Banjo banjo o' mine

Jbird and I went to see Béla Fleck perform last night. Jbird had been at a lunch with Béla as the guest artist.  He was there to talk about succeeding in the music industry and Jbird got us the tickets there.  It was fabulous fun, I couldn't help smiling the whole way through.  That is a sure sign of a good concert.  He played solo banjo in the first set and his wife joined him with her banjo and voice for the second set.  His solo performance was amazing but it was lovely to see him play with his wife.  She has a lovely lovely lovely voice and a cute laugh, their chemistry was so comfortable.  They kept 'playing to the death' which is the best type of banjo playing.  It was very cute.  Banjo is such a sincere instrument, so earnest in its intensity as the musician tries to throw out as many notes as possible per beat.  I think it has a bad rap by those who haven't stopped to listen.  But then Jbird and I are big bluegrass fans. 

During the course of the concert, I discovered that Jbird and I have a lot in common with this husband/wife team.  First and most obvious, her name (Abigail) is three syllables and starts with the letter A and so does mine.  Ha ha.  Jbird made me promise not to write when I told him this idea but I told him I needed to underwhelm my audience for all the other amazing commonalities.  Alright, here goes.  They play the same uncommon instrument as each other, just as Jbird and I both play viola.  The have a five month old baby, born two days before BabyBird (this was my favourite).  She has been to the Sichuan provence in China, as have I.  And actually, there I end, though Jbird added that they are on tour and we are about to go on tour.  I think he was talking about the viola duet music he just got out of the library that we will be playing together with a possible audience of one (BabyBird).  Why yes.  If that is being on tour then yes, so are we.

Seriously, those two are so talented.  Not only has she been to Sichuan, she SPEAKS CHINESE and SINGS CHINESE and sounds awesome.  Meanwhile, he has won FIFTEEN grammies, and been nominated for thirty.  Come. On.  Why is he so amazing?  Huh.  Here they are back in April with her bubba in her belly.  And here's a neat tune from a few years ago.  It was such a great concert, I hope you can see them some time if you haven't already.

A missed opportunity

I was thinking about missed opportunities today. Maybe because my husband lives by the "but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity" mantra.  This is a pretty nice mantra to live by sometimes, it can help you really appreciate an event.  Because, after all, said event is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  It can also be a pretty bad, especially when he uses it to get out of a previously made commitment.  It makes me feel guilty if I want to make him stand up to the commitment.  Because, after all, I'll be tearing him away from a once in a life time opportunity. 

As for me, I don't really believe in these once in a life time opportunities.  I believe they come along again.  I mean they don't come along in exactly the same reincarnation.  But you can make other cool things happen, even if you miss that one cool thing.  This helps me when I'm deciding how to treat Jbird's epic opportunities he just can't miss.* 

Except for once.  When I was a little girl my best friend offered me a ticket to go with her to Cirque du Soleil in the big circus tent.  But my mum said I had to go to the two day orchestra camp I was already signed up for.  She said it would be good for me.  

The two things were not comparable.  I was a third violin.  And I couldn't read music.  Or even barely play the violin.  I mean, I was really, really awful.  And I was so shy, I hadn't made any friends.  I spent the weekend lost and alone.  Truly, it was the worst camp I've ever been to.  Every meal/evening/other social time was like torture.  Every rehearsal was like torture. Torture.  Meanwhile, my friend went to the circus and had an amazing time.  

Since then, I've never been able to catch them doing their big show.  I've seen an off-shoot in the Civic theatre.  And listened to another friend (Hi Syls) decide she wanted to be a clown after seeing their big tent performance.  And then listened to her for weeks afterwards reliving how great the show was and how she got to meet the performers and how, oh boy, she was somehow going to become a clown.  Because it was so great.  She hasn't yet become a clown but I loved her zeal.  

