Birthday Cake

Because of Dr. Pediatrician's crazy call schedule over Thanksgiving and throughout the whole weekend, we didn't actually have birthday cake with Little Gus until Sunday night. So here is the birthday boy, one year and four days old. His sugar feast was hilarious, mainly because he actually didn't like the cake all that much. He was not impressed with frosting. He was not impressed with moist white cake, even though he is a boy after my own heart, a great sweet tooth. For the most part, he was intrigued and then disgusted by the texture of the cake. After squishing it in his hands, he spent at least 20 minutes trying to throw the cake on the floor. The frustrating thing was that his hands were so full of cake and frosting, no matter how hard he tried to fling the cake, it just wouldn't drop to the floor. He got so angry at one point that he threw a little fit in his high chair, and then by accident tasted the cake again and decided it wasn't so bad after all. So he stopped crying and had a little more cake. I don't think I've ever laughed so much while snapping nearly 70 pictures with my camera.

Figures

I give my children a variety of musical experiences. They hear my students playing. They hear me playing throughout the day. I provide live dinner music when I practice instruments while they are eating supper (and taking baths.) Little Gus visits preschool music class each week. There are musical instruments for children available all over my house for them to play with. We listen to Wisconsin Public Radio every day at lunch. I let them play my piano. I sing to them.

And doesn't it just figure, that upon opening a nasty kid MP3 player that plays out of key children songs at a loud volume, (My revengeful mother sent it for his birthday) Little Gus would exhibit the most musical excitement of his life. He has turned into a cronic button pusher. All we hear are the first three words of each song that this little toy sings, because he can't resist pushing the button again, and again, and again. He wiggles his body. He waves his arms. He grins. He shrieks. He lavishes the control of those buttons and the obnoxious results that come forth, that is, when his button-pushing big sister isn't tapping the buttons herself.

Woe's me.

It's downright disheartening. If it didn't make the little guy so happy I'd be depressed.

Bathtub Breakfast

Last year when Ms. Crazy Preschooler turned three we began a tradition of eating breakfast in the bathtub. In one of our children's books, there is a little boy who eats macaroni and cheese in the bathtub, and Ms. CP wanted nothing more than to try it herself, so the night before her birthday I told her she could have breakfast in the bathtub. She was so excited. And we had a great time, so it has become a family tradition. Little Gus really enjoyed oatmeal and cheerios this morning, with some help from big sister.

Happy Birthday Little Gus

Little Gus turned one today! Hooray! Fun things are to come, like riding in a car facing forward, and eating scrambled eggs. We are going to do most of the celebrating tomorrow when Dr. Pediatrician is home from the hospital. Our babysitter Elizabeth said he walked across the room on Monday while I was teaching lessons, but up until today his fancy feet had been rather elusive when I was in the room. He'd walk for Ms. CP, but as soon as I'd peek my head around the corner he would promptly sit down. This afternoon, however, while we were feasting on turkey at a friends house, he took five steps of his own accord. It was very exciting and he was terribly proud. Cake pictures are soon to come, after I actually make the cake.

Other Incidents of Word Choice

After preschool today Ms. CP and I were walking to the car with her projects and backpacks.

"Mom, you know," she said, "Thea's dad has a bumpy eye."

"Huh?"

"Thea's dad has a bumpy eye. It's kind of dead so its a bump. It doesn't work so good."

"Do you mean he has a bum eye?"

"No, mom. I'm pretty sure it's a bump. With a P at the end."

Gotta love that phonomic awareness.

Thankful Tree

Ms. Crazy Preschooler brought home several fun projects from preschool today, including this tree of thanks. She also brought a special thanksgiving card home that she made her very own self. It had a turkey handprint on the outside, and inside there was a cute little message along with a picture of our family eating Thanksgiving dinner that she drew herself. There was a large oval table, complete with precisely three dishes of food. On one side of the table sat three people (which is accurate since our kitchen is so small that everyone has to jam in sitting on one side of the table). One person was labeled "Mom." One person was labeled "ME." And the third person was labeled "Gregory." Because, of course, she doesn't ever refer to him as Dad. She takes up the more formal "Gregory" at any chance she has. When I asked about the missing Little Gus, she replied simply: "Oh, I don't think he was available for lunch."

