Jo likes to cook.

I'll be honest, I don't like cooking and I don't spend much time in the kitchen. Nick, on the other hand, loves to cook. Plus he's good at it, which is nice for me. It's true that Jo often refers to our kitchen as "Papa's kitchen." Yep.

Last year we asked my sister's father-in-law to build us a custom play kitchen for Jo. We wanted one that was great quality and we wanted to support Bob's Workshop as a small business. And we couldn't be happier with what we got. Take a look.

I love the attention to detail. The stove top dials actually spin. You can't see it in the pictures, but the oven rack also rolls out.

And the faucet turns as well.

I'm thinking at some point I'll add some shelves to this side for a little extra kitchen storage. We were also thinking we could paint it to match Jo's play space...that hasn't happened yet.

Jo loves this kitchen! And yes, she's wearing a skeleton shirt that happens to be a pajama top and a summer sunbonnet.

Cook cook cook.

Stir stir stir.

The sink is perfect for little hands.

And for giving little animals a bath.

All clean!

Thanks, Bob! We love this kitchen!

Changes

Lots of change is happening right now. More on that later.

For now...I got a hair cut! This was big for me. I've had long hair for the last 10-ish years. It was time. It just sort of happened.

This was my inspiration:

Cute, no? Mais oui!

And now for the requisite before and after pics.

Before

During. Disembodied hair looks creepy...and for some reason my hair on the floor looks red.

Directly after

At home a few days later

And if you're curious, my stylist is awesome, and her name is Susan, and she works at Sparrow.

Hipster kid

My mama bought this little hat for Jo before Christmas. It's Jo's favorite. She's also figured out how to put it on and take it off herself (as demonstrated).

Love.

Her own sense of style

Baby Jo has been very vocal lately about what she wants to wear. We've also started her dress-up closet, which is really just a box right now. But it's only going to grow. Yes.

I love how the glittery gold bolero matches her yellow top...AND the yellow sunglasses. She could be a fashion visionary. This was our impromptu photo shoot.

My work with Akvavit

So I'm in a show right now. I've mentioned that before. I've probably also mentioned that Akvavit Theatre is the company that I co-founded. Making a theatre company go is basically like running a small business. We worry about where the money comes from. We push hard to get people in to see the work we do. And most importantly, we (very enthusiastically) overwork ourselves to produce art that is meaningful, relevant, and true to our mission. It's all hard work, but it's also gratifying work. 

Our current show is a big one. It's actually three short full-length plays that we're producing under one title: Gjenganger. The Norwegian playwright (Jon Fosse) has never been produced in Chicago. His plays have rarely been produced in the United States at all, which is peculiar since he is one of Europe's most produced living playwrights. A Summer's Day, Autumn Dream, and Winter are the three plays that comprise Gjenganger, and we're presenting them on a rotating schedule (two on Thursday - Saturday and all three on Sundays). 

That's a lot of background, but I wanted to get the basics out there. 

One of the biggest concerns for Akvavit (or any theatre company, really) is getting people in to see our work. Theatre isn't theatre without an audience. We (as theatre artists) do the work that we do for ourselves because it is fulfilling, but also because we want to share this work with others -- with you. This is definitely the case for Gjenganger. We, as artists, and you, as audiences, get to live in a world that is very different from ours. An an audience member, this is a chance for you to experience plays that you haven't had an opportunity to see before, in a style that may be very foreign to you. This is a chance for you to step outside the black box (if you will...) and try something new. Sounds pretty exciting, right?

You may love our production. You may be moved beyond words. You may not, and that's ok too. You might be somewhere in between. You don't have to like it, but I encourage you to experience Jon Fosse & our plays that make up Gjenganger. Come and support the artists on stage giving it their all. Support the artists who have worked so hard to create a new world for you including the director, the designers, the crew.  

And to my close family and friends who haven't seen the show yet, this is very important work for me. I'm asking you to come and be a part of what I have spent so much of my time and energy with the last few months. Not every show is like this for me. I always have so much invested in this process of creating theatre, but this one is personal to me. 

