-jabber and not any sort of meaningful communication. For shame, Mommy because, lo and behold, when I did look up-there was a random Elmo Mylar balloon that had somehow drifted over the paper section of Walmart!
Then, while we were checking out, again, I was distracted and dismissed her constant pointing and saying "Maaat" as jibber-jabber. Mommy has now learned her lesson: Cassie has officially become a communicator because, when I finally took notice, Cassie was pointing to the eye-center advertisement of a man wearing wire-frame glasses...a man who looked a LOT like Cassie's favorite Uncle "Maaat" who also wears wire-rimmed glasses! Isn't it sweet that she made the connection? To quote my husband, "she's a genius!"After we got home I put Cassie in bed for her nap and, true to her earlier statement, she was indeed sleepy and went right to bed. We did wake her up prematurely, however, because my dad arrived around 2:30 to pick her up for the spend-the-night party at Mimi and Poppie's. Cassie LOVES her weekly slumber parties at my parents. She talks about them constantly and will hand me the phone requesting, "Mimi" which means...will you please call my Mimi? Of course, Cassie spends 3 mornings a week with my mom...they color (Cassie says her colors now, thanks to teacher-Mimi), play in the "moon-sand" (that's the wax coated sand stuff that is much cleaner and more fun than regular sand) and listen to Bible songs. Thursday nights though are Poppie's special time with Cassie since he's not home during the mornings. Poppie and Cassie have a special connection through music...they both enjoy singing and I'm convinced that many more precious musical moments are ahead for them both!
Speaking of music, Cassie goes to the nursery to play with Miss Greta on Tuesday mornings (while I'm at Bible study). This past week, Greta told me that Cassie was singing the "B-I-B-L-E" song, unprompted by them. I was encouraged by the fact that they indeed recognized her 'singing' an actual song! The other thing they noticed (and I have too) is how Cassie will say, "I Know" after you make a statement. Example: "These are Mommy's shoes." 'I know'. We'll need to be careful with that one...I don't want Cassie to become a "know-it-all"!
FINALLY, it seems to me that Cassie is getting close to potty-training. Already, she lets me know when she's having a...ummm..."private" moment. Usually, she'll go to an out of the way corner to do her business, first letting me know that she's going "poo poo" (NOT a word I taught her...we can credit that descriptive term to her father!). On Wednesday, however, I was putting on makeup in the bathroom when Cassie went to the toilet and leaned on closed lid while saying "poo poo". She then proceeded to have her moment. I suppose I should start thinking about putting her on the toilet more often. :)
I know this is an insanely long post. If you made it this far, you might want to check out these pictures and videos on our Picassa. Thank you for celebrating our baby's discoveries with us!
http://picasaweb.google.com/kayhoffman7/CarCartCassie?authkey=2pbUm1Klv0w
