I guess she does listen

Today I was watching Leonora play in her play kitchen. She was opening and closing the doors of her "oven" and "dishwasher," putting things in and out, and talking to herself. Then she turned around to me and said, "It's hot!" Ha, ha, I'm always worried about her walking into the kitchen when I've got the oven open or reaching up when the stove is hot. It's nice to know she's listening, and fun to see her imitate me.

The Desert is Alive...

We got some free tickets to see The Sound of Music this week. It's being performed at a local outdoor ampitheater. The usually have good productions there. Last year we were able to see My Fair Lady, which was fantastic! So we were excited to get use these tickets.
When going into a play that you are familiar with, it's always difficult to view it in the same way you would a play you've never seen. It's natural (at least, for me) to compare this "new" version with the familiar one. Hopefully, there is something new and fresh that each actor can bring to thier part and directors and designers can bring to the stage. I felt that this production had a good start on this from the moment Maria came out singing in her hills. She brought something unique and interesting to the roll. She gave a fantastic performance, and with only a couple of exceptions, forgot that I had ever seen Julie Andrews performance. Her counterpart unfortunatly, just didn't live up to that standard. Rather than an honest performance, it felt "put on" and over acted. That was disappointing. But, it was one of the few disapointments. The Baroness, who is briefly engaged to Captain Von Trapp, did a wonderful job! She was so funny and spunky! The children all did a great job. The youngest, Gretl, was especially fun to watch. She also happened to be the daughter of our previous Bishop, but I think I would have enjoyed her portrayal either way! :)
The music was fun as always, and I got to hear a couple songs that aren't in the movie-or at least not in thier entirety. The orchestra here is not always top notch, and can be disappointing for someone (like Aaron) who listens to a lot of top notch stuff. But it was good enough. They didn't distract from the voices onstage, and there were no really terrible moments-just no really great ones. The singing was at moments heavenly. The nuns choruses were flawless. They harmonized perfectly! Maria was no disappointment in this area either. She had a lovely voice and used it well. However, the Captain was once again disappointing. At parts he was good, but not great. At other times, he was obviously struggling. The children were good. Occasionally the complex harmonies got the better of them, but on the whole, they were very good.
For me, the acting and music in this play are probably the most important aspects, but there were a couple other moments that I felt really made this experience unique. The first was just fun! In the movie, there is a scene where the children and Maria put on a puppet show. I knew that this scene was added for the movie, and didn't know how they would pull it off in a live performance, so I assumed it would be left out. Luckily for us, it was not! But instead of puppets, we saw live dancers on the ends of strings! I chuckled when the first human puppet appeared, and continued to be delighted by the dancers' bobbing heads and whimsical movements. It was so much fun to watch! The second moment was toward the end of the play when the family sings at the music festival. It was something I don't recall experienceing at any other play. We became not only veiwers of the play, but players. Not that it was a difficult part to play-we played the audience of the music festival. We aplauded each song and while they sang "Edelweiss," Maria looked into the audience and requested that we all sing along. I felt like we were all singing our farwell to the Von Trapps and sharing in the love of thier homeland. It was amazing to be included as part of the performance. It was a moment that I felt truly a part of what was happening on the stage.
I enjoy good theater so much! It was wonderful to be able to see this performance. Although it was imperfect, it had many fun and touching moments. I know I've already said a lot about it, but I feel like I could go on! It was certainly a worthwhile evening.

Hurry! Nevermind.

Leonora has been potty training, and doing pretty well. Since I've started only putting "big girl panties" on her during the day, she has learned that a really effective way of getting my attention is to tell me she needs to use the bathroom. "Ah pee! Ah pee!" she'll say in a very urgent voice. Then as I hurry her off to the bathroom, she'll stroll right past the door and head for the bedroom. "Leonora, do you need to pee?" I'll ask. "No." Of course not, Mom, why would you ask me that? Of course, as soon as I go back to what I was doing, she begins her urgent call once more. Eventually I get her to actually sit on the toilet.
The other thing she has learned is that she gets an M&M when she goes to the bathroom. For some reason, she never changes her mind about that part.

The Cut

Sorry to anyone who didn't get to vote, but I did it! Yesterday, I got impatient and chopped Leonora's hair off. I did it myself, so there are still a few strands that didn't quite make it to the right length, but hey, it was free. And I think it turned out pretty good. It's hard to get a good picture of her. She likes to move, and my camera doesn't agree with things that move. But here's what I've got!

Win the essential babywearing stash!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

To cut, or not to cut (and how much?)

I'm thinking about cutting Leonora's hair. It's a little past her shoulders right now and is constantly in her face. Even when I put it up, some strand always seems to find it's way to her mouth. She is always pushing it back, just to have it fall in her eyes again. It's always getting tangled or getting food in it and seems to attract lint for some reason. I'm seriously considering a major chop. But I thought I'd get other opinions before taking such drastic measures.

So, I could cut it like I did last time:


But I was thinking about this type of a look:


Or, I could leave it like it is (this is what it looks like today-after brushing):
What do you think? I'm adding a poll in the right hand column, but comments are also welcome!

A look back to an earlier post

This is one of my favorite posts. It's also one of my earliest posts, which means, unless you've got a lot of time on your hands for reading past posts, most of my current readers probably haven't read it. So, I wanted to share it again!

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Catch Them While They're Young

I was sitting here thinking of what I could babble to you all about, when I heard a sound. It was the sound of chiming music. It sounds so nice, but in reality it's a wolf in sheep's clothing! It's the ice cream van. Our appartments get several visits a day from various ice cream vendors, and they always pause at the children's playground, which happens to be just 25 feet out our back door. These guys are like the Pied Piper-you know, the one that led all the rats from the village, and when he wasn't paid as agreed, led all the children away from the town with promises of a blissful land. The kids all go running for their change or (like the kid who lives above us) yelling through the window for money from their mothers, so they can get their treat. As for me, I know that I really shouldn't eat that stuff, and if I were to eat it, I wouldn't buy it from them at their high prices. However, I've been trained like Pavlov's dogs, and I suddenly start craving something cool and sweet. All I can say is that obviously this type of marketing is extremely effective; train them when they're young, and they'll never forget it.

Posted by Kara at 3:45 PM
Labels: Me

What we did today

William has this book of Disney stories. A few of the stories have craft ideas that go along with them, and last night, he decided he wanted to make "Under the Sea Pasta Creatures" from the Little Mermaid story. So today we went and got some colorful pasta to make our sea scapes. Here are the results:

William's blue ocean



Leonora's Yellow Sea



And my Pinkish purple ocean



I was trying to draw some fish fins around some of the shell. I'm not sure that they look much like fish though! Leonora helped me with mine.

Happy Birthday America

I hope everyone had a good time celebrating however you chose!

It's official, and not a moment too soon!

Well, Aaron has changed employers. He's still selling cars, but has switched from the Dodge/Chrysler dealership to the Toyota dealership. One of his previous managers recently switched to the Toyota store and sort of recruited Aaron. Things have been kind of falling apart at the Dodge place for a while. Aaron was doing okay as internet manager, but it was becoming increasingly more stressful due to management and owner issues. Not to mention that Dodge is known for it's high performance vehicles and trucks. Not really the best market to be in right now. They are great vehicles, but it doesn't matter how good your product is if no one is buying it. Toyota, on the other hand, is well known for thier fuel efficient cars. And the dealership he's going to was recently bought by a local man who already owns a few dealerships in town. His business is growing and prospering compaired to the Dodge place-cutting back and shrinking fast! We're both pretty happy with the job switch.

Toyota vs American car companies article