Here's what we're listening to these days:
Car rides
Christopher demands "a happy song" every time we get in the car and his two current favorites are Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison (or "the sha-la-la-la song") and Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder (or "the I wonder song").
Hang out time at home
Songs for Wiggleworms (album) - especially "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (or "the railroad song")
Getting dinner ready
My daily opportunity for a dose of adult news while Mike and Christopher tear it up at the park: NPR (WBEZ 91.5 here in Chicagoland). I *heart* NPR.
Friday afternoon/dinnertime
Sara Bareilles (you all know she was in my UCLA a cappella group Awaken, right?!) or Alison Krauss and Union Station usually hit the spot when we're celebrating the end of the week with some playtime and a glass of vino. (Alison Krauss' voice amazes me, by the way. Effortless, agile, emotive, and perfectly on pitch ALL TIMES - just check out her live performances. Someday we'll see her in concert...)
After the toddler is in bed
Glenn Gould's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. It makes me feel like my brain gets a realignment and shifts into adult-mode. Ahhh.
Saturday morning pancake hour
Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams (Better Together and Banana Pancakes are two of Mike's favorites).
Sunday morning
While we feast on Saturday's pancakes and get over the disappointment that the end of the weekend really IS approaching, the Garden State Soundtrack, Sigur Ros (this is the song Takk - which means "thank you") and a big cup of Irish Breakfast tea never disappoint.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
And then... there were two.
And truly, if you'd been hanging around here on Labor Day, that's exactly what it would have felt like. In the morning, the three of us went up to the Chicago Botanic Garden and walked around for 1-1/2 hours. It was a beautiful early fall day.
We had planned to go roast s'mores over an open fire with friends that afternoon and at 1pm I was still saying, "I'd really like to get to R&S's house for s'mores at 4pm... let's see how I feel in an hour."
Colin was born at 3:45pm. I clearly, a) had a baby *very* quickly, and b) had a very skewed sense of those little labor pings' trajectory. Ha. I still have not roasted s'mores since Fall started, but I have not given up hope. The marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers are still waiting in the pantry.
Colin is a peanut and a darling. I will update Flickr before the end of the week so that everyone can see more images of his sweetness. He's working on filling out, too. Just the other morning I realized that his face has taken on a delicious roundness that wasn't there at birth (he was 3 weeks early, afterall!). And a double chin is solidly in the works. I love it.
Christopher - since we last posted here - is now a bonafide TWO year old. We celebrated his two-some-ness with a morning fete attended by family and many, many friends. It was warm enough for splashing, cool enough to not melt the guests, and early enough to send all toddlers back home for afternoon naps with chocolate cupcakes in their bellies.
He has started a preschool program that meets 2 days each week for 1-1/2 hours. It is play-based socialization and he loves it. In fact, just last week on the way home, he said with a wistful sigh, "I love preschool." After much deliberation over whether he was too young or just plain not ready - there isn't anything we would have preferred to hear him say. That just about sums it up for all of us. We love preschool. :)
Christopher is also embracing his new role as big brother. He likes to keep him company in his bouncy chair and often forgets himself in his zeal to keep the chair bouncing (why wouldn't he want to bounce higher/faster/bigger?!?!) and frequently asks to hold Colin. He leans over Colin and will say, "Hello Colin. How are you today, Colin?" He gives him pats on the head, lots of kisses, and nearly-bone-crushing hugs. Mike and I constantly perform a watchful, yet beautiful dance as we let them get close but intervene with a split second to spare to explain why Christopher probably shouldn't lean on Colin/poke his eyes/pat so hard/etc etc.
And so, this is why the blog has been silent for so long. First I missed the glory days of summer gardening (the tomatoes alone paid for our garden investments this year, and I believe the amount of swiss chard consumed was solely responsible for my sky-high iron levels during pregnancy - yes!), then I missed writing about Christopher's 2nd birthday, then I didn't update about Colin's spectacular arrival... It seemed like so much time had passed that there was no way to catch up. But several friends from afar have asked about the blog and I need to remember that this blog is a way to share our life with the friends we have near and far. We don't want to miss out on any of you!
And now...
There's a pie pumpkin baking in the oven, which will scent the house with the smell of fall and then be whizzed up into puree for waffles or bread or soup or DINNER. I'll do my best to post more regularly again and bring you all along with us through this next season of Fall.
xo,
M&M and C+C
We had planned to go roast s'mores over an open fire with friends that afternoon and at 1pm I was still saying, "I'd really like to get to R&S's house for s'mores at 4pm... let's see how I feel in an hour."
Colin was born at 3:45pm. I clearly, a) had a baby *very* quickly, and b) had a very skewed sense of those little labor pings' trajectory. Ha. I still have not roasted s'mores since Fall started, but I have not given up hope. The marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers are still waiting in the pantry.
Colin is a peanut and a darling. I will update Flickr before the end of the week so that everyone can see more images of his sweetness. He's working on filling out, too. Just the other morning I realized that his face has taken on a delicious roundness that wasn't there at birth (he was 3 weeks early, afterall!). And a double chin is solidly in the works. I love it.
