R.I.P. Prince

This week we lost an incredible musician and someone who's music has had a big impact on my life.

What I loved about Prince (and what a lot of people loved about him) is that he didn't seem to care what people thought.  He was 5'2'' and a lot of men would have been self conscious about that height but he seemed to transcend his physical form despite his physicality and his sexuality being such a big part of his musicality.

One of my favourite Ani diFranco songs is her duet with Prince called "Providence".  It was on endless repeat in University and even though Prince was such a huge star I always thought it was cool that he jammed with a folk artist on a song that you would only know he did if you were an Ani fan.

Providence - Ani and Prince

After University when I went to Malawi I was feeling a bit homesick and a bit visible as my 5'10'' blonde self and was in a local second-hand clothing store in Salima and found a raspberry-coloured beret.  Despite the 30+ degree heat I bought that beret and wore it around town (usually in slightly cooler weather) trying to channel my inner Prince-level personal strength.

Raspberry Beret - Prince

I can't imagine my high school or college years without "Kiss", "Cream" or "Gett Off".  His songs were so loved but often people didn't talk about their love for him or his music (maybe we all just assumed everyone loved him like the people on the train in the first video).  I appreciated his love of women and his unabashed love for feminine sexuality.  His songs were very sexual but in a way that celebrates women rather than reduces and objectifies them.  I appreciated how his collaboration and mentorship of other artists and if you haven't seen his influence check out the last video of Lenny Kravitz and Prince playing American Woman).

Kiss on the Train

Cream - Prince

When Doves Cry - Prince

Gett Off - Prince

1999 - Prince

American Woman - Lenny Kravitz and Prince

I wish we would have had him longer.  I wish I would have been able to see him live.  But mostly, I am so incredibly thankful that my formative years were shaped by his humble musical genius. Thank you Prince for helping me figure out who I am and for helping me find my courage.  I am one of the many people influenced by your brilliance.  Rest well.

The Plague

In March we had what has been referred to in our family as "the Plague".  Mine started on Emily's birthday and continued to worsen into the weekend.  I went to clinic so ill on Thursday that everyone (including my patients) looked at me with pity and the department head finally rescued me after her meetings.  I was febrile and rigoring in bed for 4 days.  That was worse than when I had malaria, Keith confirmed that as he was with me when I had malaria.  I had to give up my call shift on the labour floor that Sunday and answered colleagues questions from my home "hospital" bed.  Monday I went in to work to round on my patients and it was a slow and pitiful week of multiple medications to get through the day.  We left for our "vacation" on Thursday after clinic and when I got in the car to hit the road Cian didn't look right. By Brandon he looked downright sick and when we stopped in Regina he had a raging fever.  I had booked a hotel with a super fun waterpark and a room that overlooked it and he was so sick that he didn't fight me the next day when I said we couldn't go in the water.  He slept most of the way to Edmonton the next day after shivering at the breakfast table.  We got to Edmonton and quarantined ourselves at my parents.  Thank goodness the Easter bunny still came and the kids were able to enjoy the hunt for their baskets following the footprints that mommy and Uncle Brandon used to follow when they were younger too.  The adults even got to join in the fun with Opa's silly riddles to find their baskets.

After Cian it was Emily's turn.  She fell asleep on Omi and then on Mommy - something completely unheard of in her young years.  She was still sick on our way to Banff and the night before my talk at the conference I turned around to look at her and she was COVERED in blood.  She had coughed and sneezed so hard and that combined with the change in climate gave her a nosebleed.  I had to wake her up, call my mom to help, put her in the shower and call housekeeping to change the towels and sheets.  It was a major doctor mom disaster on both the doctor and mom fronts as I sort of freaked out about this little person that looked like "Carrie" asleep in the bed.

Outside of a couple short visits with people we basically stayed sick at my parents' place.  My poor parents who were about to go on their 40th anniversary trip and desperately tried to stay healthy while caring for us.  My ONLY visit outside of family was to see Devin and I was in the pub about an hour before I said I needed to lie down.  Thank goodness his apartment was close and he could bring me drugs, water, pillows and cold cloths and that way we could continue our chat.

I was sick for 2.5 (almost 3) weeks and the kids were only sick for a few days a piece and it was a big wake-up call for how fragile our health can be.  We are lucky to live in a place where we can safely recover from illness, where we have access to quality medical care if needed and loving people who will care for us when we aren't feeling well.  I am so tremendously grateful that we are all feeling better and that Keith (our Florence Nightingale) escaped it. I am also so thankful for the reminder about such important things that are easily taken for granted.

