Intentional Time

After the success of my Mommy/Daughter date with Cate two weeks ago (the one-on-one time did wonders for her soul and she was a much more patient and helpful big sister afterward), Eric and I decided we really needed to be intentional about giving her that time. That time to be a big girl and do the things Brennan can't do. That time to have Mommy's and/or Daddy's undivided attention. Last weekend, Cate and Daddy got dressed up and headed to the Symphony.The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra does a couple of concerts a year that they dub "Lollipops" concerts. They are geared towards younger kids in several ways: they're early in the day, they have musicians in an "instrument petting zoo" beforehand that show the kids how the instruments work, the concerts are an hour or less, and no one frowns or makes a face if a kid talks through the whole thing. Last Saturday's concert focused on the music of Mozart. So while Mommy stayed home with Brennan, Cate and Daddy found their seats...
...and watched a show (I really need to teach Daddy how to use my camera--he did well though).Eric said Cate got a little bored towards the end, but then it was over and she's talked about it a lot the last two weeks. What really amazes me though, is that when Cate hears a piece of classical music she's heard before, she can tell you where she's heard it. When one of the Mozart pieces started playing on her Little Einsteins game (she can only play with this when I'm nursing or changing a diaper-- it's a wonderful distraction), she said, "Mommy, it's like the concert." Another song on the same game prompted her to say, "Mommy, it's like my phone" (referring to her toy phone ring-tone).

Today I had planned to take Cate back to the little boutique where she took art classes in the fall. We didn't purchase the whole session/series, but plan to pay as we go on weeks we can make it. Eric has to staff workouts most Saturday mornings right now, so getting to art class depends on if I can get the three of us fed, dressed, and out the door on time. We made it on time today, only to find out it was canceled (we didn't know b/c we're not on the phone chain since we didn't pay for the whole session). Cate was really bummed because she had been looking forward to painting or doing something. Brennan was sound asleep in the carseat/carrier, so I made a decision to take her to a local paint-your-own-pottery studio. I wasn't sure if she'd be old enough to enjoy it or not, but she picked a piece and jumped right in (and all I had to document the moment was my cell phone).
She chose an owl bank and loved painting all of the different colors on him. The first thing she added was a smile.After 25 minutes though, she was just done. She wanted to paint something else even though the owl wasn't quite done. I rallied her and got her to finish the owl. Next time we'll go with something smaller.
The other part she didn't quite "get" was that we had to leave the owl there to "bake in an oven" and that we could come and get him next week. She wanted to take him home right away. Finished pictures will come next week. Luckily, Brennan stayed like this the whole time: Next Saturday will be a day totally focused on Cate as my sweet girl turns three. Yikes! She is officially a "preschooler" and not a "toddler" anymore as far as parenting books are concerned. We weren't going to have a party, but decided a small one with close family and our small group friends (the kids are Cate's friends by default...haha) was in order. With so much attention paid to Brennan lately, Cate deserves a celebration on her special day!

~Melody :-)

PS...Sorry for the long post. Thanks for hanging in there and reading with us.

She Gets in From Her Dad

Not only has Cate inherited her Daddy's blue eyes, curly hair, small nose, and infectious laugh...but she seems to have inherited his musical talent as well (yes, my hubby was a vocal performance/music education major in college and yes, he loves his work at a cancer fighting non-profit which has nothing to do with either of his degrees). I have some musical ability as well. I played clarinet for nearly a decade (including pep band in college my freshman year), sang in the choir at the church I grew up in, and performed as a chorus member in two high school musicals.

We hope you enjoy listening to her as much as we do! I have a feeling there might be many choir concerts and musicals in our future.

~Melody :-)

P.S. School is officially out for summer! I can't wait to spend every day (except for the five that I'm in Arizona visiting family and a friend sans Cate) with this sweet, singing, girl.

Cate Sings

We've known for awhile that Cate loves music-- like her Mommy and Daddy. In fact, if she keeps showing such enthusiasm for music (or art or dance or theater), Cincinnati Public has an awesome magnet school for the performing arts for K-3. It's even rated Excellent by the state of Ohio, a rarity in CPS.

Lately, Cate has been singing. A lot. In the car, in her stroller, when she's playing. The girl just sings and sings. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me" are two of her current favorites. However, our church put out a kids' CD recently to go along with the "FREE" journey that I've blogged about and Cate sings along with a couple of those songs as well.

