A Few Words From My Favorite Conversationalist

Cadence is a crack up. I want to blog about these so that I don't forget about them.
Some funny things she's said:

We had a Family Home Evening lesson a few weeks ago about where we came from and who we are. We taught her that God is our Father in Heaven and that we lived with him before we were born. We taught her the song, Ïlived in Heaven a long time ago it is true..."
At the playground she has noticed that, since we are new, we are always introducing ourselves and telling why we are here and where we are from. She's really good to approach everybody and ask them their names. The other day, she approached a mommy pushing a child in a swing and told her, Ï lived in Heaven a long time ago, with Heavenly Father and Jesus!" I was pretty proud of her.

On Sunday we were walking out of church and a relative of ours, whom we haven't met before but is in our ward, approached us and asked me, speaking of Cadence, "Who's this little person?" I was about to say, "This is Cadence", but she beat me to the punch and introduced herself by proclaiming: Ï'm a saucy pirate wench!"

She's been watching a little DVD called "Little Bear", and in one of the episodes Little Bear eats too many sweets and gets a tummy ache. At the end he tells his mom, Ï think I lost my sweet tooth." Whenever she is overly tired or upset about something she starts crying about losing her sweet tooth and she absolutely MUST find it before anything is resolved! There is something very unnerving to her about "losing a sweet tooth".

We went to the library last week and while I was checking out a book my friend Katie was keeping her eye on Cadence. When I got back Cadence had found a young woman who was studying at a table and was telling her all about a book she had found and asking her what her name was, etc.

I was making an insurance phone call a couple of weeks ago and was speaking with the customer service rep, and Cadence was tiring of my attention being turned elsewhere. She was whining and hanging on me and then I itched my nose and she said, right into the phone, "No, Mom, don't pick your nose!" I was a little embarrassed.

Oh, she's so much fun. Her little conversations, opinions, and observations are so fascinating to me.

Oh, and a few milestones: She's slept in a big girl bed for a week now, and no problems yet. She adjusted to it seamlessly (so far). Today I put her hair in a little ponytail. just the top, and just a part of the top, but it was a girl hairdo, so it's a big deal. Yay!

Sisters are Friends

Cadence loves to kiss, hug, hold, and burp her baby sister.
Campbell is learning to appreciate it.

When She Smiles

The first few weeks of motherhood are weeks filled with hormones, exhaustion, intense emotions, pain, and a lot of figuring out what makes this particular newborn tick.

Nothing is more loveable than a newborn, especially your own, but after about five weeks of constant feeding, changing, rocking, and wondering why this baby is crying,

day in and out, it begins to feel like a thankless job. Then comes that first huge wide-open mouth social smile--melting your heart and making the last six weeks more than worth it, and then next 20 years, too. It is a little gem of motherhood, that smile.

Campbell has become a little more generous with her smile these last few days, but never when I get the camera out. She is adorable, nonetheless. Thank you for smiling for me, little Cam!

Sweet Home Chicago!

Heidi-ho, baby don't you wanna go?

As I mentioned, we are loving Chicago. The city is beautiful,
the people are kind, the museums are kid-friendly,


and public transit is efficient, for the most part.

We've met some great friends and done some great things.

We have a little playground just at the bottom of our building. We don't currently have a car, so we've walked and taken buses and trains for everything--a toddler's dream come true! We live in a building that was used in the 30's as a hotel. It is a gorgeous building, which Cadence calls "The White Castle". The apartment, which Cadence calls "The NEW new house" (she never quit calling our last place the "new house")

is very spacious and the windows are really nice, as are the walls. But the floor is like a bad dream. We just try to keep our chins up-literally-and appreciate the walls! So much more to write about!

Back in the Saddle Again

After not having the internet for what seems to have been an eternity, I'm back at it! Pictures will come shortly, and I have so many posts floating around in my head, so give me time. For now, just know that we are 90% settled, we're safe and well, and we're really loving it here in Chicago. And I mean REALLY. We miss all our friends out West, and Cadence has begged to see so many of her friends that we left behind. It makes me sad to think of the odds of whether or not we'll ever see some of our great friends in CA again, so I try not to. More details later, but we love you all and are very excited to be here finally.