It is only 7 weeks until Anna's first birthday. We're not quite sure how that happened, other than clearly time doesn't stand still except when you don't want it to! In any case, she's almost a toddler and not a baby anymore. Oh wait. She won't likely be sleeping through the night by her birthday so I guess she can still be a baby. ;)
However, she is cruising like crazy. No true crawling yet although every time she gets up on all fours we get all excited thinking that this time she'll do it! She gets around our living room very quickly though, and she is quite brave. She frequently reaches out and lunges for the next available piece of furniture. Sadly, she has quite a wide arm span so she can make it further than I had previously thought.
Rachel is quickly learning that things really do need to be put away, or at least out of reach! I'm just happy that Anna has yet to discover the stairs!
We complain a lot about Anna's lack of sleep, but she has come a very long way since she was born! Remember when we couldn't even put her down to sleep? For the first month or two of her life, she slept IN bed next to Ben because I was still sleeping in the recliner and couldn't even lie down. Then she would only nap ON someone. From there we progressed to sleeping in the bassinet. On May 23, at 3 months and 9 days, she slept in her crib for the first time! I put her in there for a nap not expecting her to fall asleep, and she did. Then she fell asleep again at night in the crib so we moved her into her own room. I'd like to think that she spent a lot of time there, but the truth is that she was a nighttime (and daytime, who am I kidding?) nursaholic who much preferred to sleep latched onto me. My adorable little parasite. (Yes, I know that referring to a nursing baby as a parasite might anger some people. Oh well. That's truly how I felt about it a lot of the time since she never gave me more than a 2 hour stretch during the day and once she could go 2 hours during the day, she stopped sleeping at night and nursed pretty much every hour all.night.long.)
Anyway, when Anna was about 4-5 months old she was sleeping pretty well at night. She would usually do 6-7 hours followed by a 2-3 hour stretch followed by another 1-2 hour stretch. This stopped abruptly when we moved and also when she started nursing "less" during the day. Still, until I weaned her at 8 months, she was eating upwards of 12 times in 24 hours all the time. So much for all those books that claim an 8 month old only needs to eat 5-6 times in 24 hours.
At 10.5 months, Anna still wakes up at least twice per night but she truly does seem to need to eat at least a 4oz bottle. We have tried giving her less and it just doesn't work. She is usually up twice in a 10-11 hour period. Given where we started out, that doesn't seem bad at all! During the day, she usually has 4 bottles. So now she is eating 6 times in 24 hours not counting solids. This kid dearly loves food and cheerfully gobbles big meals 3-4 times per day in addition to her mix of formula/milk.
We will be happy when she gives up her early morning party session though. At least it seems to be moving forward. She is often "up for the day" at 4 or 4:30 for an hour or two, and then she goes back to sleep for at least 2 hours. I'm wondering if she's moving towards dropping her morning nap. I won't argue as long as that also means she stops partying at 4:30 and starts doing closer to 12 hour nights!
Anna is a good napper though. I remember how awful it was trying to get Rachel down for naps, but she was always the easiest kid in the world to put to bed for the night. Actually, she still is.
When I think about it, it's pretty amazing that now Anna's nap/bedtime routine consists of bottle (given in the bedroom if it's nighttime, anywhere if it's naptime), place her in the crib, tuck her in with her blankie, Olly, and Sucky. Turn on aquarium, kiss Anna, tell her to have a good nap or night. Leave room. Very occasionally return to try routine again.
I remember when she was 3-4 months old and we had to stand there holding her hands and rubbing her forehead to get her to sleep. She's come a long way. We can leave her with pretty much anyone and she will go to sleep albeit with interruptions.
My loose goal is to have her only waking up once per night by the time she's 1. While I'd love to see her sleeping through the night, she's just not there yet.
And yes, we do plan on having more. ;)
Saturday, December 27, 2008
R.I.P. Broil King
I have a bit of the sixth sense. It's never been complete enough to let me in on what exactly will happen next, but I almost always have an accurate sense of foreboding.
The other day, Rachel and I were in the kosher grocery store. While we try to buy only kosher meat, I will admit that occasionally I buy non-kosher beef because the kosher selection is usually abysmal and the prices are often over-inflated. (This is in total contrast to kosher chicken which can be obtained at Costco of all places!) That day, I noted that the kosher beef section was rather full. I thought that perhaps I should pick up some hamburger meat or some steaks. Then I thought for no rational reason, "You know, I don't think it's going to be a great week for Ben to barbecue." I wondered at the time why I would think such a thing since we were both going to be home for dinner most nights and clearly it wasn't too cold or snowy to use the grill. In the end, I did not buy any beef.
Two days later, we heard a loud sound outside one morning. We initially thought it was thunder. When we looked outside, we realized that we had purchased a truly intelligent although self-destructive BBQ back in the fall. No chance of this BBQ ever putting itself on fire, because in high winds, it clearly knew how to stop, drop and roll. Yes, you read that correctly. Our BBQ was knocked backwards off of our concrete patio. It went down the (approximately) one foot drop, then rolled over a couple of times on its trip down the hill between our house and the house next door before landing flat on its back as if to say, "Where's the beef?"
Ben retrieved the BBQ but things weren't looking so good. The lid was cracked through, and other parts also appear to be rather mangled. Ben set the BBQ up against the house this time since clearly we weren't going to be using it until further notice. The next day, it flew off again when we weren't looking. Now it is in our garage, awaiting its potentially final fate.
We have a Broil King BBQ, which is a Canadian brand. We loved our previous Broil King, so when we moved down here, we looked for a local retailer that sold the same brand. Little did we know that when faced with the unfamiliar American climate, our BBQ would turn into a kamikaze grill. Thankfully, the propane tank did not burst.
We called the retailer and were told that this most likely would fall under an "act of God" and as such would not be covered by manufacturer's warranty or our insurance. I have a hunch that our deductible is higher than the cost of the BBQ anyway. The retailer did tell us that if it could be repaired, they would sell us the replacement parts at half price. We will take it in next week, but we're prematurely announcing an end to easy last-minute dinners at our house.
