...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?

...today was a beautiful autumn day in chicago...the sun was bright, the sky was blue, the air was crisp but not frosty, the wind was brisk, the leaves danced their golden waltz...

...we began the day by going back to the hospital so that cadence could get ultrasounds on her hips...this is routine at 6 weeks for babies who were breech to make sure their hips are developing properly...we thought it would be pretty simple, in & out...little did we know that cadence wouldn't think it was such a simple procedure...she cried bloody murder and squirmed like a fish out of water practically the whole time...i felt so helpless because i couldn't just scoop her up into my arms to comfort her like i normally would when she cries like that...i don't know who was traumatized more; me or cadence...i just hope we didn't do any permanent damage to her emotional well-being...

...like i said, it was a beautiful autumn day today...we took advantage of it by taking a walk with teddy carrying cadence in a sling...it was a little chilly w/ the wind, but the late afternoon almost-winter sunlight was lovely...we went to laurie's planet of sound, our local indie record store...i've been meaning to stop by there ever since i moved into the neighborhood, but i've been preoccupied, i guess...i am so hopelessly behind on all the new releases, i barely know where to begin...i did pick up the new sufjan cd 'seven swans'...i've only listened to a few tracks so far, but i love what i've heard...i'll add this one to cadence's cd rotation for sure...i think my first postpregnancy show is going to the sufjan's early show @ schubas next thursday night...that'll also be my last night of maternity leave...

...yep, i go back to work next friday...i'm gonna miss my little cadence...i haven't been separated from her for more than 3 hours at a time since she was born...i don't know how i'm gonna be separated from her for 11 hours a day...especially now that her personality is coming out, and she's beginning to be more personable...just in the past day or so, she and i have started having conversations...the goo-goo-ga-ga kind of conversation, but it's still fun to hear her 'talk' back to me...

...*sigh*...they really do grow up so fast...

...anybody who knows me will know that i am not happy about the election results...and to be quite frank with you, after the 2000 election debacle during which i shed many a tear, i'm numb this time around...i know so many people who worked their butts off to create change through this election, but it was not to be...

...the thing that will really irritate me is if the several million evangelicals who actually decided to come out and vote this year on 2 whole issues (3 at the most), now turn to those of us who didn't vote for their guy and say, 'see, god answered our prayers because he's on OUR side...' which would mean that he's on GW's side as well...i really don't think god's on bush's side or kerry's side or nader's side...like the sojourner ad campaign states, god is not a republican...or a democrat...

...my friend nanette of wicker park grace had a quote on her blog yesterday that encouraged me...martin luther king, jr said, 'the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice.'...when it all comes down to it, it's not who's in the white house that'll determine whether we love our neighbors as ourselves...it's not which party is in control of the house or senate that will spur us on to fighting for justice in our backyards and around the world...that determination can only be made in the arena of our own hearts, when we take a stand for what we believe to be good and just...it's too easy to just throw in the towel and stop doing good cuz 'our guy' did not win...election, schmelection...yeah, it was important, but it's not the end of the world...if anything, it'll make us more vigilant because we can't just sit back and let the politicians do our work for us...we now have to make a conscious effort to ensure that the arc of history does bend towards justice...

...for me, at this moment in my life, that means being the most loving mom i can be to my little cadence and the most loving wife i can be to my teddy...there's so much to learn about caring for those who have no one to care for them by caring for your own little helpless baby who is totally dependent on you...

...well, this is it folks...election day 2004...cadence woke us up bright and early so we could go vote before the lines got too long...luckily, our polling place is across the street from our apartment so we simply walked there this morning...there was already a line of several dozen people in front of us on this drizzly cold november morning...fortunately, we didn't have to wait outside the building, like in some polling places across the country...teddy carried cadence (who was asleep) in a sling, and we waited in line together...by the time we were done voting, the line had more than doubled in size, and it was still only 8am...

...so if you haven't already, get out there and vote NOW(if you're registered)...don't let the long lines scare ya...

...also, if you have been fascinated by the 2004 campaign and you enjoy political memoirs, you should check out my friend steve elliott's book Looking Forward to It--Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the American Electoral Process...i went to high school with steve, and he's probably the closest thing to a celebrity that my graduating class has...he's been on the tavis smiley show and everything...i enjoy his writing quite a bit and have read most of this book in the rough draft version that he emailed piecemeal to his fans from the road as he followed the democratic presidential campaign since the primaries...

...that's enough on the political front for now...but seriously--go vote!