reunion-o-rama

...what you see above is my 4th grade class photo. yes, i am old enough to have had a teacher who wore glasses like that. and lucky me—my photo is right next to the teacher’s. it's hard to believe that 25 years have gone by since 4th grade. i still remember coming home from school on the last day of 2nd grade thinking to myself how OLD i felt now that i was entering the 3rd grade. i must have felt ancient by the time i sat for this photo.

i recently got back in touch with my childhood friend jin. she's the cute girl on the very bottom right of the photo. she organized a mini-reunion this saturday night at her place. it was fun to see old faces and to catch up with jin and the others. except for jin, all the others there were parents of teenagers by now, so i couldn't help feeling a little bit behind the curve. then again, i can't imagine parenting a teenager at this point in my life. a two-year old is challenging enough!

we've come a long way since the days of singing along to lionel richie and wham! on B96 and watching duran duran videos on MTV. back then, we couldn't wait to finally be all grown up, while at the same time never believing we'd actually grow OLD. now, we look back on those years with fond memories of our innocence and simpler times mixed with horror at our hair and wardrobe.

...on sunday, we trekked southward to downers grove to attend the open house for auntie becki's mom’s new custom lampshade business called shadygrove lampshades. it's a joint venture between linda (becki's mom) and her friend cheryl. we saw some really pretty lampshades and ate the yummiest cookies EVER (cookie bakers RAWK).

...besides lounging around and eating cookies, cadence got to goof off with uncle dave. for having napped for only about half an hour on the ride down, she was in an unusually good mood. she danced around people's legs singing cheerfully and charming everyone she met. something tells me she's NOT an introvert.

...as long as we were in downers grove, we had plans to meet up w/ some old friends of mine, greg and michele kus, whom i hadn’t seen in like at least 5 years. we still had a bit of time to kill before heading over there, and so we stopped at a school playground we saw while driving. we know how restless cadence gets when she's stuck in a car or indoors all day, so we thought it would be a good idea to let her get some fresh (albeit COLD) air and run around to her heart's content. even ted and i joined in the playground fun on the swings. we froze our butts off, but it was worth it.

...we had a lovely visit w/ greg and michele and their adorable girls anna (3) and emily (9 months). michele is a a cerified Montessori paraprofessional, and we got a lot of great ideas for fun things to do w/ cadence at home to promote play and learning. cadence and anna got along great, and little emily was the sweetest little baby—happy and content and so mellow. greg and michele are also attachment parenters, so it was a treat for us to be able to share stories and talk with folks who have similar parenting philosophies as we do. i love my non-AP mommy friends, but sometimes i can't help feeling like a freak for some of the choices we've made in parenting, such as cosleeping and extended nursing and gentle discipline. ted and i still struggle with being consistent in these choices, and seeing greg and michele and how they interact with their girls gave me the reassurance that these were in fact the right choices for our family. i just wish they didn't live so far away!

earlier in the day, we had happened to pass the new emmett's ale house in downtown downers grove. there's an emmett’s up in west dundee, really close to ted’s parents’ house. emmett's is a brewpub with some award-winning beers and pretty good food. naturally, ted could not resist the opportunity to drink some good beer, so we met up w/ dave and becki and becki's parents cal and linda for dinner there. we happen to really like becki’s parents, so we were quite happy with the arrangement. luckily, cadence was still in an unusually good mood for having barely napped all day. she even ate her green beans and carrots even when she'd asked for peas and corn (which the kitchen didn't have that day). she stayed seated for the entire dinner with minimal whining, even though we were there for a couple of hours, and was generally a delight for most of the evening.

oh, on a side note, some of you know that ted's passion for beer has not yet had much effect on my own tastebuds and aversion to most beers. well, a little while ago, i prayed a silly little prayer asking god to help me like beer because it would mean so much to ted. would you believe that of all the prayers he could have answered (world peace, eradication of poverty, winning the lottery), god chose to answer this one? it may be too early to tell for sure, but i have to say that all the beers i tried last night were downright yummy! from the victory pale ale to the 1A.M. english ale to the dunkel lager, it was all so good i could have guzzled 'em like soda. i don't know if it's just emmett's or if i'm finally acquiring a taste for all things hoppy, but if this continues, it will definitely make ted happy. and that makes me happy too.