The Pianist

We had Mary Grace's annual piano recital today.  Her teacher has a studio of about 20 students.  At the recital, each student plays one solo, and also plays one or two duets in which they play with the teacher, a parent who also plays piano, or another student.  

I kept Evelyn and Willa at home last year during her recital, so I haven't heard her play along side her peers in two years.  I've heard her practice plenty at home.  She practices every day, so I know how she plays.  I just haven't heard what other children her age sound like in a long time.  

(I'll warn you now that I'm about to brag on my child.  If you don't want to hear it, I don't blame you.  You can skip the rest, and go browse YouTube now.)

Mary Grace is good.  If I do say so myself, she's really good.  She plays the right notes and right rhythms of course.  But her musical understanding and expression comes from somewhere deep inside.  When she plays, she means it and makes the audience feel it.  I don't know how else to describe it.  Her solo blew me away.

Then she played a really cute duet with Jason (who gets tons of credit for working with her nearly every single day, going with her to every lesson, and playing for her and the twins as much as he can.)

Then came the piece that impressed me more than anything else.  She played a duet arrangement of Frere Jacques with another little boy.  He played the somewhat easier melody line while she played the accompaniment.   She counted them off and started the piece, following his tempos, slowing down when he did, and speeding up when he did.  Pretty awesome for an 8 year old!  Then after a few measures, he got a little lost and stopped playing.  Uh oh.  So Mary Grace did what any professional musician would do and VAMPED!  That means she had the wherewithal to play the last few notes over and over until the other child came back in, then as soon as he started playing, she immediately was right with him and along they went.  What?!  Who taught her to do that?!  Jason says, she "just knew what to do."  Pretty amazing...if I do say so myself.

If you want to see the video of the recital, go to http://gallery.me.com/schayot/100114

Sleeping Beauties

Mary Grace had her 8th birthday party this weekend! She wanted a slumber party, so we planned a backyard campout for a handful of girls from her class. It was her first time to have more than one friend sleep over at a time, so I was pretty much expecting the worst. Screaming...obnoxious amounts of giggling...bickering...hurt feelings...back to screaming and giggling...me yelling at them at midnight to go to sleep...children wanting to go home...me yelling again at 1am...and at 2am. I decided that these girls are probably like toddlers (I figure everyone at some level is like a toddler) - they just need to be kept busy. I had craft after craft after craft ready to go. We cooked, flavored, and colored our own bubble gum, made dream catchers, and painted pillow cases. In between activities, they were allowed to scream and giggle...a little bit. At one point, I realized they were holding an impromptu piano recital when they realized that more than half of them took piano lessons. I got that one on video. Who would believe me otherwise?

Jason set up the tent on the patio since it was raining on and off all day, and when they got in, I gave them a bunch of those glow sticks and necklaces. They told each other ghost stories, some of which were terrifying, "Then he stabbed the guy over and over and over and over" (good grief!), and some of which were obviously make-it-up-as-you-go, "then they moved to Texas, then to California, then to Alabama, then to New Mexico..." (huh?) They dropped off one by one until it was just Mary Grace and her best buddy giggling and whispering. It was actually really sweet, and they were all asleep just before midnight.

Of course, they were then all up and awake at 7:00am. Wow. Okay. Pancakes, more giggling, more screaming. Neighbors are preparing to call the police for disturbing the peace by now. About an hour before the parents were supposed to come pick up the girls, I took them on a quick walk around the neighborhood. That's when they found the random black mud puddle and within five minutes, they were somehow covered in mud. Hello parents, here's your child who was in mint condition until 10 minutes ago. Sorry about that! Honestly, though, Mary Grace adores mud, and it was the perfect ending to a perfect party.

