Shutterbug Mama

...ted and dave and i took cadence to see her great-grandma carol yesterday...grandma hadn't seen cadence since easter, so we thought it about time she saw her...we think cadence gets her giggles and her keen interest in boys from grandma! it's always nice to visit her...we always hear stories about ted's dad or mom or some other family member that we'd never heard before...

...we took a bunch of photos outside...here's an oops! shot that i took...i got trigger happy and pressed the shutter button while i was moving around, but i like how it turned out...it captures the spontaneity and fun between cadence and her uncle dave...some of my favorite photos have been accidents...

...i took a series of photos of cadence in the grass of the common area in the back of grandma carol's place...we hadn't seen such green grass in such a long time, and it felt so good and luxurious! we put cadence in the grass, and even though she wasn't a happy camper, i took a bunch of shots, which you can see right here...

...the sun was hanging low as we drove back into the city...it was a beautiful light, the hour of the gloaming...it felt good to spend time with family, young and old...we really cheered up grandma carol with our visit, and we resolved to do it more frequently, as she can't get out too often because of her back problems...she's always full of laughter and mirth, and i think as cadence grows older, she'll love her great-grandma carol very much...

...yes, it was inevitable...cadence has graduated 1/8 time to solids...if you can call mashed babanas, rice ceral mush and pureed green beans solids...i wasn't really wanting to feed her too much of this stuff cuz you see, it's a lot of hard work for the parents, and the doctor says she really doesn't need anything but breastmilk right now...yes, that miracle food of all foods HUMAN BREASTMILK is ALL a baby needs the first year of life...ain't that amazing...unfortunately, my fountain of miracle food is starting to run dry, which means baby's gotta eat SOMETHING...hence the photo you see above...

...i brought my pump home this weekend to see if i can increase my milk supply if i stay permanently attached to the pump for a couple days, but all i'm getting is a really sore nipple (singular cuz my left boob quit on my months ago)...good god, what's a gal gotta do to get a good letdown around here???!!! for those of you who are wondering why i wanna be let down, the LETDOWN is the technical term for that magical phenomenon which causes my milk ducts to squirt out milk like i'm daisy the cow...it involves hormones and stuff...if i do it right, i could literally squirt milk across the room...

...ah, who am i kidding...my party trick days are over...

...*sigh*...i really hope my milk supply lasts a couple more months...i know they make great formula these days, but it's a pain in the butt to make...i do NOT want to get out of bed in the middle of the night to get cadence a bottle when all i have to do right now is just lay there and let her fix her own midnight snack...

...cadence turned 10 months old yesterday…TEN MONTHS…now i’ve run out of fingers for counting how old she is…it’s all going so fast!

and yesterday, she started saying ‘um-mah’ which is korean for mommy! i’ve been trying to get her to say it cuz she’s only being saying dada for such a long time…before, when i’d ask her to say ‘mama,’ she’d say ‘baba’…but yesterday morning, i asked her to say ‘um-MAH’, and she said it exactly the way i said it, with a cute little stress on the last syllable…it was the most adorable thing i’ve heard her say EVER…

so now i know that she really listens to what we’re saying…it’s so cute listening to her imitate our voices…she’ll even wave her hand and in a sing-songy voice say ‘die!’ which is her way of saying either ‘hi!’ or ‘bye!’ ted wants to teach her how to say ‘suckas!’ to add to that little phrase, but i don’t know if that’s such a good idea…

...so the whole family (ted, cadence and i) went to day 2 of the intonation festival in chicago's union park on sunday...we got there nice and early so that we could reclaim my spot underneath the big honey locust tree...it was sooooo much hotter than saturday due to an increase in not only temperature but in humidity as well...cadence did NOT like the humidity, and we had to basically strip her down to her diapers to help her cool off...here she is looking adorable while clapping AND standing all by herself, while her daddy looks on proudly...

