Improv-a-mama

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2010-04-25T19:39:00.001-07:00

Improv-a-Mama has moved to

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Hope you'll join me over there.

The Magic Number 30

2010-04-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

LP works on collecting 30 branches.

LP loves the number 30. I think it is the biggest number she can imagine.

So when she enjoys a game she wants to play it 30 times. Or read a book 30 times. Or eat 30 cookies. Or pick 30 flowers...and so on and so on.

My observations is that although she can count to 30, the upper numbers don't really have meaning yet, so 30! Wow! That's just the biggest, the most, the best amount!

It makes us smile every time. She's so delighted by asking for 30. And although we cheat and do something a bunch of times (like 5 or 6 or 9) and call it a day. It seems to satisfy her.

Oh kiddo, just wait until you discover the world beyond 30. Yes, Little Person, you could ask for 100 cookies or put 300 shakes of cinnamon in the muffins or pick 2000 flowers.

And it does give me a reflective pause....wondering what is my 30? What are the things that I'm accepting as the end, that I don't have the vision to see beyond? What boundaries have I created in my world that I accept as the way things are and will be for always? There is a whole other realm of possibilities beyond that...I'm talking about the 40s and 50s and 100s and 1000s and 10000000000s.

As I'm reflecting on it, I see how I accept many 30s in my life now. In my writing. In my getting involved in new things. In taking risks in relationships.

So for now, we delight in 30...and look forward to the world getting bigger and filled with even more possibility. LP will discover those at her pace and I'll keep trying to be open to ones for me too.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Making memories...

2010-04-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today on the bus with LP on my lap, an elderly woman said to me, "A woman can live to be about 80 years old or so and we only have our children for such a short time."

We just had 2 more stops to go when she said this but in those few blocks she also shared that when "they go away from you, they do come back again"…and that "the best is being a grandparent." (when she said "grandparent" her whole face lit up...I look forward to the grandparent experience someday!)

I find that thing everyone says about "it goes so fast" is completely true (in the big picture, I still find individual moments or minutes can take forever). LP is three and bounding forward in her knowledge and abilities every day. Whoosh!

It often crosses my mind the memories I am creating for LP; what I don't often think about is the memories I am creating for me. Memories to stand out from the moments of tedium and times of tantrums.

So from our recent days, I hope that we will both remember:
• porcupine stew (crackers with butter and dried lentils)
• gardening in the rain
• walking with shaving cream "penguin feet"
• creating a costume out of pipe cleaners complete with tiara, earrings, glasses, necklace, dressing gown, belt with a ponytail and anklets
• sharing flower "ice cream cones"

And the one that's just for my mind's eye…the sweet sight of LP sleeping.

This post is part of the 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

The Panda Queen & the River Otter

2010-04-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

Traveling is a time when I am often reaching into my improv bag of tricks ~ especially in just reminding myself to keep an improv mindset (meaning among other things to find things to say "yes" to, be flexible and be open to opportunities).

Our visit with family was so exciting for LP (she was on overdrive trying to keep up with her older cousins) so I used familiar storytelling structures as part of calming down and grounding and reflecting on things that were happening. When she was homesick, we told stories about home and what ImprovDad and all her beloved stuffed friends were doing.

One series of stories emerged about LP as the "Panda Queen" and her group of pandas. LP has 3 pandas at home (1 made the trip with us) and quickly gathered up a few pandas from a willing older cousin (thanks H!) while we were away. We told stories about the Panda Queen and both groups of pandas and LP has embraced her new royal title.

On a cold, drizzly day, my sister, brother-in-law and I ventured to the zoo with the 4 youngest kids. I think we had the place to ourselves except for one other family. The rest of our group roamed the zoo while LP and I went at her pace and she enjoyed lots of puddle splashing. I was feeling tired and down from having a cold and was counting the minutes until we could get back in the car out of the rain.

Then we discovered the river otter.

LP has been into otters since we read "Sea Elf" for the first time a few months ago. She loves to wear a green & blue blanket as her kelp and often has us tie it on her first thing in the morning. (It is a beautiful book about a girl imagining herself as an otter for a day.) And here, unexpectedly was an otter...and a very playful otter who seemed as excited to see LP as she was to see it. The otter would jump into the water and come right up to the glass where LP was, then dart away and return...again, again and again.