The other day, Rachel and I were in the kosher grocery store. While we try to buy only kosher meat, I will admit that occasionally I buy non-kosher beef because the kosher selection is usually abysmal and the prices are often over-inflated. (This is in total contrast to kosher chicken which can be obtained at Costco of all places!) That day, I noted that the kosher beef section was rather full. I thought that perhaps I should pick up some hamburger meat or some steaks. Then I thought for no rational reason, "You know, I don't think it's going to be a great week for Ben to barbecue." I wondered at the time why I would think such a thing since we were both going to be home for dinner most nights and clearly it wasn't too cold or snowy to use the grill. In the end, I did not buy any beef.
Two days later, we heard a loud sound outside one morning. We initially thought it was thunder. When we looked outside, we realized that we had purchased a truly intelligent although self-destructive BBQ back in the fall. No chance of this BBQ ever putting itself on fire, because in high winds, it clearly knew how to stop, drop and roll. Yes, you read that correctly. Our BBQ was knocked backwards off of our concrete patio. It went down the (approximately) one foot drop, then rolled over a couple of times on its trip down the hill between our house and the house next door before landing flat on its back as if to say, "Where's the beef?"
Ben retrieved the BBQ but things weren't looking so good. The lid was cracked through, and other parts also appear to be rather mangled. Ben set the BBQ up against the house this time since clearly we weren't going to be using it until further notice. The next day, it flew off again when we weren't looking. Now it is in our garage, awaiting its potentially final fate.
We have a Broil King BBQ, which is a Canadian brand. We loved our previous Broil King, so when we moved down here, we looked for a local retailer that sold the same brand. Little did we know that when faced with the unfamiliar American climate, our BBQ would turn into a kamikaze grill. Thankfully, the propane tank did not burst.
We called the retailer and were told that this most likely would fall under an "act of God" and as such would not be covered by manufacturer's warranty or our insurance. I have a hunch that our deductible is higher than the cost of the BBQ anyway. The retailer did tell us that if it could be repaired, they would sell us the replacement parts at half price. We will take it in next week, but we're prematurely announcing an end to easy last-minute dinners at our house.
A few things
The other day we went to storytime at the bookstore with a friend, and then out to lunch after. Before the food arrived, Rachel and her friend were drawing pictures on their placemats. Rachel drew a very elaborate queen elephant and then put it aside to eat. Unfortunately, after the meal was over, her friend (1 year younger than her) decided to colour all over it with red and yellow crayons. Rachel's drawing was all in blue. She burst into angry tears and would not be mollified by apologies and offers of new paper to draw on.
I suggested to Rachel that maybe we could take the picture home and try to colour over the offending spots. She eventually came around to that idea. A few minutes later, I made the mistake of asking if her drawing was of a beautiful queen elephant.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, it's not a beautiful elephant! It's a dirty elephant!!!" she wailed in response.
Oops. Mental note: Do not let little sister anywhere near Rachel's art desk ever.
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Anna has added two new words to her vocabulary, bringing her up to a grand total of seven! When she gets excited or sees something that she likes, she puckers up her lips and says "Oh!" in her cute, little voice. And if she is sitting in her highchair and sees yogurt, applesauce or any other favoured food arriving, she loudly says "Mmm! Mmm!" throughout the meal.
And yes, she still yells "Nana!" when she wants more food. Now it's often "Mmm! Nana! Mmm! Oooooooooohhh."
She has also started saying, "Hidada" so technically she has spoken her first 2-word sentence although it honestly sounds like one big word.
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In totally unexpected news, Ben is coming over to the dark side. He is now a self-admitted fancy coffee drink addict, and on Christmas night he had his first screwdriver. (That's vodka and orange juice, although I find it hard to believe that any of my blog readers wouldn't know that already!) A good friend of ours arrived at midnight Mass with a bottle of vodka for me as a Hanukkah present. While I figured that passing it around in church would be a bad idea, opening it the next night at home was a wonderful idea indeed.
I suggested to Rachel that maybe we could take the picture home and try to colour over the offending spots. She eventually came around to that idea. A few minutes later, I made the mistake of asking if her drawing was of a beautiful queen elephant.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, it's not a beautiful elephant! It's a dirty elephant!!!" she wailed in response.
Oops. Mental note: Do not let little sister anywhere near Rachel's art desk ever.
***********************************************************************************
Anna has added two new words to her vocabulary, bringing her up to a grand total of seven! When she gets excited or sees something that she likes, she puckers up her lips and says "Oh!" in her cute, little voice. And if she is sitting in her highchair and sees yogurt, applesauce or any other favoured food arriving, she loudly says "Mmm! Mmm!" throughout the meal.
And yes, she still yells "Nana!" when she wants more food. Now it's often "Mmm! Nana! Mmm! Oooooooooohhh."
She has also started saying, "Hidada" so technically she has spoken her first 2-word sentence although it honestly sounds like one big word.
***********************************************************************************
In totally unexpected news, Ben is coming over to the dark side. He is now a self-admitted fancy coffee drink addict, and on Christmas night he had his first screwdriver. (That's vodka and orange juice, although I find it hard to believe that any of my blog readers wouldn't know that already!) A good friend of ours arrived at midnight Mass with a bottle of vodka for me as a Hanukkah present. While I figured that passing it around in church would be a bad idea, opening it the next night at home was a wonderful idea indeed.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
A snow update
It snowed again earlier this week. I shovelled the driveway for the sheer enjoyment of it! (Yes, I like snow shovelling and missed out last year other than one infamous occasion involving too many feet of snow and concerts that went on despite it all!)
We spotted our neighbour getting out of another neighbour's Suburban. They had apparently made a grocery run together before the weather got worse. Please note that we never got more than about 3 inches of snow.
Rachel loved it. She played outside for a good 45 minutes and would have cheerfully stayed out longer if I hadn't dragged her inside when I got tired of being out there!
