Sack of Sugar
When that conversation comes up, and it always does, I am a little reticent to say, “My first concert was the Spin Doctors.” So, after Hazel was born I thought that it would be great if she would be able to say that her first concert was her dad! Sadly I have not played any shows since then. (Jeez, I have got to get on the ball with that!) However, her first concert was pretty frickin cool anyway. - Langhorne Slim with some Decemberists and Sallie Ford.
Chris Funk and Seann Mckeel put this show together every month for Mcmeniman's Kennedy School called You Who. I heard about it a while ago while I was enjoying another one of my favourite Father Daughter activities (Mommy Matinee...more on that later). It is a variety show for kids that starts off with some crafts and dancing around, then there are a bunch of skits and more dancing and a short musical guest then they have a main musical act.
I think this sort of thing is great for kids plus they have musical acts that parents will enjoy as well. This last month we took Hazel to her second You Who concert which featured my old teacher, Laura Veirs with a backup band consisting of 3/5 of the Decemberists. She played this great Woodie Guthrie song during her set called “Sack of Sugar”. I had never heard this one before but knew that it would be one that Hazel would enjoy around the house so I learned it.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Padded Floors Worry No More
Waiting Room
This week we had our first official solo (Brian and Hazel) play date. She has had many babies come to visit her in our house but only when mom was around as well. We have also never been shy about taking her out to dinner with us or to parties and, pretty much, nowadays there are always other chillens around for her to visit with. Hazel is a very social creature, much more than her father.
There were many factors considered when we decided that I would be the stay-at-home-dad instead of my wife being the stay-at-home-mom. One of the big ones is that my personality is much more agreeable to hermit-like living. During my wife's leave of absence she could barely stand to go a day without visitors or a luncheon or what-have-you. I, on the other hand, take a great solace in the time that Hazel and I have together.........alone. I love the , what I call, “normal days” when we can keep our schedule. We get our walk in, I know for sure that she gets enough sleep and food in her system, I get a few hours to work while she is napping and then we get to spend an hour or two in the studio working on music.
As much as I love our solitary lifestyle I know (and my wife reminds me) that it is important for both Hazel and myself to socialize. So I have been trying to schedule in some sort of play date once a week or so. It has not been super successful up till now. My first attempt ended up with my daughter being stood-up (meGAN!!!!) and other tries have been chaperoned by my wife. And last week a hiccup involving my utter lack of dedication to my cellphone stymied our first playground foray.
This week we finally made it to what I call the Rumpus Room. It is a great Portland Public Parks activity where they set aside a time in this gym space at Peninsula Park for babies from 6-17 months to crawl around willy-nilly. There is a bunch of soft toys for them to climb around on and fall over and everything is nice and safe. Plus It is really nice to sit around on a padded floor and chat/compare war wounds with other parents. Cost? $1.
Josh and his son Walden met us there. I am very lucky to have good friends who are going through the same experiences we are. (That song, Waiting Room, I wrote about Josh and Sara as they were waiting for Walden to arrive)
This week we had our first official solo (Brian and Hazel) play date. She has had many babies come to visit her in our house but only when mom was around as well. We have also never been shy about taking her out to dinner with us or to parties and, pretty much, nowadays there are always other chillens around for her to visit with. Hazel is a very social creature, much more than her father.
There were many factors considered when we decided that I would be the stay-at-home-dad instead of my wife being the stay-at-home-mom. One of the big ones is that my personality is much more agreeable to hermit-like living. During my wife's leave of absence she could barely stand to go a day without visitors or a luncheon or what-have-you. I, on the other hand, take a great solace in the time that Hazel and I have together.........alone. I love the , what I call, “normal days” when we can keep our schedule. We get our walk in, I know for sure that she gets enough sleep and food in her system, I get a few hours to work while she is napping and then we get to spend an hour or two in the studio working on music.
As much as I love our solitary lifestyle I know (and my wife reminds me) that it is important for both Hazel and myself to socialize. So I have been trying to schedule in some sort of play date once a week or so. It has not been super successful up till now. My first attempt ended up with my daughter being stood-up (meGAN!!!!) and other tries have been chaperoned by my wife. And last week a hiccup involving my utter lack of dedication to my cellphone stymied our first playground foray.
This week we finally made it to what I call the Rumpus Room. It is a great Portland Public Parks activity where they set aside a time in this gym space at Peninsula Park for babies from 6-17 months to crawl around willy-nilly. There is a bunch of soft toys for them to climb around on and fall over and everything is nice and safe. Plus It is really nice to sit around on a padded floor and chat/compare war wounds with other parents. Cost? $1.
Josh and his son Walden met us there. I am very lucky to have good friends who are going through the same experiences we are. (That song, Waiting Room, I wrote about Josh and Sara as they were waiting for Walden to arrive)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Shiny Bells and Ribbons
This has been a year of firsts. I guess every year is...or should be. This one though has been chalk full of big iconic ones. That has been one of the best things about having Hazel around and having the opportunity to spend so much time with her. I get to see all of her firsts happen.
Today we went and got our Christmas tree. As this is Hazel's first Christmas I find myself thinking about traditions a lot. This is the time when we will be setting our family's traditions in motion that may well shape the touchstones of her childhood. Hoooo, when I write it out like that it sounds like a big responsibility. It is, I guess but so is parenthood. At the same time, my mental and physical exhaustion makes it a lot easier to take any shortcut I can in my holiday festivas. We brought up all the boxes of ornaments for the tree and then a few days went by and we couldn't muster the motivation to actually put them on the tree. So, instead, I have been periodically putting the ornaments that have no emotional ties. So, for the the first time ever we, currently have a very pretty Christmas tree decoration scheme. Absent are the miscellany of tokens from our combined childhoods. Remisce are the Star Wars figures/ornaments of recent years. What we have is a designer tree. It is very pretty and color coordinated and stylish. And maybe this year that is what we need...some semblance of order in our increasingly chaotic lifestyle. We have been talking about starting off Hazel's traditions by getting her an ornament every year. Maybe this year the only ornament on the tree besides the shiny balls and lights and ribbons should be her first ornament. Maybe this is the time when we should let go of our traditions a bit and give way for new ones for this new life we have created together.
Today we went and got our Christmas tree. As this is Hazel's first Christmas I find myself thinking about traditions a lot. This is the time when we will be setting our family's traditions in motion that may well shape the touchstones of her childhood. Hoooo, when I write it out like that it sounds like a big responsibility. It is, I guess but so is parenthood. At the same time, my mental and physical exhaustion makes it a lot easier to take any shortcut I can in my holiday festivas. We brought up all the boxes of ornaments for the tree and then a few days went by and we couldn't muster the motivation to actually put them on the tree. So, instead, I have been periodically putting the ornaments that have no emotional ties. So, for the the first time ever we, currently have a very pretty Christmas tree decoration scheme. Absent are the miscellany of tokens from our combined childhoods. Remisce are the Star Wars figures/ornaments of recent years. What we have is a designer tree. It is very pretty and color coordinated and stylish. And maybe this year that is what we need...some semblance of order in our increasingly chaotic lifestyle. We have been talking about starting off Hazel's traditions by getting her an ornament every year. Maybe this year the only ornament on the tree besides the shiny balls and lights and ribbons should be her first ornament. Maybe this is the time when we should let go of our traditions a bit and give way for new ones for this new life we have created together.
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