Turkey Lurkey

Ms. Crazy Preschooler made this cute little turkey in preschool today with a pinecone, some play dough and a few colorful paper feathers. He's been waiting patiently on our kitchen table, watching Ms. CP demonstrate how turkeys strut throughout lunch today. Turkey strutting involves a lot of wobbling and forward/backward head thrashing along with some precarious flapping elbows.

Norway

I've been meaning to write about the series of choir concerts I participated in a week ago. To celebrate Norway's 100th anniversary of independence from Sweden, the community choir I sing in performed many, many songs in Norwegian. Some of the selections were beautiful sacred works by Greig (one of my favorite composers) and several selections were Norwegian folk songs arranged for choir about topics such as a valley of simpletons that bounce around singing dum dum ta dum do do do doo doo and a pig with a hind end bigger than the pastor's cottage. We sang several Norwegian Christmas carols and some works by the remarkable F. Melius Christianson, a Norwegian American composer who founded the St. Olaf Choir. I particularly enjoy singing his music.

The concerts were surprisingly fun. This was rather astonishing, because learning the music was very taxing, we weren't really well prepared and, quite honestly, up until the first concert, we sounded terrible: out of tune, and clashing over exactly how to pronounce each Norwegian syllable. But things amazingly came together, and I ended up really enjoying myself, even though it was an ordeal to leave my children and get to the concert every day (ever tried to curl your hair with a toddler at your feet who empties the entire contents of the bathroom vanity drawer on the floor, tries to eat the toilet cleaning brush and slobbers your only solid black velvet dress?)

Perhaps the best parts of the concert were seeing each church filled with little old ladies wearing their Norwegian sweaters, and Sons of Norway members who handed out a wide selection of delicious Norwegian pastries and cookies after each concert. I do love Norwegian sweets: butter and sugar, butter and sugar, butter and sugar.

And I learned many things about Norway that I was in the dark about, for example, that they have only been an independent country for 100 years, that they dress formally in bunads, and that they have a very beautiful national anthem.

New Hat

At the beginning of November, Ms. Crazy Preschooler and I took a special trip to Wausau, just us, to pick up a few supplies and mostly to hang out at Barnes and Nobles (where we spent 5 hours eating cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, a cheese sandwhich reading books and playing with the train in the children's section). I bought this hat for her to take some fun winter pictures, and after it snowed on Wednedsay, we snapped a few inside and a few outside.

A Brief List of things I have Crashed into with a Car

1. My family's new garage, twice in one week while I was in high school

2. A brick wall at Jamestown College (I tried to make a slow and careful U turn where I shouldn't have)

3. A small deer near Thompson ND.

4. My current house, several times, while backing out of the garage.

5. The garbage can at the end of our driveway on garbage day, an ongoing weekly crash.

6. My friend Jodi's retaining wall.

I know there have been other incidents that I am repressing at the moment.

Bus Phobia and Brick Walls

I have a phobia about missing buses.

It all started in first grade. I was out on the front porch waiting for the big bus to pull up at the end of our driveway. I saw the bus coming down the road. I saw the bus go right past our farm. The bus driver had completely forgotten to pick me up. In my world this was devastating. My mom had to drive me to school, I cried the whole way, and even though she explained again and again that I was not at fault, the bus just forgot me, forevermore I was filled with a fear of missing buses.

In high school and in middle school, I was always at least 20 minutes early for any activity that involved boarding a bus because I didn't want to take any chance that I might miss the bus. My stomach would knot up with the thought of the bus rolling by without me. On choir tour in college I was always one of the first people to get back on the bus every time the bus stopped. When our choir was in Europe I made detailed mental maps of exactly where I was. There was perhaps nothing that made me more anxious than being lost in a foreign country AND missing the bus.

So on Friday I was on my way to catch a bus for a choir trip to Iola WI. And I was running late (two children can do that to you). After dropping both critters off at my friend's house (she was watching them until Dr. Pediatrician could pick them up after work) I hopped in my car and backed down her long winding driveway and slammed right into her brick retaining wall. Because I was late for the bus, I didn't even stop to check things out . . . I just kept driving past the damaged retaining wall to the parking lot where I had to meet the bus.

Later I called to apologize, and she laughed and laughed. The brick wall is fixable, and the car isn't even scratched. And I managed to board the bus with time to spare, which is good, since I don't really know where Iola WI is anyway.

