enJOYing the little things . . .

ABCs & 123s

I have to preface this post with a link to this layout of Cadence that I did three months ago.  Interestingly, right after I made that layout about Cadence's minimal vocabulary, her speaking skills started to take off!  She would repeat everything we'd say, producing vowels and initial sounds of words correctly.  It was pretty exciting.  During her two year visit to the pediatrician's office at the beginning of this month, our doctor said that milestones we should watch for as far as language skills are concerned is putting two words together.  Wouldn't you know, Miss C is right on track with that throwing out phrases such as "Oh no!", "Yook, Mama, YOOK!" and "Yove you."

Every day this month I've been reciting the alphabet and numbers 1-10 with Cadence.  I say the letter/number and she repeats.  Funny girl would sometimes throw out letters and numbers before I even got to them.  Interesting, I thought.  So sometime last week I started counting...

Mama: Okay, Cadence.  Let's count.  One . . . 

Cadence:  Twooo

Mama (with raised eyebrows): What's next, baby?

Cadence:  Teeee

Mama (trying to contain my excitement):  Keep going.

Cadence:  Pour (She's Filipino, what can I say?)

Mama (fighting the urge to jump up and down) :  Uh-huh?

Cadence:  Pieee . . . sihhh . . . se-eh . . . eighhhh . . . nieee . . . ten!

Mama:  YAAAAAAAAY!!!  <accompanied by thunderous applause>

My girl can count to ten.  All by herself!  And she's on her way to saying the alphabet too.  I couldn't be a prouder mama.  :o)

Busy weekend

Thanksgiving Day - went to church for its annual Thanksgiving day service in the morning.  It was my dad's birthday, but he was on duty at the hospital.  We did celebrate later in the weekend though.  Had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house with her new family of three, our family of four and our mom.  Spent the evening eating and catching up on TV shows from the past week.  Added some new pictures I took on Thanksgiving in my Fall Album.

Black Friday - Ronald and I braved the crowds with the kids in tow!  We left the house at ten.  The three stores on my list:  Bath & Body, Old Navy and KB Toys.  Got home before four o'clock with a minivan full of Christmas gifts.  Christmas list now 2/3 complete.  Yay!  I love Black Friday.  :o)

Saturday - Went to Chicago to attend the baptism of little Maeve, the daughter of my cousin Gina.  Gina asked if I could take photographs during the ceremony.  She didn't even have to ask!  Pictures of the baptism and reception are here.  I also want to share these pictures that I took of sweet Maeve back in September when she was just five days old.

Sunday - We threw my dad a surprise party for his 60th birthday at Pompei restaurant.  Good food, great company and the traditional birthday cake from Lutz bakery on Montrose Avenue in Chicago.  We've been ordering the strawberry cake since my second birthday.  That's twenty-eight years of Lutz birthday cakes.

Off to work on layouts for the Garden.  Happy week!

It's past midnight so it's officially

my sister's birthday!!!  Happy birthday, Aimee.  Enjoy your last year as a twenty-something.  Have fun spending your bday present.  *wink, wink*  I am grateful that you are more than just my sister.  You are my friend.  Lub you, seeester.  (Created this layout for 2Peas Creating Garden.)

Since the topic of gratefulness came up, I thought it would share this layout that I made for this week's Weekly Challenge over at 2Peas.

It was really hard to list just ten things that I'm thankful for because God has been so good to me.  To us.  I am thankful for so many things, if I were to list them all I would be sitting here typing away for a very long time.  But I need to go bed, so I'll just leave you with this:

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.  ~W.T. Purkiser

Happy Thanksgiving!

Getting into the holiday spirit

Feeling quite holidayish so I've been listening to Christmas CDs all week long.  I love Christmas music.  LOVE IT.  These are the albums that have been spinnin' in our CD players.

