I just noticed that we hadn’t posted any pictures online since… err… last March!
On the up side, you get to enjoy more than a year’s worth of photos all at once! I made sure to upload the full size images, suitable for printing, framing, and having tattooed all over your body.
Happy Beltane, everyone!
Last weekend we celebrated Torlis’ third birthday. This is noteworthy both because she’s getting OLD, but also because we had our first honest-to-goodness kid birthday party. We went to “jumpin’”, a place full of inflatable jumping houses, slides, and so forth. Noisy as heck, but lots of fun.
Next birthday, Torlis’ll be a big sister! WOW!
Nik: “Pass the corned beef, please.“
Torlis: “It’s ‘carn’d beef!’” *
Nik: “Yes, ‘corned beef.’“
Torlis (exasperated): “CARN’D BEEF!“
* As in, “Begorrah! Tha banshee is eatin’ me carn’d beef!”
Sometimes you need to remember to sit back and let someone push you around for a while…
Cletus the Younger officially has both a heartbeat and a temper. A doppler-walloping temper. Not bad for a 12-week-old.
Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out -
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.
Torlis and I just finished reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I consider this quite the milestone. Her first chapter book, clocking in at over 200 pages. And, more importantly, one of my own very favorite books, which I finally got to share with my little girl. What a treat!
Torlis is, however, rather ill right now and keeps quietly complaining, “I don’t feel good…” for lack of anything better to say. It’s quite pitiable as it only underscores how little we can do for her. But kisses, hugs, cinnamon toast, and a good book seem to be the same good medicine for her as they always were for me.
The stanza at the top is from “All in the golden afternoon,” a preface poem to Alice’.
It looks like we’ll be adding another young’un to the brood along about September!
We are thrilled. And nauseous.
We saw the wee one on an ultrasound a couple weeks ago or so; s/he has a fantastic, healthy heartbeat, which is, naturally, encouraging.
Torlis is quite thrilled to be a big sister, and talks about the things she will do when our baby comes and she has official big sister responsibilities. The other day, we were in a public restroom when we saw an older sister helping her young brother wash his hands. Torlis was jazzed by this, and declared that she, too, would help her little sibling wash hands.
We’ve begun exploring names and preparing Torlis for life as The Big Kid.
We all had a Merry X-Mas together. Torlis received a great many goodies from relatives and Santa, among them her first Big Girl Bed. She is now sleeping in a sumptuous full-sized bed with a poofy down comforter and, often, a dog or a cat sneaking a cozy spot at her feet. It was a visitor-free holiday, but that still meant three present-openings: One at Tiny and TeBo’s, one at home, and one in Denver at Denny, Nancy and Jesse’s.
Speaking of firsts, Torlis also attended her first movie: The Tale of Desperaux. (Possibly misspelled)
She was terribly excited to see the movie, but I’m afraid that her parents picked exactly the wrong one to take her to. A central element of the plot is that a young mouse is banished from his home and his parents. Well, leaving home and parents and never coming back is one of Torlis’ hot-buttons. So she spent about half the movie politely crying and snuggling up to mommy.
There was also a great many scary elements to the movie (an evil mouse-eating cat, horrid rats, parents giving their children up for adoption, and so forth) which were overshadowed by the banished mouseling, but were nevertheless traumatic in their own right.
Of course, by the end of the movie, the titular mouse (not a titmouse, mind you) does make his way home, the adopted child is reunited with her father, the princess is saved, and soup is served. Torlis found this something of a relief, and says that she enjoyed seeing the movie and would like to see another one some day.
I think we may research the next one a little better…
Many years ago, Benj and I put together a holiday mix album, entitled “Who Spiked the Egnnog?” This started an obsessive need to collect Christmas songs and albums outside of the mainstream Bing Crosby and Burl Ives you hear all November and December while you shop.
Rather than burn a CD, I thought I’d share thirteen favorites. One for each of the thirteen days of Christmas. (I did tell you this wasn’t a mainstream collection, right?) Plus one bonus mini-song.