We spotted our neighbour getting out of another neighbour's Suburban. They had apparently made a grocery run together before the weather got worse. Please note that we never got more than about 3 inches of snow.
Rachel loved it. She played outside for a good 45 minutes and would have cheerfully stayed out longer if I hadn't dragged her inside when I got tired of being out there!
Food
Americans like food. Perhaps a little too much. I forgot to mention that at the church gig last week, they provided a fully catered breakfast - bagels, cream cheese, strawberries complete with chocolate sauce to dip them in, other fruit, cheese, chocolate, candy, pop, cups with crushed ice, coffee, cinnamon rolls, other cookies & cakes, etc. That was just at rehearsal!
In between the sound check and morning service on Sunday, there was breakfast again. This time it also included Christmas-themed Krispy Kreme donuts. I admit to being very disappointed that my snowman donut did not have a tasty filling. Before you think that I'm shallow, my friend experienced and commented on the same disappointment with his donut. ;)
The irony with this breakfast was that the offering taken during the service was going to feed the hungry. Seriously, why not feed us a much scaled-down version of breakfast and really use money to feed the hungry?
And while we're at it, White Christmas is not an offering song. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." (psst, pass the collection plate!) Nor is it generally appropriate in church to have a snow machine dumping piles of snow on the choir members who are singing White Christmas while the plate is being passed around the congregation. In my opinion, it makes it a little hard to take anything seriously under those circumstances. (I admit to chuckling when I remembered that White Christmas was written by a Jew. But I'm evil like that.)
Of course, I intend no offense to any of you who may attend similar houses of worship. Really.
In between the sound check and morning service on Sunday, there was breakfast again. This time it also included Christmas-themed Krispy Kreme donuts. I admit to being very disappointed that my snowman donut did not have a tasty filling. Before you think that I'm shallow, my friend experienced and commented on the same disappointment with his donut. ;)
The irony with this breakfast was that the offering taken during the service was going to feed the hungry. Seriously, why not feed us a much scaled-down version of breakfast and really use money to feed the hungry?
And while we're at it, White Christmas is not an offering song. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." (psst, pass the collection plate!) Nor is it generally appropriate in church to have a snow machine dumping piles of snow on the choir members who are singing White Christmas while the plate is being passed around the congregation. In my opinion, it makes it a little hard to take anything seriously under those circumstances. (I admit to chuckling when I remembered that White Christmas was written by a Jew. But I'm evil like that.)
Of course, I intend no offense to any of you who may attend similar houses of worship. Really.
Studio time with the girls
This afternoon I finally decided that I should get my violin out and look at the music for Christmas Eve. We were required to sign contracts saying that we would show up with "full knowledge of our instrument and music." While I doubt that there will be a quiz on parts of the violin, I had noticed that there were a lot of high notes in my part, so out of the case came the violin and bow.
Before starting, I set Anna up with a couple of shakers and bells so that she could play along. She loved every minute of it, except the times when she fell over and couldn't figure out how to get back up.
Rachel was whining that she needed to practise her piano tunes and didn't like it when I told her that she could play at the same time as I played my violin. "But your music will mess up my tune because it's not the same!" I told Rachel that she could wait in that case. She didn't like that either.
Before I started, I went to tune my violin. Since our piano was tuned yesterday (finally, after probably 4 years of not being tuned!), I asked Rachel if she remembered where Aardvark was on the piano. "I think so," she said, and promptly found the correct key - A440! I was quite impressed. It also made my life easier since I didn't have to make the effort to play it myself. She even repeated it over and over while listening to me tune, without my asking her to do that.
While I played, Rachel danced around the studio in between asking me over and over if I was done yet. When I finished, Rachel told me that it was too late for her to practise because now she had forgotten her tunes. Since she just makes up stuff at the piano, I wasn't too concerned!
We ended up getting out some Jewish songbooks and Rachel showed off how she's ready to sing the blessings for lighting the candles in the menorah tomorrow night. She sings quite nicely on pitch too. Too bad Ben will be at Nutcracker and will miss all the action tomorrow night.
Before starting, I set Anna up with a couple of shakers and bells so that she could play along. She loved every minute of it, except the times when she fell over and couldn't figure out how to get back up.
Rachel was whining that she needed to practise her piano tunes and didn't like it when I told her that she could play at the same time as I played my violin. "But your music will mess up my tune because it's not the same!" I told Rachel that she could wait in that case. She didn't like that either.
Before I started, I went to tune my violin. Since our piano was tuned yesterday (finally, after probably 4 years of not being tuned!), I asked Rachel if she remembered where Aardvark was on the piano. "I think so," she said, and promptly found the correct key - A440! I was quite impressed. It also made my life easier since I didn't have to make the effort to play it myself. She even repeated it over and over while listening to me tune, without my asking her to do that.
While I played, Rachel danced around the studio in between asking me over and over if I was done yet. When I finished, Rachel told me that it was too late for her to practise because now she had forgotten her tunes. Since she just makes up stuff at the piano, I wasn't too concerned!
We ended up getting out some Jewish songbooks and Rachel showed off how she's ready to sing the blessings for lighting the candles in the menorah tomorrow night. She sings quite nicely on pitch too. Too bad Ben will be at Nutcracker and will miss all the action tomorrow night.
Electricity in Bethlehem? Who knew?
Last weekend Ben and I had the dubious pleasure of playing a Christmas show for a local Assembly of God church. We used to play Christmas and Easter shows all the time for one of the Baptist churches back home, and while the music was often cheesy, the productions were certainly never over the top or anything.
This show was unreal. The choir was well prepared, and there was a wide variety of music featuring perhaps everything that was possible to be featured in a 1.5 hour show.
The first half was relatively innocuous other than some videos with cheesy music and lights that combined with the odd voiceovers on the loudspeakers to make it sound like Jesus was an alien. Honestly, I half expected to hear, "Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away..."