...and here she is looking up adoringly at her dada...

it was a long, friggin' hot day, and i got a killer of a headache by the time we went home...witnessed some great music though...didn't take photos of all the bands...i was using my 10x optical zoom for most of the photos cuz i'd be damned if i was gonna leave my spot under the shade...although i did get up to go see the wrens cuz they were playing the stage that was a city block away from where we were sitting...i thought all the bands were worth my money, and i gotta give them credit for giving it their all in the chicago-style killer heat...here are just a few photos of some of the bands that played:

this is the girl part of xiu xiu...gotta love a girl who knows how to handle her gongs...

this is the frontgirl for deerhoof...probably one of the weirdest acts i've seen in a long time...it's like they took all the little english phrases that make no sense that you'll find on asian (particularly japanese and korean)products such as pencil cases and book bags and they insert them randomly in the midst of their music...but you gotta like a band that has a son with the lyrics "pork chop...pork chop" or "bunny bunny bunny bunny...bunny!"

and here are the wrens...

...rawking out...TIGHT! the bass player threw his bass way up in the air and caught it...three times in a row!!! now that takes true talent...

and here we have the fronto for les savy fav who i would have to vote as the funniest indie rock fronter that i've seen in a long time...i think only rosie thomas would make me laugh more...different kinds of humor though...i have to say though that they had the crowd dancing, which is always a good thing...right?

other bands i enjoyed were the hold steady, andrew bird, dungen, thunderbirds are now!, and i only got to hear the first song by the decemberists cuz the pain in my head was getting so huge it was requiring its own zip code...they sounded tight though, that one little song i heard...

so that's the gist of it folks...cadence was much more cranky on sunday, but i think we all were, what with the heat and humidity and garbage and all...next year, i'm gonna have to get her better ear protection cuz she kept pulling out her ear plugs...i'm thinking ted's already decided there will be no next year...we'll see...

i've never participated in a meme before, as far as i can remember, but i've been tagged by graeme @ wicker chronicles so here goes...it's a book meme, yay! cuz i wish i were more bookish...

1. Total number of books I've owned: 200? 500? 1232.43? uh, i dunno...who's counting? i sure do remember spending a lot of $$$ on books in college and grad school, so i'm sure it's a big number...

2. Last book I bought: Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen

3. Last book I completed: Strawberries are Red by Peter Horacek...oh wait, that's cadence's book...last book i read with more than 7 pages is Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen cuz that's the last book i bought.

4. Five books that mean a lot to me: (Not listed in order of favoritism)

• life after god by douglas coupland (thank you, jenny hart, wherever you are)
• catcher in the rye/franny and zooey by j.d. salinger (sorry, couldn't decide)
• the dream of a ridiculous man by fyodor dostoyevsky
• the dharma bums by kerouac
• the lion, the witch and the wardrobe by c.s. lewis

4b. What are you currently reading:

• voluntary simplicity: toward a way of life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich (damn that's a long title) by duane elgin,
• the attachment parenting book by martha and william sears,
• born fundamentalist born again catholic by david currie (er, ted's mom lent it to me...it's actually quite interesting)

5. Which 5 bloggers am I passing this on to? (If they want to and have the time! at least it's a short meme...eh, they'll probably never read this anyway...)

blistermoth

nanette

guu

the EJ

crhee8

anyone else who wants to jump in...

...well, cadence and i survived our first day of the intonation festival...and here's thax douglas opening up the whole thing with a poem for head of femur, who were the first band to play...

