...my, how time flies...well, uncle charles & auntie ali were here until monday night and they headed back home to seattle...sniff, sniff...i wants to go to seattle, too...sunday night, ted's parents & little sister lauren drove down from the burbs and met us & charles & ali & dave at millenium park...it was mighty nippy...we were there around 4 pm & our reservation @ the park grill wasn't until 5pm, but we were freezing outside, so we started dinner early, which was just as well...cadence was not having a good evening...i purposely got the bbq chicken pizza so that i could hold her and eat with just one hand...grandma held her for most of the evening, and she told us stories about how she had to learn to deal w/ fussy babies...going home in the car, cadence was incosolable...i had to put the blanket over the carseat because i could not bear to look at her...she has this way of crying frantically with her eyes wide open, and it just breaks my heart when she gets that way...and it's not like i can take her out of the carseat while the car is moving...she wore herself out crying pretty good, and she must have slept 5 hours straight that night...



...yesterday was cadence's 10 week birthday...i took her for her first round of vaccinations today...i dreaded the experience, but it went pretty well...she was great during the exam, and when she got the shots, she cried but stopped after about a minute and then fell asleep as i got her dressed and in the carseat, which was a total relief...i'd been scared that she'd go nuts after getting those shots on the car ride home, and i didn't want to leave her alone in the back...but she slept all the way home, and didn't even whimper when i went below 40 mph...whew! now, i hope the side effects from those shots aren't too bad tonight...



...i have to say, cadence REALLY loves bill mallonee's dear life album...i know i've said that before, but now i put on that album every time she gets really fussy, and she calms down right away and eventually falls asleep...i think she likes the harmonica...she also really likes bob dylan's 'oh mercy' and i play that cd right after 'dear life'...it's a promising sign of her future taste in music...some of my favorite dylan songs are on that album...



...speaking of bob dylan, i've been reading his new book 'chronicles volume one' on my train rides to & from work, and i've got like 10 more pages left...it's interesting to read about how he got started in the music biz in his own words...he talks about how he chose the name 'bob dylan', all the different artists he ran into in greenwich village in the early 60's, the making of some albums, esp. a detailed song by song description of the making of 'oh mercy' working w/ daniel lanois, how blown away he was by woody guthrie the first time he heard one of his records...it's not as captivating as woody guthrie's bound for glory, which i absolutely loved, but it's still a fascinating read...he really is a poet, that bob dylan, and his prose is an english teacher's nightmare...

...happy belated thanksgiving folks! our clan had quite the holiday on thursday...it was a beautiful cold and sunny thanksgiving day...there was a layer of snow from the previous night that had stuck to the trees and frozen, so it looked like a winter wonderland, especially out in the 'burbs where there are trees galore, including a lot of pine trees which you don't see too much of here in the city...first, ted, cadence & ted's bro david & i went to my cousins' sherline & debbie's in northbrook where my mom was spending thanksgiving with her brother & his family...sherline had just flown in from atlanta and this was her first time meeting cadence, so that was cool...we were there for just a short time and then we drove further west to have thanksgiving dinner with ted's family...

...dinner was a pretty big deal at ted's parents'...his bro charles and charles's wife ali flew in from seattle thursday afternoon, and we were excited that they could meet cadence while she was still little...sure, they've seen pictures and all, but it's not the same as being able to hold her squishy little body! cadence also got to meet ted's aunt martha and uncle bob and cousin vikki and vikki's 3 1/2 year old daughter mackenzie for the first time...both of ted's grandmas were there too, and of course his parents and sister lauren...his bro jason had to work though which was a bummer...it would've been really cool to have the WHOLE family there, but oh well...maybe next year...

...dinner was great, of course...ted's mom is an AWESOME cook...this was only my 2nd thanksgiving without any rice and kimchee! but i really didn't miss it...cadence was good for the most part...it's always unpredictable when we take her out anywhere...but thursday was a good day, and she smiled and cooed a lot, to everyone's general delight...

...so 'tis the season for giving thanks, eh? well, it's pretty obvious that i have a lot to be thankful for in my life...my little bundle of cadence joy--i thank god for her every day, even when she's a wailing 12lb ball of crankiness who refuses to stop whining...sometimes it's hard not to worry as a new parent...will my child pass all the developmental milestones? will she be smart? will she have rhythm? will she be tone deaf? will she like barry white or barry manilow? will she ever sleep through the night? why is she crying like that? what am i doing wrong? and on and on and on...nevertheless, i have to remember to be thankful for all the little things--her 10 little toes and 10 little fingers, 2 big brown eyes, cute little nose, lovely darlingy mouth, stubborn chin, chubby cheeks, long legs like daddy, flailing arms, every gurgle, coo and gaga...all these little things add up to something big, something larger than myself...it's the miracle of life, and how do you beat that? i now know where the phrase 'thank heaven for little girls' comes from...

