Tosca

Last night Joel and I went to see Puccini's Tosca by the Utah Opera at Capitol Theatre. I'd been wanting to see it since my orchestra director recommended it to us like six years ago. Then, my ridiculously music-literate brother Kenji told me the Utah Opera was performing it, and I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to go now that Dane is here. But Kenji came through for us again and offered to watch him. I was nervous to leave him; we've only gone out without him once while Stephen and Meghan watched him, and he slept the entire time. I can't get Dane to take a bottle or a pacifier, so I knew Kenji would be in for a rough ride. Anyway, he was apparently pretty fussy for the first hour but then got used to Kenji's super low voice and things went pretty well.
Meanwhile, the opera was fantastic. I gasped in fear, my heart leapt at the romance, I jumped about two feet out of my seat, and I got a little teary at the end. The music is just so beautiful. And I'm probably a huge nerd, but I had played three of the arias in orchestra, so it was really cool to hear it. The theatre was gorgeous, just like you see in movies. And we took the train there and back. It was all very metropolitan. We had a great time.

It snowed like crazy yesterday, too. I hadn't really paid attention to the weather but I needed to go grocery shopping, so I loaded Dane up in the car, hurrying to keep him out of the cold. My powers of observation were not at their height because I started to back out of the driveway...and got stuck. I pulled forward again, thinking "If I pull out quickly, I can make it." Wrong. Then I got stuck and couldn't go forward or backward. So no grocery shopping. I try to open my door and have to push snow out of the way to even open it. There were at least 15 inches. A foot and a half in some places. I am obviously not dressed for knee-deep snow, and have to slog my way through the driveway, carrying Dane in his carseat, sheepishly back to the house. I felt pretty dumb. There was a lot of snow. (By the way, Joel shoveled the driveway after we got home at like 11:30, so the car is free again.)

And this morning, I took Dane in for his four month appointment. He now measures 24.4 inches long (still the 38th percentile) and 15 lbs. 5 oz. (59th percentile, so he's evening out a bit). What a big, happy boy!

Last time, he got the oral Rotavirus vaccine and threw up all over me and the floor. Four times. That one was worse than the injections. So I was a little bit nervous, but he did fine. I even got a little weepy at his sad little cry from the injections this time. I think in all the craziness of four bouts of projectile vomiting last time, I forgot to do the typical motherhood compassion thing (sad!). But I made up for it this time. He's such a sweet boy, and I love him like crazy. Here is a picture of him playing with his blocks; I made them out of leftover squares from the quilt I made him, thanks to a great idea from Rachelle. They are his favorite toys.

Pay it Forward
Finally, those of you who read the blog get a little reward! Melissa blogged about this, and I participated, so now it's my turn. The first three people who comment on my blog will receive a little gift (homemade...maybe) in the mail from me. Then they blog about it and send little gifts and on and on and on. I have already received the fruits of paying it forward, and it is definitely fun to get a little gift in the mail. Just so you know, I have no idea what I'm going to send. It'll probably depend on who comments. But that's the gist of it. Let the games begin!