Derek and the Piano

I started out teaching Derek and Miranda the piano in January. Well, with Miranda being at school every day and our usual busy afternoons, she hasn't been getting too many lessons. Derek, on the other hand, asks everyday when he will get his lesson. We usually do it after lunch and before Lindsey has her nap. I sit with him and he just zips through song after song. Today was a big milestone. We finished up with his 6 level A books, so we moved on to level B. He was so thrilled. Now he can count, knows most of the notes on the staff, some dynamics, and the meaning of time signatures. We will soon be moving on to using both hands at the same time.
For me, it is so thrilling to see Derek progress so quickly. He is so easy to teach, and very eager. He usually sits down at the piano 5-6 times a day to just play old songs he already knows or mess around. In fact, it seems that if he's ever bored that's what he does- play the piano or read a book.

Go Derek!

Watch out Lephrechauns!

Miranda had a most unusual homework assignment last week- make a Lephrechaun trap! All we had to go on was that Lephrechauns love shiny things and like to disobey signs. Here's what we came up with. First, the unsuspecting Lephrechaun steps on to the CD to pick up one of the pennies glued to it. Little does he know...
Down the hole he goes! Straight into the orange net !
All the first graders brought theirs on Friday and laid them out over the weekend. Somehow they all left their green sparkly footprints, but jump out of the traps and out the door. Miranda was disappointed because the teacher said that anyone that caught a Lephrechaun could keep it!

Independent Lindsey

I was reflecting on how much Lindsey has changed in the last 6 months or so. Do you all remember when she was quiet, timid, and basically sat by watching the action?? It seems like a distant memory now. She has really evolved into a VERY determined, independent child. Here are some examples:

1. We went swimming on Wednesday- it was our normal weekly swim night. Lindsey loves to walk in the water and will even continue until her mouth is covered until she looks for rescue. She loves to get out of the pool and run away. Last Wednesday was particularly bad because she made a dash for the big slide that Larry was on with Spencer. I caught her about 20 feet away and quickly put a lifejacket on her. She got to go on the slide with Larry next.
Anyway, it was so funny this week as us girls washed our hair in the showers. They have two short showers by the adult sized ones. Miranda used one, and Lindsey decided this week that she wanted her own shower- instead of me holding her. After figuring out that standing directly underneath the shower didn't work, she moved right into the stream of water. It just poured over her head and into her face, but did she move? NO. She stayed there for a full 5 minutes, patting her swimsuit and feeling so big and important. I almost had to drag her out of there.

2. Larry took the kids over to the schoolyard to play and ride bikes. Lindsey loves this new slide that starts really high, is steep, and then bottoms out so that you don't go flying off the bottom. She climbed up and tried it out a few weeks ago with me. I couldn't even reach her waist from the ground. She had to push off, then I would catch her part way down to slow her. She did it over and over again. So, when she went with Larry to the school, she just went by herself, over and over. Many times, she's going so fast that she falls backwards or twists around. She loves it, though.

3. Larry got a bike trailer that holds two small kids a week or so ago. Since it's been rainy for a while, we've backed the cars out of the garage to let the kids ride bikes and trikes inside. Lindsey goes out there all the time. Sometimes she scoots herself on a trike, and other times she will go sit in the trailer and wait to see if anyone is coming to take her for a ride. She even enjoys having Derek or Miranda strap her in. I also let her roam around the backyard in her fleece bodysuit. She does all sorts of things, and doesn't really need to be supervised too much. Maybe I'm just not cautious enough- I'm sure I wouldn't have let Miranda do that- but she does well out there and rarely gets hurt.

4. Every school morning when Larry is home he walks Miranda to her school which is a block down the road. As soon as Larry gets his coat on, she runs and gets her coat and shoes and brings them to him so that she can come along. She really has become a daddy's girl!

5. Something funny: Whenever anyone is brushing their teeth, Lindsey quickly pushes them off the stool, so that she can brush hers. She will even stay there while I do her hair. All I have to say is, "Do you want pretty hair today?" and fawn over how pretty she looks. (I took Cilla's advice about that one when I asked her how Eden would sit still to let her do her hair).

