Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Liana, Debby and I went to See Hair in Kingston Tuesday night. The tickets were a Christmas gift. I've always liked the idea of "experience" gifts, especially for Liana's age group.

The show was good though not what I had expected. Having seen the 1979 movie based on the play I was expecting a tighter plot. At times the plot was so light it felt like we were watching a (rather dynamic) concert. That being said I thought the acting was great, loved the music, totally girl crushed on the Sheila character, and the mostly middle-aged Kingston audience were such good sports.

What would I like my 13 year old to take away from a pro-drug anti-war play with oh so much nudity?

History lesson 

 

I want her to be able to connect the 1960s with pacifism, activism, the sexual revolution and the Vietnam War. The Beatles and Across the Universe have already aided in my efforts.

Recognize shock value

 

Liana's an artsy kid surrounded be artsy people. She's going to be exposed to a lot of punchy messages in various art forms and I want her to think about subversiveness versus shock value. She was the first to point out there were certain scenes she felt seemed unnecessarily controversial. Maybe they were and maybe they weren't but either way, I'm glad she wasn't unthinkingly impressed with the outrageous.

Consider aesthetics

 

Female hippies must be so disappointed with our current feminine ideal and consumerism. Liana's in high school at a time when there is so much pressure for girls to look your best all of the time. I was kind of excited to point out how all the women had armpit hair and weren't wearing bras. Their was a strength in those women that I think is mostly lost now.

Feel comfortable talking to me

I'm a big proponent of open mother-daughter conversations, no matter how uncomfortable it may get. Opportunities to say "hey, look, these subjects are not taboo" are important.


Well, at least that's how I'm justifying having had her watch Hair ;)

On the train

Liana was invited to burn her draft card

Had to...

Had to again...

The three of us!

Heading back home

Scouts camping trip + And now back to our regularly scheduled maternity leave

Scouts camping trip

This weekend Caleb and I went camping at MacSkimming Outdoor Centre as a joint Beavers and Cubs activity. The evening began with some outdoor games that I was charged with planning. Thanks to some creative friends and Pinterest, I went with glow-in-the-dark bowling, horseshoes and snow ball target games. Back indoors we had the Beavers make sit upons out of milk bags and sleep buddies out of felt and toy stuffing. Then we went back out into the blistering cold to sit around a fire and sing songs, act out some skits, and learn stuff. Back indoors we got our pyjamas on, had popcorn and hot chocolate, and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on a projector. I could not believe how sleepy I was when we called lights out at 10:30pm...must have been the fresh air. Caleb and I shared a bunk bed (he wanted the top bunk, of course). In the morning the Cubs made a wonderful bacon/pancake/fruit breakfast and they even washed all the dishes. I love the Cubs.

It was my first overnight away from Evelyn. I'm still nursing her so I was VERY happy to see her when I returned home. She was a good girl for daddy and slept all night.

Ready for sleeps!

The sleeping buddy Caleb made - doesn't it look like Princess Leia?

And now back to our regularly scheduled maternity leave

 

I've been doing an overwhelming amount of HR work things these last two weeks. Between competing for a pool and being part of a developmental program, in the last two weeks I wrote a take-home exam, wrote a self-assessment, went into work to make a presentation, and wrote a four-pager on her I meet educational requirements. I will say that it was nice, halfway through my leave, to have the opportunity to review my work life and visit co-workers...but it was also stressful.

I did still take some pictures of (mostly) Evelyn during this time, though.

This is me waking up Evelyn because she'd been napping for too long (she's just rubbing her eyes)

"I was awake the whole time, mommy"

Evelyn's favourite book to eat

Liana kindly offered to make dinner for all one day this week

Evelyn helping daddy play Hearthstone

A father/daughter duet

Caleb is a big fan of watching Darcy play games

A little serenading the baby before leaving for work

Dex loves laying on the mat in Evelyn's room

This is what Evelyn looks like when I'm blowing on her tummy

Sea party in the bath

Nom nom turtle

Drying off

This is her mischievous expression

Already getting tired of always being in the spotlight

Just chilling out and reading a good book

Baby steps to reading: no longer slobbering all over the pages

Surprise ending?

