BIG DAY

today, at approximately 5:15pm, cadence decided that it was time to join the world of ambulators...we've known for some time that she knows how to walk, but she just wasn't doing it unless we were holding onto her finger...but today was different...i have no idea why, but she just started walking on her own...when she realized what she was doing, she started squealing with delight, and she walked back and forth the entire length of our apartment...

oh, and someone's application was accepted for the apartment, so we can get out of our lease! hooray!

now if i can just get my act together and actually pack something...

welcome to our new digs

…the official move-in date isn’t until this sunday, but you lucky folks are gonna get a peek right now…

…let’s start in the foyer, shall we? so this is by the front entrance to our new condo…here is where we will take your coat and give you a hug and a pat on the back and welcome you into our home…if you look to the left, you will see a long, narrow (and i mean NARROW) hallway…

the first bedroom is down thisaways, but i don’t have a photo of the bedrooms because i didn’t have my wide angle lens with me…the bedrooms are boring anyways…

…next to the bedroom further down the hall is the bathroom…as you can see, cadence was very excited about the new bathroom, with its lovely tile floor and new toilet to explore…her hands have already splashed around in there…this bathroom is almost twice the size of our current bathroom, which i’m very happy about…plus, there are windows, so we won’t have to turn on the light in here during the day…

…further down the hallway will bring you into our dining room…it is a nice sized room, and we plan on getting a big old table and some chairs so that we can throw some bona fide dinner parties…teddy has found a company in the heart of amish country (lancaster, PA) that builds farm style furniture, and we will probably give them a lot of our money…

…past the dining room is the kitchen…the cabinets are not my favorite, but it gives us an opportunity to do some renovations that will potentially increase the resale value of the condo…

…one of my favorite parts of the condo is the walk-in pantry, which has plenty of space so we can stockpile our food in case of a disaster…if we do get our furniture from lancaster, PA, we’re gonna buy jars and jars of jams and pickles from the amish so we can line ‘em up real purty in our pantry…

…alright, let’s go back to the front entrance and look to our right…here you will see our living room with the huge bay windows, which create a space that will be our sun room/music room…this is where the instruments will go…that is a full southern exposure, which means lots and lots of light!

…if you look to the left, you will see our decorative fireplace and built in bookshelves…i’m usually not crazy about fake fireplaces, but i totally dig that 10’ mantle and i totally * heart * built-in bookshelves! cadence is gonna LOVE pulling out books from there…and can’t you totally see christmas stocking hung over the fake fireplace?

…cadence loved the living room so much, she was ready to call all her friends and tell them the exciting news!

…i really love that those windows in the living room are so big and low to the ground, that even cadence can look out of them without much trouble…she really liked that…

…she sure spent a lot of time looking out those windows…

…even after it got dark, she was still gazing out at the exciting world below our windows…

…she looks so small leaning against those huge windows…and this is where she’ll grow during her most formative years…it feel so significant on a variety of levels…*sigh*…

$148.24...

...that's how much change we had lying around our apt. which teddy took to the bank today!

first snow (to last over 36 hours)

...so we had what i'm calling our first snow for the new winter season here in chicago overnight saturday into sunday morning...we took cadence to play in it (all one and a half inches of it) decked out in her new snowsuit...she seemed to enjoy it!

...that was until we put her on her back to make a snow angel...she didn't quite get the concept...

...so she gnashed her teeth and whined at us...it was pretty useless trying to get a snow angel out of THAT fussy creature...

...at least she got her first taste of snowflakes...mmmmmmm...

closing day

...well, today is the big day...we close on our condo at 1pm...it's been a crazy morning getting ready...i'm at work and our home phone wasn't ringing for some reason, so i've been sitting here for a couple hours wondering where the heck my husband and kid were when they needed to be getting ready to pick me up later...i thought i was gonna have to call the police to see if they were okay...but it was just the damn phone not working...damn sage telecom...they only work 95% of the time, and you know it's the 5% that's gonna end up giving me a heart attack...

anyhoo...i didn't even get to go on the final walk-through of the condo last night because i was puking my guts out all afternoon...at work...on the train (in the lavatory thank god)...at home...just when i thought there was nothing left for me to upchuck, i'd be back bowing before the porcelin...crazy migraines make me so darn nauseous...it's bad enough your head hurts so bad you actually enjoy the sensation of your toddler thrashing you on the head (which isn't a good thing to be teaching her to do, btw)...the nausea just makes it even worse...

alrighty...more later, and maybe some photos this weekend of our new place!