Princess in Residence

A week ago Ms. CP and I found this foam princess hat in a clearance bin at a craft store, and she has been living in it ever since. It is quite possibly the best value for a dollar I've gotten all year. To make matters more exciting, Grandma Kathy sent us a pair of ruby red slippers in a box early on in the week, so now Ms. CP can wear her princess hat and clomp about in her sparkly red shoes (3 sizes too large). She really makes a statement. When the parents of my students pop their heads in the door as they are dropping off or picking up kids, they smile and laugh at her elaborate costumes. Having a princess around really adds a flair to the household. Sometimes I am designated the queen. Yesterday Dr. Pediatrician was the royal garbage man.

Shopping with Ms. Crazy Preschooler: A Testament of Faith

Ms. CP: That's really neat. Look at that, Mama! Can I have that?"

Me: Mmmm. That's really very neat, Isn't it. But we don't need that.

Ms CP: Can I have that?

Me: No, maybe someday, but not today.

Ms CP: How about that? Or that? Or that?

Me: Honey, remember we aren't getting anything today, we are just looking. Besides, we already got you a special winter scarf and a Princess Hat, remember?

Ms. CP: But I really want it. I really, really, really, really, really do. Why can't I have it if I want it?

Me (falling into the exasperated phrase uttered by countless parents of every generation) Well, you know, we don't always get everything we want.

Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence.

Ms CP: But what if Jesus says I can have everything I want?

Spiritual Wisdom

Ms. Crazy Preschooler yesterday morning:

"Mama, God doesn't make very many Dora panties for grownups, does he?"

Frustration.
Consternation.
Infuriation.
Desperation.

Want the Cheerio.
Dropped it on purpose at lunch.
Saving it for later.
Can't reach.
Implorable gate. Impenetrable.

Nasty Mama snapping pictures.

Dejected Driver

New Purchase

Last Wednesday I came back from a trip to Target with this handy dandy little white board. I'm not a big fan of white boards in general, other than on dorm room doors for message taking purchases, but I am super excited about this white board. It is magnetic. And cute. And I have a new way to display my magnetic poetry that until recently has been banished to several (OK five) cookie sheets underneath my bed. I took one cookie sheet out and filled the board with little itty bitty words, and while my children are slurping their breakfast, I compose magnetic poetry in the kitchen. I haven't come up with any truly magnificent poems to publish this week, but perhaps more fun than coming up with an entire poem is to pick out word combinations and join them together. They churn in my brain and my imagination takes off. While the little creatures in my house crunch their cereal and squish bananas all over the table, I have visions of amazing stories, splendid plots, and tantalizing characters that have important things to say and do. It's really too bad that instead of actually writing a sketch of the stories down, I have to clean up breakfast, a task that actually takes longer than breakfast itself.

Word Combination of the Day: Repulsive Moment

Moving

Little Gus pushes his favorite contraption. He and Ms. Crazy Preschooler trade this ugly pink baby buggy and the cute little red wagon back and forth as they zoom around the yard, but Little Gus seems to like this one best. The big wheels help him stabalize as he bumps across the grass.

Here are some recent aspects of piano pedagogy I am excited about using with my students recently:

1. At the beginning of the school year I chose about 10 of my students to take part in a portfolio project. About once each month, those students and I choose one piece that they have worked especially hard on to record on my computer. At the end of the year I will burn these audio portfolios onto a CD so that the students can listen to their progress throughout the entire year. It is working beautifully! Not only are the students excited about the project and the progress they are making, I am finding that recording finished pieces gives us a reason to work just a bit harder to put the finishing touches on certain pieces, and it recreates the environment of a low pressure performance throughout the entire year. Playing and singing always feels different when someone is watching or you are being recorded, and I am hoping that learning to cope with that difference throughout the year will make playing at a recital in the spring much less scary for these students.

2. Last month I read a professional book about using questions more effectively in the private lesson environment, and I have been experimenting with asking better, higher level questions, and having students explain more concepts verbally.

3. I am always emphasizing the ability to find patterns in music, and many of my students have actually started to seek out patterns on their own when I hand them new music.

4. My younger students have been doing some composing with alphabet refrigerator magnets. They love it, and it is great practice for my prereading students who are learning letter names for the keys on the piano, but haven't begun to read notes on the staff yet. I love using manipulatives, especially with young students. Things are so much more exciting if they get to move something around.