I've had a really hard time capturing her singing on video though. As soon as I get the camera out, she stops singing. Finally though, during a jam session with Daddy tonight, Miss Cate cooperated and I got a few videos of her singing and making music with Daddy.

Enjoy!






~Melody :-)

And yes, I know that Cate's birthday was almost three months ago and yes, we still do let the Elmo pinata decorate our piano.

Stop Traffick Fashion T-Shirt Launch

Friday night Eric and I headed out together for a date (thanks to my grandma for babysitting the monitor while Cate soundly slept). We went to one of our favorite coffee houses near the University of Cincinnati's campus-- Rohs Street--where $2.50 gets you "bottomless coffee." Heck yeah!
I love that their mugs are just a collection of mismatched mugs-- most of them souvenirs from various places. I also thought it was funny that my coffee was served in this particular mug, which I have at home (thanks to my dear friend Jane who gave it to me for Christmas along with some yummy coffee several years ago).
I also love their decoupaged tables! So fun! I found it funny that this was on our table :-). Eric and I certainly are coffee fiends (although I usually drink one cup of hot tea in the morning before I switch to a cup o' joe).
But I digress...our reason for going to Rohs Street was not for the awesome coffee. It was for an even better reason. My awesome friend, Emily, who started Stop Traffick Fashion, an online boutique specializing in accessories made by survivors of human trafficking, was launching her brand new t-shirts.
Don't you just love the designs?
I added the blue one and the one with the birdcage to my wardrobe while we were at the event. The t-shirts come from Freeset, which Emily's sister recently visited. Eric picked up a cool Freeset jute messenger bag, which is the perfect size for toting home all the used vinyl he finds at our local record store.
If you'd like to order a t-shirt, or one of the other fabulous accessories Emily carries, check her out. Click here for a direct link to the t-shirt page. The bags and jewelry were also on sale at the benefit.Two amazing groups performed music for the evening. Flaregun, a great local friend duo, played first (after a couple of Emily's friends provided some acoustic guitar music).
Flaregun was followed by Artists and Authors, a very talented husband and wife team-- also local. We have CD's for both groups and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! Flaregun's CD, "Ten Sundays", and Artists and Authors album, "Beauty in Everything" are both on iTunes. Download them. You won't be disappointed.
Another husband and wife duo, both artists, created works of art in front of the entire audience as they felt inspired by the evening. Their pieces were later auctioned off. Daniel's piece was all done on a computer (Mac's rock).
I love how his piece started like this:
And ended like this:
An angel with one wing bound up. It made me think about the things in my own life that keep me from being able to fully spread my wings. Things like worry and perfectionism (but that's a whole other post).

His wife started out with these words on her canvas:
She ended up painting over those words to get this image: A bird flying out of a cage with the words "Be Free" below it. I find it no coincidence that right now our church is engaging in an all church journey about freedom and during this weekend's sermon, they released a bird from a cage (outside, but someone was taping it live so we could see it from inside the auditorium). If you want some more good music (and this stuff is free), you can download the songs from our all church journey by clicking here. Andrea, from Artists and Authors, sings on several of the tracks. My favorite song is "When Freedom Comes."
Emily spoke about the mission of Stop Traffick fashion in between bands.
And Melissa, her sister, who was my awesome sub when I was on maternity leave, read a poem inspired by her trip to India and to Freeset.

Several local businesses donated great raffle prizes too. I won a haircut, halo highlight, and style at a local salon and have made my appointment to get pampered during spring break (just two weeks away). So worth the $5 I spent on raffle tickets. I was just sad my hubby didn't come home with the basket of coffee products he was hoping to win.
It was a fantastic event, for a wonderful cause, put on by a fabulous woman! I couldn't have asked for a better Friday evening.

~Melody :-)

A Birthday Concert

Today was my grandmother's (mom's mom) birthday. It was also Cate's 23 month birthday. I can't believe that in a month she will be 2!!!!
We had my grandmother over and enjoyed a favorite dinner of mine (beef burgundy) which cooked in the crockpot all day. We followed it with some German Chocolate Cake from Servatti's along with some ice cream. After dinner, Eric got out his guitar and began to play one of Cate's recent favorite songs-- "I Know a Chicken" by Laurie Berkner. Cate decided to play along on the piano. I couldn't grab the video camera fast enough. Enjoy!


Happy Birthday Granny (Great Granny to Cate)!

