Let the Playing Begin

When you have a righteous desire and you make an effort to fulfill it, even if it is meager, you will get the heavenly help you need.

We got a piano last week and Ashley started lessons this week. We decided to go with a digital piano, the technology nowadays is pretty advanced so we felt like it would be a good choice for novices like us. We also have the option to trade-up at 100% the purchase price if we decide we would like something different later on.

Finding the right piano was only half the battle, we then had to find an instructor for Ashley. Fortunately, our neighbor was willing to take Ashley as a student for a ridiculously cheap price per lesson. It is a real blessing and so convenient because Ashley can walk to and from her piano lesson.

We aren't going to start Paige yet, but she has loved being able to play with the piano. In fact, when Dave asked her if she would like to take lessons someday, she said, "I don't think I need lessons, dad. I am already pretty good."

Do you read our log?

Paige asked me today if other people read our log. I hated to do it, but I then had to spend about 15 minutes trying to convince an incredulous 5-year old that the word was "blog."

And now the more I think about it, I don't think "blog" sounds like a real word either, although I am definitely not a logger.

I Love the 80s

Well, you know you are getting old when your daughter gets invited to an 80s theme party and has to ask you what that means. Especially, when you automatically think, "totally cool" and know just what she can wear.

As you can see, we went for the Madonna/Flashdance look.

After the party, when I went to pick Ashley up, lots of the mom's gave me compliments on Ashley's costume and hair. Actually, it was really just all the moms standing around saying, "I remember those! I use to wear that!"

Homework Time

Here is Paige doing her first ever homework assignment. She is decorating a flower to hang up on the "Kinder Garden" wall. She is loving kindergarten and is happy to go every day.

She is getting the occasional homework, which has already resulted in a "bad parent" moment for me. Every Friday, the kids have a color show-and-tell day, which means that on red day the kids bring something from home that is red, on blue day bring something blue, etc. Well, we did okay on week one, but I completely forgot last Friday. Paige told me she had to use something in the classroom. She didn't seem bothered that we had forgotten, but I told her I would try hard to remember next Friday and she just said, "Yeah, mom you should try a little harder to remember." I wrote it on the calendar.

I also have to smile at Paige's reaction to the discipline program in the classroom. Basically, you start each day on green, if you are "put on" yellow it's a warning and a red is a short time-out. Well, obviously this made an impression on her because she came home the first day of school to tell me that, "two kids were on yellow today!" A couple days later, I told her to ask her teacher about something or other and she said, "okay," then thought about it for a minute and said, "I don't think I should ask her, she might put me on yellow." This was followed by another incident at home when I gave her warning for something and I told her if she did it again, she was going to have to sit in time-out, to which she responded, "does this mean I'm on yellow?"

All this led to a little talk about how in kindergarten we learn to follow the rules, but we can ask our teachers questions and that even if we "get on red" mom isn't going to get really mad at you because that just means we have to try a little harder next time. I was worried she was taking this all a little too seriously.

Of course, after week two we aren't talking as much about being put on red, now we are onto, "mom, my friend Addie has a boyfriend. It's true!"

Mom's response: "you don't have boyfriends in kindergarten."

Paige: "I know mom, but Addie doesn't know that. So it's okay."

Heaven Help Me

There are a lot of things that I need "heavenly help" for, but I sure am in-over-my-head on this one. Piano Shopping. I don't play the piano or any instrument for that matter. I don't read music. I don't sing. I don't sing on tune. Are you beginning to see my handicap?

New, used, upright, digital, soundboards, hammers, string length, key weight and that doesn't even include the many brands I am trying to figure out. I have actually been doing a lot of research to try and learn as much as possible, but you can't help but feel stupid when you go to a piano showroom and can't sit down to try out a piano. I have this fear that when a piano salesman (or Craigslist seller) sees me, he is thinking, "there is a sucker born every minute" (insert evil laughter.)

I am only doing this so my daughters don't end up like me (see above.)

Labor Day

My Labor Day began very early. In fact, I was awake to welcome it at 12:00 am and honestly it wasn't much of a holiday. Dave as expected had to work all weekend. And late Sunday night Paige started getting sick. I was pretty much up with her until about 3am, then we finally got a few hours sleep, but were back up again at 5:30am.

Paige isn't seriously sick just a horrible cold. The problem is she is a terrible sick person. She fights it so much that she just ends up making herself more miserable and her parents suffer in the process. She has always been like this, once in the hospital she was given a sedative which should have made her drowsy and relaxed, instead she kept trying to fight it off and basically ended up loopy, but flailing around without control of her body.

The other night, she was terribly congested and just kept sniffing to clear her nose instead of breathing through her mouth. She would just not relax and eventually ended up so frustrated she was crying, which only made the congestion worse.

The next morning, the girls and I ended up canceling our Labor Day plans - a parade, swimming, and a bike ride. Paige was okay, but in no condition to leave the house, until about 7:30 pm when all of us feeling a little cabin fever, went to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee.

Line in the Sand

I am drawing a line in the sand. I will not tie shoes for my 10 year old. Even if it means she misses the school bus in the morning because she can't tie the $60 athletic shoes that she wanted so badly and promised she could tie without a problem.