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...

post christmas update

well, happy week after christmas, y'all! hope it's been a merry time for everyone and that your homes have been filled with peace and joy and love and laughter and not necessarily a bunch of stuff you don't need or want...

...cadence got a bunch of neat presents...like these red boots to match her snowsuit as well as like 5 other pairs of shoes...

...she also got some neato markers and a coloring book from her auntie ruthy...luckily, these markers will only show up as color on the special pages of the coloring book that came with the markers, so she can draw all over those nice white walls with 'em if she likes...

...one of cadence's favorite gifts is this overstuffed chair that we ordered from san diego...it's just her size, and she loves it! as soon as we took it out of the box, she climbed right in and sat down...

...the most anticipated gift has to be her new 3-octave schoenhut upright piano...we've had it for weeks in the box because we wanted to see it for the first time on christmas morning...we all love it, and it sounds just so magical...

...this was the first christmas morning together as a family in our new home, and it was lovely...we opened most of our family presents together and left a few to take to ted's parents' for the big mass gift opening later that day...

more later...

merry christmas, y'all!

... things are about to get really busy in our home, so in case i don't get to post for a while, have yerselves a merry little christmas and a blast of a new year!

...ted's bro charles and his wife ali will be staying with us next week...i only work two out of the five work days, and i'm really looking forward to spending time with the family and our friends...

...i'm especially thankful today because a couple nights ago, i saw my life flash before my eyes...we had quite a scare with cadence, and it taught me how precious each day is, and how fragile life can be and yet how resilient children are at the same time...

...well, the story is that we were doing some christmas shopping tuesday night at the mall...we were leaving around 9:30pm, and i was carrying cadence in my arms in front, and i couldn't see that there was a concrete slab on the sidewalk where a bench used to be mounted, and i totally tripped and sent cadence flying backwards and she hit her head full force on the concrete...i can't even try to express in words how stunned and shocked i was at that moment...without even thinking, i scooped her up into my arms and to my dismay, she wasn't responding...i don't know if she too was stunned, or if she lost consciousness, but it took her a little while to actually start crying, and even when she did, her body still felt limp, and i was totally freaked out...we couldn't find any lacerations on her head, or even a bump (she was wearing a hat that must have provided some padding), but the impact of the fall was so alarmingly hard that i thought for sure she'd have permanent brain damage...i called our doctor's office to page the doctor on call, and she told us to take her in to the emergency room just to be on the safe side...she thought cadence was okay because she wasn't vomitting and she actually got up on her feet when ted put her down to check her range of motion...

since we didn't even have a diaper bag, we had to go home first...cadence seemed to be doing fine, so i decided to get a 2nd opinion and called an old family friend and doctor dr. shin...he too asked about vomitting, and when i told him she wasn't throwing up and that she seemed okay, he said she was probably fine but to watch her and if she started crying a lot or vomitting to go to the emergency room...so we went home and weren't planning on putting her and ourselves through the added stress of a visit to the ER and just hoped she'd be fine...but about 40 minutes after the fall, she started getting fussy and crying and looking kind of sick....that's when she threw up all over herself and me...that was the most she'd ever puked in her life, and it scared the crap out of me...somehow we managed to get ourselved changed, packed a bag and headed for the ER...4 hours and a CAT scan later, we were told everything was fine and given the green light to go home...we didn't get to bed that night until about 4am...

i don't know what i'd have done if things weren't okay...i know we would have managed, but it would have broken my heart if anything had happened to hurt cadence long-term...even now, i still hope and pray that she'll heal from this completely...

it just goes to show that your whole life can change in a flash...we take so much for granted everyday, and as cheesy as it sounds, each new day really is a gift...i for one hope to make the best of what i'm given...

getting settled...

...well, we're getting settled into our new home...i've unpacked most of our CDs at least...cadence is having a fine time toddling around the place...we've been so busy, i'll be lucky if i get all my christmas shopping done...and it's just so damn cold out there these days that i really don't feel like leaving our cozy home...

...cadence will be 15 months old on saturday, and it's just amazing how much she's matured...it's like she became a whole new person now that she's walking...*sigh*...she's growing up so fast already! and she is so affectionate...on days when we get to wake up as a family, she leans over and gives me a hug and a kiss...then i tell her to give dada a kiss and she turns over and gives ted a kiss too...she loves playing with stuffed animals...she takes them by the hand and leads them around the house...and she gives them big hugs and smoochy kisses often...she can count to two ("wah, boo!") and her favorite phrase these days is thank you, which she enunciates very well for a 15 month old...if she sees a picture of a flower, she will sniff it and then give it to you to sniff as well...she loves to share her cheerios, although sometimes she'll actually put the cheerio in her mouth after offering it to you...she does the cutest little butt wiggle and bouncy-bouncy dance to her favorite tunes...and when she says in her adorable little voice, 'mama? mama? mama?' all my troubles melt away...

first blog entry from the new home

well, we’re moved in the new place now…it was quite an ordeal and took quite a bit of labor on the part of a number of people…thanks to lauren for shoveling the alley and providing the delicious chai and apple crumble in ADDITION to moving tons of stuff…thanks also to our bros david and jason and jim and our friends olarn and brian and keom and dave norton and connolly…it took every bit of their help to get our stuff moved…i just hope we never ever have to move in winter again…

i was worried about cadence during the move because she’s been sick and a bit clingy…my mom came over to watch her while we were loading the truck, but she didn’t want to play with my mom…she wanted to see what was going on…so i slung her on my back with my ellaroo wrap, and she was happy as a clam in there for the next few hours until we were ready to leave for the new place…she even got to nap in there, which was great, because we’d destructed every surface that would be suitable for baby to lie down on…i don’t know what i would’ve done if i didn’t have that sling…

we’re just settling in now to our new surroundings…the place is so huge compared to our old apartment that i’ve already lost my cell phone…i’m pretty sure cadence hid it somewhere…

speaking of cadence and cell phones, she’s taken to crank calling people with my phone…last week she called my cousin jeannie in california…a couple days ago she called a guy named bill and it turned out to be none other than bill mallonee…he got a kick out of that, and it’s always nice to talk to bill…i think he was inside a cracker barrel restaurant…i’m gonna have to go through my phone book and delete phone numbers for folks i definitely DON’T want cadence to call, or it could get a bit awkward…