busy weekend

Lots of fun at our house this weekend. Friday (which of course, is a day off for both me and Matt) my sweet college buddy Lydia came to visit with almost 2 year old Jacob and 6 week old Lily. Cadence was a fan of both Jacob and Lily. Jacob provided inspiration to play with her wheeled toys - I can't call them cars because one is a horse - and Lily provided an excuse to say "baby" a lot which is one of her favorite words. She was also very interested in Lily's pacifier and toys.


Then Saturday we ran errands and did work around the house (we now have a mailbox that meets Homeowners Association standards) until we got to go to a very cool birthday party for some buddies from church. It was at Pump-It-Up - one of those inflatables party places. I was a little nervous that Cadie wouldn't really "get" it, which she kind of didn't, but she did have a great time.
She liked the balls and the bouncy house with Daddy.

She had to prompted to go down the slide with us, but then she liked it.
Um...we kind of loved it too.

Christmas #2

These are coming really late again. My old computer is so slow with pictures that it takes several naptimes to get them off the camera, saved in my picture files, and then uploaded to the blog. Anyway, more great Christmas pics here, from Christmas #2, with Dassa and Pa-pa on New Year's Day.
You can't see it very well here, but Cadie got a power wheels "go buggy" (as Dassa called it) - unfortunately, Cadie is scared of it! We think she's still just a little young to get excited about it. We have left it out in the family room and she'll walk over to it and touch it. She really liked when we put the decorative stickers on it. But everytime I ask her if she wants to sit on it, she does one little shake of her head and says, "no." Maybe this summer.

Cadence got two new babies for Christmas. She has 5 (count 'em - 5!) babies now! She likes to line them all up in our orange armchair in the family room and put one of her blankets over them.

We got Cadie and Dassa t-shirts that say "Carolina girls - sweeter than the tea." We found them in Asheville at Thanksgiving - I wanted one for Cadie, then saw the adults ones and had to get one for South Carolina born and bred Dassa.


I have to say I was kinda disappointed with the lack of decent family photos this Christmas. This was the best one and we don't look that great.

Blah

I'm sad today. Matt's been gone to Florida for a conference and my mom was here, which was great, but she left today. I miss him very much, and now I miss her too. One of Matt's cousins was killed in a car accident earlier this week and he's staying in Florida until tomorrow morning so he can be with family tonight. It's very sad - Matt's cousin was only 17 and I know his family is devastated.

I'm also upset about the earthquake aftermath in Haiti. I went to Haiti the summer after my freshman year in college and the poverty is unbelievable. It's one of those places where there is little to no hope. For most Haitians, there is no chance of escaping poverty. There is little access to education and the land is not ideal for farming. Unfortunately, Haiti also suffered from decades of corrupt government. As I've been following the news coverage, I read a quote that said the people needed food, clean water, and tents. And I thought, they needed that before now. Now, a people that were suffering before have to deal with the same old problems that plagued them, as well as destroyed buildings, lost family members and friends, and, tragically, dead bodies - with almost no infrastructure to make a difference.

I hope that some good, some lasting change will come out of this. I am disappointed by the ignorant, irresponsible, and mean-spirited comments of Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh. But I am hopeful and thankful that people seem concerned, that money is being donated and aid is arriving. Tomorrow, I'll be giving to special offering at our church that will go to Baptist groups already on the ground in Haiti, providing relief and hope in the name of Jesus Christ.

I wanted to post pictures of a certain cute toddler and Christmas #2, but that doesn't seem appropriate for my mood. Today, I'll spend her naptime praying and quietly doing chores, and tomorrow maybe we'll talk about some fun stuff.

Applesauce breakthrough

Just recently Cadence started using a spoon to actually put food in her mouth. Isn't she cute? Concentrating so hard. Applesauce is her forte, hopefully soon she'll be able to tackle everything else, even soup.

Cadence shares some moments from Christmas #1

Everyone kept telling us how great this Christmas was going to be with Cadence, and it was, but she still doesn't understand how to open a present. She was fascinated with the lights on the trees and the music and all the visitors. We did Christmas #1 on Christmas Day with Nana and Dadder, and Christmas #2 today with Dassa and Papa.

Christmas Day really was fun. I actually enjoyed cooking a big meal and we just took our time opening presents since Cadie would open one and then want to play with it. Here are just a few pictures of some of her favorite things that day.

This is one of our three trees. Yes, three. We found two left behind in our attic by previous owners. This is the biggest and prettiest.

She was more interested in the ornaments than the boxes underneath.

A box full of pompoms. Fun for toddlers and the cats that live with them. Rainey keeps stealing these so we're trying to keep them in the box. Cadie likes to take them out and put them back in the box. Or in other things. I imagine in a few months I'll be finding these all over the house.

