Best Shot(s) Monday--Proof that Cadence is Hipper Than Moi

Proof #1--Crazy bedhead hair. I could NEVER get MY hair to do that.

Proof #2--Totally cool flamin' hat.

Proof #3--Notice the flannel snap button shirt beneath her Threadless Tee. And that look of bershon. While holding a balloon.

Proof #4--She always travels with an entourage.

Ok. So all this really has nothing to do w/ hipness. But in my estimation, Cadence has mastered the hip and cool like I never could as a kid. I hope she masters the way of love and compassion and justice as well.

See other folks' Best Shots on Tracey's Mother May I.

Let It Snow

When my family moved to the U.S. from Seoul back in 1978, we couldn't have had a harsher winter to initiate us into life in Chicago than that first one we experienced, which just happened to include the infamous blizzard of '79 that fell in January. This was the snow storm that booted the incumbent mayor out of office due to the transportation nightmare that ensued. I remember loving the snow as a kid. I guess all kids do, huh? My friend Ruthy and I must have spent hours playing in it. I don't know how we stood the cold.

I haven't played in the snow in a while, but it's kind of unavoidable if you a) have a kid and b) live in Chicago. This is the first winter that Cadence hasn't been scared of the white stuff, and now she really loves it. She even helped me shovel when it was our unit's turn to be on snow duty for our building. She is happy to just sit at our window and watch the snow come down, down, down, but what she REALLY loves is playing in it. It's one of the few times she is cooperative getting all her clothes on--socks, babylegs, undershirt, sweater, snowpants, scarf, coat, hat, mittens, and boots.

I have to say that seeing her rosy-cheeked, beaming face is totally worth freezing my butt off. Really, joy doesn't get any purer than this. I suppose some day Cadence will be old enough to go out and play in the snow by herself. But I hope I'll be the kind of mom who'll go out and make snow angels or build a snowman or snowfort right alongside her.

Happy 2008! And Welcome!

Welcome to the new domain, y'all! This is my first official post on shutterbugmama.com! Hope you guys are as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as Cadence on this first day of 2008.

We had the most boring New Year's Eve possible in our home. Ted and I both had headaches (his was beer-induced, mine was a migraine) all day. Poor Cadence had to fend for herself. I had wanted to take her downtown on the train (it's what she wanted), but my headache didn't go away until around midnight (just in time for 2008!). We stayed in and watched The Straight Story, which is a sweet movie and all, but about the most boring movie you can watch on New Year's Eve. Yeah. We're a dull bunch around here.

That's alright, though. We had enough excitement on Sunday night when we hosted a chili party for (mainly) our Berry Church friends. It was so exciting I didn't take any photos pretty much the whole night, unfortunately. Actually, I kind of feel stupid taking photos at parties, probably because I hate having my own photo taken, but my friend Amy tells me that most folks like seeing photos of themselves afterwards, so now I regret not taking more photos.

Anyhoo, we had around 40 people show up, and Ted made JUST enough chili. It was a lot of fun, and of course the homebrew flowed like we were in the Promised Land. Cadence had a blast, as her friends Fischer, Ada, Rudden and Baby Jack were there, and I was happy because their PARENTS were there. I wish I had taken photos. Did I say that already? Oh well. Next time.

There's a fresh layer of snow on the ground calling our names to be turned into angels, so I gots to go now. Have a wonderful 2008, everyone!

Happy Boxing Day/First Day of Kwanzaa!!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday however it was celebrated (or not). We've been busy, but we also enjoyed our time with our families.

I think this was the first time Cadence actually enjoyed the act of opening presents. Since we wanted to keep things simple and not so focused on presents, we only gave her one small gift to unwrap on Christmas morning at home. It was a wooden crocodile that I had bought at the Seeds of Change marketplace earlier in the month. Cadence had wanted it then, but I had bought her a giraffe already, so I bought it when she wasn't looking and saved it for her. And she totally remembered that it was the crocodile from church and immediately reunited it with her giraffe.

We stopped at my uncle's in the burbs on the way to Ted's parents' house. My mom was spending Christmas with them, so we got to see her too. My cousins Sherline and Debbie were there too, and it's always nice to spend time with them. I think they enjoy having a little kid's voice in the house, especially for the holidays.

It turned out to be a good thing that we only gave her the one gift in the morning since there were definitely a lot of presents with her name on it under Grandma and Grandpa's tree. See that big box with the snowflakes? That's from Great Grandma Carol, and there were no less than half a dozen entire outfits in there.

Ted's mom and his Aunt Martha made Christmas dinner, which was as lovely as it was delicious. Cadence was excited to sit down at the beautiful place setting, but when it actually came time to eat, she decided against it.

After a couple bites of pasta, she decided it was time for dessert but settled for an apple she found in the fruit bowl. Finally, someone left a tupperware full of Grandma's yummy cookies out unsupervised on the kitchen table, and Cadence was in heaven.

At least four cookies later, we were served Auntie Martha's homemade eggnog ice cream, and Cadence absolutely loved it. In fact, she traded one of the cookies she had in her fist to me for my last spoonful of ice cream. I think she must have had 10 cookies at least during the course of the evening. And about 20 minutes before we left, she found the bowl of gumdrops.

Cadence probably had a week's worth of sugar in a span of 3 hours. And this is the kid who when she opened up her present from Yia Yia and found a bag of M&Ms said, "Look! Snack!" and put the bag down uninterested. Had we told her it was chocolate, she would've made us open it up on the spot.

It was a nice time with the family, although we were missing Uncle Charles and Auntie Ali in Seattle, as well as Uncle Dave and Aunt Becki and Uncle Douglas and Auntie Lauren who were vacationing in Athens for Christmas.

Alright. I'm pooped. I've been back at work as of today, but at least it's a short week. We're still super busy trying to clean up the tornado that apparently blew through our condo during the holidays. We've got people coming over on Sunday so we don't have much of a choice. The good thing is that I remembered that there is a new Salvation Army Family Store that just opened up in our neighborhood, so we can give away a lot of our stuff and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, in 2008 we'll get a system of organization down. I guess I'd have to believe in miracles for that one to come true.

Best Shot(s) Monday--Then One Foggy Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve-Eve

It being Christmas this week and all, I guess I gotta post some Christmasy photos. I've actually been terribly busy and haven't had much time to lift up my camera, but we did go to the Daley Plaza downtown on Friday night to do some family oriented holidayesque stuff, so I can at least post a few of those shots.

It was a rather foggy night, which made the scene all the more dramatic with the spotlight effect of the extra bright streetlights.

There was actually a lot going on besides the big old blindingly bright tree. Cadence loved all the hustle and bustle, especially anything related to model trains, fake penguins and fake armadillos.

There was a German festival of sorts going on with a number of vendors selling everything from German chocolates to pastries to bratwurst to toys to ornaments galore.

This was definitely the place to be if you wanted Christmas ornaments. Or a $3,000 nativity scene.

It's been very busy around here, which is why I've been neglecting this here blog. Actually, I've been working on getting my new domain/blog up and running. It's pretty much ready to go now, I think, but I'll wait until the New Year to make a clean break of it.

See other folks' Best Shots on Tracey's first BSM at Mother May I.