sick, cranky baby

well, we've had a sick baby on our hands for the past week. it's been aitch-ee-double-hockey-sticks around here. cadence has been unusually cranky with this bout of the cold. i know it's normal for there to be some crankiness accompanying an illness, but cadence has been usually pretty good-natured through out all her few sicknesses. maybe this one has been more painful than her past ones. for a few nights there, i thought i was going to go crazy because i was having such a hard time calming her down, and she'd just keep waking up throughout the night. ted has been the fortunate one, sleeping on the air mattress in the living room, since cadence won't have anything to do with him after 9pm.

i don't know where she picked up this particularly nasty bug. she was doing so well last weekend. we had a good time at my aunt's 60th birthday party at a korean restaurant. she sat through a 2 1/2 hour dinner like a real trooper.

she was so friendly with everyone at the dinner and probably enjoyed the attention of being the only one in the room to have been born in the 21st century. it was also nice that my brother and cousins sherline and debbie were there to dote on her.

on monday, it was such a beautiful day out, and cadence felt well enough to break in her new pink chuck taylors at the park. her feet look so huge in them, and they make her look older for some reason. i guess they just look like grown up shoes, even in pink.

we had a good time at the park, which was totally crowded since it was the first day of spring that actually felt like spring. cadence just stared at all the kids running around. i don't think she's ever seen so many kids at once before.

well, it was all downhill after that...her nose turned into a fountain of snot, and she was running a fever and coughing too...she probably had some other aches and pains that we couldn't discern due to the language barrier, and she's been pretty difficult to deal with. but you know, it's all part of parenthood. i'm sure she's not enjoying this sickness any more than we are...

'sin'...a cure for constipation?

we are realizing that cadence knows more words than we're aware of...just last night, she asked for some 'mo' sin? sin?' i was like 'huh?' until i saw her pointing at a big bag of raisins. oh, that kind of 'sin'! sometimes it gets confusing...like when she asks for some 'ee-ee-oh's' (trans: cheerios) and simultaneously points to the living room and asks 'ee-ee-oh?' (trans: video). her favorite phrases these days are some variation on the word go. 'here go' (trans: here you go) or 'whur go?' (where'd it/she/he go?) or just 'go!'

she is also enjoying bathtime much more now that we've brought toys into the picture. this is the waterpark bath toy set she got from cousins vikki and mackenzie for her birthday.

now, it's hard to get her out of her bath before she gets pruny hands and feet...i can't wait until summer so we can take her to a real swimming pool! i hope she's not scared of water...i'm really counting on her to learn swimming early in life.

first lego set and first day of "school"

so my cousin ben and his wife rachel were in town this past weekend, and they bought cadence her first lego set! all the cousins got to hang out, and it was really good to see the newlyweds, whom i hadn't seen since their wedding in NJ last june. cadence loves her new lego set, and i knew she would because there's a kitty cat AND a dog in it! i also learned that she knows how to mooo like a cow, cuz when she saw the cow piece, she went 'moo.' i think i find out something new everyday that cadence knows that i didn’t realize she knew. i guess she is at that sponge stage. i just hope she will soon understand what it means when i say ‘mommy, ow!’ when she nurses…

and today was her first day of anything that remotely resembles school...she had her first tumbling class today through the park district. can you believe she’s old enough for organized class activities?? she barely made the cut, since it’s for 18 month and up. ted told me she basically ran around saying hi to everyone the whole time. she wouldn’t do log rolls, but she did walk on the balance beam while ted was holding her hand. and our friend ada grey is in the class too, which is exciting. i’m going to take off one of these tuesdays so i can go to class with her.

18 months old!

yup. it's true. our little cadence joy is officially a year-and-a-half old as of last friday. just look at her sitting like such a big girl in a big people chair at the bourgeois pig.

she's definitely talking more, although most of it is still in a language i forgot over 30 years ago. she now says 'bak' for book instead of just 'ba'. 'bappo' for whatever she wants to eat has now became 'mo?' maybe because i keep asking her 'do you want more?' 'ball' is her favorite word and thing in general. she can now count one, two, four-five. she'll say random letters of the alphabet. she can do the motions for 'itsy-bitsy spider.' at this very moment, she is walking around our condo in a pair of my shoes. she is growing up way too fast.

i am relieved to say that since coming home from vacation, cadence has returned to her usual sweet self, for the most part. i think being away from home really threw her off, and i was scared that she was turning into a little ball of temper tantrums. she's been much better since we got home and back into a general routine.

recovering from vacation was a painful experience nevertheless. cadence started sleeping very poorly the night we got home, and i think i went 5 nights in a row after vacation without decent sleep. it got to the point where ted had to set up the air mattress in the living room so at least one of us (ted) could get some rest. thank goodness she seems back to her old sleeping schedule.

sunday was monthly grandma day again. we went to see ted's grandmas carol and sophie. we had a big group. all 3 of ted's siblings in the chicago area (david, lauren and jason) as well as david's girlfriend becki made it out to see grandma carol.

at grandma sophie's, cousin vikki and her daughter mackenzie were there as well. cadence loves playing with cousin mackenzie! and we got a special treat when mackenzie showed us the dance routine she's doing for her ballet recital coming up in may. cadence thought it was great fun and danced along! i love watching those two interact. cadence loves grandma days! she really loves spending time with family, since she normally only sees me and ted during the day.

anyhoo, my neck is stiff as a board, so i think i'm gonna stop typing now.

vacation update part...quattro?

SATURDAY: BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE CO., BERKELEY, BABY! TELEGRAPH AVE, MORE BEER, GRACE CATHEDRAL

saturday morning, we got in line for the best coffee in town at the blue bottle coffee company in the hayes valley, self-proclaimed artisan microroasters of organic coffee. they only use ccffee that's been roasted in the last 48 hours, and each cup of coffee is individually dripped. yeah. that's what i call fresh. the cappunico was nice and frothy for the whole cup and it was a double shot of espresso! a great deal for 2.75!

after our caffeine fix, we headed across the bay bridge to berkeley's telegraph ave, home to BOTH rasputin music and amoeba music, two of the biggest music stores you'll ever see.

we spent more money at this here store than any other. gillian welch, buddy and julie miller, bloc party, beck and a french pop compilation were some of our purchases.

quite a mural, don't you think?

on UC Berkeley's campus. cadence got to throw pennies into the fountain and make her first wishes.

here's lookin' at you, kid!

dancing...or is she trying to fly? who knows...

i just think it's so adorable the way cadence holds her daddy's finger as she goes down stairs.

cadence finally got to run around to her heart's content. well, maybe not QUITE content, but we really did let her let loose.

nutty birds.

and of course, we couldn't visit berkeley without stopping in at their local brewery. here we are at the triple rock.

more samplers. yummy!

ted + good beer = happy hubby. pretty simple, really.

cadence + cheerios = happy baby. usually.

happy baby + happy hubby = an 'awwww...' moment photo.

and a drive-by shot of grace cathedral because mark kozelek is on my list of Top 10 Voices That Make Me Weep For NO Good Reason.

and that's it folks. we flew home on sunday. cadence has been depriving me of sleep ever since, and now she's coming down with something that makes her nose run. my brain is total mush. mush brain. that's me. just call me mush brain from now on.