• Christmas Songs, Diana Krall - Love Diana Krall.  Picked up this new CD at Costco at the beginning of the week.  She sings bunches of old favorites in her smooth jazzy style.  The last track, "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep" is my favorite song on this album.
• When My Heart Finds Christmas, Harry Connick Jr. - Love Harry as a singer, as a movie actor and as Grace's cheater doctor ex-husband on Will & Grace.  Too bad he and I are both married with kids, haha!  ;o)  This CD is a holiday standard in our house and the car too.  Why have I not purchased his other Christmas CD?  Duh.  Need to put that one my want list.
• Christmas Sing-Along, Fisher-Price Little People - We listen to this one ALL THE TIME thanks to Cadence who knows how to press the play button on the CD player in her room all by herself.  Miss C's favorite song is Jingle Bells.  You should see her dance to that one!  Heeee-larious.
• A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra - Listened to this earlier tonight thanks to my Mom.  This album was recorded fifty-two years ago.  Total classic.  Old Blue Eyes is ageless.  Well, his voice is.

I've got bunches of other Christmas CDs that I can't wait to listen to.  Tis the season, you know.  AND I've got a couple I've got on my want list.  You just can't have too many holiday tunes.

On my want list:

• A Charlie Brown Christmas - Top of my list.  No excuses for not having this one in my collection.
• Merry Christmas With Love, Clay Aiken - Being the American Idol junkie that I am, I am surprised that I did not buy this last year.
• Christmas to Remember, Amy Grant - Amy Grant was my all-time favorite singer during my early teen years.  (Okay, I admit, and Madonna and Janet Jackson too, lol.)  Always inspirational.  Love that about Amy Grant.
• Harry For the Holidays, Harry Connick Jr. - As aforementioned, I *heart* Harry.  Simple as that.
• Merry from Lena, Lena Horne - An oldie, but man.  I've heard Lena's version of "Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!  Let It Snow!" - best EVER.  I want to sing like her when I grow up.

Blowing Raspberries

So the kids have been sleeping in my room since we're all sick (still) and Ronald's gone.  Just easier that way.  The past few nights Clarkie has been getting up around two or three in the morning, always as I am crawling into bed.  (I'm a total night owl.) He doesn't cry.  He doesn't look for his bottle or his pacifier.  Instead, he's been blowing raspberries.  Yup.  The boy will blow raspberries for ten, fifteen minutes before falling back asleep.  In between raspberries, Clark will giggle and then look at me as if he's inviting me to blow raspberries along with him or to at least laugh with him.  What a character!  Love my baby boy.  He's so good-natured, even when he's sick.  And on top of being sick, Clark is popping out all four of his upper front teeth which is probably why he's been blowing so many raspberries.  Funny thing, his lateral incisors are growing in faster than his central ones so he kinda looks like a baby vampire, haha.  But a CUTE, chubby vamp with a really pleasant disposition.  I lub him!

Looking forward to

• getting over this bug that the kids and I have.

• Saturday when Ronald gets back from his business trip in Cali.

• watching Lost on Wednesday night.

• receiving my order of Prima Flowers and Heidi Swapp goodies.

• finishing a deadline for the Art Warehouse DT.

• the holidays.

• mid-month Garden on Two Peas which blooms at midnight. 

Rhonna Rocks!

My friend and fellow Garden Girl Rhonna is my digi hero.  She's the queen of Photoshop.  Rhonna's work is so inspirational, I have even created several computer generated scrapbook layouts.  Rhonna was kind enough to make a digi cartoon picture of me.  She did good, huh?  I must admit that I'm a digi cartoon knockout.  ;o)  Thanks bunches, Rhonna!

More of Rhonna's work can be found here.  Oh, and her digital kits which include the brush I used in my new banner are available for purchase at Two Peas.  Quote in my banner is one of my favorites.  By Robert Brault.

Kids are sick

Haven't had time or energy to post in the last few days.  Clark has croup.  Cadence has a really bad cold and is now starting to cough.  Guess whose throat it starting to itch, and nose starting to run.  Yeah.  Me.  Boohoo.  I hate being sick, but I think it's worse having sick kids.  Breaks my heart to see them so miserable.  Cadence has never really been sick like this.  Poor Clark was so sick the other day we almost took him to the ER.  Went to the peds the next day instead.  Now he's on antibiotics, steroids and a nebulizer.  Poor little dude.

Here's a little photo collage from Cadence's 2nd birthday which was this past Wednesday.

