The real deal

Just for fun, here's the actual photo that one of the paintings is based on. I meant to post it in yesterday's post.

The artist, my dear friend Joanna, wrote on the back of the painting: "Even before you were formed, I knew you." Still brings tears to my eyes!

Life or something like it

I'm not exactly sure what this blog post is going to be about, but I'll write it anyway for documentation's sake. I don't really have anything profound to say, just that life is ever-challenging and never ceases to produce intriguing possibilities. You can be sure that there will be future posts elaborating on that. As for the "something like it" reference, here are some paintings that have been gifted to me in the last six months by some very special people...interesting representations of what life has been like...

This one was based on a photo of me before an Asian-themed performance for the folk festival at six months pregnant:

This one was based on a photo of Sofia and I (obviously) when she was two weeks old:

You know you're a mom when....

...you realize you're still wearing the same clothes your child peed all over four hours ago. And you really don't care.

The big R

We've spent the last few weeks in rollover limbo, pretty much right about here:

Until, that is, yesterday, when Sofia completed her first unassisted rollover from back to tummy! Maybe all the Olympics we've been watching is inspiring her. The most common question we get asked is if she surprised herself. The answer is no, she completed the rollover in excruciatingly slow motion. So slow, in fact, that I had to watch for a few seconds to be sure it actually happened. But it did, and I'm so proud. Dy-no-mite, as Grandpa would say.

In other Sofia updates, she had her 4-month checkup today, and is still weighing and measuring in at the 90th percentile for length and weight (15 lbs, 3 oz, 25 1/4 inches). Head has crept up to just above the 50th percentile. Shots were handled like a champ once again. The highlight of this particular office visit was a firsthand look at exactly how large Sofia's bladder is...judging from my soaked shirt, jeans, sandals and the puddle on the office floor, her bladder holds approximately 27 gallons.

Day to day life with baby continues to amaze me. She's a complete drool bucket right now, so much so that I inadvertently splattered my girlfriend with baby drool yesterday when we were playing the flying baby game. She intently sucks her hands and fingers, and has also started gumming my hands now, too. Beginning the teething process, perhaps? In addition to discovering her saliva glands, Sofia has also discovered her lungs, and loves to shriek and squeal at random intervals.

And the belly laugh!! While not quite full-fledged yet, Sofia has started her belly laugh. I'm not sure what's better, when she twists her head around to see me and smiles, or when she lets that laugh rip. Hard to say. Either way, I'm loving every minute of it!

Chubby cheeks? Check.

Funky Town

Would you believe the Funky Town in question is Seward, AK? And even though it was said that what happens in Seward stays in Seward, I'm so going to blog about what happened in Seward.

My good bud Lori got the ball rolling for a dance weekend in Seward, beginning with a First Friday performance. The theme was "Art in Motion," so what better art to display than dance? So a small group up us took over the Seward Playhouse for a two-hour set.

This, of course, was with Sofia in tow. She's quite the good little show-biz baby. No problems on the road trip down, and she hung out in her bouncy chair for quite a bit of the performance.

The performance was a blast, and we finished with a bang. A, um, long bang. For those of you not familiar, there's a style of bellydance called American Tribal Style. When you learn the vocabulary of movements and cues, you can dance improvisationally with anyone else who has the same vocabulary. So to finish the show, I got up on stage with the Seward girls to perform some tribal. Little did we know that Lori put in a THIRTY MINUTE SONG. When the first beads of sweat started dripping off our noses, we started to wonder how much longer the song would go. When our first, second and third winds had come and gone, we really started to worry. Finally Lori decided to mention how long the song was! Eventually, someone faded the volume out, but by that point we had been performing to this song for a solid 25 minutes. Hey, at least the calories burned on stage totally balanced out the calories we consumed later in pizza and M&Ms!

The next day I was slated to teach a three-hour workshop, and that too was a success! Everyone pitched in to help with Sofia, and the girls worked their butts off to learn my choreography. Here's the promo flier I made:

And a few shots from the Friday night show:

One of the things I love so much about these photos is the progression within them. The shot in the promo flier was taken when I was about three months pregnant with Sofia. My first pregnant performance was in Seward. And now, a year later, here I am! Teaching and performing still with Sofia in tow. Makes me pretty happy.