The second half took my breath away. No, I haven't converted. I, along with most of the other orchestra members, was too busy trying not to burst out laughing. The first number on the second half involved ballet dancers. Not just any ballet dancers. It was Mary and Joseph dancing all around, with the angel Gabriel pirouetting in to tell Mary the good news. Mary carried a broomstick for the first part of the dance, and unfortunately one of our fellow musicians chose to point out that it was very Harry Potter-esque. It really was. The music was actually quite similar to Harry Potter. Now we won't get started on whether or not Harry Potter is anti-Christian or anything like that, because that's just not the point of this post.
What I will ask is how on earth a woman could do very physical (and highly immodest) ballet moves at the end of her pregnancy? First of all, since Mary and Joseph were in theory Jewish, the immodesty was totally inappropriate. Second of all, what on earth was with the end of the scene where the lights went out, and "Mary" flung a cloth up in the air to reveal a light-up manger complete with baby Jesus inside? I confess that perhaps I snickered. I have to be honest and say that it made me sad too. Regardless of my beliefs, I do have a healthy respect for beliefs of others, and this seemed to make a mockery of something that perhaps should have been treated more reverently. I also have to wonder how come I couldn't have a labour and delivery like that one.
But all too soon, the ballet was over. Then the bagpipes came out. You think I'm joking? Oh, no. No. No. No. A nice man came out and played a bagpipe tune accompanied by the orchestra. (Can you call it a tune when it sounds like someone poked a dying cow with a stick? Really?)
I was chatting with a friend online about this show and how over the top it was. She commented innocently that it seemed like all that was missing was a disco ball. No, actually, there WAS a disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the sanctuary!
Had I written this last weekend, I'm sure I would have remembered more details to add. It's probably just as well that I didn't do that.
Here's hoping that Christmas Eve with the Catholics will be a little more... subdued? Traditional? Enjoyable? Although there is a pre-Mass "concert" with very cheesy-looking music, so I'm not holding my breath on that one either.
This show was unreal. The choir was well prepared, and there was a wide variety of music featuring perhaps everything that was possible to be featured in a 1.5 hour show.
The first half was relatively innocuous other than some videos with cheesy music and lights that combined with the odd voiceovers on the loudspeakers to make it sound like Jesus was an alien. Honestly, I half expected to hear, "Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away..."
The second half took my breath away. No, I haven't converted. I, along with most of the other orchestra members, was too busy trying not to burst out laughing. The first number on the second half involved ballet dancers. Not just any ballet dancers. It was Mary and Joseph dancing all around, with the angel Gabriel pirouetting in to tell Mary the good news. Mary carried a broomstick for the first part of the dance, and unfortunately one of our fellow musicians chose to point out that it was very Harry Potter-esque. It really was. The music was actually quite similar to Harry Potter. Now we won't get started on whether or not Harry Potter is anti-Christian or anything like that, because that's just not the point of this post.
What I will ask is how on earth a woman could do very physical (and highly immodest) ballet moves at the end of her pregnancy? First of all, since Mary and Joseph were in theory Jewish, the immodesty was totally inappropriate. Second of all, what on earth was with the end of the scene where the lights went out, and "Mary" flung a cloth up in the air to reveal a light-up manger complete with baby Jesus inside? I confess that perhaps I snickered. I have to be honest and say that it made me sad too. Regardless of my beliefs, I do have a healthy respect for beliefs of others, and this seemed to make a mockery of something that perhaps should have been treated more reverently. I also have to wonder how come I couldn't have a labour and delivery like that one.
But all too soon, the ballet was over. Then the bagpipes came out. You think I'm joking? Oh, no. No. No. No. A nice man came out and played a bagpipe tune accompanied by the orchestra. (Can you call it a tune when it sounds like someone poked a dying cow with a stick? Really?)
I was chatting with a friend online about this show and how over the top it was. She commented innocently that it seemed like all that was missing was a disco ball. No, actually, there WAS a disco ball hanging from the ceiling in the sanctuary!
Had I written this last weekend, I'm sure I would have remembered more details to add. It's probably just as well that I didn't do that.
Here's hoping that Christmas Eve with the Catholics will be a little more... subdued? Traditional? Enjoyable? Although there is a pre-Mass "concert" with very cheesy-looking music, so I'm not holding my breath on that one either.
Friday, December 19, 2008
It has come to my attention...
...that people are eagerly awaiting my story of the gig we had last week.
You'll have to wait a bit longer. I have other things to blog tonight!
This week was surprisingly busy given that Ben is done school and teaching until mid-January. Rachel and I made and decorated Hanukkah cookies, and also made edible dreidels. (Well, they are edible if you're not opposed to marshmallows, Hershey's Kisses and licorice all in the same treat.)
This afternoon Ben took Rachel to the bank so that she could trade in all of her change from her tzedakah box. We're making a trip to the bookstore next week (because Rachel insists that it must be during Hanukkah) to buy books to donate and we promised that we'd match whatever Rachel had in there. Well, in 4 months she has managed to accumulate $28.95. I will admit that Ben and I have contributed change on occasion too, but most of that is from Rachel's allowance. I gave her this week's allowance early and it was fun to watch her disperse it. $1.80 went into her purse, $0.20 went into her piggy bank, and $2.00 went into her tzedakah box. I don't think that she has a full grasp of how much money is worth, but it's neat to watch her distribute it each week. She tends to put lots of coins in her purse although she knows that it takes 4 quarters to make a dollar.
A related funny thing: When Rachel and Ben came home from the bank, I asked Rachel how much money she had in there. "The same amount, only lighter," she yelled up the stairs. It turned out that she and Ben had discussed how the value wouldn't change, only the number of coins versus bills, but that still cracked me up.
Next week I have big plans to do lots of activities. We want to take the girls to Paradise Park (kind of like a fancy Children's Museum), possibly go to the zoo if it warms up like it's supposed to, buy and donate books, sort through their toys and clothes, and hopefully go ice skating too! Believe it or not, there are now two outdoor ice rinks in the KC metro area and we are planning to try them out. Yes, you can take a 10-month-old "skating" - shoes are just fine for sliding around the ice! I'm not sure if we'd rent skates for Rachel or just let her slide around on the ice too.