It was a beautiful thing to witness. Her enjoyment was so pure and full body. She laughed at times and was just entranced at other times. It lifted my spirits to be there with her.

To top it off...there was a carousel and the Panda Queen got to ride a panda...twice!

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

One of Our Favorite Things: Painter's Tape

2010-04-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

LP & I just returned from a wonderful trip hanging out with family on the East Coast.

And in addition to all the good visiting and food and experiences, my love of blue painter's tape was rekindled.

It is probably my favorite parenting item...good for everything from emergency diaper repair and babyproofing to crafting to creating a much needed spoon for applesauce on the plane. I use it to help keep paper still for art projects and hang things on the wall and as bandaids for all LP's lovies.

Despite having the world's most densely packed backpack of books and toys and snacks for our journey home, what was the biggest hit with LP? The painter's tape. Good old, familiar, multipurpose painter's tape.

She played with the tape people (pictured above) for longer than any other toy and used strips of tape to create a Wild Thing costume for her small doll (wish I had a picture of it because it looked more like a shaggy ball of tape than a doll). As a bonus, she could stick in all over herself and the seat and the window and it peels off quickly and easily. We also made a few bracelets and a necklace.

Painter's tape...truly, I don't leave home without it!

I linked this post to se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun...go on over and check it out!

Traveling Heavy

2010-03-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

is not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm getting LP and myself ready to hit the road to visit family on the East Coast and getting in my usual pre-flight anxiety twist-up. Part of me gets focused on "oh I'm bringing too much stuff" and then worried that I'm not bringing the right stuff. And so on and so on and so on.

I was thinking that I had traveled light pre-LP but that isn't true. I don't like to fly so I always brought as many distractions (books, crossword puzzles, knitting, writing, music) as possible.

Then I realized how to let go of the anxiety...traveling with all this stuff is for comfort. As much as LP needs her best buds, Lambda & BunBun, to come along, I need to know that I'm prepared for...well, for almost anything.

It reminded me of being a new improvisor and wanting to have a set list for a show. I wanted to know what games we would play (or at least might play) and to have reviewed the rules and so on. Then I got restless with so much "knowing" and wanting more challenge. So I started doing shows without set lists...and then I started doing longform improv. This longform creating of up to 2 hour shows on the spot still feels delicious and exciting. In Un-Scripted we usually have a frame we've agreed upon (a genre, like Shakespeare or Romantic Comedy) and we rehearse to come to agreement about what that genre means but then....in the show it is so open and free to discover all the things can happen. I went from needing the illusion of being prepared to anything to feeling prepared to improvise.

It reminded me of being a new parent and anxiously reading and seeking advice (or accepting advice thrust upon us!). And then (finally) came a point of balance of finding the place that brought together useful information (like what is developmentally appropriate) with being in the moment of being a parent and figuring out what works for our family. I went from needing to find the "right" way to needing to find our way.

So I'm traveling heavy today....although a little lighter than in the past. The first time I took a plane trip with LP I brought 20+diapers, today I only have 8.

Opera Tooth Brushing

2010-03-20T11:13:00.000-07:00

I have a Mary Poppins-ish approach to parenting things. The bottom line is that there are non-negotiable things that a little person has to deal with AND I like to make it playful whenever possible. So in the spirit of a "spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down" we are now having grand opera tooth brushing every night.

We've been through a few phases of toothbrushing. Animal faces worked for awhile recently (lion roar to get the back teeth, zebra smile for the front). Then we had a few weeks of struggle (you know, the two parent tooth brushing, where one of us is holding squirming child) until opera entered the routine.

So now after an opportunity to mess around with the toothbrush on her own for a bit, LP and I do a brief warm up (mi, mi, mi,mi, miiiiii) and then big, grand voice soaring "AaaaaaaaaHs" together while I simultaneously get a good brushing of the chompers done.

It is fun and evolving. A couple of nights ago, she initiated going up the scale with each "aaaah" and the following night we stumbled into some fun harmonies.

I'll enjoy it while it lasts....and who knows what "sugar" will come next.

Prepare the way for "Yes"

2010-03-15T21:13:00.000-07:00

Many of my blog posts return to the idea of saying yes, finding ways to say yes, and seeking "yes" experiences.