...we stopped at trader joe's on the way to the festival to have lunch w/ daddy and to buy some bottled water...cadence hadn't had her nap, and she was pretty cranky when we left TJs and cried uncontrollably until i pulled over next to a fire hydrant somewhere on roscoe...it didn't help matters that traffic was a total bear...i got her out of her carseat and we stood in the shade as she recomposed herself and squealed at some passing dogs and babies...after i was satisfied that she was reassured of my love and devotion, i put her back in the car with her sippy cup to entertain her (she won't actually drink out of that thing on her own) and we drove off...

i got to union park down on ashland ave and randolph street about an hour later than i'd wanted, and there was a long line formed already...for some reason, the gates which were supposed to open at noon were still closed at half past noon...it sounded like they were still soundchecking...there wasn't much i could do but stand around...i had cadence strapped to me in my ellaroo and was strollerless, so i was carrying the diaper bag on my back and our brand new nifty outdoor blanket over my shoulder...i wasn't in any mood for waiting in line, esp. in the sun, and neither was cadence...after about 10 minutes of waiting, when they finally started letting people in, cadence started losing it...

now here's when having a crying, fidgety (understatement) baby can be an advantage...i walked up to the guy who was the head of security for the festival (at least head of gate security) and told him that my baby was losing it and was there any other way i could get in without having to wait in the long line being hammered on by the sun? he thought about it for a few seconds and then told me to go to the front of the line and tell them that bill (i'm supposing that was his name) sent me...so we got in right away, and it's a good thing cuz we got first dibbs on the shade...

we found a nice spot under a big tree pretty close to one of the stages...there was an older lady (by older, i mean older than me) already sitting on a blanket under the tree, and she was nice enough to help me spread my blanket next to her...it was a smart move on my part (not that i was thinking about it at the time) because when you're alone at an indie rock festival, those young angsty hipsters with their torn clothes and cigarettes are NOT gonna be the ones to help you...it's the nice older looking ladies already laying on a blanket reading a book who are gonna help you...it turns out this lady was there with her 15 year old son, so she was impressed that i would come out with my baby daughter, and was helpful all during the festival, helping me look for cadence's ear plugs every time we lost one, and letting cadence flirt with her...she commented to me shortly before we left that cadence is just a perfect little baby and that she wouldn't've dreamed of doing this with her son when he was cadence's age...

...so here's little cadence (wearing proper ear protection of course) blowing raspberries at her first indie rock festival...she happens to LOVE playing on a blanket in the outdoors, so she was a totally happy camper...i had a big bottle of cheerios, and there was ALWAYS milk in my boob when she needed hydration and some fatty nourishment, so we were pretty much set...she crawled around, played with her toys, cooed, clapped, bounced, danced, smiled, laughed, flirted...things got REALLY fun for her when my friends derek and linda becker joined us with derek's cousin and his wife and tom shekleton...if there's one thing cadence loves, it company! she crawled right up to linda and gave her a hug and laid her head down on her shoulder...it was one of the sweetest things i've seen her do, esp. considering she hasn't seen the beckers since she was first born...she's usually not that warm with strangers...

...anywho, about the music--head of femur was the first band to play...i've heard of them for a long time now because they play out in chicago all the time, but i've never actually seen them or heard their music...i actually liked it...they use a bunch of instruments not common to your basic indie rock band...things like trombones...they were definitely energetic enough...the next band up was pelican, another chicago area band who play out pretty frequently but whom i've never seen...they played on the stage that was all the way across the park (the acts were alternating between stages so there was hardly any lag time in between bands cuz the next act would already be set up and ready to go on the other stage) but we heard them really well from where we were sitting...i wasn't about to move from my prime spot in the shade...and the other stage had no shade area, so you were pretty much at the mercy of the sun, which i wasn't about to endure...anywho, pelican were pretty awesome, so were the m's after them...ac newman of the new pornagraphers had some sound problems and i couldn't really get into his music too much, although it was great when andrew bird got up there and whistled on one of his songs...the last band we stayed for was magnolia electric company, which is jason molina's latest project...jason used to play under the moniker songs:ohia, and i've seen him perform solo before...his music was really different with a full band supporting him...much more rockin' going on...i was impressed...i've always enjoyed jason's haunting melody lines and lyrics, and those are still intact it seems...i'll have to check these guys out more in the future...

anywho, cadence and i packed up during the four tet set...i had wanted to stay for broken social scene, but i was getting pretty exhausted, and ted's sister lauren and her boyfriend douglas, who's visiting from sweden, were supposed to come over to our apt. so doug could finally meet cadence...besides, i knew we'd have a whole another day of intonating all day sunday, so i figured we should get our rest...

