walk the line

...so did i mention that at cadence’s birthday party, the topic of her walking (or lack thereof) came up? yes, it’s inevitable that when you have a roomful of older women who’ve reared children in generations past that there will be numerous opinions as to what a baby should be doing and when…so one such relative was rather insistent that i promptly get my daughter a walker so that she can practice walking…when i told this relative that cadence can walk in her own good time and that walkers are by and large dangerous (and where in tarnation would we put the thing anyway? she’d be playing bumper cars with the walls and coffee table and sofa fer crying out loud!), she still insisted that cadence should be walking by now…i chose to walk away from the situation before my tongue got the better of me…

...anywho, cadence and i went to a playgroup on saturday morning that meets several times a week in our neighborhood…i happened to mention to the woman who runs the playgroup what my female relative had said about cadence not walking, and she told me that research is showing that the bilateral motion of crawling is good for the developing brain, so i don’t need to be in any hurry to teach cadence to walk…i actually have the sneaking suspicion that cadence has the motor skills to walk…she just doesn’t see the need for it because she can get from point A to point B so much faster by crawling…besides, she's too busy reorganizing our apartment to be strolling around anyways...although she has been known to employ ted's beerbrewing carboy as a walker, as demonstrated in this 6MB video...

...i kinda do wish cadence would walk on her own, but it’s purely for selfish reasons…it would be nice to be able to put her down once in a while when we’re out and about without worrying about her crawling on her hands and knees in god-knows-what filth…

speaking of the playgroup, i’m excited about it! it’ll give cadence a chance to crawl around in a huge space to her heart’s content…the jeans she wore there on saturday will have to be her playgroup jeans because she’s worn the knees down already doing laps…she also loves being around other kids, so this will give her a chance to socialize with others closer to her own size…

musicircus at the MCA with friends...

...hi, folks...i'd like you to meet cadence's little friend ada grey...she is the daughter of my friends jenn and john, who are two of the coolest people i know...we went to the MCA for the megaperformance of john cage's musicircus on sunday afternoon with jenn and ada...

...coincidentally, ada was the bestower of the birthday gift to cadence that has become one of mommy's favorites...she gave us a kick ass mix cd! a mix cd that starts off quite appropriately with the white stripes' 'we are going to be friends'...a mix cd that contains interpol, wilco, sleater-kinney, the magnetic fields, spoon, ida, zapruder point, and other mega cool bands...a mix cd that came with LINER NOTES, i'll have you know...

...so back to the musicircus...this was a megaperformance made up of numerous simultaneous performances all going on on the grounds and in the building of chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art...it was free to the public, and there were a ton of people there despite the intermittent rain outside...

...it was a wild and raucously fun time! there was stuff going on everywhere, and you just kinda had to go with the flow of bodies streaming from one performance to the next...

...the really cool thing was that you could also look at the art while you were there, and it was a different experience amidst the chaos and noise than what you would expect sans crazy performances...sometimes it was hard to distinguish what was actually part of the museum exhibits and what was part of the performances...

anywho, more photos are over here on my flickr account...

birthday madness

...here she is, the lovely little one year old...our very own cadence joy! this is on the way to her birthday party on saturday...we'd rented out a fieldhouse at a park in glenview, which is the suburb where my mom lives...it was only $10/hour to rent for glenview residents, so that worked out...

...well, we survived the birthday party, but BARELY...like what were we thinking inviting 250 billion people? it was quite overwhelming, really...i was touched though that so many people showed up...we had like 60 people there counting the kids...my best friend josh flew all the way from CT to be there, and ted's cousin connie and her husband ben and son perry drove all the way from iowa for the party...

...cadence was pretty much an angel for her party, which was surprising considering she hadn't had her morning nap...she got so exhausted halfway into her party that she fell sound asleep...her cousin mackenzie had to tickle her awake so we could do cake before all the guests left...