It is a core principle of improvisation...as improv guru Keith Johnstone says (and I paraphrase here): "Saying 'no' keeps you safe, saying 'yes' leads to adventure." Another way of putting it is that "no" keeps us in the realm of the familiar and prevents (or at least attempts to prevent) change, while "yes" invites change into the picture.

There are lots of valid reasons for big people to say no. There are safety reasons, ethical reasons, and personal value reasons. There are emotional reasons...and a subset of those is the all important group of saving one's own sanity reasons.

And there are lots of little people reasons to say "no." Because they are tired or hungry or frustrated or desiring to do it themselves or wanting to express something that is too big for the words they know....or because they are 2 or 3 (or older!) and learning the power and control of "no" it is part of that stage of development.

So as much as our little folk need to learn to use "no," we can also make sure to give them opportunities to say "yes" -- even when they are firmly grounded in the practice of "no."

Some foundations for "yes" success include...

saying "yes" (literally). I try to remember to actually say "yes" and not always just nod or do something without acknowledging the "yes."

saying "yes" with actions. When LP invites me for the 8th time to come play tinkertoys and I agree, I try to get into the game and really play...even if it is only for 5 minutes.

making sure physical needs (food, water, potty, diaper change, etc) are taken care of (really hard to say "yes" when you are physically uncomfortable)

using all the observations you have about what makes your little person (or people) tick. I realized that LP is quite willing to eat veggies while I'm chopping them and cooking and not as willing when they show up on her plate. So by I give her lots of opportunities for her to say "yes" to my desire for her to eat vegetables by saying "yes" to the eating moment that works for her.

clear requests....while it doesn't always work, sometimes just letting LP know what I need in a straightforward way leads to a "yes."

AND multiple opportunities. I know LP sometimes says "no" to something she really wants. I give her a little space and make the offer again. And sometimes again after that.

As you might imagine...a post like this can only be written in the midst of a lot of "no, no, no."

This post is part of the Moms' 30 minute blog challenge over at SteadyMom.

Tell Me a Story: Using Touch

2010-03-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

There are many different ways to incorporate the sense of touch into storytelling and story-acting.

I focused on touch as a starting point when I was working with seniors with dementia. I always had a bag of scarves to serve as props and often brought in other objects (often natural objects that were out of reach for folks living in a facility like seashells or pine cones). Of course all of these objects activate other senses too, but it was important to me to have things they could touch as well as see.

One moment will always stand out to me. A woman that enjoyed our talk sessions but really was not into our acting sessions got swept up into a group-created story about three sisters getting ready to go to a dance. When she agreed to be one of the sisters, I asked her "what color dress will you wear?" She replied, "Blue" and her eyes lit up with delight when I pulled a light blue scarf from my bag . "Yes, that's the color!" she said. She and I draped it over her and throughout the rest of the session, I saw her stroke the scarf while she participated with gusto. I believe it was that moment where her senses got united with her imagination that freed her to enjoy stepping into the group's story.

So here are a few ideas to get started:

1) Choose an object (or objects) to bring into playing with your little person and see how it evolves into a story. With a seashell, you can talk about its colors and textures, listen for the ocean and tell/act a story of the shell' s journey in the ocean. Or imagine what it is like to live inside a shell and act that out.

2) Choose a tactile way to expand a written story that your little person enjoys. An example is having a set of keys to use while reading "Goodnight Gorilla." Scarves or playsilks are always wonderful to become the sea or the sky or other elements of a story.

3) Start with the tactile experience of the here and now. If you and your little person are barefoot in the grass, explore that feeling and let it grow into whatever comes next...maybe being a piece of grass growing. Or telling a story about the toes in the grass that met an ant. Or the toes in the grass that met other toes and took them to meet the brick path by the grass.

That's just the beginning....what ideas do you use with your little ones?

The View from Here & Now

2010-03-09T13:52:00.001-08:00

Here and now, I am on a plateau. Somehow so many areas of my life (including finding "a ha!" moments and ideas to blog about) feel stalled right now. My ability to initiate, to create, to make things happen...that ability seems to be set on low (or off). I feel less competent in almost every arena of life. Ugh.