...speaking of 'will she like barry white or barry manilow?', i have begun cadence's musical education...of course, that began in the womb...i played bill mallonee's 'dear life' on headphones for her a million times during the last month of pregnancy...she seems to remember that one cuz yesterday she was just being just a little cranky-atch, and then i put on dear life and she calmed right down and fell asleep as i danced with her in my arms...good ol' bill...even when he's not around in the flesh, he can calm my baby down...she is now napping to sujfan stevens' christmas albums hark!, noel, and ding!dong! which i've compiled onto one cd and put on repeat on her cd player...i happen to love christmas carols and plan on singing them every year as a family tradition, with a piano if we have one, or i'll have to learn to play them on guitar, and i hope starting her early on all the gool old stuff will predispose cadence to joining in on the singing well into her adulthood instead of wrinkling her pre-teen nose at those old-fashioned songs a few short years from now...

...so bill mallonee played at the abbey pub sunday night...we couldn't go to the show w/ cadence, but we did go early and have dinner with him and his current traveling instrumentalist named ben...jake bradley was sidetracked and didn't come out on this tour...i was so glad cadence got to meet bill finally! and bill was so sweet...when she started getting fussy, he took her into the bar by the jukebox and had her listen to some frank sinatra and talked to her in an irish brogue...he's good w/ babies...seeing bill with cadence made me think how much i wish i could've seen my dad with her...that would've been so wild...my dad would've fallen head over heels in love with the little one...he was so good with babies too...



...when we got home that night and i took cadence out of her car seat, as her cheek pressed against mine, i got a whiff of a familiar comforting scent, and to my surprise i realized that it was bill's smell...it's amazing how your brain can store the memory of different scents without even knowing it...i must've gotten to know the scent of bill's aftershave, and the moment i smelled that scent on cadence's cheek, i immediately had the warm fuzzies...i love bill! someday, i hope teddy can drum for him...bill said next time he's in town they should jam together...i think a really awesome band for bill would be teddy on drums, todd on fiddle, and pierre and caleb on guitar/bass...oh, and jake could play something too...



...so i'm back at work now, and teddy's taking care of cadence during the day...i'm going to work from home once a week probably...i miss my little one so much while i'm at work! it's so weird having been with her 24/7 for 8 weeks and now to be away from her for almost 12 hours a day...the first day of work was the hardest on everyone involved...ted had the hardest time getting cadence to take the bottle...i would call and hear her crying, and i'd just be torn up inside because i was 30 miles away and couldn't do anything and i was afraid she'd starve...but she's doing much better now, and she & teddy had a great day today...*sigh*...i still wish i could stay home with her...

...it's another wet november day here in the windy city...it's warm, though, for this time of year, so no complaints from me...i rather enjoy misty autumn days...makes me feel somewhat sentimental for some reason...



...so teddy & i got to see a movie in a real live movie theatre yesterday for the first time in MONTHS...lowes cineplex @ old orchard has a baby friendly showing each tuesday at 11am called ReelMoms...you can bring your baby and not worry if she cries because everyone else in that screening has a baby too, and really, the surround sound and volume of the movie block out most of the crying so you don't really notice...ok, some cries you just can't ignore, especially if the baby's really close to where you're sitting, but for the most part we got through the whole movie without any distractions...luckily, cadence slept through the whole movie...we watched ALFIE, the new jude law flick, and it was actually better than i thought it would be...it had a pretty good soundtrack...mick jagger contributed original songs to the movie...



...well, it's my last couple days at home with cadence before i go back to work on friday...these eight weeks have gone by so quickly...can you believe she's almost 8 weeks old already? i can't...she's huge compared to when we brought her home from the hospital...she's pushing 12 pounds already...she's her own little person with her own unique personality...actually, she's got two personalities...she's been colicky lately so she does the jekyll and hyde routine...she's usually calm and happy in the beginning of the day, but once the clock strikes 3pm, all hell can break loose and she'll cry unconsolably for hours...colic is fairly common with babies this age, and they're supposed to get over it as they get more and more used to the world...i did notice during her first days of life that she startles easily, so she may be just extremely sensitive...she also suffers from a lot of gas pains, which is also common for babies at this age...this too shall pass, so they say, no pun intended...there's not much you can do for colic...they don't even know what causes it...i just hold her a lot and do what they call the 'colic dance' as i rock her and bounce her to her satisfaction...i've developed a repretoire of songs that i sing in rotation over and over to get her to go to sleep...she likes the simple gospel/hymn type songs, so i've reached back in my memory to my sunday school days for songs like 'some glad morning,' 'do lord, oh do lord,' 'swing low, sweet chariot,' 'go, tell it on the mountain,' 'he's got the whole world in his hands,' 'amazing grace' (all four verses)...sometimes i just hum the brahms lullaby over and over again...



...it'll be hard to go back to work...now it's teddy's turn to be the primary caregiver...and i hope to god she takes the bottle...she took it when we first introduced it a few weeks ago, but lately she's been a little more picky...we'll see...

...check out my teddy's kickass website...www.teddrums.com...kudos to our bro david for designing it...drum lessons, anyone?