Random News

This past Sunday we took dinner over to Grandpa D's. The kids were so behaved. It was wonderful! Larry and I really enjoyed spending time with Grandpa, Stella, and Chris as well. The kids loved Stella's corndogs and red jello with bananas and whipped cream. We will definatly have to do that again.
Miranda had Monday off this week, so I promised her that we would break out her easybake oven that she got for Christmas. Little did we know that it was missing the two small cake pans (it was a secondhand toy from a friend). She was crushed. Finally, I made a cake pan out of aluminum foil. It actually worked. We also made a big cookie. The cookie tasted pretty good. Miranda and the boys thought it was so thrilling. They all hovered around it for about an hour.
Here's just a cute picture of Lindsey and Spencer. Lindsey is obsessed with drawing, so she loved our magnadoodle. She also grabs any pencil, marker, or crayon in sight. I guess we have another budding artist in the family.



In other news, today Larry and I got to see our baby via ultrasound. It was fun to see it. Everything looks normal and measuring about 3 inches from head to rump. We couldn't tell if it's a boy or a girl, so I guess we'll just have to wait another 7-8 weeks to find out.



Also, Miranda experienced the consequences of tracing the words in a library book with a permanent marker. Now she owes me $20.95. We'll be draining her piggy bank tomorrow and holding back her allowance for a while. Maybe this will finally help her control her impulse (we've bought at least 3 books because of her).

Doctor Visits

Today I went in to my OB to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was really scary because it took him at least 3 minutes of listening and moving the microphone thing around. Finally, when we were discussing having me come back in a week, we heard the heartbeat. What a relief! I was getting really worried because he is usually right on.

I also took Miranda, Derek, and Spencer to the dentist this afternoon. NO Cavities! I guess my paranoid flossing and flouride treatments are working. I was very surprised to hear that Spencer has a loose tooth. Can he really loose a tooth when he's only 3 1/2? It seems too weird, especially since Derek just lost his first one a month ago. Miranda is always and interesting case with her very strange bite (her bottom teeth come out WAY farther than her upper ones). As soon as she looses her top front teeth, he's going to make a retainer for us with a key in it. We will crank it periodically to try to push her upper teeth forward. He's hoping to remedy her bite as much as possible. However, it is most likely that in her teens, she will have to have jaw surgery to break the upper jaw and bring it forward. Sounds like orthodontic torture to me!

One last thing that I thought I'd mention is a totally GROSS pasttime of Lindsey's. She puts something in her mouth like food, rocks, or whatever, then spits it out and plays with the spit/food mixture. She really likes to do this with rocks and sand and it's totally nasty!

Who went to Blazers game with me?

So guess who went to the Blazers game with me? yep Grandpa. Everyone knows grandpa can fix anything and do anything but I found out he had never been to a Blazer game in the 92 years he lived in Oregon, mostly in downtown Portland (not counting WWII).

The game turned out great, traffic was light so we get our seats about hour early, and we had a great time relaxing and talking in Luxury box seats. For as little time grandpa watches tv(, only watches TV only when eating dinner) he knows the rules of the game, though he remembers the game from when there was not a 3pt line. I better say he followed the plays as good as any fan ( he just did not know the players names), even complained when REFs messed up. The game was competitive to the very end, we lost but had a blast as there was near sell out crowd and it got real loud. Grandpa brought in some of his Almond Roca candy to share. He was real impressed with the Rose Garden and how many people came out to watch the game, and how excited people were during the game, it will be a night I will cherish for a long time. Hanging out with grandpa for 5 hours was everything I hoped for, laughing, talking and getting into a Blazer game.

PS the great Box seats tickets were given to me by an email contact at the Blazers, I had emailed him my story of taking grandpa and he offered to upgrade my seats which was very nice of him.

Date with Derek

This week it was Derek's turn to have a date with Dad and we had fun. We went to Round table all you can eat which we both enjoyed food, video games and Janga. We also went to target where Derek spent money he had earned over last several months to buy a star wars legos toy.