Monday, January 22, 2007

City life is never dull

Stylin' Ada

There are so many reasons that I love living in Toronto, and now that I am on maternity leave, I have been able to take advantage of even more great reasons to live in Toronto. Ada and I have had a very cultured couple of weeks. No, we have not been cultivating bacteria or tissue cells (to my knowledge), but we have been exploiting many cultural opportunities available to us.

A couple of Thursdays ago Ada and I met up with some new friends, Grace and Aidan, that we have gotten to know through our Moms & Babies group here in my building. After coffee and a short wait in the cold, we were treated to a free concert at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts as part of a world music series. Performing were five talented women from U of T who call themselves OnanoKo Taiko Ensemble. They have studied traditional Japanese drumming techniques, but added some Western influences to create an amazing perfomance. When Grace and I walked in with our babies, we had a few people ask us if we thought it was a good idea bringing them to a drumming concert. We told them we wouldn't know until it started. Here is how Grace and Aidan spent most of the concert:

Aidan and Grace

Aidan, being 11 months old, thought the drumming was fine, but not quite entertaining enough, and so he had his lunch during the performance.

And this is how Ada spent most of the concert:

How Ada enjoys a drum performance

At first, she was awake and happily looking around at all the people arriving, but she started to act sleepy so I put her down, and she fell asleep, during the first song, loud Japanese drums and all. What woke her up? The applause for the second-to-last song. She then happily kicked her legs in my arms during the last song. The answer to those people inquiring about bringing babies to a drum concert? It was a great idea. :)

Later that week, Ada and I met up with Pam and Liam for a trip to the ROM. We stayed on the second floor which was specificially designed for children so that there were plenty of flaps and buttons to push for Liam. We spent most of our time there following Liam from room to room since he was convinced that the next room was so much more exciting than this boring one. And instead of playing in the sandbox digging for dinosaur bones, Liam prefered to use the large broom to sweep the extra sand on the floor. Here is Liam showing off his flap-lifting skills:

Liam at the ROM

Along with these outings, we also attended another Salsa Babies class, Story Time at the library, a visit to Desa and Luka's place (more new friends from Moms & Tots), a trip to the movies (thanks to Stars & Strollers) to see The Pursuit of Happyness (a great movie!), a trip to Aurora with Amber to see Tanya and Chris' new house, and another visit to the ADP to see my seniors. And Jonathan and I got an afternoon out to see a movie thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. A win-win situation there - we went out as just the two of us, and Jonathan's parents got to play with Ada for a few hours!

I want to thank all those that have pledged me and Ada for the Manulife Walk for Memories. I had set a goal for $250, but due to the overwhelming generosity of my wonderful friends and family, not only have a surpassed my goal, but I have almost doubled it! Only 5 more days until the walk!

And onto exciting Ada News: Ada has discovered something that she finds very amusing and fun to play with - her feet! You can't underestimate a good toe-grab. Or a good giraffe-chew, either.

How to play with a giraffe

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