The Lesson

The girlie had her first piano lesson last night. Her brother started his lessons in the fall, and she's been curious from the start. But given her young age, the piano teacher suggested that we just let her observe and get used to the presence of the teacher every week, before letting her give it a try.

I love their teacher. She is GREAT with children.

I actually used to teach piano as a teenager. I even taught my brother up until he sat for his Grade 2 Royal Conservatory Exam. He got first class honours at the age of 7. So in theory, I could teach my own kids at least the basics, even though it's been over 20 years since I taught anyone.

In theory. You see, I pretty much could have killed my brother during his lessons. It's so much harder to teach your own - your expectations are so high, you assume they can do better, they never practice enough, etc., etc. Just ask my brother what those years were like, I bet he'd still remember the torture.

So when it came time for music lessons for my boy, I wasn't even going there.

After four months, he can read simple music, count and play with both hands. He practices every day without prompting, and to be honest, I've only sat down with him a couple of times just to see what he's playing. I'd say that's massive restraint on my part.

When the teacher rang the doorbell yesterday, the girlie came up with me shyly, and only agreed to go to the piano room with the teacher if I accompanied them. I did so gladly, as it was the deal. The teacher welcomed it and let me stay in the back.

What a joy it was to watch the girlie concentrating, looking at the teacher with such attention, and focusing on her fingers and the book in front of her. She learned the number of her fingers, the difference between black and white keys, and long and short notes. She even played two simple pieces. And she was beaming, ear to ear, as the teacher told her how well she was doing.

After 15 minutes, it was over. The plan is to do 15 minute weekly sessions for the first month, just to ease her into it.

As her brother went in for his turn, she ran to the other room with me, jumping up and down, shouting, "Mommy, I want a FULL lesson next time!" I told her it would come soon enough, but that we were so proud of what she had done for the very first time. More ear to ear beaming.

*****

This morning, as I put the coffee on and got breakfast going, instead of heading to the TV room, the girlie walked over to the piano.

"I'm practicing first thing every morning! I'm good and I can do it, better!"

Do you think she's in the running with her brother?

You betcha for sure.

During the last 72 hours ...

• I imbibed: four tequila shots; four different brands of beer (including an ale by the name of Kiltlifter); the equivalent of about three bottles of wine; a prickly pear margarita; and two gin and tonics. There was also a lot of water in there, and at least 10 cups of coffee, or I'd be in hospital by now I'm sure;
• I've had pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner;
  
• I was subjected to a random body search that lasted about 15 minutes at the airport. (I'm suspicious of the "random" as this has happened to me twice in less than two months now);
• I danced twice to "Low" by Flo Rida and "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black eyed peas;
• I went with the family to a flamenco concert performed by the TSO;
• I went to a 40th birthday party;
• I bought a Barbie fashionista doll at WalMart;
  
• I went to a 6th birthday party;
• I rearranged two of my dresser drawers.

I'm getting too old for this. Certainly feeling it, anyway.

The week did include the following, however...





So how was your weekend?

(PS: the truths? Can you handle them? They included Iggy Pop, Olivia Chow and Jack Layton. Now THAT would be a party.)

Please visit lovely LOTUS to see other weekly winners...

In the land of 4 C's

Citrus, cotton, cattle and - aw shit, I can't remember. I would say canyons, coyotes or cactus, but I think I'd be wrong.

Enjoying Red Rock immensely.

It's 4 AM and I'm drunk blogging.

So there.

Catch ya later.

PS -Eureka - I remembered - COPPER!

Friday Fragments - Hats, Lies and Packing Tape

You can always tell when me or my hubs are having a bad hair day. We wear hats.

Hubby came back from a recent trip to Prague with one of these:

I sent him on a milk run this morning (because we ran out of milk - this week he's off at home with the kids on spring break, living a bit of the dream that I lived for 5 years but forgetting the grocery shopping part...). I dared him and he did it - yes, he wore the hat!

A couple of people looked at him, made quick eye contact, and then looked away very quickly. He wouldn't let me take a photo of him, darn.

*****

I'm trying to get the house in order before I head out for another work trip this weekend. So in the past few days I've been ordering people (ie. my husband) around like a drill sergeant. My son has been asking for a room without a train border since the beginning of the school year. We'd promised we'd get to it done over Christmas; then over spring break- which is NOW. I don't want the poor kid to wait until he goes off to university. So I've been taking things apart, packing things up and barking orders like it's the end of the world. Or at least moving the world. (In actual fact, moving the boy into the existing guest/junk room, and the guest room furniture into his ...).

From IKEA land, we ordered the MALM bed and dresser for his big boy room ... along with the most comfortable mattress ever. It was delivered last night, and by all counts, he will never have to buy another bed again. He couldn't even wait for the bed to be up - he just slept on the mattress.

While I was at the office today, the man called me to say that none of the hardware had come with the furniture and he'd have to go back to IKEA. I asked him to doublecheck, because those items get hidden sometimes in all the packaging. He said he already had, triple-checked through all of the boxes, but I told him I'd look when I got home.

So I got home and went to the first box - and found the hardware in half a second.

Let's say it together... MAN SEARCH.

The bed goes up hopefully tonight.

*****

As an icebreaker at the meeting next week, we'll be playing the truth/false statement game. Not my idea this time, because I've got to think about some more.

