"Oh, G-D...F#@%!!"

...no, no, i'm not whining here...believe it or not, this is something CADENCE has taken to saying these days. and the crazy thing is, she says it IN CONTEXT. it would be one thing if she were innocently spewing cuss words like little gems of randomly strung-together syllables. instead, if she drops something, or gets her winnie-the-pooh car stuck somewhere, she's dropping the F-bomb like a regular salty sailor...

...it was kinda cute when she'd slap her forehead and exclaim, 'oh, gott!' but when she started attaching perfectly enunciated 'F#@%!'s to the first epithet, we knew we were doomed...well, at least we're not the only parents with this problem...

...in addition to her cussing skills, cadence has finally started associating people with names, including herself. just in the past week, she no longer says 'baby!' when she sees her photo flash across the monitor...now it's 'ay-dince.' uncle dave is 'uh-DAY? uh-DAY?' our friend matt the pianist is an emphatic 'MATT!!' and josh is a hushed 'arsh.' our little ay-dince...she's growing up so fast...*sigh*...

well, it's wednesday morning, and i work from home today...ted graciously biked to work which means i've got the car...hmmm...i think i hear a latte calling my name...this would be one of the few instances in which i can't wait for cadence to wake up.

so behind around here...

...alrighty. it's been mighty busy this past week. the 4th of july holiday ended way too quickly for me, and i'm still adjusting to a reality that requires dragging my butt into the office.

...ok, this photo's for auntie lore. this is a t-shirt lauren got for cadence a while back. it says 'hug me' in swedish on it (at least i think that's what it says).

...so what have we been up to? well, let's just say that we've been to metropolis and berger park no less than 4 times in less than a week. in fact, when i was stranded at home carless on the 4th of July while ted was working, i actually carried cadence almost 4 blocks to devon and clark to catch the 151 sheridan bus to get my iced latte. not only that,when josh came to town this weekend for our buddy connolly's wedding, we picked him up from the loyola redline and would have proceeded directly to metropolis had he not been hot and sweaty in the suit he had WORN on the plane (in lieu of packing it for the wedding). he still managed to go to metropolis TWICE during his short visit.

...yes, our friends chris (connolly) and chris (kettelkamp)tied the knot this weekend. connolly has been like a brother to me these past few years, and i hope the new mr. and mrs. connolly are very happy together!

...so josh, who'd spent some time living it up in germany during his air force days, wanted to catch the world cup final on sunday. i, on the other hand, wanted to catch the folk and roots festival in welles park. luckily, welles park is in lincoln square, heart of germantown, and i figured what better place to watch a world cup game hosted by germany than a german bar?

so we all headed to lincoln square midafternoon on sunday. cadence, who'd resisted napping all day, finally fell asleep, so i let the boys go watch the game in some fancy german bar, while i sat in giddings plaza with my slumbering baby. when the game went into OT, ted left josh at the bar, and we walked over to the music festival.

...we mainly wanted to see our friends denise and paul and their son zach, who's a couple months younger than cadence. denise had a booth at the festival for the nonprofit she co-founded called global explorers, which strives to help kids to explore diverse cultures through the arts. unfortunately, by the time we found denise, paul and zach had gone home for zach's daily 4 hour (i'm so jealous!!) nap.

...by this time, ted and i were starving, cadence was whining to nurse, and it was so friggin' sunny and hot that i just wanted to get out of there. luckily, the library across the street from the park was open and nicely air conditioned, so i took cadence in there to nurse and to cool off a bit. we grabbed a bite to eat from a couple vendors at the festival and then we went back to the bar where we'd left josh.

josh had the good luck of being in a bar that was serving a free buffet AND giving away free beers. he always has such good luck like that. so he'd had a good time while we were away. free food, free beer, who could ask for anything more?

anyhoo, i'm still pretty exhausted from the past week...i feel a migraine coming on...grrr...or could it be latte withdrawl? hmmm...metropolis opens at 6:30...i COULD run over there and get a coffee in the morning if i catch the 7:42 train...i'll have to keep that under consideration...

seattle summer weather

this week has been just absolutely gorgeous in the windy city. it's like the weather gods forgot this is chicago in july and therefore should be in the 90s with 99% humidity and instead have graciously-allbeit-absentmindedly granted us weather more often associated with seattle in summer--mid 70s and 50% humidity. i'm sure this won't last, but it sure was nice to not have the AC on the past couple days.