Easter

Easter weekend was an EGGstravaganza! Sorry, couldn't help myself. We had egg decorating, egg hiding, egg hunting, egg cooking, and egg eating. The girls made complete messes of themselves and several pieces of furniture dying eggs. Next year maybe we'll do it outside and naked (just them). Anyway, the eggs turned out lovely, although the house smelled pretty egg-y until today when we started devouring the eggs deviled-style. Yum. We got sitters and celebrated Jason's birthday on Saturday listening to some live music in Austin and eating lots and lots of meat at Fogo de Chao. That place is quite an operation. I'm not sure I ate my money's worth, but Jason at his own and mine as well, so it all evened out. We played outside when it was nice, and played inside when it wasn't. We all went to the Good Friday service and Easter morning service. Jason sang and played trumpet. The girls enjoyed their Easter goodies from Mr. Bunny. They all got Peeps (among other things) and I found their reactions to the Peeps indicative of their personalities. Mary Grace immediately began biting the heads off of each of her Peeps. Such a little sweetheart. Evelyn called them her babies and covered them with a napkin/blanket and carried them around in their basket/bed. Willa took one bite, said "Ew!" and threw hers in the trash (my feelings exactly). They all eventually, though, succumed to whatever it is that makes people like to eat these sort-of-food-products, because as of tonight, they are all gone. Everyone went to bed exhausted, but having had a fun-filled, and somehow really relaxing family weekend. Few and far between for us this time of year. Love these girls! Check out the gallery for Easter/birthday/bluebonnet pics. http://gallery.me.com/schayot

And the rowdy shall inherit the earth.

We've started bringing Evelyn and Willa into big church to sit with us through the service. We did this with Mary Grace at about this age with mixed results. She's never been one for the whole "sitting still and being quiet thing." Evelyn and Willa, however, behave beautifully and don't even need reminders to be quiet...let alone needing to be dragged out by one arm and yelled at in the vestibule. Ah, the memories.

Anyway, we get lots of comments from people at Church about how well they behave, etc. It's nice. Then there was today. During the children's sermon (when all the children go up to the front steps to sit in front of everyone) Evelyn was trying to get Willa to laugh, and when Willa wouldn't oblige, she started poking her in the eye repeatedly and then hugging/choking her. Did I mention that they were two of five children up there? Very nice, ladies. I'm sure we made lots of parents out in the congregation feel much better about themselves today. Amen.

I love the smell of bleach in the morning

There is an extremely short list of things that could make me happier than having a sparkling clean house BEFORE spring break even starts. I announced last night that the next day I was going to clean, and that I needed everyone out of the house while I did it. I've never seen a group of people so happy to comply.

I had three uninterrupted hours of cleaning time. It was great. Don't get me wrong, I would certainly prefer not to have to clean the house, but the result is SO satisfying. Where is the line drawn on OCD with regard to cleaning? Do I have tendencies? Possibly. One of my sister's nicknames for me is Monica. (Thanks to all of you who get the reference.) But am I a nut? I don't think so. The house can get pretty dirty. It's just that I get all out of sorts when it's like that. The sun shines directly through our kitchen/living room windows in the late afternoon, and I just get so creeped out the way it highlights every fleck of dust in the air, not to mention the junk on the floor. It puts me in a bad mood. It's not that I'm obsessed with cleaning. I have three children, a husband and a dog running around. I don't have time to be obsessed. I just REALLY REALLY REALLY would prefer for things to be clean. This is just making me sound crazier, right? Even in high school, I was kind of nutty about making my bed, and keeping my bathroom clean. My sweet sister, in protest, would refuse to let me clean her half of the bathroom, and I'm pretty sure she kept it extra messy on purpose just to bother me. Same way with my wonderful husband, who just can't manage to rinse out the sink after he brushes his teeth, or get his dirty clothes in the hamper, even if I put it right where he likes to pile things. When Mary Grace was very small, she was talking to me about how Daddy teaches the band kids. I asked her, "And what does Mommy do?" No hesitation - "Mommy cleans up our messes."

I guess the question of whether or not I have a disorder doesn't matter nearly as much as how happy I am right now sitting in my nice clean house.