Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

Hannah, bff Katie, Zoe and Henry,
on a beautiful October day
in Golden Gate Park,
festival sounds, sights, smells, and tastes...
Otis Clay, Earl Skruggs and a crazy-cool looking rainbow man,
all in a sun-baked homage to Hazel Dickens...
Zoe got a serious banjo groove on
while the rainbow man distracted everyone else!

Zoe Shows Us How to Play Piano

Part 1: You Must Have Proper Posture

Part 2: finesse those keys!
Use what you've got!
Fingers, toes, face, knees, hands, feet, head...
Grab, smash, eat, pound, beat, shred...
REPEAT!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, the sweet sound of music!

Kidaroo Girls Rock!

Hannah, you loved listening to the all-girl 5th-grade band who was rockin' out at the Kidaroo Festival! They played Wild Thing, Saturday, and Can't Buy Me Love, and then played an encore performance of Wild Thing. You had front row lawn seats on my lap, and you were surprisingly very quiet and still during the entire concert. You did clap after every song, but you were not dancing and jumping as usual (perhaps it was the heat), so I wasn't sure you liked the music...

After we got home and you had a refreshing nap, however, you showed your appreciation. You loved watching this video over and over, and then you broke out Aunt Angie's Elmo Guitar and you demanded an impromptu daddy-daughter guitar jam session. Our 2-person band (just us), Peanut Butter 'N Jam, well, we only have one song in our repertoire so far, but we still had lots of loud fun singing a couple rounds of the alphabet song together. What a great day!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

Hannah, your first live music concert (not counting your Uncle Randall's and your friend Adam Robinson's personal guitar concerts) was fitting because it took place - for free - in your back yard, Golden Gate Park. Luckily, we were able to hit it Friday night for a little while, before the bitter cold winds blew in, chilling the rest of the weekend. There is "no other music festival like it anywhere in the world." Local billionaire(?)/buy-out guru, Warren Hellman (who also owns a stake in the Great American Music Hall), hires all the 80 acts and underwrites the entire multimillion-dollar venture "simply because he likes the music so much that he wants to share his enthusiasm." You were mostly interested in running around and playing soccer with the older kids who were near us, and getting airplane rides from Dad. But you loved the music too... you got your groove-on to a couple John Prine songs, and when Lyle Lovett and his Big Band started playing, you took a little chicken-dance hankerin' to him too. I hope you keep an open mind to all kinds of music and I look forward to sharing many more live concert experiences with you!

Daddy, Hannah, boo-boo bunny, and super-sized momma enjoying a few last notes before heading back to the warmth of home sweet home.

Just Take Those Ol' Records Off The Shelf!

Dear Carol,
Thank you for the coolest, rockin'est, cutest pink tutu EVER!
I can't wait to visit Daddy's "WORK" and go up in an elevator cab and then tear around the long hallways, and of course... thank you in person!
Love, Hannah!

19 Mos = Lots of Activities!

So far, with two soccer sessions in the bag, I think we can safely say that Hannah enjoys her 45+ minutes on the field, and will in time (like all the toddlers just figuring out what the heck is going on) pick up on all the games and drills over the course of the 7-week "season." Despite her speed and love of "nunning," she is usually picking up the rear during red light green light across the field. As usual, she is way more interested in watching what all the other kids (and their caretakers) are doing, and scanning the field for stray soccer balls, than paying attention to her mother beckon her "Come on, Hannah, green means go! Let's GO!!!"

Although she may not be the best at listening to direction, she is pretty good at kicking the ball around, stacking cones, and chasing after hoola hoops. It's become clear the coaches do have some actual skill-teaching in mind, even if we'll never actually play a game, so it's a trip to watch and participate in the learning. Hopefully as time goes by, Hannah will become increasingly tuned into the coach and her direction, and less consumed with ball. Then again, maybe her obsession with the ball is exactly what will make her the next Mia!

Outside of sports, she's also as crazy about music as ever. So when we stopped by a local garage sale and she kept gravitating to the Little Tikes piano/synthesizer, we knew we had to have it. I could hardly tear her away from our upstairs neighbor's (Alexandra) piano a couple weeks ago, so it was no big surprise that she had to have her own "Nano." She is so dramatic when she plays - it's like she's composing some terribly sad love song from Les Miserables. (Either that or she's been watching alot of old Alanis Morissette videos when I'm not around.) Check out the recent video (right sidebar) of her performing her latest composition...

We also took a couple different gymnastics classes (trial runs) at two local gymnasiums -- Acrosports over near the Haight, and SF Gymnastics in the Presidio. Both basically offer free gym time with parental oversight for toddlers Hannah's age, and include trampolines (Hannah's favorite), big mats, balance beams, swinging bars, etc... Based on our trial runs, I am favoring SF Gymnastics -- it's more convenient, the gymnasium is much larger, there are more instructors/structure (even though it's mostly free-form), the trampoline is large and not limited to one student at a time, and frankly, it smells better! All that said, our session yesterday at SFGym seemed to impart some kind of bug to Hannah (fitting for a program called Tumblebugs I suppose!), which kept us up most of the night, and made us skip soccer today. But still, the class was very well attended, and the director introduced herself and seemed well organized, regimented, and focused on safety. It's not to say Acrosports was a bad experience, but much looser, smaller, and parking is a challenge. So hopefully we'll be able to get into a regular morning Tumblebugs class at SFGym.

The Ballad of Randall Brown

Randall Brown
He lived on the outside of town
Randall Brown
He lived on the outside of town
With his three cats and nine guitars
And his Subaru broken down.

You looked for Hannah Lacey
You gave her a big smile
Sang and strummed the six-string loaner
Your grand niece is so happy
That she danced around for miles
-Lyrics by Bob Dylan