After Ben finishes his run of Nutcracker on the 28th, we have NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING on the calendar until January 4th! Can you tell that I'm just a bit excited about this? ;)
You'll have to wait a bit longer. I have other things to blog tonight!
This week was surprisingly busy given that Ben is done school and teaching until mid-January. Rachel and I made and decorated Hanukkah cookies, and also made edible dreidels. (Well, they are edible if you're not opposed to marshmallows, Hershey's Kisses and licorice all in the same treat.)
This afternoon Ben took Rachel to the bank so that she could trade in all of her change from her tzedakah box. We're making a trip to the bookstore next week (because Rachel insists that it must be during Hanukkah) to buy books to donate and we promised that we'd match whatever Rachel had in there. Well, in 4 months she has managed to accumulate $28.95. I will admit that Ben and I have contributed change on occasion too, but most of that is from Rachel's allowance. I gave her this week's allowance early and it was fun to watch her disperse it. $1.80 went into her purse, $0.20 went into her piggy bank, and $2.00 went into her tzedakah box. I don't think that she has a full grasp of how much money is worth, but it's neat to watch her distribute it each week. She tends to put lots of coins in her purse although she knows that it takes 4 quarters to make a dollar.
A related funny thing: When Rachel and Ben came home from the bank, I asked Rachel how much money she had in there. "The same amount, only lighter," she yelled up the stairs. It turned out that she and Ben had discussed how the value wouldn't change, only the number of coins versus bills, but that still cracked me up.
Next week I have big plans to do lots of activities. We want to take the girls to Paradise Park (kind of like a fancy Children's Museum), possibly go to the zoo if it warms up like it's supposed to, buy and donate books, sort through their toys and clothes, and hopefully go ice skating too! Believe it or not, there are now two outdoor ice rinks in the KC metro area and we are planning to try them out. Yes, you can take a 10-month-old "skating" - shoes are just fine for sliding around the ice! I'm not sure if we'd rent skates for Rachel or just let her slide around on the ice too.
After Ben finishes his run of Nutcracker on the 28th, we have NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING on the calendar until January 4th! Can you tell that I'm just a bit excited about this? ;)
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Stay tuned
The last 24 hours have been rather eventful. Nothing is wrong and no-one is hurt, but I think that if we have one more similar professional event, we are going to seriously bust some guts laughing. More tomorrow.
Friday, December 12, 2008
I shouldn't laugh but...
Picture the scene:
An icy morning, after a night with some rain. There is still a tiny bit of snow on the ground. It is about -2C (~28F). Our neighbours are getting ready to leave for work and school. Their car is on the driveway with a lovely ice coating on the windows and windshield.
At first we thought that the dad was simply giving his son a lesson on how to use an ice scraper. They had a fairly large scraper, but the poor kid was getting nowhere with it. Then the dad came back out with a smaller scraper. The kid still had no luck, but neither did the dad! He was scraping randomly up, down, sideways and all around.
Finally, after several minutes of futile scraping, they both went back in the garage. (By the way, they hadn't turned the car on at all during this time.) A minute later, we saw them back out of the garage in their other car!
A quick lesson in ice scraping for the uninformed:
1. Turn car ON. Make use of defrost options!
2. Wear gloves!
3. Scrape in one direction only unless you like streaks on your windshield.
I know that I shouldn't be laughing - they did just move here from Arizona, after all!
An icy morning, after a night with some rain. There is still a tiny bit of snow on the ground. It is about -2C (~28F). Our neighbours are getting ready to leave for work and school. Their car is on the driveway with a lovely ice coating on the windows and windshield.
At first we thought that the dad was simply giving his son a lesson on how to use an ice scraper. They had a fairly large scraper, but the poor kid was getting nowhere with it. Then the dad came back out with a smaller scraper. The kid still had no luck, but neither did the dad! He was scraping randomly up, down, sideways and all around.
Finally, after several minutes of futile scraping, they both went back in the garage. (By the way, they hadn't turned the car on at all during this time.) A minute later, we saw them back out of the garage in their other car!
A quick lesson in ice scraping for the uninformed:
1. Turn car ON. Make use of defrost options!
2. Wear gloves!
3. Scrape in one direction only unless you like streaks on your windshield.
I know that I shouldn't be laughing - they did just move here from Arizona, after all!
Rachel at the Ballet
Here's Rachel all dressed up and ready to go to the Nutcracker with Ballerina Elephant.
Of course she had to wear her new candy dress, tights & hair clip since part of the ballet involves a visit to the Land of Sweets.
Rachel really enjoyed the ballet. I'll be honest - we wouldn't have gone if Ben wasn't playing, ie. we had free tickets. That said, Rachel loved watching the dancers and even got over her fear of the Mouse King and the fight between the mice and the toy soldiers. She decided that it was actually funny, which it was. One of the toy soldiers was wearing a bunny head and carrying a drum a la Energizer Bunny.
Of course she had to wear her new candy dress, tights & hair clip since part of the ballet involves a visit to the Land of Sweets.
Rachel really enjoyed the ballet. I'll be honest - we wouldn't have gone if Ben wasn't playing, ie. we had free tickets. That said, Rachel loved watching the dancers and even got over her fear of the Mouse King and the fight between the mice and the toy soldiers. She decided that it was actually funny, which it was. One of the toy soldiers was wearing a bunny head and carrying a drum a la Energizer Bunny.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Anna's vocabulary is amusing
Anna has 5 words that she uses on a regular basis:
Hi, Bye-bye, Mama, Dada, and Nana (for herself)
Tonight at dinner we were having tri-colour flower-shaped pasta. I put about 8 pieces on Anna's tray and within a minute or two they were gone. We checked her bib and the floor, but apparently she had eaten all of them. I got her another helping of 8-10 pieces and settled down to eat my own dinner. (I also got Rachel a second helping at the same time. I guess she's over her pasta boycott.)