*as for the bushnell reference in the title of this post, bushnell, IL is where the premier(for lack of a better word) christian rock cornerstone festival is held every year in the plowed cornfields of western illinois...this is referenced in sufjan stevens's latest album come on: feel the illinoise on track 17 called "Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All The Way Out In Bushnell "...i did the merch tent for two summers at cornerstone, and i can definitely say that the intonation festival is nothing like it...for one thing, i wasn't in a 100+ degree merch tent the whole time...anywho...

here is some heartbreaking news i got this morning from miss mia's kickass newsletter:

Bond was denied Friday for a 23-year-old woman accused of intentionally ramming her car into another vehicle at a Skokie intersection in a suicide attempt, killing three men from Chicago and injuring three others.

Jeanette Sliwinski was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery in connection with the Thursday afternoon crash at Niles Center Road and Dempster Street, according to a news release from Skokie police.

Sliwinski...was denied bond when a hearing was held in the Skokie Courthouse in her absence, while she remains hospitalized from the crash, Cook County state's attorney's office spokesman Tom Stanton said.

Stanton did not know which judge presided over the hearing.

Sliwinski was accused of intentionally ramming her 2000 red Ford Mustang into a 2001 Honda Civic, which was stopped at a red light, because she was distraught and trying to kill herself, Stanton said. He said her car was travelling more than 70 mph before the impact.

Three men in the Civic were killed. They were identified as Michael Dahlquist, 39, John Glick, 35, and Douglas Meis, 29, all of Chicago, according to release.

Stanton said Sliwinski was not seriously injured.

-via nbc5.com

FYI, these are three men from 3 different chicago area bands...michael dahlquist was the drummer for silkworm, john glick (a.k.a. bobby james lee ray) guitarist with the returnables and doug meis was the drummer for the dials...michael was also the editor for last year's chicago's underground film fest surprise hit 'why should the devil have all the good music'...

i held cadence just a bit closer as i put her down for her morning nap while we listened to iron+wine's 'creek drank the cradle'...life really can be over in the blink of an eye...and now that i have a family, i think about stuff like that, and i just hope and pray that each day i will impart to my loved ones, esp. teddy and cadence, just how much i love and cherish them...

this weekend is the first ever intonation music festival, curated by the lovely and tarty folks of pitchfork media, at union park west of the loop here in chicago...the lineup ranges from local faves such as the m's to national tourists like the wrens and the decemberists...there will also be DJ appearances by the lovely elvish rob lowe--not the actor, the frontman for 90 day men--the bonny prince himself a.k.a. will oldham, and james of yo la tengo...you can consider this the poor folk's lollapalooza ($15/day for intonation vs $60/day for lollapalooza) or the too-snobby-for-lollapalooza-palooza...whatever you wanna call it, i gots my tickets for both days! cadence and i will be soloing saturday's fest since ted's working, but it will be a family affair on sunday...kinda like what we did for the folk and roots festival last weekend, except in addition to the 90 degree weather, add an extra 60% in humidity...this week, though, i'm much more prepared--i bought a waterproof picnic blanket that's as big as our bed, and i'm bringing our earplugs so we can get closer to the stage this time...i will get there early both days and set up camp in the choicest shady spot i can find...then we can just take a nap until the fun starts...

i'm looking forward to seeing the m's, a.c. newman (of the new pornographers), rob lowe, magnolia electric company, andrew bird, the wrens, the decemberists and the yo la tengo dude...our friends (satellite booking)derek and linda becker will also be there, so it'll be nice to see them...hopefully we'll run into some other folks, but if not, we'll have a good time...the children's museum is supposed to have a booth there too so maybe we'll see some little kiddies...cadence would dig that for sure...

