aaaay is for apple

...some of you may remember my first photo shoot of cadence was the apple series...i LOVED that little apple outfit on her!

...and NOW...she's actually big enough to EAT an apple, not just wear 'em...*sigh*...

...yep, if i were an apple in our home, i'd be afraid...i'd be VERY afraid...

dear new neighbor

this is something teddy wrote for me to proofread...what do you think?

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Dear New Neighbor,

Ever since your punk ass showed up, there has been nothing but loud, pounding, shitty dance music. It sucks and we were totally fed up with it the first moments we heard it. You are wasting your time, ears and brain cells listening to that crap, and I suggest you switch over to something enriching, like folk music. Have you ever put on some early Bob Dylan? You should try it. Put it on nice and quiet, sip some tea or coffee, maybe even drink a beer and have yourself a cigarette out in the wind on the fire escape. I would even say smoke a joint if that’s your fancy. Just as long as you keep it down and make it inaudible by 9 pm every night. We have a 1 year old baby who is cute as a button. If you saw her, you would even agree. Not only do we put her down at around 9 every night, we ourselves both get up very early for work, and put ourselves down this early. So cut it out. It’s annoying and you sound like a stupid dork listening to it. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Your downstairs neighbors who were here first
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so whaddaya think? i thought it might be a little harsh...OBVIOUSLY we're not giving him this letter....but a letter must get written and soon, cuz it's getting ridiculous...

why my heart is goo

just a few of the ways that cadence can make my heart melt:

• the way she eats her cheerios
• the way she feeds me her cheerios with her little fingers (and then takes them out of my mouth to feed herself)
• the way she says ‘mmmWAH’ whenever she gives me a kiss
• the way she says ‘mmmWAH’ whenever she gives her teddy bear or any other lucky toy a kiss

• the way she scrunches up her little nose and huffs and puffs like she's a big bad wolf
• the way she giggles and laughs like a mad scientist
• the way she wiggles her body while making little fists with her hands
• the way she crawls with her head bobbing from side to side, like she’s skipping
• the way she crawls with her head down like she’s a charging rhinoceros
• the way she crawls up to my guitar and strums the strings while humming a note

  

• the way she calls me ‘mommy’ or ‘ummay’ in her tired ‘please hold me’ voice
• the way she wraps her little arms around my shoulders and buries her head in my chest
• the way she tugs on my pant legs to be picked up
• the way she crawls into my lap without hesitation and without any doubt that that is where she belongs

• the way she plays with her daddy with total abandon and glee
• the way she says ‘da DA, da DA” in her sing-songy voice
• the way she falls asleep in her daddy's arms while slowdancing to Beck
• the way she shakes her little booty to the noggin channel’s music videos

• the way she meows when she reads her kitty cat book
• the way she’ll pick up a random rectangular object and hold it to her ear and start talking into it in her ‘telephone voice’
• the way she hides my ATM card, work id, bus pass, train pass, etc under the rug
• the way she crawls under my desk and pulls herself up with her head between my legs while i’m working on the computer



• the way she claps and goes 'woo-hoo' at the end of a song
• the way she plays with her own hair as she nurses
• the way she wakes up with a big smile on her face
• the way she babbles to me in complete paragraphs, confident that i understand every word she says

• and the list goes on and on...
  

photos galore

...i had a miserable migraine yesterday so i couldn’t post more than a few photos, but this past week happened to be a big photo week for cadence…so i’ll just intersperse this post with some of my favorites…

….we’ve got a good head start on packing…actually, ted’s the one doing most of the packing…me, i’m still going through boxes that i never unpacked when we moved into our current place…cadence is enjoying this packing thing cuz she LOVES boxes…i mean, what kid doesn’t?

...we’ve got so much stuff to go through, throw out, give away, etc…we want to take as little as possible, even though we’ll have a lot more space at the new place…we plan on being there for at least 7 years, so we’ll probably need that space, as much as i try to delude myself into thinking we won’t accumulate a lot of stuff…

...in addition to the halloween party on saturday, cadence and i went to our local playgroup, the fun-damentals playroom, which meets at a lutheran church on wilson and campbell…we got there really early cuz i thought they met at 10am when they actually meet at 11am, so we went to the playlot across the street from the church…

...the light was really lovely, so we did a little photoshoot…

...cadence loved crawling around on the soft foam-like rubber fake asphalt they use on playgrounds these days (so kids don’t split body parts open, i assume)…

...you know, i’m no expert on these matters, but it is my opinion that cadence has more energy than the average 13 month old…yes, i know babies have a LOT of energy in general, but she is just non-stop…the only thing that’ll calm her down sometimes is a book…thank goodness she LOVES books, so she never turns down a chance to sit in my lap and turn the pages to her favorite boardbooks…

...on sunday morning, we walked to a local methodist church that the director of the playgroup had told me about…it’s only 2 blocks from where we live, so it was really convenient…it’s a small congregation, which had a really nice cozy feel to it…the worship band consisted of a classical pianist, a fiddle, a mandolin/guitar player, a drummer, and 2 back up singers…it was pretty folksy and quite charming…seeing them standing up front made me think of photos of woody guthrie playing with his friends…

...i wish we had found this church earlier…now that we’re moving, i don’t think we’ll be able to make it every week, but it’ll be a good excuse to visit our old neighborhood in lincoln square and to see uncle dave, who lives just a block from us now…

...i know that going to a small mainline denomination church is a real departure from what i’ve been used to, but i really think that’s what i need right now…ironically, both my parents come from a long line of methodists, so for me (not so much for ted), this is like getting back to my roots in the weslyan tradition…

...after church, we headed into lincoln square and met up with cadence's little beau zach and his parents denise and paul...it was such a lovely day to be outdoors, and giddings plaza in lincoln square is the perfect place to hang out and watch all the cute babies and dogs from the neighborhood...

...i think cadence is really taking to zach...

...although sometimes she might scare him a bit...

...she couldn't stop patting his lovely hair!

anywho, it was great seeing denise and paul and zach again...we'll have to see them as much as we can before we move out of the neighborhood!

halloween cuteness

…in case you all were wondering, we were a family of kitty cats for halloween...

…we went to ted's cousin vikki's for her first annual halloween party...our cousin connie's son perry, who is 2.5 months younger than cadence, was a little monkey, and he was absolutely adorable!

…here are cadence and perry sitting at the piano playing a little kitty cat and monkey duet...

…and here are all the cousins...L to R, ben & connie (perry's parents), perry the monkey, me, teddy, cadence who is losing it, auntie lauren dressed as a gourmet chef, cousin vikki, and vikki's daughter mackenzie dressed as jojo the clown!