I'm proud of this work. I'm proud of Akvavit for even thinking that mounting three full productions at once was something we could do. I'm proud of every single person involved. I'm proud of the folks who have already seen the show or are planning to see them. You are a part of this too. 

My friend and fellow Akvavit ensemble member, Mark Litwicki, posted some very thoughtful and moving words about our shows on Facebook this weekend. This is only a short excerpt, but it is the most meaningful to me. 

I challenge you to "sit still long enough to feel the power of Jon Fosse's voice and our interpretation of it, to appreciate the deep meaning of silence, of the slow turn, of the way time wraps itself around us, of the way we try to hold onto each other even as we slip away." 
 

Under water...

I'm swamped. I just got back from being in Austin, TX for work last week. I'm heading into tech this week for my Akvavit show (are you coming?). I also have sewing for Lilla Barn to catch up on. Needless to say, I've got a lot going on.

So...until I get back up and on my feet, here are couple of little lovelies from DUNS Sweden. Their clothes are organic and bright and super cute. They're also on the mini social this week.

A treat for me

I recently got a check from the last commercial I shot. Most of it went into savings. I took a little bit out for a few treats for me.

Treat #1: Manicure

Backstory: I got a set of Incoco nail appliques in one of my first Birchboxes ever. I decided to share them with my sister, Liv, since she is super awesome. Over Christmas she had the Incoco nail polish on and I was so jealous, so I went online to order my own.

Last week I applied the color Runway (seen below). The application was actually really easy and I did it with Jo running around. I had a little trouble filing off the excess paint -- I couldn't get a smooth line at the top of my nail. But then again I'm a huge perfectionist. I think I'll look for tips online. One thing that I love is that the polish goes on sooooooo shiny! It's supposed to last for up to 14 days. We'll see.

Day 1

So, the verdict. This stuff is so great! Seriously. The polish actually lasted 8 days with minimal chipping at the tips of my nails and I was typing and washing dishes and doing laundry and more. The only reason this manicure lasted 8 days instead of 14 is that I started picking the polish off. I'm a picker. It's a nervous habit.

Days 2, 5, 8

And I ordered a bunch more.

Here's my new fave:

Sleep is for the weak?

I love sleeping. I really love sleeping. Back when I was single (Nick's definition of single = before kid) I reveled in going to bed late and sleeping in. Like sleeping in until 10am on weekends. I used to need at least 9 hours of sleep a night to function well during the day (10 was preferable). Sleeping was my favorite.

Wow, has that changed.

Don't get me wrong, I still love sleeping, but I'm learning to get by on less. Jo has never been a great sleeper. It's not a huge deal to me since overall she's such an amazing kid. It's just a pain as we continue to adjust to her ever-changing habits. I've learned to survive on as little sleep as possible between her late nights and early mornings.

Jo has never slept all night. And by "all night" I mean all night-go-to-bed-in-the-evening-and-not-get-up-until-morning. We put her to bed in her crib and she usually wakes up a couple of times before Nick and I go to bed. Jo has a hard time putting herself back to sleep and we aren't using a cry-it-out method so either Nick or I have to get her back down. It's not really an issue between 8pm-11pm. It just takes some of our time. Fine by me.

The hard part is when she wakes up after Nick and I have gone to bed. It seems like it's much harder for her to fall back asleep during these later wake-ups. Plus Nick and I tend to be groggy or cranky from being woken up. Usually at that point I just bring her into bed with us and nurse her back to sleep. That always works. Always. And she just nurses off and on throughout the night. Easy peasy.

But now we're starting to night-wean. I'm ready to be done nursing. We had a good run, but it's time. So the night-weaning changes just compound the non-sleeping issues since Jo really has come to expect that when she comes into our bed at night that she gets to nurse herself back down. It's a comfort thing. I get that. But I also know that when Jo spent the night with Grandma she didn't have any problems falling asleep on Grandma's shoulder. So I know it can be done.

So what are we doing? Well, Nick has been amazing and has taken the "early" shift between 8pm-midnight getting up with her most nights. The idea being that since she can't nurse with Nick she'll get used to going back down with just a little parental help. Overall it's been up and down. If Jo really doesn't want to go back to sleep Nick's fail-safe has been to sleep with her on the couch. For some reason being wedged in between Nick and the couch instantly puts her back to sleep.

