16 months and going strong...

...so yesterday was our little cadence joy's 16 month birthday...i just can't believe how fast time it marching on...she just keeps growing and doing new things and amazing us all the time...

...she loves looking out the window every morning and watching the cars and people and dogs and trains going by...she often waves and says 'bye' or points to the little people and says 'baby!' cuz i guess they do look pretty little from our window...

...she looks adorable in pjs, and she enjoys sitting in her own little chair with one of her friends to keep her company...in addition to cheerios, she now also loves raisins and sunflower seeds...she will eat pasta with tomato sauce like there's no tomorrow, and she LOVES chocolate ice cream and strawberry wafers and clementines...

...she plays well with others, but still cries if we leave her in the church nursery...her favorite playmate is her daddy, of course, but she does get to play with a few other kids at church on sundays, and we also went over to visit her little friend ada grey who lives in our neighborhood...

...one thing's for sure...she LOVES yacking it up on the phone...she will pace around the house talking to her "friends" occasionally laughing big belly laughs, and other times being all serious and business-like...i think she talked to my mom for a full 5 minutes the other day, which is a long time for a little baby with such a short attention span...

...she also loves to dance and sing...she'll start boogying when we're out and about and she hears a song she likes...one of my favorite things about her these days is when i spy her playing alone and singing happily to herself...

*sigh*...

i'm alive...

...wow...where have i been? well, quite frankly, work's been pretty busy, and when i get home in the evenings i'm just too wiped out to do much...besides, there's not much going on except work and cadence around here...

...yeah, the little bugger is still quite entertainment enough in our household...we don't even have TV any more since we moved, and we seem to be doing just fine...although i need to get it hooked up for the academy awards on march 5th...i gotta see jon stewart hosting!

...i DID get to go see the detholz! play at schubas last tuesday as part of the DVD release party for 'why should the devil have all the good music?' unfortunately, due to time constraints, they didn't show the whole DVD. BUT the detholz! did a cover of george michael's song 'faith' which was a total hoot. steiny cut his locks and jim cooper (the frontman) grew a beard. the latter is quite peculiar considering that i didn't think it possible for jim to have facial hair, as his face has always looked so babybutt smooth all the times i've seen him on stage...

...anyhoo, i highly recommend the DVD to anyone who hasn't watched it yet...loads of fun and quite informational too...

happy 2006!

...yikes! it's the new year already! i am already so behind...

...so christmas was a big day...after opening presents at our new home, we jetted off to ted's P's out in the burbs for brunch and to open some more presents...ted's bro charles and his wife ali were in town from seattle, as well as auntie lauren's boyfriend douglas from sweden...so it was a big group...

...the big christmas mid-afternoon dinner was at ted's aunt martha and uncle bob's...most of the presents at this gathering was for the 3 great-grandkids, perry (cousin connie's son) and mackenzie (cousin vikki's daughter) and of course cadence...cadence had fun toddling around every where...it's a whole new ballgame now that she's bipedal...

...the day after christmas was another family gathering...since charles and ali were in town, we had planned on doing formal family portraits at our friend brown john's dad's studio down in wicker park...it was a lot of fun, although i have to admit i'm not used to being in front of the camera...cadence was a total natural, and i can't wait to see the photos from that shoot...she was so comfortable posing for the camera, and everyone was surprised at how much she enjoyed it...i have this feeling that she'll someday end up doing some kind of performance art...mr. niekrasz (the photographer) told us to start saving money for acting school...

...cadence missed her afternoon nap because of the photoshoot, and she was so tired when we went out to eat afterwards at goose island, that she nodded off to sleep at the table...we were all cracking up because we watched her get drowsier and drowsier until her head hit the table...then she'd open her eyes a little and smile and then drift back to sleep...it was like watching footage from one of those America's Funniest Videos in which a toddler falls asleep while eating in a high chair...i'll be chuckling about this one for some time to come...

anywho, i don't think i'll ever catch up rambling like this, so here are a few photos from the past week...

...as if all her new shoes weren't enough, cadence also got to walk in her uncle charles's shoes...

...can you tell she put this hat on all by herself?

...charles and ali stayed with us all week, and as you can see, cadence LOVES her uncle charles...as a matter of fact, we left her with charles and ali to go see the getup johns play at the hideout on wednesday night...that was quite a show!

...and yet another christmas present for her feet...

...our little whirlwind...

...there's something about this light that i really like...

...i love her little curl in the middle of her neck...

...we went to the skokie sculpture park with charles and ali...

...it just so happens that charles is an awesome artist, and he could make a better piece of sculpture than anything we saw...

and that's it for now...