Em's First Dance Recital

Emily has been taking Irish dance since September every Monday night.  Keith took Irish dance as a kid and we thought it was a good way to connect her to her heritage and a nice introduction to dance since she likes music and dance so much.

St. Patrick's Day her dance school had the first show of the season.  She got her black bodysuit and shoes and green skirt and was ready for her performance.  I never did dance as a kid so this was a bit new for me but that didn't phase Emily at all as she was ready to PERFORM.

A couple days before her recital I started getting sick but after being in bed all day on the Friday I figured I was up for a couple hours of watching Irish dance.  It was a St. Patrick's day celebration after all.  Keith took her and Cian and I came later.  I then took Cian out to buy her some flowers because she wasn't due to perform yet.  She in fact was scheduled for 8pm (which was already past her bedtime) but they were on Irish time and didn't step on stage until 845pm.  I thought for sure there would be a meltdown but I (as usual) underestimated her.  She stepped on the stage and immediately went to centre stage, planted her one foot in front of her and put her hand up to her eye like a telescope to look for her family and then gave a big wave.  No fear with that kid.  I could hear the chuckles from the audience around me because she was very clearly the ham of the group.  She did all her moves with gusto.  (It's hard to see in the video but she is in the middle slightly behind the count).

After the performance they kept the kids backstage for an extended period of time changing back into their clothes.  We didn't get home until 10pm!  Cian said he wished he had brought his sleeping bag and I can't blame him.  It was so cute to see her up there but if that's what being a dance mom is like I'm not sure I'm up for it.  It's nice to see her enjoy part of her heritage and have a chance to be on stage but for now...onward to soccer season!

Emily's Inside Out Birthday

Emily turned 4 on March 15th and she would tell you she was very ready for this milestone.  Her best friend is 4 and she was excited to finally catch up.  The kids are big into their birthdays (and so is their mom) and Emily had decided she wanted to have an "Inside Out" birthday with Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust (her favourite) all making an appearance.  

The big part of birthdays in our family is the birthday cake.  We like to look on the Pinterest pictures and decide what we're going to try and this particularly birthday I had clearly been overly ambitious the day I decided to try out the Inside Out birthday cake recipe we picked.  It involved making a white cake, deconstructing said cake, mixing new deconstructed cake with additional cake batter into several different colours (I bought a new colour mixing system from Michaels which is more intricate than my colour printer) and then piping (or in my case rolling into cake play dough snakes) different colour circles and then putting additional batter on top.  All to make the cake look like it has "memories" inside.  Then the outside had "memories" as well and the emotion dashboard was on the top of the cake.  It turned out really cute but it was hours of work and was a bit over the top.  Especially when I made cupcakes in addition to the cake.  Amateur mom moment: should have made way more Joy cupcakes because most of the girls wanted a Joy cupcake and no one really wanted a Fear cupcake (which is fair) - they all got eaten but I didn't need to make the counts even.  Anyway, cake and cupcakes squared away the night before.

Emily was so excited about her birthday because she had done all the inviting herself and had invited all the kids on our block plus our family friend Lizzy so she was stoked; so stoked she sat on the couch at 8am waiting for her party to start (which was starting at 2pm).  I had learned from Cian's birthday that planning activities was pointless and I was right.  Em's best friend Miah arrived first and they were off to create some magical pirate land in her bedroom and I saw none of the kids until it was time for food.  I had made Emily "islands" of crafts and food and soccer but the kids really just did their own thing.  The adults came in for a while and it truly felt like a block party.  None of us were watching the kids intently but were mostly hanging out in the kitchen having beers and chatting.  The families on our block is a major reason why we don't want to move - all the kids are great and get along well and their parents are lovely and everyone watches out for each other.  You may be able to buy a house but you can't buy a neighbourhood and ours is pretty great.

After the "kid" party some of our Winnipeg family came over for dinner just like what we did with Cian's "after-party".  Emily's favourite food is melted cheese sandwiches so Andrea brought her panini maker and we made gourmet make-you-own sandwiches which I would totally do again because they were delicious.  A wonderful time was had by all celebrating our crazy little 4 year old.

Emily, bundle of chaos and fun, we are so blessed to have you in our family.  You make our everyday life feel like a musical and there is never a dull moment.  I'm sure there is plenty more disgust and anger to come, probably fear too (although right now you seem fearless) and sadness is inevitable but overall you bring so, so, so much joy to our life.  Happy 4th birthday Em - we love you!