When she wakes up again after midnight I take her into bed and she nurses. At least that was the routine over the past few weeks. The next step is to cut out a few more hours of nursing. If we can get to 3am with no nursing, that would be swell. Then we'll go from there.

The past few nights have been really hard. Jo has woken up a number of times and after her 11pm wake-up she just doesn't want to go back down. Last night Nick was up with her for an hour on the couch and then I took over for another good hour. This was all between 11pm-1am. You'd think she would be tired enough to just sleep.

Perhaps the universe is taking care of me: I saw this article about sleep, gratitude, and parenting in my Facebook feed today. After digging around on the Evolutionary Parenting site I like this article even more. Good timing, right? I also recently joined a group on Facebook that supports the "Wait It Out" Method where the group description is:

"Wait it Out" is defined by each family. Some of us co-sleep. Some of us do no-cry sleep training. Some of us swaddle. Some of us nurse our children to sleep. Some of us use pacfiers. Some of us formula feed. What we all have in common is that we don't believe that babies need to be "trained" to sleep with tears.

This group is great for support when things seem rough. Like this week when I haven't slept much at all and things seem really hard. And when Nick is frustrated and when I'm frustrated and we're both tired and cranky and nothing seems to be working at night and we're living on coffee during the day and we all have bags under our eyes (even little Jo). It's nice to know that others struggle with this too. And we all make different choices based on what is best for our families.

I have to remind myself to be patient. It doesn't help me to get frustrated and it certainly doesn't help Jo. I have to remind myself that we can't push. We can't make Jo sleep. She WILL eventually sleep all night. Night-time parenting may always be a part of our routine, but it will certainly evolve. She WILL eventually sleep in her own bed. We'll get there.

In the meantime, Nick and I just splurged on a new king bed. If we're all going to be up in the middle of the night we might as well have a big bed to play in, right?

What's up with your show?

That's what a lot of people are asking me right now. Well, thanks for asking. Let me give you an update.

My theatre company, Akvavit Theatre, is fortunate to present Chicago premieres of 3 of Jon Fosse's plays: A Summer's Day, Autumn Dream, & Winter. This is a big deal. Jon Fosse is a contemporary Norwegian playwright who is well-known and frequently produced everywhere except the United States. He's never been produced to Chicago. We commissioned three new American translations and are producing the three plays as part of a triptych we're calling Gjenganger: 3 plays by Jon Fosse. I'm even in one of them. Hooray!

We've been in full-force fundraising mode and just launched our Kickstarter as a way to help raise money. There's a pretty sweet video so definitely check it out even if you can't give at this time. Just so you know, producing a full-length play in Chicago can cost anywhere between $10,000-50,000 (that's a storefront budget, not a Steppenwolf budget). That money goes to paying for rehearsal and performance space, hiring designers & crew, buying costumes and set materials, getting marketing materials, and so many other things. Most of us don't even get paid for the work that we do. If we do, we don't get paid much. Anyway, if you feel so inclined and are able to give, every dollar helps. Tusen takk! (that's Norwegian for thank you!)

We just started rehearsals for all three plays (with three directors and three casts) and will open February 28th! Stay tuned.

Just for fun, here is a promo pic for Winter (the play that I'm in).

This

One of my favorite moments from the weekend.

A happy accident

I am still learning how to use my camera on the manual settings. I have no clue how these happened, but I just love them (I probably should have taken a look at what the settings were...next time). I love the contrast with the radiator cover and Jo's onesie. I love seeing her sweet profile.

Yay for cousins!

We're at my mama's this weekend with all of my siblings. I'm the oldest of four and it's always a party when we get together. Seriously. There is always laughing and games and food and photos and playing and music and dancing and cookies and MORE!

I love that we all love each other! My mama loves it too. She's in heaven with a full house.

My sister Sarri's daughter, Grace, got a new tent for Christmas. See how much fun the littles are having?

Also, Jo got a schmancy new tutu from Grandma Annie. Her dress-up closet is going to be killer!