I am not patient with being on a plateau. I am not gracious about being on a plateau. I have all kinds of "good" self-talk about how being on a plateau is also part of learning and growing. It can be a place of integration or a place of regeneration. I am trying, trying, trying to see it as an opportunity to regenerate, to restore energy to heart and mind and spirit.

I attempt to reflect on other plateau times and I know these things to be true. That the plateau is part of learning. I am seeking ways to breathe deeply and take in the view because I know that when things get moving again, that big things may happen.

Improv frames my perspective in this as in many things. I remember after about 2 years of improvising (and I mean IMPROVISING...once I caught the improv bug, that's what I did 4 or 5 nights a week...classes, shows, impromptu get togethers, etc), I just stopped improving. I wasn't able to translate my knowledge of characters and story into action in scenes and games. I floundered. I despaired. It went on for a looooonnnnng time. Friends became performers and excelled. I remained in classes and regressed. And got upset and sad and didn't think it would ever change.

And it did. Slowly without realizing it, it changed. All that head knowledge turned into active knowledge. And I was invited to perform. And teach. And so many doors opened up that I am ever grateful for not giving up. I didn't know what life would look like off the plateau, just that I wanted off the plateau.

Many years later, my perspective is a bit different. I would like to get off the plateau but my hope is I can use this time to prepare for the unknown ahead. I want to feel ready to start saying YES to ideas and opportunities (without obsessing about where are those ideas and opportunities???).

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Little Person, Little House

2010-03-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

There was a Little Person who had a cardboard box.

Her mama had a yearning to make something from this box. The box moved around their home for many weeks, sometimes being played with and sometimes just being a box.

Then there was a day full of rain and colds in the head. Little Person and her mama were looking for things to do.

So they made a little house:

The little house had a little door and windows all around. Little Person put a layer of lovies in and had her mama put her in through the roof. Then requested story after story read to her through the window.

A few days later the sun came out...so Little Person and her mama (mostly her mama who really likes that kind of thing) painted the little house:

This post is part of se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun!

A Girl with a Plan

2010-03-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

LP has always been a focused individual. And she has always had plans...I think it a main drive in her early mastery of words was "get these big people in on what the plan is."

And turning 3 has turned up the passion for her plans. She wakes up in the morning with ideas for the moment and the day and goes to sleep at night talking about her next plans with her loveys.

She often bursts from her room after "quiet time" (in quotes because it is rarely quiet) with a list of what comes next. This morning she arrived by our bed with an armful of pandas who NEEDED a walk and then to be wrapped in a blanket while LP ate yogurt with frozen raspberries.

ImprovDad and I are both pretty delighted by her plans. We want to raise a strong girl who can articulate and follow her passions.

Of course, true to her stage of development, interruptions in her plan are met with protest. So I'm attempting to be creative so I still say "yes!" to the plan and her enthusiasm and also can 1) disengage myself when I need a break or have something else I'm doing or 2) there's something else I need her to do (like submit to a diaper change or get her shoes on).

Today as I was trying to wrangle these thoughts into a post, I had the "a-ha!" that some of my delight in LP's plans come from the commitment that she brings to them...it is full commitment of body and spirit.

One of the principles of improv is just that -- COMMITMENT. When we're creating, it is so easy to get scared or unsure or even just plain confused (I've had that moment on stage plenty of times..what just happened?). Commitment is the answer. I've experienced it and witnessed it so many times with improvisors on and offstage. When we commit and really commit with our whole body and spirit, our confidence grows and we start to delight again in the act of creation and the experiences we're having. An example I use in teaching is often in rhyming games which is "a word rhymes with itself -- cat rhymes with cat perfectly. A word rhymes with a similar sounding real word -- cat rhymes with bat and also with a made up word -- cat rhymes with giblat. AND cat rhymes with dog if you say it with enough commitment."

In reflecting on this, I see that I've been in a low-commitment zone. My mind feels a bit fuzzy and I have a slew of unfinished business. None of those projects has hit the crisis mode...and all seem to be in meandering mode. Even my novel is sputtering.

I think I need to see if I can approach even one of these lingering projects with some of LP's energy. If I were to write my novel the way LP tells a story...well, that's an interesting idea... I imagine that I'd be enjoy

Singing to Potatoes by Candlelight

2010-02-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight during dinner, I mentioned how I thought our potatoes probably wouldn't come up. The day after LP and I planted them, we had a week of torrential rain which just seems like too much water. I also fessed up that I don't really know what the growing potatoes would look like and thought I might "weed" them by accident.