...so ted found this really great playground by the lake. it's part of the berger park cultural center at 6205 n. sheridan (couple blocks east of the grandville stop on the red line) and is only a year old. it's 8,000 sq. feet and is covered in soft surface tiles, which means cadence can run as fast as she wants in this playground because there's no cement to tear up her little knees.

...there are at least four slides, a little climbing wall, and even a pirate ship with a real kid-sized hammock. directly adjacent to the playground is a tree-covered grassy area that would be perfect for a picnic. all this against the majestic backdrop of the big wide vastness known as lake michigan.

...and what do ted and i like best about the park? why, it's just down the block from the best coffee in the city...metropolis! cadence is already on a first-name basis with some of the baristas there. i have never craved coffee before, but now i sometimes daydream about the consistently foamy goodness that is their lattes...mmm...

happy independence day!

...yay! it's a four day weekend! and what a busy one it's been, at least by our household standards. friday night, ted had a show w/ our friend tim lowly. it was at the elastic arts foundation, which is a pretty cool space above a chinese restaurant in logan square. cadence and i went, since it was an all ages smoke-free show. we were pleasantly surprised that by the time tim and the gang got on stage, most of the chairs were filled. they played a really great show, and i wish i could say that i know that firsthand from having witnessed it, but cadence is not one to just sit quietly through a performance. after about 3 songs, i spent the rest of the evening walking her up and down milwaukee avenue. still, my cousin kris and 3 of her friends as well as my brother were there, and i was glad that the band had a good audience that made the show so enjoyable for them.

...on saturday, when ted got home from work, he kindly booted cadence and me out of the house so that he could brew a microbatch of beer. we went to the mall to get a sunhat for cadence. she was in a really good mood for some reason, and didn't complain at all about being in the stroller. she made up little songs and flirted tirelessly with whomever was within flirting distance. after the mall, we drove over to evanston's award-winning rose garden.

...cadence thoroughly loved running around barefoot on the sunken lawn in the middle of the garden. by this time of the day, the sun had sunk far enough behind the buildings and trees that the whole garden was shaded, except for some small patches of golden gloaming light. the grass, which was mostly green, felt so cool and delicious beneath our bare feet. this is one of the few places in the chicago area where i would feel safe letting cadence run around without shoes. the sunken nature of the lawn, which is surrounded by a shallow brick wall, makes it difficult for her to escape out into the street, so i could basically let her run free, which is another thing she doesn't get to do too much of outdoors living in the city.

...i'll have to remember to bring cadence to this garden more often, just so she can run around barefoot so freely. living in the city, especially a big one like chicago, you sometimes forget that children really were meant to run like the wind, unfettered by shoes or the admonishment of adults, without worrying about cars or glass or suspicious strangers...

alright. more later. it's almost time for me to turn into a pumpkin...

sunday latte sunday

as some of you may know, i married into a family of beverage snobs, and i mean that in the form of a compliment. be it coffee, beer or mountain dew, these siblings know what quality liquid they want in their mugs, glasses, steins, 20 oz bottles, what have you. so when ted told me he'd found the best latte in the city, i was a bit surprised at how freely and unequivocally he bestowed such a title.

...and the recipient of said honor is metropolis coffe company, 1.5 miles from our home. it's right off the grandville stop on the red line in an up and coming part of the edgewater neighborhood. i was a little skeptical at first, and i'm really not much of a coffee drinker, but i will readily admit that this was the best latte i've had in chicago. it's a lot like the lattes they make at some seattle cafes.

...sunday morning was cold and rainy, but that did not deter cadence from insisting on a little game of soccer outside metropolis. we also ran into ted's former coworker sara from trader joe's. she's probably one of my favorite TJ crewmembers, and i'm sad that she's not there any more. she has the most pleasant face i've ever seen--big bright eyes, the loveliest plump rosy, dimpled cheeks all framed by a cascade of brownish blond curls. we chatted in the drizzle outside the cafe, when all of a sudden we were confronted with this image of cadence's behind. the poor girl! i keep saying how skinny she is, right? and this is clear evidence...she'd run around, and her pants kept falling down so she couldn't run any more, and she'd realize what was happening and try to pull them back up but couldn't quite get the hang of it. then the cutest frown and knitted brows would cloud her face and she'd fret, 'oh no! oh no!' until one of us pulled her pants back up for her...it was so funny we all busted out laughing.

...so yesterday was brew day in our home. dave came over in the afternoon, and the boys brewed a batch of IPA. once cadence woke up from her afternoon nap, we drove over to my mom's to stay out of the way. when we got home, the sight you see in the photo above is what greeted us. yowza! those boys...like i said...i married into a family of beverage snobs!