happy 2006!

...yikes! it's the new year already! i am already so behind...

...so christmas was a big day...after opening presents at our new home, we jetted off to ted's P's out in the burbs for brunch and to open some more presents...ted's bro charles and his wife ali were in town from seattle, as well as auntie lauren's boyfriend douglas from sweden...so it was a big group...

...the big christmas mid-afternoon dinner was at ted's aunt martha and uncle bob's...most of the presents at this gathering was for the 3 great-grandkids, perry (cousin connie's son) and mackenzie (cousin vikki's daughter) and of course cadence...cadence had fun toddling around every where...it's a whole new ballgame now that she's bipedal...

...the day after christmas was another family gathering...since charles and ali were in town, we had planned on doing formal family portraits at our friend brown john's dad's studio down in wicker park...it was a lot of fun, although i have to admit i'm not used to being in front of the camera...cadence was a total natural, and i can't wait to see the photos from that shoot...she was so comfortable posing for the camera, and everyone was surprised at how much she enjoyed it...i have this feeling that she'll someday end up doing some kind of performance art...mr. niekrasz (the photographer) told us to start saving money for acting school...

...cadence missed her afternoon nap because of the photoshoot, and she was so tired when we went out to eat afterwards at goose island, that she nodded off to sleep at the table...we were all cracking up because we watched her get drowsier and drowsier until her head hit the table...then she'd open her eyes a little and smile and then drift back to sleep...it was like watching footage from one of those America's Funniest Videos in which a toddler falls asleep while eating in a high chair...i'll be chuckling about this one for some time to come...

anywho, i don't think i'll ever catch up rambling like this, so here are a few photos from the past week...

...as if all her new shoes weren't enough, cadence also got to walk in her uncle charles's shoes...

...can you tell she put this hat on all by herself?

...charles and ali stayed with us all week, and as you can see, cadence LOVES her uncle charles...as a matter of fact, we left her with charles and ali to go see the getup johns play at the hideout on wednesday night...that was quite a show!

...and yet another christmas present for her feet...

...our little whirlwind...

...there's something about this light that i really like...

...i love her little curl in the middle of her neck...

...we went to the skokie sculpture park with charles and ali...

...it just so happens that charles is an awesome artist, and he could make a better piece of sculpture than anything we saw...

and that's it for now...