Shutterbug Mama

...well, i hope y'all had a very happy thanksgiving...cadence actually wore a skirt to celebrate...i think i can count the number of times she's worn a skirt or dress on my two hands...i don't know if it's the lack of hair or what, but it sometimes looks funny to me to have her in a dress...maybe it's cuz i personally don't like wearing a skirt...but this outfit was a gift from cousin vikki, and it was way too cute to pass up for a special occasion like thanksgiving at the P's...

...actually, cadence and cousin mackenzie could have been spokeskids for The Children's Place with the outfits they were both wearing at thanksgiving dinner...they were both very cute indeed...and they had a lot of fun chasing each other around!

...so anywho, thanksgiving at ted's parents' was great, although we missed grandma carol and (ted's bro) charles and (charles's wife) ali and cousins connie and ben and their son perry...ted's mom is such an awesome cook...we took home a bunch of leftovers and had almost the same meal for lunch today, which was a major bonus...

...on the way home, we stopped at my uncle's house in northbrook where my mom and my bro jim were spending thanksgiving...we got there right in time for more dessert! my cousins shereline and debbie were there too...i think we spent most if not all of our thanksgivings growing up w/ shereline and debbie's family...

...and today, dave, lauren, sherline and debbie joined us to see Walk The Line at a movie theater out by my mom's place so she could babysit cadence...i think this is the first movie i've seen in the theater without cadence since before she was born...although i think she would've enjoyed it, since she really likes johnny cash's music...i really enjoyed the movie, considering i've read CASH:THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY like twice in the past 11 months...the amazing part is that the portion of cash's life that the movie covers (from his boyhood to 1968, just after he records the 'at folsom prison' album) encompasses just a small snippet of his entire career...if they had covered his whole career and personal life, there would probably be material for at least a few more movies...

i really love johnny cash, not just for his music, but because he is someone who's fallen down so many times as flat on his face and in the dirtiest muck possible, and he still found grace to get back up and start over again...and he really did have The Gift...

so it appears that cadence is moonlighting elsewhere on the web...her photos are on a couple pages of the website for the FUNdamentals playroom, the playgroup in lincoln square that we go to occasionally...

check it out here and here...

she's a busy baby!

for those of you with kids who live near lincoln square, make sure you check out the playroom sometime...misti, who is the director, is a really neat woman...cadence LOVES playing there!

dearest little cadence,

i just wanted to let you know that your mommy ate oatmeal for breakfast today...she doesn't like oatmeal, and she really wanted to get the muffin or the buttermilk pancakes, but she opted for the oatmeal...why, you ask? because she loooooves you and wants to pump more milk for you than she has as of late, and for some reason god made oatmeal the wonderdrug for lactating mothers...why it couldn't have been muffins or buttermilk pancakes or better yet CHOCOLATE, i don't know...god has his mysterious ways...

but because you give your mommy looks like this:

...she will eat the oatmeal...maybe not EVERY morning, but at least a few times a week...(ugh.)

and if you keep giving your mommy looks like this:

...she will keep eating the oatmeal and hopefully that'll keep the milk flowing...

xoxo,
your mama

...i went back to work after 8 incredible weeks of cadence joy 24/7...i still remember that very first day...ted had been working full-time until i went back to work, so he wasn't used to being the primary caregiver...boy, was he in for a shock! cadence would NOT drink from a bottle...i must have called every half-hour to see if she'd eaten...i was a nervous wreck at work that day...it took a few days, but cadence got used to her daddy, and now those two make quite a pair!

...cadence is pooping nicely again! whew! and i must say, her mood has improved dramatically! it's amazing what a couple of days on a prune diet will do...

...now she even gets to eat her beloved cheerios again...i think we'll still feed her prunes at least one meal a day, just to keep her plumbing working nice and smoothly...

...so i got me a coat, a nice warm down filled coat...and you know what's sad? i saw this little old lady wearing the exact same coat in a different color today...i've been reduced to wearing a granny coat! it's a far cry from when i used to go the entire chicago winter in nothing but a hoody and maybe a ski vest...oh well...i'm sure i won't regret it when my walk to the metra doubles in a month...not that 8 minutes is that long of a walk...

