sunday lovely sunday

it's been a long day today...ted decided to go skating at the wilson skate park at 8:30 this morning...cadence and i tagged along cuz she's never seen her dad skate and she's never been to any of the chicago beaches...oh wait, now that i think of it, ted may have taken her there without me once...well, she's never gone there with ME, so to me it's like it never happened...anywho, she slept through the whole thing, so i STILL haven't had a chance to show her our beautiful lakefront...

there was this lady talking really loud on the cell phone...after she got off, she noticed cadence and went ga-ga over her...she was really excited about getting a stack of rolling stones from the 70's out of storage...she'd kept saying on the phone something about stones, and i had imagined to myself that she had a rock collection or something, but i guess it was a different kind of rock...that's one of the cool things about chicago...you always run into these colorful characters who are kooky but really nice...

ain't these shoes lovely? i don't buy cadence a lot of shoes, cuz they're really a waste of money for a tike who can't even walk yet and who prefers to pull her shoes off as soon as she gets in her carseat...but i really like these...they'll be esp cute for the fall, and i'm hoping she'll be walking sometime in the next several months, but that's doubtful cuz she just LOVES to speedcrawl...

so cadence finally woke up when i got back to the skate park from the beach...we got to see her daddy skate a little bit...here she is playing with her zipper...she's the granddaughter of a mechanical engineer, ya know...

...and here they are...the two partners in crime...in CUTENESS crime, that is! yeah, i think my hubby and baby are just absolutely adorable together...

...after the skate park, ted had plans to meet up with his coworkers at welles park for a game of ultimate frisbee, so we all walked over there from our apartment...cadence and i visited the playlot while her dad got all sweaty again...cadence absolutely adores the swings, and she cries when i take her out of it...there were tons of babies and little kids at the park, and it was a lot of fun...cadence loves other little kids...

...after ted pulled a butt muscle, we just hung around a bit...watched a bunch of folks playing horshoes in the pit...that was pretty cool actually...it just looks so absolutely impossible to nail that stake, but they do it, and it's a lovely sound when they make their target...kinda like a basketball going 'whoosh' i guess...

we ate lunch with a couple of ted's coworkers at the bad dog tavern...they have a great outdoor SHADED patio with lovely flowers and a really yummy brunch menu...it was nice to spend time with some of ted's coworkers, esp. rhino (ryan) who we've gone snowboarding/skiing with and who is one of the nicest guys i've ever met...

anywho, i'm exhausted now...it's been a loooong weekend...and i still have to make goody bags for cadence's party...

shhhh...

i'm totally stealth blogging...i'm supposed to be in bed, but i was up late working on posting photos of cadence to a foam board for display at her birthday party next saturday...i was gonna post captions for all the photos too, but you know what? i think that would be going a little overboard...

so since this has to be a quick one, here's a photo i took of cadence w/ her grandpa larry last saturday at st. catherine's irish fest out in west dundee...this is the first photo i've taken of grandpa holding cadence...i know, i suck...

and here's all four generations in one photo (counting uncle dave who's sitting in the background)...this is at the booth for auntie lauren's Tropic of Coffee, which is her gourmet beverage catering business...

i am terribly busy at work and preparing for this birthday party...oh, and we still have to buy cadence a present! yikes! and then there's music to be prepared for the party...ted's begged me NOT to make mix cds for the birthday party, but you know what? i'd probably develop a twitch if i didn't pick every single song that was playing for every single minute of that party, so guess what i'll be working on all next week?

alrighty...i needs me some shuteye...

there's no place like home...

well, we're back in the windy city after just a little under a week in seattle...it turned out to be the vacation of a series of unfortunate events...but in light of all that's going on, i'm gonna count my blessings and be thankful that we had a home to come back to...

cadence was as excited as mommy and daddy as we drove to the airport...just look at them teeth! scary, eh? imagine having to see THAT latch onto your nipple!

we had a lovely flight...cadence did great with lots of playing and minimal fussing...boy, was i relieved! the landing in seattle was beautiful, with the mountains and the sound illuminated by beautiful sunset light...couldn't have asked for a prettier landing!

after a little confusion with the car rental due to a lack of what we considered appropriate car seatage, we made it to charles and ali's house in the beacon hill neighborhood of seattle (note to self: always take our own car seat...it's worth the bulk)...it was probably 2am chicago time when we got to bed...

we got rained out of bumbershoot on sunday while waiting in line to see son volt...cadence started losing it, so we didn't wait it out...we were soaked and freezing anyway and wouldn't have enjoyed the show i'm sure...oh well...and then we lost our tickets for monday, so we didn't get to see the decemberists or iggy pop either...

at least i got to see damien jurado and his band on the big screen outside the packed out EMP sky church...that was as close as we got to seeing anyone we'd actually planned on seeing at bumbershoot aka bummershit...

but we had happy times too! staying with charles and ali was lovely...ali can cook, ya know! she inspired me to do more in the kitchen once i got home...haven't started on that yet, but i'll get to it one of these days...i'm gonna make me some biscuits and gravy, damn it!

anywho, here are some highlights:

family photo at waterfall park

and with charles and ali...

pixie and squido, charles and ali's cats...cadence LOVED them!

charles and teddy snuggle together...these brothers love each other very much! now ain't that sweet?

at bumbershoot...before the deluge began...

clapping during bumbershoot with auntie ali

uncle charles shows cadence the beach at discovery park...don't he look good with a baby?

cadence's first ferry ride...we took the ferry from west seattle to vashon island to visit our friend ian moore and his family...ian's youngest son levi was turning three, so we got to go to his birthday party...it was a lovely, peaceful time after the craziness we'd experienced at bumbershoot...

cadence was pretty sick by tuesday, probably because of the cold soaking she got at bumbershoot...she slept a lot in the car after that...sometimes in the middle of eating a cheerio...

it was great spending time with charles and ali...cadence totally loved them...she went right into ali's arms the moment we walked into their house...and she loved playing with uncle charles's curly hair! and the kitty cats pixie and squido provided numerous reasons for her to squeal and gurgle and make a number of other cute sounds...

if you wanna see all the photos, here they are on my flickr account...

leaving on a jet plane...

...like how many blog entries have that title i wonder? like a gazillion? anywho, we ARE in fact leaving on a jet plane in 4 hours and teddy's yelling at me right now to get going but i wanted to say adios for now cuz i'm nice like that...

ciao!

cadence's first word in korean

...this is cadence thrumming on a mini nori, which is a traditional korean drum...

...and this is cadence saying her first korean word...

...in case you haven't guessed it, she's saying 'mommy' in korean!