I was spotted

Not even a little bit sleepy

Kinda like those stacking cups they sell for babies

The Mommy Birthday

Birthday Day

My birthday took place mid-week so it was a quiet day at home with Evelyn. My mom came over for a visit in the afternoon. Liana made dinner and dessert as her gift to me.

Liana prepared zucchini fettucine, maple tofu and lemon tarts

My first ever flower delivery!

New orchid

Evelyn wasn't really in a party mood...

Family Lunch

The Sunday after my birthday Debby, Dave, Grandma Jean and Casey came for a visit and joined us for Sunday lunch at my parents' house.

Evelyn getting a ride on grandpa's knee

Grandma feeding the baby

Chilling at my parents'

Evelyn crusin'

Birthday cake

My reaction to the way my mom magically pops up next to whoever's birthday it is when she sees a camera

Presents

I got an awesome hybrid Giant bicycle! It's sadly stored in the basement for another four months or so. I also got a Moto G phone, my first smartphone! And I received miscellaneous goods, such as Louis-Jean Cormier's new solo album and some charms from ThinkGeek. Honourable mentions to the gift I received from Caleb. Wrapped in an envelop he made and decorated himself was:
-1x hair clip
-2xBeyblade online codes
-4x Pokemon online codes
-2x Dragon's Universe cards
-2x Lego Chima cards
-7x Chaotic cards
-1x birthday drawing

I guess Caleb liked my reaction to the hodge podge contents because a few days after he made me a "bonne fin de semaine" package. Contents included:
-a paper that wraps around your arms with "magic" written on it that he put in the freezer as it's for muscle pain
-a ziploc bag with a $5 bill and some loose change from his piggy bank
-the soundtrack to Labyrinth (which I've owned since forever)
-a book he made with the names of all of his friends (future bestseller?)

Here are some pictures taken with my new phone.

Evelyn eating bananas - her favourite

Caleb playing wii bowling - bonus of the phone camera is it's discrete!

Kisses

Watching Caleb play piano

Dog on a sunny day

Sleeeepy

Playing in the kitchen

Sledding with Beavers

Month 7 Milestones

And then on the seventh month we said "let there be sleep!" and there was sleep. Sleep training is successfully complete. We tuck in Evelyn at 7pm and then only see her again when we wake her up at 6:30am the next morning. She has 2-3 naps a day for a combined total of three hours. All of her sleep takes place in her crib and she falls asleep by herself (if she's having trouble falling asleep we visit and pat her bum a little and say "shh"). As much as I adore cloth diapers, they weren't cutting it now an 11.5 hour time period so she's using some hippy version of disposables overnight for the time being.

Evelyn's eating two regular meals a day now, brunch and dinner. For cereals she's had brown rice and barley. For vegetables she's had sweet potatoes, butternut squash, avocados, peas and carrots. For fruit she's had apples, mangos and her all time favourite food: bananas. Evelyn gets half a banana (mashed) every day because she gets all excited when eating bananas. Darcy noticed this neat thing she does while eating: whenever she's swallowed the food in her mouth and is ready for more she kicks her feet. When we hear her feet swishing around we know she's ready for more.

Evelyn's motor skills have progressed leaps and bounds this month. Her new favourite position is sitting down and she rarely falls over anymore. She manages to spin and scoot herself backwards while sitting. She also somehow manages to spin while on her tummy. The other day I caught her with her hands beneath her excersaucer and on the change table she's quick to flip on her side and hang her leg over the edge. All this "almost mobileness" is neat to observe but also nerve-wracking.

In terms of play, Evelyn's been enjoying finding and chewing on tags, crashing block structures, playing her baby piano, and just kicking her feet while shrieking. She's also started giving kisses but her kisses are usually accompanied by her pinching your face or pulling your hair.