Q. What types of books have you bought Phoibe?

A. I made a point of getting her a set of the Beatrix Potter books. That was actually one of the first sets of books I bought. The pictures are so beautiful and I read them all as a child.

Q. Have you bought her any other series?

A. I bought the Anne of Green Gables books, obviously for when she gets older. I have gotten most of the Dr. Seuss books and I’m working on Curious George. I also read her [a nursery rhymes book]. It was a gift from my singing teacher, Darryl Edwards, and his wife, Dianne, and Phoibe loves the sing-songy nature of the words and of course she likes to flip the pages now herself!

Q. Why those books?

A. I loved Anne of Green Gables when I was young. Phoibe likes the rhyming in the Dr. Seuss books and the classics, like Green Eggs and Ham. They are very imaginative. I think that Curious George should be part of every child’s life. The CD from the recent movie is great too.

Q. Aside from reading, what do you and Phoibe do together?

A. If I practice, Phoibe will sit and sing with me. It’s quite funny. She sort of yells and sings to the music. We love to take walks and, in nice weather, we go to the playground. She’s a very active child. We meet up with other moms and kids and she gets to play with them too.

Q. How do you balance work and home?

A. We were really very lucky. With my schedule I was back at work when Phoibe was six-and-a-half weeks old. My husband, Kristian, took parental leave for six months so they both were able to come with me on contracts and he took care of Phoibe while I worked. She took to a bottle early so contracts were doable. My husband went back to work in August of 2006, but my mother has been babysitting like crazy. I’ve been blessed with good childcare and understanding relatives. It would be quite taxing without the support from my husband and family.

Q. How do you handle traveling for contracts?

A. I’ve been traveling more and it is an issue. I just spent a month in Chicago and my mother came with me and took care of Phoibe. She had just retired when Phoibe was born so that worked out really well.

Q. You were born in Canada but your family is from Hungary. How do you keep your heritage alive for Phoibe?

A. My mother speaks to Phoibe in Hungarian. I feel very attached to my background so I have some little Hungarian books for Phoibe that I read as a child. I think that it makes for a broadminded person to be exposed to as much as possible.

Q. You are an opera singer and your husband is a director of CARFAC, a union for visual artists. With an artistic background, are you making a special effort include arts in Phoibe’s education?

A. I’m planning on sending her to piano lessons as soon as I can. She’s exposed to music all the time. She’s starting to dance around to it now. I hope she enjoys it as much as I do.