~Melody :-)

City of Blinding Lights

U2 was one of those bands that was in the background for me for awhile.  I knew who they were in high school, one song or another of theirs usually made it on to a mixed tape (and later mixed CDs), and I generally enjoyed hearing them when they came on the radio.  I guess what turned me onto them was one of the soundtracks to one of the Batman movies (I think it was Batman Forever) that I got sometime in late middle school/early high school that had "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" performed by U2 on it.

But it wasn't until late high school and into college that I really started to follow them more (I think I was a little more focused and obsessed with Dave Matthews Band in high school).  My first U2 concert was the Elevation Tour in 2001.  I went about 3 days after my freshmen year at Miami to their show in Columbus with the guy I was dating at the time (who I also think at the time was probably a bigger U2 fan than I was).

In the fall of 2005, Eric and I went to see them in Chicago for their Vertigo tour.  Having developed a much bigger love for the band in the four years since the last concert, I enjoyed this tour more.  We had the general admission "seats" which are standing room only.  That's when I got close enough to take this picture with my cell phone.

 

Although, general admission "seats" have the disadvantage of needing to get to the concert venue early to wait for several hours only to rush in when the doors open and stand for several more hours to guard your spot close to the stage.  

So this Saturday, we took Cate to her grandparents' house (Eric's parents) and headed to Chicago for the U2 360 Tour (picture below taken along Michigan Avenue).  

 

It was opening night for the American leg and this time the shows are outside.  We couldn't get the general admission "seats" through the fan club presale (apparently you have to have been a member for a decade or something to be able to get presale standing room only).  So we didn't have to worry about getting their early.  Instead, we made a stop at Garrett Popcorn (their popcorn is amazing).

 

Our friend, Melissa, showed us just how orange your hands turn from eating their cheese corn. 

 

It's so worth the orange fingers.  Eric and I brought home a tin of "The Mix" (combination cheese and caramel corn which is to die for).  

We also found a random sports bar on Wabash St. where we indulged in ribs, wings, and deep dish Chicago pizza before the show. 

 

Finally it was off to Soldier Field, where we learned that our seats were awesome and we didn't have to stand around all day for them. 

 

(The view from our seats)

We were all happy to be there!

 

 

Snow Patrol, another great band, opened the show...using the giant 360 degree screen U2 designed for this tour. 

 

 

They pretty much played all of their big singles, which was great for singing along and prepping us for the show to come.  And then the moment arrived.  U2 lit up the stage with their opening song, "Breathe."

The rest of the show was amazing!  And it definitely topped their two previous concerts that I attended, making it the best concert I have seen in my life.  Period.  

 

  

They had a great combination of old songs ("MLK," "In the Name of Love," "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For") and new songs ("No Line on the Horizon," "Get on Your Boots," and a sweet remix of "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight").  Bono and The Edge rocked it out on an acoustic version of "Stuck in a Moment" too. 

 

During "Walk On," the band paid a tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, and encouraged the audience to walk on to end worldwide injustices (when I was in college I learned more about the humanitarian work Bono does and it made me love the band even more).  The stage had some amazing features too...like the screen expanding...

...and the spaceship-like appearance it took on during some numbers, shooting light beams into the sky above Soldier Field...

But all good things eventually come to an end.  After 2 encores, the band walked off stage together and we headed back to the hotel, slightly hoarse, slightly deaf, and loving every minute. 

 

Until next tour (maybe Cate will be old enough to enjoy it with us)...

~Melody :-)

Dance, Dance

With parents that love music as much as we do, it's no surprise that Cate enjoys music too. Lately she's been on an "Old MacDonald" kick. We sing it to her a lot and she says "E-I-E-I" (no "O"). She also loves the Ella Fitzgerald version (which mom and dad don't mind). In fact, if you're looking for a good kids' CD, Ella Fitzgerald has a whole kid-friendly jazz CD called Miss Ella's Playhouse, which is available for checkout through the Cincinnati library.

Anyway, here is a video of Cate dancing to another one of her favorite songs, "Family," by Jack Johnson and Zach Gill.

And since we're on the subject of music, might I also suggest the following kid (and parent) friendly downloads from iTunes:
"There, Their, They're" by Astrograss
"Too Much Coffee" by Danielle Sansone
"Lovely, Love My Family" by The Roots
"The Books I Like to Read" by Frances England
"Silly Reflection" by Lunch Money
"Jump Up (It's a Good Day)" by Brady Rymer and the Little Band that Could

Happy downloading!
~Melody :-)

Of Best Friends and Baby Showers

One of my best friends from college was in town this week on her spring break (she teaches in Arizona). We spent Wednesday afternoon/night hanging out together and finishing up a few more favors for her shower (shown in the previous post). Friday, I took a personal day from work and we had a blast getting pedicures, browsing cute baby boutiques, and eating out. It was wonderfully relaxing. Today was the shower and I have to say it was a smashing success! I only wish Jane lived closer so that I could help her take all of her loot home.
The mommy-to-be looked fabulous!
So did these yummy cookies from the Bon Bonerie.
Baby Collette, with whom I am sure Cate will be best buds when they come to visit, is going to be one well-dressed baby. And her mommy will be able to document it all in the scrapbook that guests at the shower created (everyone made a page so that all Jane has to do is put the pictures in).