To try and recreate what I missed, I even went to see the Warner Bros. circus.  Unfortunately it was winter and circuses are in tents (brrrr).  And the show wasn't all that well attended so it was missing some (a lot of) zing.  I bet Cirque du Soleil would have heated their tent.  From what I have heard, the Cirque du Soleil big show is leagues better than any other circus.

Boy.  That was really a once in a life time opportunity. 

*Jbird has such an amazing zeal for life, he really does.  It's inspirational.

Phew. Five months today!

 

This little snuggle bunny is five months old today.  What can a girl learn in five months?  

BabyBird has been rolling over for over two months and is really good at it now.  She prefers to go to sleep on her side but will also sleep on her tummy or her back.  She is slowly getting stronger at her mini push ups, sometimes getting her legs right up under her and sometimes holding her upper body off the ground.  

She started playing with pieces of fruit last week in preparation for eating solids.  They're often too slippery to hold onto for long but easy for me to prepare.  

She is a screamer!  Many of my friends haven't heard such a loud, urgent cry.  Besides that two days ago she started screaming just to get my attention or because she's bored or even happy.  They are really ear piercing screams too, I can't wait for this phase to pass.  Please.  Let it pass.  She also has a lovely laugh and will laugh when I sing to her or hold her above me or just when we are playing together on the bed.  

She loves taking a bath with me and will splash and play with the water.  

She's really alert, always watching and taking everything in.  

She loves to be carried in her baby carrier when we go for walks.  She only complains in there if we stand still for too long, loving to be snug next to me and often falling asleep.   As we walk she looks back and forth from side to side to see what has changed.  

She loves playing with her toys but she loves playing with people even more and her face lights up whenever her Daddy comes into the room.  She loves to play with her Daddy.  

She is very good at sleeping now sleeps anywhere we are either in her pram or the port-a-cot with her Ellie and her Lambie.  This is great as she takes around 10 naps out of our house each weeks and gives us a lot of flexibility.  I have caught her sleeping with her eyes open on her play gym a few times which was really scary for me and I had to wake her to make sure she was still alive!  Generally, she doesn't sleep if people are around.

Although the left breast makes her MAD (it's just not fast enough!) and she fights (and shouts) while feeding on that side, she is a snuggly little sausage and buries her face in my neck sucking on my shirt and talking to herself when she's tired. 

She loves to be around other babies and children, becoming very relaxed and quiet as she takes them all in.  

The worth of thy self

Oh how I do love to complain, I'm really good at it.  Extraordinarily good at it!

I was stumped by a friend once when I was complaining to her about our situation.  The gist of the complaint(s) was: we have no car, no house, no job, no money, no future (i.e.; I didn't see how we could possibly afford to have a baby).  She (being a lovely American girl) asked me why I was so busy seeking the American dream.  Well, she didn't say it like that, but that was the gist.  And thus I was stumped.  Is that what I want, the American dream?!  Huh.  I thought those things just meant comfort.  This, by the way, was only a year ago.  And now we have a baby and car so two of those things can be checked off. 

I still find myself falling back into those complaints.  Sometimes the 'American Dream' comment manages to keep me in check.  And sometimes instead of just complaining, I want to do something about it.  I keep coming back to: I should just try and get a job.  But why do I need a job?  Doesn't BabyBird need me in the nest?  But what worth do I gain from being with her in the nest?  Isn't she the only one that notices?

The thing is.  I'm not lacking in love.  I'm not lacking in experiences.  I'm not lacking in friendship and Christian fellowship.  My family are too far away but that, right now, can't be helped.  The only thing I'm lacking is climbing that ladder of career opportunity, and the ability to buy whatever I want.  Material goods aren't so important (I often need to remind myself of this).  And is my career?  Does it matter if I'm not winning any awards?  

I would argue that happiness comes instead from loving well, which is what I intend to do.