...today is the coldest day of the new autumn/winter season in chicago this year…my hair turned into medusa-like icicles on my brief walk to the metra station…luckily, i found a pair of gloves and a scarf before leaving the apartment…i’ve decided it’s high time i bought a new winter coat, considering i can’t remember the last time i bought one…i’d been avoiding the inevitable in hopes that NOT having a warm coat would force me to move to a warmer, more hospitable climate…alas, i am a home owner now and will most likely be chained to chicago for the foreseeable future…so i might as well buy a decent coat…

it may be butt-cold here, but it sure is sunny…i can only see the left half of my laptop screen (i’m typing this on the train) because of the glare from the sunlight streaming in…i actually had to adjust my margin so that i’m typing on only the left half of the page so i can actually see what i’m doing…this blindingly sunny, frigid weather makes me think we’re gonna have a cold hard winter ahead of us…

so i feel sorry for leaving ted at home with cadence today, and here’s why…i was an idiot on tuesday and forgot to put the milk i’d pumped at work in the fridge that evening and had to throw it all out on wednesday…since i work from home on wednesdays, i couldn’t pump anything and hence poor teddy is stuck home with our baby and no milk…that means he’ll have to give her formula, and she HATES that…she hates the goat milk even more…she’s also been on a bit of a hunger strike lately, mostly in the evenings…i worry because she’s a lean baby as it is, and she flies around the apartment like a little tornado all day, so i have no idea how she’s gonna gain any weight…she apparently hasn’t inherited her mother’s knack for packing on the pounds by merely ogling a kit kat bar…i have a feeling her lack of interest in food may stem from being a bit plugged up…(warning: poop talk about to commence)…i seriously can’t remember the last time i changed a poopy diaper…i’m getting really nervous now because you know that it just gets worse the more time goes by…teddy says he’s going to feed her nothing but prunes until she finally poops…i hope to god we don’t have to stick a suppository up her butt…if it leads to that, her screams will probably cause the neighbors to call DCFS on us…that girl’s got quite the set of lungs, ya know…

who knew that being a parent would mean spending so much time and energy on wishing and praying for your child to poop and calling your spouse every hour to ask "did she poop yet?" and the first thing out your mouth when you come home would be "did she poop today?"

dear lord jesus, please help my poor baby to poop and please don't let it hurt too much...lord knows what a major pain in the ass it is to give birth to a rock through your rear end...

...we are very proud to unveil the first piece of artwork by our little cadence joy...this photo of the original does not do justice to the artistic genius that is so OBVIOUS in each stroke of the crayon...the use of color is impeccable, as is the utilization of white space...the urgency and fervency of emotion that this piece evokes is quite unexpected and leaves you breathless...

...oh yes...we're framing this for sure...

...now THAT's what i call rock star hair! cadence and i were napping saturday afternoon when ted came home from work...i turned over to my right side and this is what cadence looked like...

...i've tried to get her hair to look like that before but could never pull it off! i have no idea what position she was sleeping in to get hair like that...it was quite amusing to wake up to, that's for sure!

... so there is some heated discussion going on on the latest gaper's block poll called "kids: yay or nay?"...as a parent, i'm a bit biased on this one, i suppose...but i think my answer would have been very different just two short years ago...back in the fall of 2003, i was a happy-go-lucky girl, in love with her boyfriend, going to rock 'n' roll shows until the wee hours, spending countless hours perusing the narrow aisles of the local used record store, jetsetting off to seattle or NYC without a care in the world...i LOVED my life then--the freedom, the fun, the rock AND the roll...if you'd asked me THEN this question about having kids, i would've said NO WAY! i was already in my 30s and quite comfortably set in my untethered lifestyle...i had absolutely no desire to suffer the agonies of pregnancy and childbirth, let alone be responsible for another human being for the next couple decades...that would totally cramp my style, ya know?

well, lo and behold, a few months later i find myself puking all over the subterranean's ladies room...and this time, it wasn't just the booze and cigarettes...two weeks later, i take a pregnancy test just to rule it out before i go to the doctor's to see if i have stomach cancer or something...(i'd been told by my OB-GYN that i couldn't get pregnant without hormone treatment...i guess teddy was hormone treatment enough)...so imagine my shock when i saw that little pink line magically appear on a stick that would indicate my life would never be the same again...

i admit that my very first reaction was fear...good god, i wasn't even engaged, let alone married...but then i had this very reassuring feeling that everything was going to be okay...i don't know if it was the mommy hormones or what, but i knew that in many ways this was going to be the best thing that ever happened to me...

