Tag Archives: music

Feeling the beat

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Talitha loves to dance and wiggle - lately her stage of choice is the kitchen table. Our normal go-to dance music is T-Rex but during this video she happens to be dancing to Grimes.  She’s just swaying back and forth, but I think it’s so sweet!

She also loves to wear jewelry – I swear she became a different person the moment she put my necklace on. So cute…

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

We went to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival for the third year in a row a few weeks back (here’s years 1 & 2).  Last year it was Tilly’s first concert, and I hoped to recreate the magic.  To be honest, maybe music festivals aren’t the best fit for us right now.  It was a mile walk there, super crowded and hot and loud.  Miraculously Tilly napped in her stroller, but once she woke up she was cranky and not into it at all!  Didn’t she realize Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band were singing directly to her?

I loved the Hipstamatic photos I took last year so I tried to recreate some shots this time around.  I can’t believe how dark Tilly’s hair was back then!  Here are some then and now pictures.

sheesh.

Gosh, has it really been 2 weeks since my last post?  Geeze Louise!  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

  • Last weekend we made the trek down to Orange to celebrate my sister’s baby shower!!  I am so excited, our nuggets are going to be just 6 months apart.  She’s having a boy and the cousins are going to be BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.  Duh.  My strong sister is looking bedrest straight in the eyes and is determined to have a healthy thriving baby in mid December!   If you know my sister, you know that bedrest is just about the worst thing you could ever suggest.  She’s staying positive & sparkly though and of course has the most supportive husband she could ever ask for.  That baby is so loved, his parents are willing to drop everything in order for him to be happy.  Lucky boy!  Here they are pre-bed rest in Sequoia National Park.

  • Tilly has been enjoying the baby bjorn so much more lately.  She rides facing out now and loves to look at the world as we walk the dog every day.  I’ve discovered that if you have a baby, it’s completely okay to dance and sing as you walk down the street.   I mean come on, try as we might, we are the least freaky people in our neighborhood.  Also… doesn’t her head look bigger than mine these days??

  • Last week Tilly & I had a playdate with our friends Shari and Jade!  They live about 20 miles south of us, Josh works with Jade’s papa Bryce.  Jade is just 1 month older than Tilly and even though they still don’t acknowledge each other much, Shari and I had a great time connecting over new mama stuff.  Oh and we traded some books that we’ve gotten tired of so far.   I never knew babies would be into books at 4 months old but honestly, Tilly is entranced every time we read to her.

  • Oh, AND… my friend lindsay miraculously acquired 8 box seats to this year’s Bridge School Benefit concert, so Saturday night Bryce & Shari babysat Tilly while I got to enjoy the show!  It was like a dream come true.  Josh was out of town for work, so he missed out big time.  I wanted to get this awesome Shepard Fairey designed poster, but it was 50 bones and I couldn’t swing it.

  • So Tilly is 4.5 months old now.  She has only rolled over about 4 times, but she’s starting to enjoy tummy time more and more.  She is starting to put more weight on her feet but still can’t totally stand.  Our dr. said we can start solid foods at 5 months, so that should be a fun post to write!  I’ll try to record it on my phone for your viewing pleasure.  :)

  • Our sleeping has vastly improved over the past month!  Tilly goes to bed at 6pm every night, isn’t that heavenly?  Then she wakes up for 6oz of food at midnight, then again at 6am or so, and then sleeps until 7:30 or 8.  In order to cut out the 3am feeding, we started cutting her food portion back, and once we were at 1 or 2 oz, she just stopped waking up at that time naturally.  We were prepared for her to give us more of a fight, but she did it on her own!  Bless her.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass

This weekend marked our 3 annual trip to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park.  It’s that amazing FREE music festival put on by banjo-enthusiast millionaire Warren Hellman.  I’ve heard that 750,000 people attended the 3 day soiree, and that over 100 bands performed.

Being that we had a 4 month old baby in tow, we decided to really streamline our experience.  Saturday we hung out at the Star Stage and watched Merle Haggard w/ Kris Kristofferson, followed up by Irma Thomas.  Then Sunday I walked over early with Tilly and set up camp at the Banjo stage… Josh & some other friends came a few hours later, in time for the Blind Boys of Alabama, Ralph Stanley (that man of constant sorrow), and the first bit of Emmylou Harris.  CAN YOU BELIEVE ALL THAT GREATNESS??  Talitha’s first concert was a doozy!  Here are some pictures I took on my phone throughout the weekend (the first one is of my lovably freakish little brother John!):

No Tilly, No Cry

For the past month or so, Tilly has had meltdowns almost every evening around 6pm.  I guess this is a normal thing, according to my mom and mom-in-law, and I just have to be prepared to eat dinner standing in the kitchen for the next year or so…

We’ve tried lots of remedies (including her vibrating chair, a bath, swaddle, etc), but our favorite meltdown cure is a Bob Marley dance-a-thon.  I think it must be the gente rhythm and overall cheerfulness of the music… Tilly loves it!  Sometimes we hold her and dance to the beat, other times she lays on our bed and we dance like goofballs in front of her and make her giggle.  It’s weird to me that she already finds things funny at this age – I didn’t expect it but I’m welcoming it with open arms and doing everything I can to make her laugh.

Have you experienced this early evening meltdown?  What kind of solutions have worked for you?  I’m dying to know!

Foxy Big Sur

Here are some pictures I snapped at the recent Fleet Foxes show at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur… I know!!  Remember when we saw the Tallest Man on Earth play there last year?

Sometimes I like the cover better than the original…

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Oh man.  This cover of Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) by Arcade Fire is stunningly beautiful.  I would advise these two people to have a child together ASAP.  Look at that sparkle in their eyes! Filmed by Porto Franco, performed by Quinn DeVeaux and Meklit Hadero.  Discovered on Mission Mission.

40.5 weeks

40.5 weeks.

5 days overdue!  Baby come out and introduce yourself!

It’s still hard to believe I could go into labor at any minute.  I pretty much feel the same as I’ve felt the past few months.  I’ve been taking it easy this week, and never straying too far from home/the car just in case.  A few nights ago we got to see one of our favorite bands, Architecture in Helsinki, play a free show at the Amoeba records a few blocks from home.  It was so great!  We bought their album & had the whole band sign it.  They were so excited to hear that the baby held out a few days so we could make it to the show, and wished us the best of luck.  It was like a dream, so magical!

My mom’s in town now, waiting for the special delivery.  Today we went to the dog beach for a few hours and then went to the giant Nordstrom downtown, it was fun & I got a lot of walking in!  I’ll sleep well tonight.

So, unless I go into labor tonight, I’m being induced tomorrow night!  So excited!!  I have a fetal monitoring appointment at 2, and then we’re scheduled to go to the hospital at 6 to get things moving and shaking.  She’ll most likely be born on Tuesday.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel!  For both of us, but more literally for her… :)

So full of light & love!!

A Photobooth with Soul

Soul Night Cropped

Here’s a photobooth shot that josh and I took at Soul Night at the Elbo Room in February.  It was one of the highlights of my pregnancy, we had so much fun staying up late dancing to the 60’s LPs.  I’ll never forget the way Josh looked at me that night, he was in Heaven.  So was I, come to think of it.

Today’s been a blah kind of a day, so I’m turning it around with good memories!

Your Song, Our Song!

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This is the song Wills & Kate danced to at the Royal Wedding last weekend.  It’s definitely going on my songs to sing to baby playlist.