LP had a plan (she almost always has a plan these days). She wanted to go out to the garden with a candle and sing to the plants.

A little dialogue brought ImprovDad and I up to speed...and we made the connection to the Frog & Toad story where Toad is worried that he scared his seeds by yelling at them to grow so he plays violin to them and reads them stories.

It would've been easy to talk about it, to story it and to maybe even play act it. LP was suggesting it but not strongly, not insisting on it. AND it was such a perfect moment to surprise LP (and ourselves) by saying "yes!" The dinner clean up could wait, so could the bath. So could every other distraction of the moment.

So after dinner, out out to the back yard we went. I held a candle and LP rode on ImprovDad's shoulders. We stood in front of our wee potato patch and made up a song "Grow potatoes, grow." There was a half moon shining through a partly cloudy sky and a few stars peeking through.

And best of all was the smile on LP's face.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom. Go on, click over and check out all the links.

Another Improv Craft Friday

2010-02-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

LP's 3rd birthday was yesterday, so the end of our week last week was all about preparing to celebrate.

The main craft activity was making party favors. A few weeks ago, LP and I had hunted through Goodwill for a wool sweater to felt (my first try). So I had the shrunken, felted sweater which I cut and sewed into mini-bags. (These two a few takes to get them the right size to hold the favors and have decent proportions for being held by small hands.) Then I made a version of Rainbow Mama's little people. I've made a few different iterations of these as gifts...I thought making mini-ones was going to go faster but actually small ones took longer. (So glad I was only making 6!)

Then I added dinosaurs because LP loves those dinosaurs.

LP enjoyed playing with scraps, requesting that I cut her some "pie" or "cherries" or "noodles" and had her usual good time with thread.

She also spent an incredibly long time sorting out branches from a bush that she collected.

It was fascinating to me to listen to her talk as she played and I sewed...sometimes she gave each branch a name, sometimes she gave each one (what sounded like) a title of a book and sometimes she used made-up words. As always I am learning that I never know what will spark her imagination and it was fortunate for me that we each ended up able to work on our "projects" side by side.

I linked this post to se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun!

Cloud Parenting

2010-02-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get stuck in my own story.

We all do. Probably more often than is comfortable to admit. I find that I've become closed to alternative ways of seeing or understanding. There are many paradigms out there to understand this process....and all of them (in my mind) boil down to this...there is more to the story.

"More" can be a different perspective. "More" can be details that have gone unnoticed. "More" can be allowing new feelings to color and tint OR letting old feelings stop coloring experience. "More" can mean so many things.

One of the glorious things about improv stories is that they are of the moment. The more experienced an improv storyteller becomes, the more at ease one becomes with exploring new paths, letting go of assumptions and experiencing new story realities...essentially ready to watch the clouds of the story change. Was that a rabbit in the sky....or a mushroom growing near a top hat? Or was it a rabbit disappearing into a discarded magician's hat?

Last week, in the midst of a bunch of rainy days, we had a burst of blue sky. After a lunch picnic, LP and I lay on a blanket and watched the clouds move in the sky. And as I watched those clouds change, I thought about how much LP is changing every day. I tried to soften my gaze on her and see the things that I don't usually see. It is easy to focus on the parts of LP that delight me and the things that are challenging. So easy to focus on the first image, on my first ideas and assumptions about what it means that she loves to make bouquets out of any material she can find in nature. Or what it means that she prefers the color red. Or loves dinosaurs.

And focusing on those details can leave so much out of the story of who she is today...and tomorrow. Noticing the details is wonderful. So is noticing when the details are limiting my ability to really see her in any given moment.

It is a challenge to give up our solid sense of story, of this is how you are and who you are. Yet when we can do this, when we can see each other as changing beings, we can not only better support growth but enjoy all the potentials you can see.

I hope that I can remember to watch LP with that soft, cloud-watching vision sometimes and to also help her build her ability to see the world in alternative ways.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

A Tree "Grows" in LP's Room

2010-02-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

This was really my improv craft project (i.e. just leaping in without much of a plan and figuring it out along the way) but LP was along for the multi-day ride of making it happen.

