happy thanksgiving!

...well, i hope y'all had a very happy thanksgiving...cadence actually wore a skirt to celebrate...i think i can count the number of times she's worn a skirt or dress on my two hands...i don't know if it's the lack of hair or what, but it sometimes looks funny to me to have her in a dress...maybe it's cuz i personally don't like wearing a skirt...but this outfit was a gift from cousin vikki, and it was way too cute to pass up for a special occasion like thanksgiving at the P's...

...actually, cadence and cousin mackenzie could have been spokeskids for The Children's Place with the outfits they were both wearing at thanksgiving dinner...they were both very cute indeed...and they had a lot of fun chasing each other around!

...so anywho, thanksgiving at ted's parents' was great, although we missed grandma carol and (ted's bro) charles and (charles's wife) ali and cousins connie and ben and their son perry...ted's mom is such an awesome cook...we took home a bunch of leftovers and had almost the same meal for lunch today, which was a major bonus...

...on the way home, we stopped at my uncle's house in northbrook where my mom and my bro jim were spending thanksgiving...we got there right in time for more dessert! my cousins shereline and debbie were there too...i think we spent most if not all of our thanksgivings growing up w/ shereline and debbie's family...

...and today, dave, lauren, sherline and debbie joined us to see Walk The Line at a movie theater out by my mom's place so she could babysit cadence...i think this is the first movie i've seen in the theater without cadence since before she was born...although i think she would've enjoyed it, since she really likes johnny cash's music...i really enjoyed the movie, considering i've read CASH:THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY like twice in the past 11 months...the amazing part is that the portion of cash's life that the movie covers (from his boyhood to 1968, just after he records the 'at folsom prison' album) encompasses just a small snippet of his entire career...if they had covered his whole career and personal life, there would probably be material for at least a few more movies...

i really love johnny cash, not just for his music, but because he is someone who's fallen down so many times as flat on his face and in the dirtiest muck possible, and he still found grace to get back up and start over again...and he really did have The Gift...

moonlighting

so it appears that cadence is moonlighting elsewhere on the web...her photos are on a couple pages of the website for the FUNdamentals playroom, the playgroup in lincoln square that we go to occasionally...

check it out here and here...

she's a busy baby!

for those of you with kids who live near lincoln square, make sure you check out the playroom sometime...misti, who is the director, is a really neat woman...cadence LOVES playing there!

open letter to my precious...

dearest little cadence,

i just wanted to let you know that your mommy ate oatmeal for breakfast today...she doesn't like oatmeal, and she really wanted to get the muffin or the buttermilk pancakes, but she opted for the oatmeal...why, you ask? because she loooooves you and wants to pump more milk for you than she has as of late, and for some reason god made oatmeal the wonderdrug for lactating mothers...why it couldn't have been muffins or buttermilk pancakes or better yet CHOCOLATE, i don't know...god has his mysterious ways...

but because you give your mommy looks like this:

...she will eat the oatmeal...maybe not EVERY morning, but at least a few times a week...(ugh.)

and if you keep giving your mommy looks like this:

...she will keep eating the oatmeal and hopefully that'll keep the milk flowing...

xoxo,
your mama

a year ago today...

...i went back to work after 8 incredible weeks of cadence joy 24/7...i still remember that very first day...ted had been working full-time until i went back to work, so he wasn't used to being the primary caregiver...boy, was he in for a shock! cadence would NOT drink from a bottle...i must have called every half-hour to see if she'd eaten...i was a nervous wreck at work that day...it took a few days, but cadence got used to her daddy, and now those two make quite a pair!

our prayers have been answered...

...cadence is pooping nicely again! whew! and i must say, her mood has improved dramatically! it's amazing what a couple of days on a prune diet will do...

...now she even gets to eat her beloved cheerios again...i think we'll still feed her prunes at least one meal a day, just to keep her plumbing working nice and smoothly...

...so i got me a coat, a nice warm down filled coat...and you know what's sad? i saw this little old lady wearing the exact same coat in a different color today...i've been reduced to wearing a granny coat! it's a far cry from when i used to go the entire chicago winter in nothing but a hoody and maybe a ski vest...oh well...i'm sure i won't regret it when my walk to the metra doubles in a month...not that 8 minutes is that long of a walk...