...cadence was pretty stunned and not quite awake when we all sang happy birthday to her, and she looked around at everyone wondering what in tarnation was going on and why all these eyes were so fixed on her little body...she had very little interest in her cake, even though grandma had prepared a little smash cake just for her...no smashing going on here...a little thumbing, maybe, but definitely no smashing...

we definitely could not have pulled off the party without the help of our families, esp. ted's parents, my mom and brother, and ted's twin siblings jason and lauren...ted and i were so stressed out...i mean, there were more people at this party than at our wedding...i hardly took any photos at all, and i was lucky to get a few bites of food in me...i didn't get to taste the cake until we got home that night...

anywho, there are a few more photos here on my flickr account...not much...

now you'd think that we'd just call it a day, or a weekend even, and crash once we got home...but no...we got back in our car and drove out to edison park (far NW side of chicago) to have dinner with josh, connolly and chris, and another friend from high school named jen roberts whose birthday we were celebrating...we ate at a mexican restaurant called don juan, and they sure had kickass food there...the sangria was yummy too!

so that was cadence's very first birthday...

365 days and counting...

...exactly one year ago today, teddy and i had the privilege of welcoming our little cadence joy into the world...she has changed our lives forever...yes, we've lost out on a bit of sleep over the last year, but we've gained so much joy and good times in return that we wouldn't have it any other way!

happy 1st birthday, our dearest cadence bundle-of-joy!

now, let's par-tay!

ian moore and friends

…goodness gracious, this has been a busy week! and it’s only TUESDAY! i’ve even got cadence making phone calls for me, i’m so busy!

…last night, our fam went to the abbey pub to see our friend ian moore play a show…ian’s the one we visited for his son’s bday party on vashon island while we were out in seattle…it was an intimate show, although the room is pretty big, so it wasn’t very smoky at all, which was great cuz we could keep cadence with us during the whole show instead of taking turns going in and out of the music room…the only thing about the abbey is that the sound tends to be really loud, like ear-piercing loud…we made little ear plugs for cadence but she kept trying to take them out, which was hard for me to monitor since i had her slung to my back….she finally fell asleep halfway through ian’s set, and i just held her in front while sitting down and kept my hands over her ears…i think i better start looking for some baby ear muffs…

…anywho, sore eardrums aside, ian and his multi-instrumentalist kullen fuchs played an awesome set…i miss seeing his former tour buddy chris dye, but i have to say that kullen is the fastest trumpet draw you’ve ever seen…he’s literally singing harmony and playing the vibraphone one second, and a beat and a half later, he’s blowing that trumpet right on cue, on perfect pitch and clear as a bell…i couldn’t believe how long he held some of his notes without passing out from lack of oxygen…

…alana waters, a friend of ian’s who he always stays with, sang harmony on ‘wedding day’ and ‘kangaroo lake’ like she did at the uncommon ground show back in june…it was great to see her again…she’s really cool and sweet and also a mom!

…she was also nice enough to take a photo of us with ian…interestingly enough, after all these years, the only photo we’ve taken WITH ian as opposed to OF ian was in a photobooth at schubas…so i decided it was high time for a proper family photo with him…

…we also got to hang out with gary, ian’s chicago merchman extraordinaire…he introduced us to a beer we’d never heard of before…it’s from ireland and is called Smithwycks…ted says it’s kinda like a mix between guiness and newcastle…i wouldn’t know, but it tasted just fine to me…didn’t leave a bitter aftertaste at all…

…all in all, it was a lovely, all-be-it late, evening…we didn’t head home until close to midnight…cadence was great for the most part, even though she’s been pretending to be shy around folks she doesn’t see all the time…she did loosen up towards the end though, and she even gave her own little performance on the piano in the abbey pub music room…

…it was great to see ian play again…he did this version of will the circle be unbroken that would’ve sent chills up and down A.P. Carter’s spine…ian is one of those performers who you just have to see live…he’ll blow you away for sure…

tonight, he’s opening up for paul weller (lead singer in The Jam) at the vic…he put ted on the guest list, but i’m gonna stay home with cadence and recuperate from last night…ian is really excited to be doing this tour with paul, who is one of his idols…i’m sure it’ll be an amazing show tonight! and some lucky somebody will get to go with teddy instead of me!