I've wanted to add texture and color to LP's room for quite awhile. Since we rent, there are some limitations to what I can do to the walls, etc. After much contemplation, I finally felt inspired to make a felt tree to cover up the closet door. I bought some brown and green felt, pulled out the sewing box and went to it.

While I worked on this (over 5 days), LP supervised, played with the fabric scraps quite a bit, arranged pins in the pin cushion and (my favorite) made "costumes" by wrapping herself in thread. Yellow thread was her duck costume, green thread was her frog costume and red thread was her London bus costume. It brought back many sweet memories of playing with my mom's sewing box (which is mine now) when I was a kiddo.

Here's the closet before crafting:

And here's the progression of a the tree "growing"...I measured the height of the closet and cut the trunk shape freehand and taped it with my trusty painters tape.

Once it was up, I cut down the center (because the closet folds out) and started sewing it through the slats. This took a loooooooonnnnnnnng time. Cool unforseen effect is that the thread loops make the felt look more like bark.

Next up, I cut leaves out of the green felt using my pinking shears and arranged them on the tree branches. These leaves also were sewed on through the slats of the door.

Lastly, I used leaves to make the rest of the crown of the tree on the door frame. These leaves are hot glued together in bunches and then tacked up with green tacks.

I hope LP enjoys it...I had a good time making it!

AND this post is linked up to Se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun

Act It Out: Transitions

2010-02-08T20:04:00.001-08:00

While many of our co-created stories occur during quiet times when the goal is settling down and peacefulness, there are also so many opportunities to use story to get into action. I'm trying to get more in touch with these active story opportunities...especially as the on-going cold rain has me feeling like curling up under a blanket and have someone tell me a story (and oh, yes, how I look forward to the day when LP does).

I'm experimenting with using story-acting as a transition when LP is coming to the end of an activity (or if I need her to come to the end of an activity). For example, if she has been building happily with the Legos but seems to be getting restless with it and hasn't self-initiated something else, I might join her with the Legos and make a few offers to see if we can transform the moment. (She has so many opportunities throughout the day to self-initiate, I like to see if at least once a day I can pay close enough attention to be a part of it, just for varieties sake...and it does also work if the "transition" LP has arrived at is whining.)

Currently her Lego creations are either parfaits or trampolines or parfait trampolines (sticky but sweet landings on that one)...so I might start a story about a trampoline who liked to make people go up and down and flip around. I'd repeat a key phrase like "up and down and flip around" and then stand up and do some action of "up and down and flip around" myself and then invite her to join me and do it together.

As we're going "up and down and flip around," I'd pay attention to LP's body and words to figure out where to go next. The story-moment can be brief and just the transition (as our action moves us to the big bed for some tumbling time) or can be an entry to a shared imaginative experience as we find out what happens when the trampoline flipped LP so high up into the sky that she landed on a cloud or perhaps she would become a pancake being flipped.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Wrap it up!

2010-02-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

We have entered the birthday season!

Between mid-January and mid-March, we celebrate 8 family birthdays (including myself, LP and ImprovDad) along with the birthdays of 3 of LP's girlfriends (all turning 3). So there has been a lot of talking about birthdays and opportunities to sing.

After making wrapping paper and wrapping up a present for a friend, LP was bit by the wrapping bug. She comandeered all the paper from the easel and brought a steady stream of lovies and books to be wrapped. Once wrapped, a present was gently carried to its recipient while LP sang "Happy Birthday." (Bartie the Bus made out like a bandit with Via the musical frog a close second although LP tells me her real birthday wasn't until Saturday.)

It was fun to watch the game evolve, especially when I got on board (and stopped putting away the tape each time as if it was over) and shared the birthday fun. I am, it seems, always learning that it is actually faster to say "YES!" and join in play and then move on to what I want (or need or think I need) to do. Delaying tactics lessen LP's fun because she moves her focus from her game (which she just was trying to share) to actively trying to get my attention.

I'm sure we'll be playing "wrap it up" again and next time I'll be ready to empower LP to do more herself (like pieces of tape lined up on the easel for her to use as she pleases).

This post is part of se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun (and no, it isn't Friday on any calendar except the improv one where it can always be Friday...thanks se7en for understanding that!)

