Sing out, Louise!

I totally joined glee club.

Except that's not what it's called at all. And we haven't sung any Journey, yet. Plus, no one has tossed a slushie in my face.

That is, however, what the Husband calls it. And how I've come to think of it.

Remember when I joined a choir a couple of years ago? And how much I enjoyed singing again? Well, that only lasted one season, because I found the choir director condescending and disrespectful. Especially considering that we were paying to be there! Alas, I pushed singing to the back burner once again and went on with my life.

(Insert getting engaged, planning a wedding, getting married, getting pregnant, buying a house, having a baby, here.)

Since Vivi was born, I've been singing all the time! Little songs that the Husband and I make up, children's songs that I remember, lullabies... I was reminded how much I enjoy it.

So I looked up a program that I had seen online a couple of years ago at the Avenue Road Arts School , which is conveniently close to me. It's simply called Broadway Showtunes and is a group of adults (20-25 or so) belting out Broadway hits together, led by a charming gentleman and accompanied by a major player in Toronto's musical landscape.

Guys, it's SO MUCH FUN!

The group is wildly diverse, ranging in age from about 24 to 70+. Many of them have been doing it for close to 20 years. They don't even all read music, nor do they have to, because there are lyric sheets (hundreds of them!) rather than sheet music. It's not about getting things perfect or planning for a show. It's just singing for the love of it. Which is exactly what I was looking for.

It's so good for me to have a scheduled time away from Violet, too. A much-needed break to recharge and feed my own soul, so I can bring more energy back to her.

When I started, I had no intention of advertising my training or experience. The cat, however, is out of the bag. And they could not be more complimentary or adoring. I wasn't looking for an ego-boost, but I'll take it!

Looking back at that old choir post, it's funny that I was worried about Andrew Lloyd Webber medleys. That's pretty much what I've signed up for! But it's so much better than I could have imagined.

134 days

Violet is 19 weeks old today. I started out knowing nothing. Here are just a few of the lessons I've learned in those 134 days:

- The infant phase, where they sleep in your arms for hours, is so short. It's hard not to spend that little bit of time wishing they would smile or play or do something. Now I worry that I didn't appreciate it quite enough.

- Birth is unbelievably hard on your body. I spent all sorts of time reading about labour and worrying how that would go. That part was not hard for me. (Don't hate me.) But the three weeks after that were brutal. Nobody told me. And it didn't occur to me how painful it would be for my uterus, which had expanded to a thousand times its normal size, to contract back. Those afterpains were worse than contractions for me. And they lasted, like, a week.

- When I made it an event, getting up with her in the middle of the night wasn't so bad at all. For the first couple of weeks, I tried to feed her in bed. That wasn't very comfortable, we woke the Husband up and I would get impatient for her to finish eating, because I couldn't think of any other fun things to look up on my Blackberry. When I started taking her downstairs, where I had laid out a healthy(ish) snack for myself, a glass of water, and had some TV on DVD to entertain me, it was much more palatable. Plus, it was kind of nice to feel like she and I were the only two people awake in the world.

- I am not always good at asking for help. My amazing friends, family and husband know that and never wait for me to ask.

- Watching someone learn is incredible. I never had any desire to be a teacher, but now I throw a parade when Vivi reaches up to bat at a toy or grabs her spoon while I'm feeding her. I am incredibly excited about the millions of milestones still ahead.

-Sleep deprivation is as hard as everyone says it is. What was even worse for me was the anxiety of not knowing how long I would have to sleep. So I would lie there awake, too worried about how little sleep I would get, to actually get any sleep. That was bad. Now Vivi sleeps through the night and I appreciate every single moment.

- I consider myself a well-organized person, but I have had to up my game in order to ever get out of the house with her in tow.

- A year of maternity leave is an incredible luxury and makes me love being a Canadian even more than I already did. However, my grand plans of what to do with my "time off" have had to be altered. After I've fed her, changed her, played with her, coerced her to nap, done a load of laundry, made some meals, fed her, changed her, played with her, gone for a walk while she naps, bathed her, read to her, fed her, changed her, sung to her, put her to bed, I'm done. And so is the day.

- I want her to be happy, healthy and feel loved more than anything else in the whole world.


- And time really does go so, so fast.

A little bit of me and a whole lot of you

Before Vivi was born, we would spend a lot of time ruminating on how our genes would combine. Would she have the Husband's blue eyes? My perfect lips*? His long legs? My squared-off toes? Now that she's growing into herself**, everyone wants to weigh in on who she more closely resembles.

I thought I'd post some baby photos of each of us, so the blogosphere could weigh-in. Me first:



(Could my brother be any cuter? And my dad was soooo skinny!)



And here's the Husband in his younger years:






I have to say, I think the Husband wins. Hands down. Luckily I think he's damn cute.

*In 1997 a makeup artist told me my lips were perfect. I chose to believe her.

**It's totally true that parents think their baby is the cutest one, regardless of whether or not that is true. We never thought Vivi had that alien-esque newborn look. However, looking back at pictures now, she was pretty squishy and weird looking. In the BEST possible way.

One word

Bumbo!

Rice cereal

She's growing up so fast!




And, not surprisingly, she seems to really love eating. She is, after all, our child.