...here’s an interesting observation i made recently…cadence’s favorite person in the whole wide world besides her mommy and daddy (i’m ASSUMING we’re her top peeps) must be her uncle dave, ted’s oldest brother…whenever he comes over and she sees him, she squeals and giggles and wiggles her little body in the most adorable way…she doesn’t react this way to anybody else except for my friend john’s kitty katmandu…so dave gets to come over for a few hours, bask in our daughter’s earnest and innocent adoration, make her giggle and flap her arms the way only delighted babies do, and then he gets to go home… no dirty diapers, no tears, no whining, no chewed up nipples, no sleep lost…just the warm and fuzzy good stuff…

don’t get me wrong, i’m not jealous or anything…well, maybe just a little…actually, i’m glad cadence has someone she feels safe and at home with because one of these days, ted and i are going out on a date without her…not because we don’t like having her around, but because we’ll probably wanna catch a rock ‘n’ roll show or a movie and maybe even smoke a few cigs…that’s when having uncle dave around will pay off…if it takes a village to raise a child, well, i guess having uncle dave living a block away is a start; it may not be an entire village but it's at least a cul-de-sac…

...what a busy weekend...cadence and i went to the old town school of folk music's folk and roots festival on saturday AND sunday...it was just the two of us on saturday but we had a blast taking in all the music and kids and babies and families...it was pretty darn sunny, and even though i slathered on the sunscreen, cadence's legs got red...we were both tired as the evening progressed, but we made it till the headlining act, which was alejandro escovedo, whom i haven't seen perform live in like 3 years...the entire field, which is pretty huge, was covered with bodies by the time alejandro went on...it was a great show, and i'm glad we went even though it's hard juggling a baby when you're alone...fortunately, i've figured out a couple of different carries on my ellaroo pretty good, so i can carry cadence on my back now, rucksack style, and wearing her was so much easier than trying to maneuver a stroller through the crowd...on sunday ted and uncle dave joined us at the festival...we also ran into chris kralik, the bassist for watchers, ted's former band, and some of the boys from lying in states...chris is always so sweet when he sees cadence...anywho, the music was great again on sunday, but it was still sunny and HOT...it was easier though with two other adults to help out with cadence...

...so a couple of recent milestones for cadence...#1--she can eat cheerios now! those were a life saver during the festival, as she thinks it's quite amusing to chomp on those things...thanks to my friend and former coworker allison who gave cadence her first cheerio two weeks ago at a wedding for one of my colleagues...it took a couple of weeks, but cadence finally learned how to chew and swallow those little rings of oats! it's also made it easier to feed her other solids, like the green beans that ted's mom pureed for cadence over a month ago that have been sitting in the freezer in little cubes...not that i'm hurrying to get the little bugger on solids...she's still mostly on breastmilk, but i have to say that now that her top front teeth are coming in, it's getting more and more painful for me to nurse...i'm hoping i'll get used to it...

milestone #2--she can stand on her own!!! just yesterday, at the folk & roots festival, we were sitting on the dried out lawn...cadence was balancing herself on uncle dave's knee when she decided she wanted to clap, so she let go of the knee and started clapping while she was still standing!! it only lasted a few seconds, but she did it several times, and she had this look on her face like she knew she was moving on to new territory...it was cute how she'd stick her little butt out or would flap her little arms to maintain balance on her own two feet..good god, she's not even 10 months yet...i wonder how long it will be before she's actually taking steps? she may be walking by the time we get to seattle in september to visit uncle charles and auntie ali!

*sigh*...