A minute later, Anna started banging her tray. Then she screeched, "Nana!" as loudly as she could. We looked over to see that once again she had finished her food and apparently we weren't quick enough to give her more. Ha!
Hi, Bye-bye, Mama, Dada, and Nana (for herself)
Tonight at dinner we were having tri-colour flower-shaped pasta. I put about 8 pieces on Anna's tray and within a minute or two they were gone. We checked her bib and the floor, but apparently she had eaten all of them. I got her another helping of 8-10 pieces and settled down to eat my own dinner. (I also got Rachel a second helping at the same time. I guess she's over her pasta boycott.)
A minute later, Anna started banging her tray. Then she screeched, "Nana!" as loudly as she could. We looked over to see that once again she had finished her food and apparently we weren't quick enough to give her more. Ha!
Monday, December 08, 2008
The great turtle dance
"With music and dancing, food and drink, we're getting ready for the great turtle dance today!" Rachel is singing as she dances around the living room wearing her cowboy hat on her back as a turtle shell.
"Chomp chomp chomp and slurp slurp slurp"
"And she leads us all over town and she provides us with music and dancing, food and drink, all over town. We dance all day and we dance all night, we never stop to rest or sleep"
This is hilarious.
"Chomp chomp chomp and slurp slurp slurp"
"And she leads us all over town and she provides us with music and dancing, food and drink, all over town. We dance all day and we dance all night, we never stop to rest or sleep"
This is hilarious.
Friday, December 05, 2008
The babysitter's moving in, and a small orchestral rant
Last night we had a sitter since Ben had a rehearsal downtown and I had a rehearsal north of the city. We got home to find that Anna had gone to sleep for her right at 6:45. (Rachel also went to sleep for her easily, but that's typical.) We didn't hear from Anna until 4:22am!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's over 9.5 hours of SLEEP! Go, Anna! I admit that I'd have been happier if I'd gotten home sooner than 11pm. I wasn't in bed myself until after midnight so I'm still short some in the sleep department.
Clearly the babysitter worked her special magic and she must move in immediately. We just haven't told her yet.
And now for the rant. I got called last minute to sub in as a ringer in what is supposed to be a fairly decent community orchestra here. I got there to find that there would be a total of 4 violinists in each section. There was one lone violist, a kindly elderly woman who clearly is not familiar with the concept of tuning. Then again, the cellists were also lacking that concept, while the clarinetist decided that repeatedly trilling a quintuplet figure in the Dance Arabe in Nutcracker was a good idea. (Sorry, I know that's too technical for most of my blog readers out there but I know that at least one of you is giggling about this.)
The first piece on the program for this concert is Pachelbel's Canon. With ballet dancers. Yup, ballet dancers. It also involves an organ accompaniment on an organ that's so horrendously out of tune it makes the didgeridoo look good by comparison. The conductor tried to pass that off as "baroque tuning." Nice try.
Since there are three violin parts in Canon, but typically only two violin sections, the conductor explained who was to play which part. I stupidly commented that I only had a first violin part (I was asked to play third) but followed up quickly to say that it wouldn't be a problem as I could just stop four bars early. The conductor didn't like my response and insisted that I needed an original third violin part. This presented a problem when my stand partner showed up halfway through and was told to play first. She wasn't able to finish the piece from memory when the third violin part ran out of music. We solved that problem by putting the first violin part back on the stand when the conductor wasn't looking.
As if this wasn't all bad enough, the conductor had to cut two bars because the dancers were out of choreography. Canon has 56 bars. He cut bars 53 and 54. For anyone not in the know, this is a supremely stupid thing to do. Canon is similar to songs such as "Row, Row, Row your boat" in which one part follows the other until you reach the end. Canon is even better though, because at the end of every two bars there is a natural stopping place. There is no need for random cuts. He could have simply ended two bars earlier instead of making a cut that involves ridiculous jumping of parts. But I digress.
The conductor also felt the need to CUE players repeatedly during Canon. Any string player who is capable of playing in an orchestra has probably played this piece to the point where he or she could play it while sleeping. I'm still trying to figure out how we spent over 30 minutes rehearsing a 5 minute piece.
From there the rehearsal got more and more amusing as we whipped through Nutcracker without stopping to rehearse. (For the record, Nutcracker is a lot harder to play and put together but that's ok. Ensemble skills are apparently optional.) After the (too short) 15 minute break, we moved to a version of T'was the night before Christmas complete with narrator, horrendous orchestral sound effects, and ballet dancers in sleepers. The nice man in charge of the ballet dancers kept making references to the "librato" loudly as if to show off his knowledge. Too bad the term for text in a musical setting is "libretto" which is a completely different animal.
At least I'm being paid union scale for this gig. Oh wait. Union scale down here is also a completely different animal. But I won't complain too much. Tomorrow we have the dress rehearsal and concert with a 2.5 hour break in between - I've already got lunch/shopping plans with a friend who's also playing! :)
Clearly the babysitter worked her special magic and she must move in immediately. We just haven't told her yet.
And now for the rant. I got called last minute to sub in as a ringer in what is supposed to be a fairly decent community orchestra here. I got there to find that there would be a total of 4 violinists in each section. There was one lone violist, a kindly elderly woman who clearly is not familiar with the concept of tuning. Then again, the cellists were also lacking that concept, while the clarinetist decided that repeatedly trilling a quintuplet figure in the Dance Arabe in Nutcracker was a good idea. (Sorry, I know that's too technical for most of my blog readers out there but I know that at least one of you is giggling about this.)
The first piece on the program for this concert is Pachelbel's Canon. With ballet dancers. Yup, ballet dancers. It also involves an organ accompaniment on an organ that's so horrendously out of tune it makes the didgeridoo look good by comparison. The conductor tried to pass that off as "baroque tuning." Nice try.