...and i was right...i LOVE being a mom...that's not to say though that ALL women will love being mothers, or all men will love being fathers...and i totally respect people's decision to NOT have children...what i don't understand, however, is people who are so hostile towards kids that they would want to go as far as banning them from public places...or banishing those who choose to have kids to the suburbs...to me, that's just another form of discrimination...nobody appreciates an unruly child or a parent who doesn't seem to care about their child's behavior in public...however, this is no excuse to lump all kids and parents into one generic group and quarantine them from the rest of society...

reading some of those comments made me think of how jesus felt about children:

"let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these..."

"therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

"whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me..."

children really are precious and wondrous beings...i think our society would be much better off if we could all treat children with the respect and care they need, whether we personally choose to have our own kids or not...

"don't give away this mattress to the salvation army people! it's my bounciest playmat!"

"...maybe if i just smear some boogers all over it, it'll be mine for good..."

"....and if the boogers don't work, i'll just pout!"

we are cleaning house, getting ready for the big move in a month...and despite what cadence may think about the effect of her smeared boogers and pretty little pouting on our decision making process, we are in fact giving away a mattress and boxspring, a dresser, a sofa and 10 boxes of clothes and books and household goods to the salvation army...if they can find us, that is...they were supposed to come on tuesday but couldn't find the address because the entrance to our apartment is not visible from the street...

...cadence is trying to pull her weight (as unsubstantial as that is) around here and is now being employed as our receptionist...we think she does a fantastic job! she's the perfect person to give the phone to if a telemarketer calls...

....so regarding our new neighbor, things sure quieted down lately...last weekend was total hell...THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP techno music echoing through our ceiling until past 1am on friday night and past 4:30 am on saturday night...i did end up writing a letter (not the one posted below, but one that was still firm AND with a cc: to management) and hand delivering it around midnight saturday...it didn't do any good that night, but there hasn't been much loud music up there since then...cadence was a bee-yatch for several days...we were all pretty sleep deprived around here...things are just getting back to normal, and i can't wait to get out of this building...don't get me wrong...you can't beat the location or the price for the space...but when you're a mommy to a little toddler, it's amazing how protective you become of your child's sleep...mainly because you know she'll be a little mini bee-yatch without it...

and take it from me, a 21-pound-2-and-a-half-foot-13-and-a-half-months-old mini bee-yatch is NOT to be dealt with lightly...

...some of you may remember my first photo shoot of cadence was the apple series...i LOVED that little apple outfit on her!

...and NOW...she's actually big enough to EAT an apple, not just wear 'em...*sigh*...

...yep, if i were an apple in our home, i'd be afraid...i'd be VERY afraid...

this is something teddy wrote for me to proofread...what do you think?

************************************************************

Dear New Neighbor,

Ever since your punk ass showed up, there has been nothing but loud, pounding, shitty dance music. It sucks and we were totally fed up with it the first moments we heard it. You are wasting your time, ears and brain cells listening to that crap, and I suggest you switch over to something enriching, like folk music. Have you ever put on some early Bob Dylan? You should try it. Put it on nice and quiet, sip some tea or coffee, maybe even drink a beer and have yourself a cigarette out in the wind on the fire escape. I would even say smoke a joint if that’s your fancy. Just as long as you keep it down and make it inaudible by 9 pm every night. We have a 1 year old baby who is cute as a button. If you saw her, you would even agree. Not only do we put her down at around 9 every night, we ourselves both get up very early for work, and put ourselves down this early. So cut it out. It’s annoying and you sound like a stupid dork listening to it. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Your downstairs neighbors who were here first
*****************************************************************

so whaddaya think? i thought it might be a little harsh...OBVIOUSLY we're not giving him this letter....but a letter must get written and soon, cuz it's getting ridiculous...

just a few of the ways that cadence can make my heart melt:

• the way she eats her cheerios
• the way she feeds me her cheerios with her little fingers (and then takes them out of my mouth to feed herself)
• the way she says ‘mmmWAH’ whenever she gives me a kiss
• the way she says ‘mmmWAH’ whenever she gives her teddy bear or any other lucky toy a kiss