The night before her birthday, we put Cadence to sleep in our bed so Ronald could set up this cute little table and chairs that we purchased at Ikea for her room.  At about 1:30 in the morning after we got the table and chairs set up, we heard a gasp and a "Wooooooooooooow!!!"  Cadence ran straight to her birthday surprise and admired her new set of furniture.  She turned on some music and some sort of celebratory birthday dance.  Quite entertaining.  Then it was off to bed for everyone.

We celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese during lunch.  Just us, minus poor Clarkie who was too sick and stayed with Grandma instead.  Cadence's favorite thing at Chuck E.'s - Bozo's Grand Prize Game.  Her least favorite thing - Chuck E. Cheese.  He was walking around while we were eating and stopped by our table.  Cadence FREAKED out.  She hugged me close, put her face into my chest and closed her eyes real tight.  Yeah.  We won't be doing a Disney trip until the girl gets over her fear of costumed characterers.

At home, we had the traditional raspberry mousse white cake from Toni Marie's, my favorite bakery.  A cake that Cadence and I share since our birthdays are one right after the other.  And what birthday is complete without a bunch of gifts?  A big bag full of Blue's Clues toys from Mommy, Daddy and Clarkie.  This cool Little Tykes Shopping Cart and a Fisher-Price Doodle Pro from cousin Jakey and his mommy and daddy.  And a new Sabbath outfit and college money from Grandma & Grandpa.

Happy birthday, baby girl!

Thirty

is here.

Ronald and the kids threw me a birthday party at bd's mongolian barbeque on Sunday.  They invited my friends to help me celebrate the dawning of a new decade.  So blessed to have such good friends.  Thanks to those who came.  And for those who couldn't, we missed you.  To all of you, I am truly grateful for all of your friendships over the years.

On Saturday we celebrated Cadence's birthday at Sabbath School.  We passed out blueberry and banana mini muffins to her little Cradle Roll classmates.  Like last year, Cadence put on her serious face when it was time to blow out the candles on the cake.  No smiles whatsoever.  However, unlike last year, she blew out her own birthday candles!  My little girl is growing up . . .

Since my birthday and Cadence's birthday are right next to each other, Ronald took yesterday, today and tomorrow off from work.  Yesterday afternoon we went into the city to visit the The Field Museum.  The famous T. rex Sue is one of my favorite things to see at The Field.  This was Cadence and Clark's first time to see her.

Since we were in Chicago anyways and didn’t want to drive back home in rush-hour traffic, we decided to drop by Lolo & Lola’s house.  We had dinner at Great Beijing and as always, I bought a bag of fortune cookies to go.  The fortunes of the three cookies I’ve eaten so far:

Your love life will be happy and fulfilling.

You are deeply attached to your family and home.

You find beauty in ordinary things; do not lose this ability.

J

Early b-day gift for Miss C

Cadence got a package in the mail today.  An early birthday gift from her cousin Emma!  So sweet of Emma, her mommy and her daddy to remember Cadence's birthday.  I'm a big fan of music and books for kids, and that's exactly what was in the box.  A book called The Night Before Thanksgiving which is a rhyming book that starts, " 'Twas the night before Thanksgiving . . .",  You know.  Like the infamous " 'Twas the night before Christmas . . ."  Really cute.  And, we've got another CD to add to the kids' Baby Einstein collection.  We started our Baby Einstein CD and DVD collection before Cadence was born.  Emma (well, her mommy really) sent Playtime Music Box which is perfect because the kids didn't have it.

We listened to the CD earlier this evening and during the entire 31 minute concert, Cadence danced like a madwoman, circling around Clarkie who was on the floor rolling around.  Cadence danced so hard at one point she fell right on top of Clark.  Don't worry.  He only cried for ten seconds so he must've been okay.  No bruises either.  Track #13 is definitely her favorite song on the CD.  Old MacDonald Had a Farm.  The girl was singing "I-EEEE-I-OOOOOOOOOOO!" along with the music and making animal noises as if she were auditioning for a Broadway musical or something.  So silly, that Cadence.

Thank you Eric, Lelet and Emma.  Cadence loves her gift!  And so do I.  :o)