...last night, i went to a reunion of old friends i knew back at my old church, the evanston vineyard...we met in eric and candy fehrenbacher's back yard...the reunion was in honor of a visit from lizel and her daughter evie, who used to live around these parts but moved a couple years ago to guam, where liz is working as a nurse...it was so good to see old faces and some new ones, esp. all the new kids! i really have to get cadence into a playgroup...she really loves seeing other little kids (as long as her mommy and daddy aren't holding them)!

("strawberry suicide" photo by my cousin ike)

... this photo was taken by my cousin ike...ain't it awesome?!! ike's the one who lives in austin,tx and who introduced me to indie music and digital photography...go see his flickr photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikerhee/

(photo by my cousin sherline)

...all is quiet on the midwestern front...folks are still sleeping and recuperating from the festivities of the night before...we walked down to our local cafe/ice cream shop sweet occasions, and it was like a ghost town on damen street...they were the only business open as far as i could see...

...yesterday was a busy day in our household...ted and his bro dave started brewing their next batch of beer at 10am, and were pretty much at it all day...cadence and i kept each other company and did laundry...my cousins debbie and sherline and my brother jim came over around 3pm to visit...sherline is in town from atlanta and hasn't seen cadence since new year's...you realize how fast babies grow when folks who haven't seen the baby in a while come visit...cadence is a totally different baby now than at the beginning of the year...she's pretty mobile and babbles and all bubbly...

...one other thing we've learned this weekend about cadence is that she is now old enough to be possessive of her mommy and daddy...we went out on saturday evening to meet our friends paul and denise and their baby zachary in lincoln square...zach is about 6 weeks younger than cadence...this was ted and cadence's first time meeting zach...he is such an adorable little baby, and cadence seemed intrigued at first...but then when i picked him up and held him, she started getting cranky, and you could tell she was jealous, this being the first time she's seen me holding another baby...things got REALLY intense when ted picked up zach...cadence was in my arms, and she still started crying when she saw her daddy holding zach...it was a very scolding cry, as if to say,'MY daddy! MY daddy!' needless to say, ted didn't get to hold zach for very long...

...we totally did not expect cadence to behave this way, but i guess it's natural...and it really made us realize that cadence sees us as her own, that at her tender young age, she already knows the safety and comforts of being in a family, and she knows that we belong together as a unit...it also was another indicator of cadence's emerging personality, and more and more, i am seeing a confident, persistent and strong-willed child...i see a difference between being spoiled and being strong-willed...it's scary, yeah, but it's better than having a push-over child who's too afraid to explore what she really wants in life...but at the same time, you can belive we're gonna need some divine help to raise this little one...

...before i forget, i want to record for posterity that cadence attended her first live show out of the womb...as i mentioned, our friend ian was in town, and we went to see him at the always lovely uncommon ground coffeehouse...cadence fell asleep before the show, but as soon as ian started playing, she woke up and was mesmerized...she was good for the whole show, and ian even played and sang 'elmo's world' for her!...duh da duh da, duh da duh da, elmo's world...she's such a lucky girl! this photo is when ian's lovely and talented chicago hostess alana waters sang backup for a cover of alejandro escovedo's song 'wedding day'...it was awesome to see ian again...the last time he'd seen us was when cadence was just a few weeks old...and we didn't get to stay for the show then...we're going to see him and his whole family when we go out to seattle in september...i'm sure cadence will develop a crush on one of his boys, if not both...she just loves little boys!

...our company was apparently one of the few companies who took friday off in addition to the upcoming monday 4th of july holiday...and boy oh boy, did i need this 4 day weekend! it was a gorgeous start to the long holiday yesterday, with finally a break in the heat...chicago was a lovely sunny breezy 78 degrees...we thought about going to brookfield zoo, but cadence took a long nap and we lost steam for driving all the way out there...

...instead, we decided to go hang out in wicker park...we ate lunch at earwax and then we sat around the park like so many other people on this deliciously gorgeous day...ted dozed on a blanket while cadence babbled and crawled all over him while i did a photoshoot...see more photos right here...