And for your Cate-viewing enjoyment, here are a couple of pictures of her enjoying a cookie on the porch with her daddy and Curious George.
And in case I forget to mention in later, we're pretty sure that Cate knows the word "Target." She's said it a few times. I think that's a sign that we go there too often (mostly because it's less than a mile from our house and I always forget something). To our credit, she also knows "daddy" and does a pretty decent "thank you" when prompted.

~Melody :-)

PS...Last night we heard an awesome local band play. Artists and Authors. You should check them out. They just released their first CD and it is great!

Our 100th Post!

We've reached a milestone...100 posts! Apparently our adventures in pregnancy, parenting, and life in general are interesting enough for you to keep reading (though this is somewhat therapeutic for us). We thought that maybe after a week off, we'd have something cooler to post about- not the case though. Oh well...here are some highlights from the last week.

We'll begin with Mel and Cate's Friday adventure. Cate has always been observant. She was born with eyes wide open and loves to look at things (especially pictures and mirrors on the wall). So on Friday, Melody ventured to the art museum with Cate. If you haven't been lately, remember, it's free. Plus, there are two special exhibits that are also free. One is of things the museum has brought out of storage and has on display (yes, Cincinnati's collection is big enough to warrant some pieces being stored and rotated in). The other exhibit is the work of David Macaulay who does some awesome black and white drawings of buildings. Mel remembered looking at his books as a kid and picked up the CATHEDRAL book for Eric at the library (which went well with his current leisure reading, The Pillars of the Earth).
Then it was off to Krohn Conservatory (also free) since they were in the neighborhood. Cate loved the waterfall...mesmerized may be more the word.
And until August, they have a pretty cool exhibit where they've taken red, white, and blue flowers as well as some bamboo building replicas (not sure if that's the exact wood used) to create a mini- Washington DC and national mall. If you're in the area, you should go check it out.
Cate came home and ate some carrots (we've moved on to orange veggies now). And she's getting much better at taking food from a spoon.
But she still gets some on her face and nose. Thankfully it's summer and she just eats in her diaper a lot of the time.

On Saturday, we took her to her first parade. It was Ridge Day...cause for celebration indeed. Cate liked the different marching bands, drum corps', and anything musical. Perhaps she'll have her daddy's musical talent or play the clarinet like mommy.
We went to a picnic afterwards, but Cate got hot quickly so we didn't stay long. The rest of the weekend and beginning of this week have been pretty relaxed. Cate got some cool baby leg warmers (now that we've mastered rolling over, crawling will be next and we want those chubby legs protected from the cold wood floors in our house). They are way cute!
We also got an awesome toy basket. Along with rolling over, Cate grabs for toys and wants to play with them. We love that this basket is sturdy so it won't tip easily and has an open top so Cate can see in (once she can sit up). Plus, it makes taking toys with her easier (like when we go to visit people). We just pick up the basket and go.
Sometimes Cate and Eric wear themselves out playing.
One other thing we discovered this week, thanks to a tip from one of Mel's high school friends (thank you Mary Louise) was the Barenaked Ladies kids' CD, SNACKTIME. Those of you that know us, know we don't do cheesy kids' music. And we love music in general, so we want Cate to listen to the best (c'mon, the baby has lullaby versions of Coldplay, U2, Smashing Pumpkins, and Beatles' songs...of course she'll have awesome taste in music). Most of their songs are great and true to BNL style. Melody is a fan of the ABC song where they have a word for every letter and each of those words has a silent beginning (example: A is for Aisle, C is for Czar, T is for Tsunami, etc.). She also likes the Eraser song while Eric is a fan of the song Things which has three lines (There are things that make me mad, you are not one of them/There are things that make me sad, you are not one of them/There are things that make me Dad, you seem to be all of them).

So we guess that's it for our 100th post. Thanks for being awesome readers! And as always, we'll keep you posted ;-)

~Eric and Melody