Christopher - since we last posted here - is now a bonafide TWO year old. We celebrated his two-some-ness with a morning fete attended by family and many, many friends. It was warm enough for splashing, cool enough to not melt the guests, and early enough to send all toddlers back home for afternoon naps with chocolate cupcakes in their bellies.
He has started a preschool program that meets 2 days each week for 1-1/2 hours. It is play-based socialization and he loves it. In fact, just last week on the way home, he said with a wistful sigh, "I love preschool." After much deliberation over whether he was too young or just plain not ready - there isn't anything we would have preferred to hear him say. That just about sums it up for all of us. We love preschool. :)
Christopher is also embracing his new role as big brother. He likes to keep him company in his bouncy chair and often forgets himself in his zeal to keep the chair bouncing (why wouldn't he want to bounce higher/faster/bigger?!?!) and frequently asks to hold Colin. He leans over Colin and will say, "Hello Colin. How are you today, Colin?" He gives him pats on the head, lots of kisses, and nearly-bone-crushing hugs. Mike and I constantly perform a watchful, yet beautiful dance as we let them get close but intervene with a split second to spare to explain why Christopher probably shouldn't lean on Colin/poke his eyes/pat so hard/etc etc.
And so, this is why the blog has been silent for so long. First I missed the glory days of summer gardening (the tomatoes alone paid for our garden investments this year, and I believe the amount of swiss chard consumed was solely responsible for my sky-high iron levels during pregnancy - yes!), then I missed writing about Christopher's 2nd birthday, then I didn't update about Colin's spectacular arrival... It seemed like so much time had passed that there was no way to catch up. But several friends from afar have asked about the blog and I need to remember that this blog is a way to share our life with the friends we have near and far. We don't want to miss out on any of you!
And now...
There's a pie pumpkin baking in the oven, which will scent the house with the smell of fall and then be whizzed up into puree for waffles or bread or soup or DINNER. I'll do my best to post more regularly again and bring you all along with us through this next season of Fall.
xo,
M&M and C+C
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Pavarotti - Live in concert in Paris 1965
I don't want to be too blunt, here... but if this doesn't make your heart speed up just a tiny bit, and make you think, "hey, that's kind of gorgeous"... well, then... try replaying it.
30 years old. Trim. Handsome. Abso-freaking-thrilling voice.
(Pavarotti is singing the part of Rodolfo who has just met Mimi, his new neighbor in his rundown tenement building in Paris. She's come to his door asking if he'd light her candle so she can see in her cold, dark apartment upstairs. He accompanies her back up to her place and she drops her key - Rodolfo, the sneaky guy - finds it while they're chatting and hides it in his pocket to prolong their encounter. They're both searching around on the floor in the dark - the candle went out again - and their hands bump into each other.)
Here's the text translation:
What a frozen little hand,
let me warm it for you.
What's the use of looking?
We won't find it in the dark.
But luckily
it's a moonlit night,
and the moon
is near us here.
Wait, mademoiselle,
I will tell you in two words,
who I am, what I do,
and how I live. May I?
Who am I? I am a poet.
What do I do? I write.
And how do I live? I live.
There's much more on YouTube if this has you hooked. Here's one of the entire aria staged (though he wasn't exactly known for his acting abilities or stage movement). The "ah" vowels are enough to make me swoon. 3:45. La speranza, indeed.
At the end, he goes over to ask her to tell him about herself. God help the soprano playing Mimi who had to follow THAT up! The next aria (in which Mimi explains who she is and what she does) is equally fabulous... but, um... yeah...
30 years old. Trim. Handsome. Abso-freaking-thrilling voice.
(Pavarotti is singing the part of Rodolfo who has just met Mimi, his new neighbor in his rundown tenement building in Paris. She's come to his door asking if he'd light her candle so she can see in her cold, dark apartment upstairs. He accompanies her back up to her place and she drops her key - Rodolfo, the sneaky guy - finds it while they're chatting and hides it in his pocket to prolong their encounter. They're both searching around on the floor in the dark - the candle went out again - and their hands bump into each other.)
Here's the text translation:
What a frozen little hand,
let me warm it for you.
What's the use of looking?
We won't find it in the dark.
But luckily
it's a moonlit night,
and the moon
is near us here.
Wait, mademoiselle,
I will tell you in two words,
who I am, what I do,
and how I live. May I?
Who am I? I am a poet.
What do I do? I write.
And how do I live? I live.
There's much more on YouTube if this has you hooked. Here's one of the entire aria staged (though he wasn't exactly known for his acting abilities or stage movement). The "ah" vowels are enough to make me swoon. 3:45. La speranza, indeed.
At the end, he goes over to ask her to tell him about herself. God help the soprano playing Mimi who had to follow THAT up! The next aria (in which Mimi explains who she is and what she does) is equally fabulous... but, um... yeah...
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