The Joys & Jostling of Raising Musically-Inclined Kids

Rainy Recital Day 2011

In our family, piano-practicing has always been a "challenge"  (euphemism). Caleb would call it torture . And declaration of war begins when the words, "Give me a time! What time are you going to practice?" shoot out of my mouth. It seems that every mom struggles with the same exact predicament in the afternoons, after the kids had come home from school, had their snack and watched reruns of Arthur yet another time.

Caleb plays our new piano for the 1st time!

I'm not sure how Caleb pulled it off this time, and the minimal time he puts into piano playing (~8 minutes a day) perplexes me. The piano teacher always says that he 'did good', and I wonder how that could happen? During recital morning, Caleb still played super-off -key, hard-on-the-eardrum, and honestly unbearable melodies which he is to present to the world 5 hours later! Daddy and I both fear that the teacher will soon fire him as her student for decimating her good reputation as one of the best teachers in our area.



Surprisingly, we were able to hear Caleb play the WHOLE song, without mistakes on every other note, from beginning to end, for the 1st time in his recital yesterday! This is probably our last time too, as it would be uncharacteristic for him to reiterate his 'old' songs after the Big R Day has ended. Good thing we have this video to look back on when we are old and gray (if blogspot doesn't fold).



Speaking of music, he also started learning Clarinet in his band class this year! I bought a super good deal neon green clarinet on Amazon.com that turned out to be a total dud. I couldn't even put the clarinet parts together, and when I did (an hour later), I discovered I bruised my right thumb doing so too! Caleb was bummed and feared lagging behind (since we are returning our dud), so he sadly decided to default to choir instead. However, our wonderful band teacher encouraged us by lending us his last 'district clarinet', and Caleb was able to catch up right away and enjoyed playing clarinet!



He plays at home (without my nagging)  'just for fun' and learned songs that were not even taught yet! As he grows up, I pray he will take this talent with him when he ventures into adulthood, and use it for enjoyment as well as an offering to our Lord!

Happy Birthday Caleb ~ Happy Thanksgiving Everyone ~ Welcome Home, Yammy (Piano)! (^_^)

Caleb is DOUBLE-DIGITS "BIG 10" !!!

This is a busy month for us, as we were thrown in for a lot of decision-making with whom, where, when, and how my laprascopy surgery for those nagging ovarian cysts would come about. Thankfully, God made all things work together, as He always had!

So I decided to celebrate Caleb's Big 10 Birthday earlier, since we weren't sure when my surgery would be (perhaps Thanksgiving week, when Caleb's real birthday would be).

So I ordered the very FIRST ice cream cake in our family's history! And Baskin Robbin's Oreo Cookie Ice Cream cake was the best! I did learn, however, to not order cake 2 weeks in advance without checking the forecast first, because it was FREEZING when we ate the cake on party day! Nonetheless, it was great!



The kids loved singing the song, and Caleb cut his own cake for the 1st time! We also invited our special guest, Kobee Bird, to the party! The kids made party hats which looked super cool on Kobes!

~ Kobee not happy about his homemade party hat ~

Caleb got a cool, 'timely' gift (in light of my upcoming Operation, I suppose...)....and I've been wanting to get one of these games since I was a kid!

Good preview of what's to come (for mommy)!

Hubby enjoys games we didn't have as kids! 

It was always on commercials, and families extracted 'parts' from the patient's body. So daddy and kids had a great time!

Bummer! No ovaries here!

We got our new (well, used....like nearly 20 yr old!) Yamaha piano 2 days later! We sold our sweet little piano and bought a very beautiful and well-cared for Yamaha U30 from our friend's dad, a professional tuner and piano seller! So that will hopefully motivate Caleb to hang on for a few more years! His recital is coming up in a few days!



Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Though our life may not be always smooth, but we know that with God and loved ones, nothing is too difficult to face! I am thankful for each and every one of you!

p.s. Surgery date turned out to be in December and not Thanksgiving week! It will take place 4 days before Christmas so I have lots of time to reflect about loved ones, this past year...and watch TV (^_^)!

Thankful that God provided loved ones with wise counsel too! Instead of having to remove 1 ovary, I was referred by good friends to a laprascopy specialist who could spare my girly parts! Yeay! (^_^)