Since there are three violin parts in Canon, but typically only two violin sections, the conductor explained who was to play which part. I stupidly commented that I only had a first violin part (I was asked to play third) but followed up quickly to say that it wouldn't be a problem as I could just stop four bars early. The conductor didn't like my response and insisted that I needed an original third violin part. This presented a problem when my stand partner showed up halfway through and was told to play first. She wasn't able to finish the piece from memory when the third violin part ran out of music. We solved that problem by putting the first violin part back on the stand when the conductor wasn't looking.
As if this wasn't all bad enough, the conductor had to cut two bars because the dancers were out of choreography. Canon has 56 bars. He cut bars 53 and 54. For anyone not in the know, this is a supremely stupid thing to do. Canon is similar to songs such as "Row, Row, Row your boat" in which one part follows the other until you reach the end. Canon is even better though, because at the end of every two bars there is a natural stopping place. There is no need for random cuts. He could have simply ended two bars earlier instead of making a cut that involves ridiculous jumping of parts. But I digress.
The conductor also felt the need to CUE players repeatedly during Canon. Any string player who is capable of playing in an orchestra has probably played this piece to the point where he or she could play it while sleeping. I'm still trying to figure out how we spent over 30 minutes rehearsing a 5 minute piece.
From there the rehearsal got more and more amusing as we whipped through Nutcracker without stopping to rehearse. (For the record, Nutcracker is a lot harder to play and put together but that's ok. Ensemble skills are apparently optional.) After the (too short) 15 minute break, we moved to a version of T'was the night before Christmas complete with narrator, horrendous orchestral sound effects, and ballet dancers in sleepers. The nice man in charge of the ballet dancers kept making references to the "librato" loudly as if to show off his knowledge. Too bad the term for text in a musical setting is "libretto" which is a completely different animal.
At least I'm being paid union scale for this gig. Oh wait. Union scale down here is also a completely different animal. But I won't complain too much. Tomorrow we have the dress rehearsal and concert with a 2.5 hour break in between - I've already got lunch/shopping plans with a friend who's also playing! :)
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Queen Anna
Anna will no longer drink during the day. It's a fight to get her to take a bottle at all, and she looks at us like we're crazy if we offer her formula in a sippy. I bought some homo milk the other day and have given her a bit in sippy cups but so far she drinks a bit and then makes faces at me. She will drink water from a sippy though; she seems to think that's a great adventure.
Ben recently discovered that Anna will take a bottle if and only if she is lying down in her crib. So yes, I just got her to take 4oz (her biggest feed since 8am today and it's now almost 4pm) by laying her down in the crib. I'm also hoping that she will fall asleep since she's been rather cranky today, probably because she's hungry!
She is eating more solids. Today we shared a banana, only every time I took it away to take a bite myself, she howled like the world was coming to an end. Silly baby.
On another note, Anna has 9 days to crawl if she's planning on hitting that "milestone" before Rachel did. Since she's more interested in standing, cruising and taking the occasional step holding our hands, I somehow think that she might walk first. We'll see.
Ben recently discovered that Anna will take a bottle if and only if she is lying down in her crib. So yes, I just got her to take 4oz (her biggest feed since 8am today and it's now almost 4pm) by laying her down in the crib. I'm also hoping that she will fall asleep since she's been rather cranky today, probably because she's hungry!
She is eating more solids. Today we shared a banana, only every time I took it away to take a bite myself, she howled like the world was coming to an end. Silly baby.
On another note, Anna has 9 days to crawl if she's planning on hitting that "milestone" before Rachel did. Since she's more interested in standing, cruising and taking the occasional step holding our hands, I somehow think that she might walk first. We'll see.
Holiday fun
Today we went to purchase gift cards for Rachel's Kindermusik and cooking class teachers. She suggested that her cooking teacher would like a Starbucks card - ha! Anyway, we decided to get both Starbucks and a bookstore card for her Kindermusik teacher since Anna also does Kindermusik. (As a music teacher myself, I can tell you that these kinds of gifts are possibly appreciated more than yet another music trinket or Christmas ornament. Hehehe.)
When we were at the bookstore, Rachel commented that we needed to find a Hanukkah gift card for her Kindermusik teacher. I told her that her Kindermusik teacher celebrates Christmas so it would be ok to pick out one of the Christmas ones. She was tough to convince, but in the end she found a gift card with candies on it so we went with that one!
So far we're not seeing any green-eyed monster with all the commercialism associated with Christmas. (Please note that I am not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that Christmas is all about the gifts for most families who celebrate it. I am simply commenting on the ridiculous materialism that is rampant even more so at this time of year.) Rachel and I have talked about how she will get some small gifts at Hanukkah, and we've started talking about making a birthday list.
I'm still amused that I can ward off whining about purchases so easily:
Rachel: "Mom, I want that toy. Can you buy it?"
Me: "No. I'm not buying toys today. I told you that."
Rachel: "But I want it."
Me: "Did you bring your purse with your money?"
Rachel: "No."
Me: "Oh, that's too bad. Maybe next time you'll have your money with you."
This inevitably leads to discussions of how she's going to save up for whatever the current popular toy is. She usually changes her mind multiple times and caves and buys a cheap toy or book as soon as she has a few dollars.
We are planning to return to the bookstore in a week or two to pick out books for the holiday book drive since that's how we've decided to spend Rachel's tzedakah money. She's very impressed that Ben and I said we'd match the amount in her box. We counted yesterday and she had close to $20 - this is all from her allowance money over the past couple of months.
When we were at the bookstore, Rachel commented that we needed to find a Hanukkah gift card for her Kindermusik teacher. I told her that her Kindermusik teacher celebrates Christmas so it would be ok to pick out one of the Christmas ones. She was tough to convince, but in the end she found a gift card with candies on it so we went with that one!
So far we're not seeing any green-eyed monster with all the commercialism associated with Christmas. (Please note that I am not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination that Christmas is all about the gifts for most families who celebrate it. I am simply commenting on the ridiculous materialism that is rampant even more so at this time of year.) Rachel and I have talked about how she will get some small gifts at Hanukkah, and we've started talking about making a birthday list.