Tell Me a Story: DIY Myth

2010-02-02T14:44:00.001-08:00

And so our sleep-deprived story continues....

As LP (and we) serve out our transition time (that uncomfortable time when the old way of doing things no longer works and the new way of doing things isn't yet defined), there are many awake hours in wee hours of the morning.

Not my best time.

I'm trying many new things to shift our nights into a better and more sleep-filled experience. Along with some straight talk about nighttime (which is for sleeping) I'm also developing the story of the Sleepy Bird. I have a (hopeful) feeling that Sleepy Bird will become part of our bedtime and re-falling asleep routines. She has great potential to serve a mythic function.

A few nights ago, LP really settled down as I started to tell her about the Sleepy Bird getting up out of her nest and flying through the night sky, over houses and apartments and all kinds of places that people are sleeping. I was able to spin a long, long story about trees dreaming about tree things and so on. When the Sleepy Bird sees someone not sleeping, she comes and sings a soft, sleepy song to help them go back to sleep.

Last night when I said goodnight, I reminder her about Sleepy Bird, she smiled and softly said "tweet, tweet".

Fingers crossed that "tweet tweet" and lead to sleep, sleep.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 minute blog challenge over at SteadyMom.

A Happy Day

2010-01-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

There's nothing quite like a break in the storm.

For the past few weeks LP has been wrestling with a developmental leap -- it has been clear in her behavior that she was frustrated a lot more than usual. There's been a lot more screaming and night-waking and whining.

And yesterday there was a breakthrough of joy and expression and she (and by extension we) had a much more fun day.

Overall her mood was upbeat and what really stood out to me was the new level of creative expression. She was a singing, storying, playing whirlwind. Goofy and delighted...and delightful too.

Most of it was in the moment so is just captured in my memory but here's a few pics anyway (as a side note, much as I dream of being an all-natural material toys home, a girl loves what she loves and currently what she loves is a Simpsons chest set we recently uncovered in a closet...c'est la vie!)

Here are the Simpsons (from a chess set) on their lego trampoline-bed reading The Mouse & The Buddha:

After that, they needed a snack of kafarla and fatooda (spellings approximate since LP can't spell yet):

Act It Out: Getting Started

2010-01-26T19:39:00.001-08:00

Looking over my blog, I realize how heavily I rely on improvised verbal storytelling and have neglected getting into action. The reason is because verbal stories have been what seem to delight and inspire LP's imagination but as I'm working to challenge her to expand her play, it is good to challenge us both into more active storytelling.

Getting started can be easy...while sharing a story (either made up or already known like a fairy tale), find a place to do a little action together. You can flutter like butterflies or wiggle like worms. You can feed each other pretend spoonfuls of the Three Bears' porridge or clip-clop clip-clop around like the Billy Goats Gruff.

You don't have to commit to acting out the whole story to introduce action into storytelling... although acting out whole stories is something I look forward to with great anticipation!

This post is a part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom.

Jenny on Improv, Kids & Storytelling

2010-01-20T18:52:00.001-08:00

My friend Jenny (improvisor and mom of 2) wrote about telling improv stories with kids over at Improv Notebook. Go check it out!

Tell Me a Story: Meandering Along

2010-01-20T14:57:00.000-08:00

One of the traps that I fall into in my storytelling is trying to make it all a neat package with a cohesive beginning, middle and end. Yet if I pay attention to LP during storytelling I find she is much more open-minded about where a story goes. It can be a reflection of (or my best guess) of some of her experience in the world. (Sometimes I think my storytelling job is to help build cohesiveness and other times I think it is simply to reflect.)

So today's storytelling challenge is to let yourself meander like your kiddo.

See something shiny in your story...go over there and describe it, explore it, find out what it likes to eat for dinner and oh, wait...look over there! It's a worm in a puddle swimming home. Follow the worm as she wiggle-swims along and then....Hey! Look over there! The worm found an apple to eat and there's an apple tree with a bird's nest in it and the nest has three eggs, one blue, one green and one red. The eggs are starting to hatch and out comes a dinosaur, a turtle and a bird. A little girl named LP climbs the tree and look sin the nest and then.....

well and then, see what happens next and next and next.

