Musical Madness

Zaya and Mim have started piano lessons again. We have a very sweet family friend who has agreed to give them, even though she doesn't typically teach piano. She is one of the organists at our church, and related through marriage, like just about everyone else in town. (I tell Art it's a good thing I moved into the community. It needed some fresh blood.)

Anyway, with the lessons has come a renewed interest in playing the piano, and Zaya continues to enjoy playing anything that isn't actually part of his lesson. Today he decided he wanted to play chords and eighth notes, so we had to skip ahead in his Primer Christmas book a bit. He regaled us with a very halting version of Jingle Bells for a while, then suddenly began inventing new characters. You knew it was coming, right?

Nitty is an eighth note. Tito is a chord. (Possibly schizophrenic?) Throwbon is a rest. He showed us all of them on the piano. And yes, watching someone introduce you to an anthropomorphic rest on the piano by, well, not playing it, is an entirely new experience for me.

Then there's Bluebonnet, the fermata. If bluebonnet captures you, he holds you. "Usually for about six beats," according to his creator. He also takes dots that he sees and sticks them into his dot. When Zaya is pretending to be Bluebonnet, he runs around like a very bow-legged cowboy. He grabs us and holds us for six counts, then we can go.

The character clan continues to grow, so that I can no longer keep track of all them. The Twilight Zone had nothing on the Teeson home.

In the picture are various characters drawn by Zaya and Art. It also includes Art's to do list. And yes, he was mocked for putting an apostrophe in the word chores, because he certainly knows better. In his defense, he was also writing the kids' chore lists and drinking coffee. (Mommy had already been gone for several hours, but that's another post.)

Oh, the Drama

Thanksgiving break is upon us, just in time for my daughter to re-adjust to staying home with Mommy all day again. Next week is going to be torture.

The last two days of school she cried all day and it was quite ridiculous. (I was even with her most of the day Friday because I was a parent helper in the afternoon.) She has been perfectly fine, only occasionally whiny, until the last few weeks. It's getting worse and worse. Her teacher told me, "I can stand it if you can. Just keep sending her." She says if I give in now, she'll think that staying home with Mommy will always be an option, and won't learn to adapt and enjoy her surroundings. Which I know is true.

It's hard to convince myself of that, though, when I know that Pre-K is not necessary or required, and she would be perfectly fine in Kindergarten without it. (Except for the whining, of course, which is the reason she's staying.)

Regardless, it's stressful for all concerned, and the sooner she grows out of this "Mommy, Mommy" phase the better. I know that personalities are different, but this is getting a little ridiculous.

(This picture is Mim in happier times at Ms. Maria's jewelry party a few weeks ago.)

Recovery

Both kids are now well, and life is returning to whatever bits of normal it was before Strep throat derailed it.

Mim was a much more...demanding...patient than Zaya, but I think she felt a lot worse. She does not like to admit that she's tired. Ever. But I have photographic proof.

Now we're struggling to get back into the school mode. Mim missed six days of school in a row, because I kept her home when Zaya was sick as well. She is not happy about going to school in the mornings, and I certainly hope this is just temporary. I do not want to be battling with this for the next 13 years. Ugh.

Ha-ha, It Is To Laugh!

Here are two jokes that Zaya invented this last week -

1.) What kind of karate do soybean's do?

2.) What kind of note stores white blood cells?


Answers are below the picture.




A1) To-FU!

A2) Lymph notes!

We are finally beginning to approach jokes with an actual punchline! This is a momentous occasion in the life of any child (and/or parent who is forced to listen to hundreds of silly, pointless jokes.)

We needed a little extra humor. Zaya had strep throat last week, and now that he is fever-free, Mim woke up with a temperature! One more doctor's trip today, and maybe we'll be done for a while.

Writing Santa, Digital Style

I finally thought of a way to help all my relatives who will be calling in the next month or so about Christmas presents. My kids now have wish lists at Amazon.com and Thinkgeek.com for your shopping or idea convenience. (Actually the thinkgeek list is for the whole family.) Art and I also have a wish list at Amazon. (Ok, it's mostly mine. I'm still trying to talk Art into adding some specific things.)

I was going to include the links so that you just had to click to get to them, but then I realized that you could see all our family information when you went to the lists, which is not really what I'd like to make available to the entire internet. Therefore...if you're interested in seeing these lists, please just tell me so and I'll send you the links in an e-mail. Unless you're some creepy stranger, then you're out of luck.

Now, I'm not saying anyone has to buy my family anything, or that we wouldn't love something that isn't on these lists. I'm just saying here are some ideas. If you find something similar at Walmart, that's fine too. Again, these are just ideas. I can never think of anything when someone asks me, so now you have somewhere to turn.

Mommy, I'm so tired.

We have our first fever of the season. Zaya has his annual case of bizarre strep throat. It's bizarre because he doesn't have a sore throat. In fact, he never has, and he's had strep every year now for the last three years. He just gets a fever. His throat is red, but it doesn't hurt him. This morning he broke out with hives suddenly on his back, but a little Benadryl knocked those puppies out. (I have a picture. I'm glad I took it, because the Benadryl made them disappear by the time we got to the doctor's office, and they always believe you so much more when you have photographic proof.)(And yes, I'm one of those moms. Get over it.)

He spent the day playing Endless Ocean on the Wii, which is a beautifully peaceful little game where you explore the ocean and discover new types of sea-life. He loves it, which is nice, because I much prefer it to the other games in his digital arsenal. After Daddy got home we had a nice supper, and now they're playing Mancala while Mim takes her bath. Then it's to bed, and praying for a good feverfree night.



Oh, and in other news, we are now the proud owners of a small chest freezer. It fits in the little place beside the door in our den as if it were made for it. Art plans to get a deer this year, so this'll be it's resting place.