happy birthday, miss mia!

"whutcha lookin' at, daddy?"

born to be wild!

...so last night was miss mia's birthday party...we showed up early cuz we knew we couldn't stay too long with cadence, and also cuz we knew it was gonna be a smoky party as the night progressed...the party was in the motorcycle shop that's in the building where mia lives, and teddy's eyes got big when he saw all the cafe racers that were being rebuilt in there...he's been watching shows like american chopper and southern steel just about every night on the discovery channel...i swear, those are the only shows they even air now on that station...anywho, it was great to be able to say happy birthday to a chicago rock 'n' roll icon like miss mia...she inspires me to keep on rawkin' out, and i know she'll do the same for cadence...and it was cool to get those photos of our little shorty on a racer!

...so did i mention it was an absolutely beautiful day here in the windy city yesterday? it felt like the middle of spring...cadence & i went for a long walk in the neighborhood over to lincoln square...yup, i'm a mommy with a stroller now! i have to say, it was a little difficult maneuvering that minibabySUV through the narrow aisles of laurie's planet of sound, so i had to park her in the store window behind the country section...which was just fine with me because i decided it was high time i picked up gillian welch's 'soul journey' which has been out for almost 2 years already...sheesh...that was just pure laziness on my part...anywho, after thinking about the good ol' days when i'd spend saturday afternoons at reckless records, it was nice to browse through an indie record store again, and even if it's not as big as reckless, they still sell the good stuff there...AND they sell buttons at laurie's! i picked up a bob dylan button of the blonde on blonde cover...i love that photo of him...he's so..YOUNG...

...hey, look at that! it's a photo without cadence in it! yeah, i took a few of those yesterday on our long stroll through lincoln square...still not as many as i would've back in the old days, but enough about the old days already...it was just so lovely to be outdoors yesterday in a hoodie instead of a big thick down coat, which is what you would normally wear on february 5th on any given year in chicago...pretty soon, it'll be spring, and when spring comes, cadence will be 6 months old...wow...you know, there's a BIG difference between 4 months and 6 months...and then come summer, holy schmoles, she'll be crawling and maybe even taking her first steps towards the tail end of summer...i can't wait to take her to the little baby pool in glenview at the big pool where teddy & i went last summer...i've already been looking at swim suits for her!

...so much to look forward to...you know, having a kid is about the hardest thing i've ever done...but oh, the joy! the joy, the everyday joy that is my cadence joy...even photos can't do justice to the joy i feel during so many little moments throughout the days that i spend with my little one...