All the songs are linked to the Amazon MP3 store so you can download them and play ‘em on your favorite player or burn ‘em to a CD. So don’t worry about whether you have an iPod, Sansa, Zune, or none of the above. You can listen.
Enjoy!
The Pogues: The Fairytale of New York
Quite possibly the best Christmas song ever. It gets to the very heart of what it means to be blessed, lucky and loved at Christmas time. And it means not being a drunk in the tank every single holiday, filled with regret and shattered dreams. Merry Christmas! You can buy the song here, of course.
Sting: Gabriel’s Message
I’m not one to get too into angels and Jesus and such too much as Christmas time. I celebrate a Santa-heavy holiday. But this haunting and powerful techno-choir performance is just fantastic. Get it, listen to it, listen to it again.
Dar Williams: The Christians and the Pagans
A great song about a family that finds common ground on the holidays despite accusations of godlessness and witchcraft. Trite until you get to the line “Because when Christians sit with Pagans only pumpkin pies are burning.” Spend a buck to enjoy it.
The Pretenders: 2000 Miles
This song doesn’t end up on enough holiday album lists because, well, it isn’t on a holiday album. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s a lovely song about separated lovers during the holidays. And then there’s Chrissie Hynde’s lovely voice singing it. You don’t have to go 2000 miles to download it, though.
Elvis Presley: Santa Bring my Baby Back
Elvis’s Christmas album is a family favorite. It’s so hard to pick just ONE song from the album (Blue Christmas and Here Comes Santa Claus are the other front-runners), but I have to pick this one as the one most quintessentially Elvis-sounding. See what you think.
Sarah McLachlan Happy X-Mas (War is Over)
Great cover of Lennon’s classic, which is quite timely now (and will be in the future, I’m afraid). Just beautiful. Listen here.
Straight No Chaser: 12 Days of Christmas
A hilarious medley of Christmas tunes sung by Indiana University’s a cappella group.
You can watch the video (which is possibly better than the song on its own) and you can buy the song here.
Boyz II Men: Let it Snow
I’m a sucker for singing in harmony, so the whole Boyz II Men Christmas album is one of my favorites. It doesn’t have any of the irritating jingle jangle schmaltz of the rest of ‘em. This is one of the many great songs on the album, but the rest are sure worth listening to. Download it in four-part-harmony.
Jonathan Coulton: Christmas is Interesting
If Straight No Chaser’s 12 days is a medley of songs, then this is Coulton’s medley of Christmas mythology. It conflates Jesus with Citizen Kane and compares Christmas to a knife in your heart. Not quite an accurate primer on all things holiday, but you can buy the song anyhow. Support your independent musicians, okay?
Tracy Chapman: O Holy Night
A classic, sung by one of the great folk vocalists. I just love it. Click to get it.
The Klezmonauts: Santa Gey Gezunderheit
Klezmer Christmas music? It must be THE KLEZMONAUTS! It’s a great album, but this song is especially enjoyable. It’s an original, it’s funny, and it seems to capture the Jewmass spirit. Get it!
Book of Love: Candy Carol
This song is so sweet and poppy that diabetics should steer well clear of it. I keep this album as a secret favorite, right next to my collection of the Spice Girls oeuvre. You know you want it!
The Kinks: Father Christmas
Definitely a counter-culture Christmas song. While the Pogues’ “Fairytale” is depressing and melancholy, this one’s about someone playing Santa getting mugged. But the underlying message is that the poor need more than toys, and that gift-giving Santa is only relevant to the rich girls and boys. I’ve been criticized for playing this song at Christmas, but asking Santa to “Give my daddy a job cause he needs one/ He’s got a lot of mouths to feed” seems entirely in keeping with the season, to me. Make up your own mind.
Bonus song! Barenaked Ladies: Deck the Stills
Okay, no way it’s in the top 10, but it’s clever and cute. Buy it here or just listen to the preview. It’s a 32 second song and you get a 30 second preview, so you do the math on that one. Enjoy.
The album also features very nice renditions of the Dreidel Song and Hannukah Oh Hannukah, for those of you looking for Jewish classics. Or head back to the Klezmonauts for your Yiddish holiday spirit.