This gift was a fave. Nana and Dadder got her a tea set and she loves it. She pours tea in the cups and gives it to us to drink. She plays the songs on the teapot over and over.

Cadie also got Crayola TaDoodles. She loves to color with the crayons she got for her birthday, so now she has markers too. They really are washable because she drew on her jeans and it came right out.

And speaking of which, isn't her sweater adorable? It was kelly green with these fun little felt embroidered ornaments on the front. I wish she could keep wearing it, but it would probably look silly in January.

Snow Baby (a week late, as usual)

Cadence really loved watching the snow Friday the 18th. We were home all day so we got to watch it start, and build, and she kept wanting me to take her on the back deck and watch it fall.
We didn't go out to play in it until Saturday and then she was not such a fan. It had kind of crusted over and it was hard for her to walk, but she liked watching the neighbor kids play in it a bit. Plus, how cute is she is her little snowsuit?

Cadie's pretend play

Here on the eve of Cadie's 15 month birthday, we've been noticing that she's doing pretend play. A little at least. I took this picture last week of her with a new baby doll her Dassa gave her. Almost right away, Cadie started calling it "baby" and wanted to put her blanket on it. She picks it up and hugs it, and I can see how before we know it, we'll be wanting to get her a doll bed and accessories so she can care for her dollies.

Today she found our little remote control. She was carrying it around when I noticed that she was holding to the side of her face and saying "Hi, Daddy! Hi, Daddy! Hi, Daddy!" We've already bought her a toy phone for Christmas, so she'll love that.

I am enjoying being home with her during the day. It'll be really great once we settle into a routine - last week was weird working both jobs and this week we've had other things going on some days too. I actually woke up this morning at some point and thought - I have to get up to get Cadie to school! Then I remembered happily that she doesn't go to day care anymore.

Still, I'm really looking forward to Christmas break when I'll have a good chunk of time with no work at all. Yea!

what a week...

Before I'm off to work this morning, I wanted to post to document how tired I am! I fell asleep on the couch two evenings this week. Good news is this should be my last Saturday working for a long, long time since I got a new job as an evening librarian at a university. In just a couple weeks, Cadie will be home with me during the day and not in daycare. I'll be dealing with significantly less crazy people (had an unpleasant altercation with a man looking at inappropriate images on a library computer yesterday) and doing more research oriented work.

Between resigning and starting to say my goodbyes and trying to get ready for my new position, I just need to relax! I'm excited for several days off next week for Thanksgiving and my birthday.

Halloween, a week late

Last year, Cadence pretty much hated the Fall Festival at church (of course, she was not even 2 months old). This year, it went a lot better. We started with a cute costume. She was "Cadie-bug the Lady-Bug." Her costume was adorable, but she wasn't sure about it at first. I think it just felt really different from her regular clothes. She was trying to take off her antennae headbead for awhile, then seemed to get used to it.

We had a bug theme with our outfits. I was a bee, and Matt was a Beatle. Get it? That's the Beatle suit he bought for our friends Rick and Chrissy's wedding this summer. He'll be wearing it every Halloween from now on...because that's the most expensive suit he owns.

She liked watching the big kids play games and listening to the music on the CD player by the cake walk.
When it came time for the trunk-or-treating in the church parking lot, Cadie didn't really get it. She just wanted to walk up and down the aisles. If you look at her hands in this last picture though, I think she shows her true colors. (She's got a sweet tooth, we just haven't let her discover it yet.)
That's a Hershey bar in one hand and a chocolate coin in the other. We didn't let her eat them. She had some mini M&M's and liked them.

Cooking

I used to really like to cook. I know that when we got married I wasn't great, but I've been honing my skills and can whip up some pretty good stuff. Seems like the last few months I've lost my cooking mojo. We've been eating a lot of frozen stuff and really quick things that don't involve actual cooking, but just boiling water (tortellini, I'm looking at you).

Sunday I tried to turn that trend around. I'd seen a recipe for macaroni and cheese with roasted butternut squash in the latest issue of Parents magazine and was feeling inspired. I thought it sounded yummy and I've started looking for more ways to get Matt, and Cadence, to eat veggies. So after I made lunch (marinated salmon and brown rice) and they went down for naps, I got cooking. I roasted the butternut squash. Which, by the way, is great on it's own, but also very good in mac and cheese.

Then I chopped veggies for lentil and tomato soup, which was really easy in the crockpot. I'm a fan of recipes that just involved dumping everything in a pot.

So, at the end of the cooking session, I had two meals that have been feeding us for days. (Well, I'm the only one eating the soup. I think Matt and Cadie are not into lentils.) It was a really great feeling to be in the quiet kitchen, just accomplishing something that filled up our bellies. I had time to think about discussions from church that morning. It turned out to be rather meditative. I've got to do this again sometime...