Shutterbug Mama

well, happy week after christmas, y'all! hope it's been a merry time for everyone and that your homes have been filled with peace and joy and love and laughter and not necessarily a bunch of stuff you don't need or want...

...cadence got a bunch of neat presents...like these red boots to match her snowsuit as well as like 5 other pairs of shoes...

...she also got some neato markers and a coloring book from her auntie ruthy...luckily, these markers will only show up as color on the special pages of the coloring book that came with the markers, so she can draw all over those nice white walls with 'em if she likes...

...one of cadence's favorite gifts is this overstuffed chair that we ordered from san diego...it's just her size, and she loves it! as soon as we took it out of the box, she climbed right in and sat down...

...the most anticipated gift has to be her new 3-octave schoenhut upright piano...we've had it for weeks in the box because we wanted to see it for the first time on christmas morning...we all love it, and it sounds just so magical...

...this was the first christmas morning together as a family in our new home, and it was lovely...we opened most of our family presents together and left a few to take to ted's parents' for the big mass gift opening later that day...

more later...

... things are about to get really busy in our home, so in case i don't get to post for a while, have yerselves a merry little christmas and a blast of a new year!

...ted's bro charles and his wife ali will be staying with us next week...i only work two out of the five work days, and i'm really looking forward to spending time with the family and our friends...

...i'm especially thankful today because a couple nights ago, i saw my life flash before my eyes...we had quite a scare with cadence, and it taught me how precious each day is, and how fragile life can be and yet how resilient children are at the same time...

...well, the story is that we were doing some christmas shopping tuesday night at the mall...we were leaving around 9:30pm, and i was carrying cadence in my arms in front, and i couldn't see that there was a concrete slab on the sidewalk where a bench used to be mounted, and i totally tripped and sent cadence flying backwards and she hit her head full force on the concrete...i can't even try to express in words how stunned and shocked i was at that moment...without even thinking, i scooped her up into my arms and to my dismay, she wasn't responding...i don't know if she too was stunned, or if she lost consciousness, but it took her a little while to actually start crying, and even when she did, her body still felt limp, and i was totally freaked out...we couldn't find any lacerations on her head, or even a bump (she was wearing a hat that must have provided some padding), but the impact of the fall was so alarmingly hard that i thought for sure she'd have permanent brain damage...i called our doctor's office to page the doctor on call, and she told us to take her in to the emergency room just to be on the safe side...she thought cadence was okay because she wasn't vomitting and she actually got up on her feet when ted put her down to check her range of motion...

since we didn't even have a diaper bag, we had to go home first...cadence seemed to be doing fine, so i decided to get a 2nd opinion and called an old family friend and doctor dr. shin...he too asked about vomitting, and when i told him she wasn't throwing up and that she seemed okay, he said she was probably fine but to watch her and if she started crying a lot or vomitting to go to the emergency room...so we went home and weren't planning on putting her and ourselves through the added stress of a visit to the ER and just hoped she'd be fine...but about 40 minutes after the fall, she started getting fussy and crying and looking kind of sick....that's when she threw up all over herself and me...that was the most she'd ever puked in her life, and it scared the crap out of me...somehow we managed to get ourselved changed, packed a bag and headed for the ER...4 hours and a CAT scan later, we were told everything was fine and given the green light to go home...we didn't get to bed that night until about 4am...

i don't know what i'd have done if things weren't okay...i know we would have managed, but it would have broken my heart if anything had happened to hurt cadence long-term...even now, i still hope and pray that she'll heal from this completely...

it just goes to show that your whole life can change in a flash...we take so much for granted everyday, and as cheesy as it sounds, each new day really is a gift...i for one hope to make the best of what i'm given...

...well, we're getting settled into our new home...i've unpacked most of our CDs at least...cadence is having a fine time toddling around the place...we've been so busy, i'll be lucky if i get all my christmas shopping done...and it's just so damn cold out there these days that i really don't feel like leaving our cozy home...

...cadence will be 15 months old on saturday, and it's just amazing how much she's matured...it's like she became a whole new person now that she's walking...*sigh*...she's growing up so fast already! and she is so affectionate...on days when we get to wake up as a family, she leans over and gives me a hug and a kiss...then i tell her to give dada a kiss and she turns over and gives ted a kiss too...she loves playing with stuffed animals...she takes them by the hand and leads them around the house...and she gives them big hugs and smoochy kisses often...she can count to two ("wah, boo!") and her favorite phrase these days is thank you, which she enunciates very well for a 15 month old...if she sees a picture of a flower, she will sniff it and then give it to you to sniff as well...she loves to share her cheerios, although sometimes she'll actually put the cheerio in her mouth after offering it to you...she does the cutest little butt wiggle and bouncy-bouncy dance to her favorite tunes...and when she says in her adorable little voice, 'mama? mama? mama?' all my troubles melt away...

well, we’re moved in the new place now…it was quite an ordeal and took quite a bit of labor on the part of a number of people…thanks to lauren for shoveling the alley and providing the delicious chai and apple crumble in ADDITION to moving tons of stuff…thanks also to our bros david and jason and jim and our friends olarn and brian and keom and dave norton and connolly…it took every bit of their help to get our stuff moved…i just hope we never ever have to move in winter again…

i was worried about cadence during the move because she’s been sick and a bit clingy…my mom came over to watch her while we were loading the truck, but she didn’t want to play with my mom…she wanted to see what was going on…so i slung her on my back with my ellaroo wrap, and she was happy as a clam in there for the next few hours until we were ready to leave for the new place…she even got to nap in there, which was great, because we’d destructed every surface that would be suitable for baby to lie down on…i don’t know what i would’ve done if i didn’t have that sling…

we’re just settling in now to our new surroundings…the place is so huge compared to our old apartment that i’ve already lost my cell phone…i’m pretty sure cadence hid it somewhere…

speaking of cadence and cell phones, she’s taken to crank calling people with my phone…last week she called my cousin jeannie in california…a couple days ago she called a guy named bill and it turned out to be none other than bill mallonee…he got a kick out of that, and it’s always nice to talk to bill…i think he was inside a cracker barrel restaurant…i’m gonna have to go through my phone book and delete phone numbers for folks i definitely DON’T want cadence to call, or it could get a bit awkward…

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...

…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*…

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

...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...

...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!