Exciting times for our growing family!  Treva had her first ever ballet recital on the weekend, and she was *almost* as eager to dance on stage for the first time, as I was to see her.   I also took ballet as a little girl, and my mum has photos of me wearing a pink tutu, ready to perform.  I do have lots of ambivalent feelings about the gendered nature of ballet, and dance culture, and the body issues that are so prevalent in that culture, for girls and women.  I also love dance, and I’ve been really impressed and heartened by the particular ballet school that Treva is a part of (Artemis Dance in Fredericton). The instructors are fantastic, the director is fabulous, and the culture and community they have created, for the dancers and parents is friendly and positive.

Lee was taking Treva to dance for the first part of the year, primarily, because I was working a lot on Saturdays.  So I wasn’t really able to observe directly, how Treva was doing in class.  Unfortunately, a few months into the year I found out that Treva was struggling a bit, and having a hard time concentrating in class, and distracting the other students.  I was prepared to discontinue classes, if they weren’t working for Treva or the instructors and other students (she’s only five, almost six),  but I had a chat with Treva and she was adamant that she wanted to continue, and that she would make a strong effort to focus.  To my delight, she did just that, and was able to pull it together to learn all the steps for the performance, and it is clear that she also derived a great sense of satisfaction from her accomplishment.

Her grammy, and her cousin Mya came to watch her onstage for the matinee, and she received a rose then, and after the evening performance as well.

In other news, my new baby is getting big!  I’m really enjoying this pregnancy, which, for a number of reasons, has been much more comfortable for me than my pregnancy with Cosmo, although I am just starting to notice feeling tired and a bit unwieldy.  I have mentioned elsewhere that this baby was very much unplanned.  I’m still  not really sure how to talk about discovering I was pregnant with this baby, or the early weeks of coming to terms with it (or if I even will ever write about it), but suffice to say, it was hard.  Lots of contemplation, lots of miscommunications, lots of coming-to-terms in relationship. Lee and I are doing really well now, and I suspect he is also quietly happy about the prospect of meeting this new baby in a few weeks’ time.  I’m relishing my belly, and as is usually the case for me, at this stage of pregnancy, I’m both looking forward to the meditative power of birth, to holding my little one, but also a little sad that it’s coming up so soon.

I have also yet to share any footage of Cosmo’s birth (or to tell the story of his tongue tie!), and I have decided to postpone releasing my little documentary about my free births until this baby is born, so as to include this baby’s birth as well as Cosmo’s.

And as always, if you’re a mother who is also contemplating freebirth, but you’re not entirely confident about birthing unassisted, you might be interested in checking out my coaching services for freebirth, right here.