I'm thinking about formatting

I don't know much about computers and their memory.  I remember formatting my new camera only to find I may have lost all the pictures I'd taken around New York City, England, and Europe.  This was back in 2005.  I learnt a quick lesson that day.  If you format something, everything you have done to it is deleted.  It's the most thorough cleaning a digital item can receive.  I've got a virus so I'm considering it for this computer, and I'm counting my possible losses if I do.  I have backed up my files but I may lose programs, or spend years re-installing them.  On the plus side my computer would work so much faster and everything would act close to new again.  How fresh.

Perhaps my brain would feel a little clearer and I'd be able to think straight if I could format parts of my life.  All the cupboard space in this tiny place, the cobweb I often notice and don't quite get to, and I spoke of our freezer in my last post.  Not to mention our fridge.  Everything could be cleared out allowing us a fresh start.  I suppose technology will allow this one day as it allowed it on The Jetsons.  But it's hard to throw things out.  What if we need them again?  And it seems impossible to wipe clean every surface, there is always more scrubbing to do.  

For now I guess I'll just work on the computer. 

Clearing it out

My freezer is a sight to behold.  At any given time offers you berries, vegetables, soups and stews, popsicles, icecream, fish, beef, chicken, bacon, coffee, ice cubes, pastry, waffles, and ginger.  All in the frozen form. 

It has been full to bursting for a while now and I noticed that I was only using the things I could find on top of everything else - certain parts of my freezer had become a 'no man's land'.  It started when Jbird discovered ten opened packets of frozen vegetable.  Then I defrosted a soup and remembered making it at least six months ago, maybe more.  I could taste freezer burn on the berries when I put them in a smoothie.  What had been a treasure trove was turning into an antique yard sale - or something similar.  

I decided it was time to clear it out and start again.  I stopped buying meat (and frozen vegetables!) to force myself to dig to the bottom of that black hole and it's been a fun journey.  For example, frozen salmon had become a trial to use after a few botched meals so I had been reburying in the abyss it whenever I came across it.  This past week we had a yummy fried salmon steak one day with a fresh and full salad, and salmon and mushroom fettucine carbonara two days later.  Today was chicken and dumpling barley soup and we had ham and pea soup for lunch on a rainy Sunday.

Some of you may baulk at freezer burn.  Though it wasn't so nice on the berries which weren't cooked, it hasn't been noticeable on anything else.  My internet research tells me it's not dangerous! What does the inside of your freezer look like?

Coming into the cold weather

It has been so hot here that it has only really started to feel like fall this week.  There was a clear change in temperatures at night and in the early morning, and the leaves have suddenly started to change.  I have also been doing a lot of bottling.  Pears with my friend Ashley, and some tomato chutney and apple preserves here at home.

As I hung our coats, gloves, hats, and woollen undershirts in the sun to get some air today, I tried not to feeling a sense of foreboding I often feel about the impending long cold wintry months.  Instead, I have compiled a list of good things about this coming winter and I see there really are a lot of things to look forward to after the nice fall weather ends.  

1. Snow.  Rolling BabyBird in the snow.  Snow.

2. Hot chocolate with snow outside (and all wintry type foods).

3. Having our own car during cold weather. NeatO.

4. Alana and Marshall's wedding in Seattle (and our trip to Portland to visit Sandi and her hubby).

5. Christmas with friends (Alana's family).

6. Spending time with my brother and his wife.

7. Our first Christmas as a family of three.

8. Late January, BabyBird and I are flying home to NZ for a whole month.  And well.  That's cheating.  Because I'm putting some summer into my winter.

Things aren't looking pretty nice.

Travel in the future?

A small plan has been hatched for BabyBird and I to go home for a visit at the end of January.  This is a whole year earlier than had been previously intended but the idea is to let her meet her distant relatives.  It's an exciting plan.  Perhaps too exciting as it's all I can think about.  In fact, when I fed her at 4am this morning I then spent the next two hours laying in bed thinking about New Zealand.  Now I'm exhausted.  How will I ever get through the next few months?