• the way she scrunches up her little nose and huffs and puffs like she's a big bad wolf
• the way she giggles and laughs like a mad scientist
• the way she wiggles her body while making little fists with her hands
• the way she crawls with her head bobbing from side to side, like she’s skipping
• the way she crawls with her head down like she’s a charging rhinoceros
• the way she crawls up to my guitar and strums the strings while humming a note

  

• the way she calls me ‘mommy’ or ‘ummay’ in her tired ‘please hold me’ voice
• the way she wraps her little arms around my shoulders and buries her head in my chest
• the way she tugs on my pant legs to be picked up
• the way she crawls into my lap without hesitation and without any doubt that that is where she belongs

• the way she plays with her daddy with total abandon and glee
• the way she says ‘da DA, da DA” in her sing-songy voice
• the way she falls asleep in her daddy's arms while slowdancing to Beck
• the way she shakes her little booty to the noggin channel’s music videos

• the way she meows when she reads her kitty cat book
• the way she’ll pick up a random rectangular object and hold it to her ear and start talking into it in her ‘telephone voice’
• the way she hides my ATM card, work id, bus pass, train pass, etc under the rug
• the way she crawls under my desk and pulls herself up with her head between my legs while i’m working on the computer



• the way she claps and goes 'woo-hoo' at the end of a song
• the way she plays with her own hair as she nurses
• the way she wakes up with a big smile on her face
• the way she babbles to me in complete paragraphs, confident that i understand every word she says

• and the list goes on and on...
  

...i had a miserable migraine yesterday so i couldn’t post more than a few photos, but this past week happened to be a big photo week for cadence…so i’ll just intersperse this post with some of my favorites…

….we’ve got a good head start on packing…actually, ted’s the one doing most of the packing…me, i’m still going through boxes that i never unpacked when we moved into our current place…cadence is enjoying this packing thing cuz she LOVES boxes…i mean, what kid doesn’t?

...we’ve got so much stuff to go through, throw out, give away, etc…we want to take as little as possible, even though we’ll have a lot more space at the new place…we plan on being there for at least 7 years, so we’ll probably need that space, as much as i try to delude myself into thinking we won’t accumulate a lot of stuff…

...in addition to the halloween party on saturday, cadence and i went to our local playgroup, the fun-damentals playroom, which meets at a lutheran church on wilson and campbell…we got there really early cuz i thought they met at 10am when they actually meet at 11am, so we went to the playlot across the street from the church…

...the light was really lovely, so we did a little photoshoot…

...cadence loved crawling around on the soft foam-like rubber fake asphalt they use on playgrounds these days (so kids don’t split body parts open, i assume)…

...you know, i’m no expert on these matters, but it is my opinion that cadence has more energy than the average 13 month old…yes, i know babies have a LOT of energy in general, but she is just non-stop…the only thing that’ll calm her down sometimes is a book…thank goodness she LOVES books, so she never turns down a chance to sit in my lap and turn the pages to her favorite boardbooks…

...on sunday morning, we walked to a local methodist church that the director of the playgroup had told me about…it’s only 2 blocks from where we live, so it was really convenient…it’s a small congregation, which had a really nice cozy feel to it…the worship band consisted of a classical pianist, a fiddle, a mandolin/guitar player, a drummer, and 2 back up singers…it was pretty folksy and quite charming…seeing them standing up front made me think of photos of woody guthrie playing with his friends…

...i wish we had found this church earlier…now that we’re moving, i don’t think we’ll be able to make it every week, but it’ll be a good excuse to visit our old neighborhood in lincoln square and to see uncle dave, who lives just a block from us now…

...i know that going to a small mainline denomination church is a real departure from what i’ve been used to, but i really think that’s what i need right now…ironically, both my parents come from a long line of methodists, so for me (not so much for ted), this is like getting back to my roots in the weslyan tradition…

...after church, we headed into lincoln square and met up with cadence's little beau zach and his parents denise and paul...it was such a lovely day to be outdoors, and giddings plaza in lincoln square is the perfect place to hang out and watch all the cute babies and dogs from the neighborhood...

...i think cadence is really taking to zach...

...although sometimes she might scare him a bit...

...she couldn't stop patting his lovely hair!

anywho, it was great seeing denise and paul and zach again...we'll have to see them as much as we can before we move out of the neighborhood!