I'm still amused that I can ward off whining about purchases so easily:
Rachel: "Mom, I want that toy. Can you buy it?"
Me: "No. I'm not buying toys today. I told you that."
Rachel: "But I want it."
Me: "Did you bring your purse with your money?"
Rachel: "No."
Me: "Oh, that's too bad. Maybe next time you'll have your money with you."
This inevitably leads to discussions of how she's going to save up for whatever the current popular toy is. She usually changes her mind multiple times and caves and buys a cheap toy or book as soon as she has a few dollars.
We are planning to return to the bookstore in a week or two to pick out books for the holiday book drive since that's how we've decided to spend Rachel's tzedakah money. She's very impressed that Ben and I said we'd match the amount in her box. We counted yesterday and she had close to $20 - this is all from her allowance money over the past couple of months.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Hmm
Some of you know that we've been thinking a lot about schooling for next year - homeschool, private Jewish school, public school... (Ok, anyone who knows us at all knows that the chances of pigs flying are possibly slightly greater than the chance of us sending our kids to an American public school. If that offends anyone, so be it.)
One of our current dilemmas is that the Jewish school has what we see as a very rigorous Kindergarten program. They basically do double curriculum (ie. secular and Judaic studies) so I can understand the need for a lengthened school day, but 7:55am until 2pm presents the following problems:
1. 7:55am?!??!?! This would require leaving the house no later than 7:30am every morning. Need I say more?
2. Rachel is a grouch for at least an hour in the morning until she's feeling more awake and ready to eat something. I don't relish the thought of having to wake her up at 6am every day. Even if she's awake on her own, I cannot imagine getting us out the door at 7:30. Again, I say, MUSICIANS DON'T DO MORNINGS!!!
3. 6 hours for Kindergarten seems really really long. I think that this would be a real stretch for Rachel. Whatever happened to good old half-day Kindergarten? (Ok, I know the partial answer to that is that working parents prefer full-day programming and so there you have it. While I agree that it is easier logistically, I think that it makes for a very long day for a 5-year-old.)
4. As if I want to have to pick up Rachel at 2pm every day knowing full well that would be smack in the middle of Anna's afternoon nap. Yes, I could likely tweak the nap a bit, but it still seems rather annoying.
5. $9K for tuition for the year. Yes, they do have financial assistance but one look at our bank account would deny us any outside aid given that proceeds from our house sale are in there. (And no, we would not hide that from anyone despite the fact that the funds are technically in a foreign account!)
Anyway, it looks like we're pretty serious about trying out homeschooling in the fall. We've talked a bit to Rachel about it and she is actually very enthusiastic. I've been reading a few books on homeschooling. So has Rachel - for kicks, I asked her to read the back of one of the books to me. She did. Every word. Even the "hard" words like option, accessible, alternative, perplexing, misgivings and adventure.
Given that the typical Kindergarten sight word list contains words such as he, she, am, are, yellow, cat, dog, etc, I think that we may be onto something with this learning at your own pace theory.
Besides, it'll be fun being once again outside of the mainstream. If nothing else, we're always good for some behind-the-scenes gossip. "Ben and Jane are crazy. They moved to the US then back to London and then to the US again and now they're planning to homeschool. They really must be religious nuts with no desire to produce well-adjusted socialized children."
Comment away...
One of our current dilemmas is that the Jewish school has what we see as a very rigorous Kindergarten program. They basically do double curriculum (ie. secular and Judaic studies) so I can understand the need for a lengthened school day, but 7:55am until 2pm presents the following problems:
1. 7:55am?!??!?! This would require leaving the house no later than 7:30am every morning. Need I say more?
2. Rachel is a grouch for at least an hour in the morning until she's feeling more awake and ready to eat something. I don't relish the thought of having to wake her up at 6am every day. Even if she's awake on her own, I cannot imagine getting us out the door at 7:30. Again, I say, MUSICIANS DON'T DO MORNINGS!!!
3. 6 hours for Kindergarten seems really really long. I think that this would be a real stretch for Rachel. Whatever happened to good old half-day Kindergarten? (Ok, I know the partial answer to that is that working parents prefer full-day programming and so there you have it. While I agree that it is easier logistically, I think that it makes for a very long day for a 5-year-old.)
4. As if I want to have to pick up Rachel at 2pm every day knowing full well that would be smack in the middle of Anna's afternoon nap. Yes, I could likely tweak the nap a bit, but it still seems rather annoying.
5. $9K for tuition for the year. Yes, they do have financial assistance but one look at our bank account would deny us any outside aid given that proceeds from our house sale are in there. (And no, we would not hide that from anyone despite the fact that the funds are technically in a foreign account!)
Anyway, it looks like we're pretty serious about trying out homeschooling in the fall. We've talked a bit to Rachel about it and she is actually very enthusiastic. I've been reading a few books on homeschooling. So has Rachel - for kicks, I asked her to read the back of one of the books to me. She did. Every word. Even the "hard" words like option, accessible, alternative, perplexing, misgivings and adventure.
Given that the typical Kindergarten sight word list contains words such as he, she, am, are, yellow, cat, dog, etc, I think that we may be onto something with this learning at your own pace theory.
Besides, it'll be fun being once again outside of the mainstream. If nothing else, we're always good for some behind-the-scenes gossip. "Ben and Jane are crazy. They moved to the US then back to London and then to the US again and now they're planning to homeschool. They really must be religious nuts with no desire to produce well-adjusted socialized children."
Comment away...
It's all in the details!
This morning Rachel was talking about putting up Hanukkah decorations. More specifically, she wants to make an elephant for Hanukkah. She was discussing how she would do it and came out with, "And then we'll add the dentals like the eyes and trunk." Ben and I looked at her, and he said, "I think you mean the details, Rachel, not the dentals."
"Yeah, details," she said without missing a beat.
Details indeed!
"Yeah, details," she said without missing a beat.
Details indeed!
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