Let's see how well you know me - two of these are false, two are true (I know at least one reader who will see a lie):

1. I won first prize for a piece I wrote for a Young Creative Writers contest in 6th grade.

2. I have an obsession with hats which started in high school. I now have 278 in my collection (that's a lotta bad hair days).

3. One of the best sushi meals I ever had was prepared for me by Olivia Chow and served to me by Jack Layton.

4. I passed out at an Iggy Pop concert.

Happy weekend friends!

Not really posting, just reliving...

Okay, so I've been travelling around the blog world trying to get caught up on what's goin' on with all my bloggy peeps. Unfortunately there just aren't enough hours in the day. I miss you all and find I'm going in circles, in various directions - so many places to go, people to "see". And I feel disconnected.

The one thing that I have made a conscious decision about, is BlogHer '10 which is taking place in NYC this August. I had such a great time in Chicago last year, meeting many of my blog friends, making new ones... I so wish I could do it again. But I'm finding that I just can't multi-task that into the cards. The big appeal for me before, other than meeting people and learning a bit more about blogging, was the "me" time. I suppose that nowadays I'm spending more time in hotel rooms without my kids than I can handle. (I say that as I tell my kids to give me just a half an hour of my own "sit down" time, but I think you know what I mean.) And let's be honest - I am nowhere near the level of blogging that I was at a year ago. Given the choice between an extra day and weekend with my family it was rather an easy decision.

I hear that there will be a Blissdom around these parts in the fall. That I might just have to have a look at.

This is the difficulty now that I'm a WOHM. I've decided not to blog about work and I have less time to blog to begin with. So although I have tons of blog fodder, it's got to stay in my head. Hmmmph.

So how to stay connected? Well, I've joined a book club with some of the mom friends I've made over the years of being at home. Yay for that. Now I just have to make the time to actually read the books!

The first one up - The Help by Kathryn Stockett (which I knew after a few pages, would probably be made into a movie. It's got Oprah written all over it). It arrived from Amazon yesterday and I'm already on page 85.

And since I can't stop reliving where I was a mere 10 days ago, here's my review of the resort on Tripadvisor.

Weekly Winners - Paradise

We're such rotten parents, aren't we? We took the kids out of school to go on a one week trip to Mexico. ( When I told the girlie we were going, she said she didn't want to get sick. So aware, these 5 year olds are these days. I had to tell her she'd already had the flu that started in Mexico. Great segue into getting her a Hep shot, though.)

And now they're starting their spring break. Wishing we were back in Mexico. Group sigh this time.

The ultimate fort...

Cocooned

Running...

with...

birds.

My favourite part
For more photo fun, visit the home of lovely Lotus. She'll take your breath away.

Friday Fragments - The "Yes I'm still around" edition

I took a look at my sidebar and noticed that I only blogged twice in February - only TWO times! That is a new low for me. I mean, I have posted over 650 times since I started this blog in 2005. I miss it, but more importantly, I miss the "me" who used to be on here. The one who was passionate, who wrote from the heart, who had a creative spirit, and who could even on the odd occasion be a little funny. Where is she? Where can I find her again?

*****

I spent last week with my family in sunny Mexico, at a lovely beach resort called Azul Beach Hotel. Half an hour from Playa del Carmen, twenty minutes from Cancun airport, a small boutique all-inclusive resort complete with BEACH BEDS, BEACH BUTLERS and a KIDS' CLUB (yes, I was shouting.) The only thing less than perfect was the weather - normally this time of year it's in the mid 30's C - but we never got warmer than 26, and it was windy. They don't heat the pools there in the Mayan Riviera, and normally the ocean would be lovely, but both were quite cold.

Nonetheless, dedicated family time is priceless. Laughing and playing with the kids, actually getting through a paperback, enjoying a drink with the hubby on the balcony while we admire the moonlight through the palm leaves...we even witnessed a wedding on the beach. It already feels forever ago, but at least we had it.

*****

I don't know what the heck is going on with my lips. When I was a young girl, I remember seeing all these ads for older women, touting solutions to lipstick that would bleed into the cracks on your lipline. I used to think it was so inconceivable and gross. However, now that I'm the older woman, it's happening, and even worse, I wonder if I have a weird allergy - my lips are chapped, and the edges are sort of swollen but not in a sexy way - more like how a bad Botox job would look and feel. Yeah, gross. So we should file that under TMI.

*****

How old do you think is old enough to have Facebook account? My almost 10 year old is wanting to have his own and I'm not so sure. Ironic, given how "open" I am with my blog and all. But there's a part of me that thinks he's just a bit young. Yes, me, the old school blogger, social media expert in this family. But it's different from a mother's perspective.

Discuss.

Wordless and wishing ...

that we were still there.

Sigh.

Hola!!

I've been away for a while...about three weeks since I last checked in- I even got an e:mail from BlogHer - see the ads? Yeah, they're pretty strict about that.

What have I been up to? Well, after my last work trip, I spent the time fighting my 1000 day old cold that comes every 3 years, in order to recup to prepare for a trip NOT work related. Thank goodness it didn't last 1000 days - only about 15 this time.

More on that trip later. I know I'm a tease, but the title is a bit of a hint.