Return to Play

2010-01-19T13:48:00.001-08:00

Things haven't been feeling so playful lately at casa de Improv-a-mama. LP's sleep is a mess and therefore so am I. I know it is a phase (most likely brought on by the combination of being almost three + starting to use the potty + transitioning to a big girl bed) but still, I've been feeling off my game in all areas of my life.

So I've been trying to remind myself to find some improv structures to add play into our day when it isn't coming from me in any kind of organic way and when I find myself saying a lot of "no" and wanting to sneak away to read or websurf the second LP's attention is on anything else. I find the structure so helpful AND it takes a lot of pressure off needing to be creative. So the main structure is find something (anything) to say "yes" to and then play with it.

Today play also served some other aims as well.

On our rainy walk, a beanbag purple cow (named "July the Space Heater"...after the cat at preschool and her favorite object) became the vehicle for play. I would place July in a bush and then start looking around calling "July....LP, where's July?" And LP would trot over and find her with joy. July got in trees and fences and behind trashcans and then got to try out a tire swing. And (here's the bonus), LP walked so much more than usual. She's been wanting to be carried everywhere and I so want her to walk more without me becoming a nag about it. Hurray for July the Space Heater and walking Hide and Seek! (And hopefully the extra exercise will help on the sleep front)

Then at lunch, LP was asking and asking and asking for "parfaits" (a la Fancy Nancy of the book of the same name). We save ice cream for a special dessert for Shabbat evenings so I said no but offered to make almonds into French "almondine" by slicing them. She was totally into them and enjoyed asking for another almondine (I sliced them one at a time at the table). Bonus was getting the extra healthy food in her.

Even finding these little bits of play in our daily routine lightens the mothering load that lack of sleep was making feel quite heavy. Remembering that simple "yes" and then just letting an activity grow from that almost always leads to new discoveries for us.

This post is part of the Moms' 30 minute blog challenge over at SteadyMom...go on, check out what other moms are blogging about.

Why Improv in 2010?

2010-01-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

It seemed like time to revisit the question I first asked early last year (posted on Feb 2, 2009...for some reason I can't get it to link directly to it).

And it connects to some posts/discussions I've been enjoying on other blogs about individuals pursuing meaningful action in their lives (check out this at SteadyMom... there are others which I'll add when I'm not under 30 minute deadline!)

As a theater artist, I've struggled with keeping the work meaningful. When I was deeply immersed in playwrighting, I looked to Athol Fugard and Vaclav Havel (heck there's a playwright who became president!) as role models for keeping the work of meaningful. When I decided to write, direct and produce a play for my senior thesis in college, it was inspired by the graffiti on the women's bathroom walls on campus and performed as a fundraiser for local nonprofits. When I went to work in professional theater, I worked on educational programming that was about social issues such as hate/violence, substance abuse and sexual harassment.

But I did not find my place there.

I wandered in and out of different theater experiences and writing experiences looking for a way to integrate my desire to make a difference in the world with my desire to make a place for myself as an artist.

Then I fell in love with improv.

The experience changed my life. I was so painfully shy that I could not imagine making it through that first class (with the brilliant Rebecca Stockley). And I made it through that class. And the next few years of classes and adventures in experimenting and failing and struggling to become a person who can say "yes" and find out "what comes next."

And then Rebecca invited me to teach. And I fell in love with teaching. And made that my work for a number of years.

Yet, as much as I loved teaching improv, I did not feel like I had fully found my place.

So I went back to school and studied drama therapy and went into the world integrating the art of improv with mental health practice. It was hard work. It was meaningful work.

Yet, as much as I was inspired (& often exhausted) and moved by the work, I did not find my place there.

So I pulled back and tried a lot of different paths (drama therapy with seniors, corporate training, freelance this and that, documentary film production). I became a mom, struggled with postpartum depression and am (I think at long last) getting back in the practice of trying new paths.

All I know for certain is that improvising is a part of the meaningful work I am going to do.

So why improv? Because...
... the practice of improv creates community
... the practice of improv has taught me to be more brave and take more risks
... the practice of improv creates optimistic habits of mind
... the practice of improv has helped me be more open minded let me know that there are more paths to explore

Today's post is part of the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge over at SteadyMom. Stop on by over there, see what other Moms are blogging about and say "Congratulations!" to Jamie on the publication of her book Steady Days. Post time start to finish is 29 minutes...whew!