Spring 2012 Piano Recital

The boys had their spring recital last night. Personally, I thought they were both amazing. As I was discussing with Bruce that it seemed like their best recital ever, I realized that maybe part of that was due to the fact that we opted to leave Emmarsyn at a friend's house and were therefore, actually able to enjoy the recital. Emmarsyn seems to have a keen sixth sense for situations that require her to sit quietly for more than about 2 minutes. When she gets her first whiff of said situations, she turns into a possessed child. She is usually on the floor, crying, insisting that she will not be quiet. I took her to a child-oriented symphony performance and about 10 minutes in she was doubled over telling me that "All this music is making me want to be dead." She managed to survive, but there was considerable writhing on the floor with the sheer horror of having to be still and quiet for 45 minutes.

Love her dearly, but to be able to just sit with Bruce and enjoy the recital was great. I think this is the new plan until Emmarsyn is actually taking lessons as well and participating in the recitals.

On to the boys. Like I said, I think they both did a fine job. Spencer was completely unflustered when his music closed during his second song and his teacher walked up to open it for him. I don't think he was using it anyway. He said that he wasn't even paying attention to what he was playing and was watching the inner workings of the piano instead. Speaking of the piano, it is a 9' Steinway Concert Grand. Apparently, the same piano is used at Carnegie Hall and other such venues. It costs more than we paid for our house. But not to worry, they have a payment plan.

Click below to view the boys' performances.

Spencer

Matthew

Because Your Kiss, Your Kiss, Is On My List

If you sang that title in your head instead of simply reading it, YOU ROCK! If not, you need to brush up on your early 80's pop music. Matthew had never heard the song before tonight, but this post is about him.

A few months ago, he decided that - in his words - "nobody kisses me and I don't kiss anybody either." I have tried diligently to repect his wishes, but I did slip up several times. I mean sometimes you just kiss your kid without thinking about it. Well, I used to anyway. Now, I find myself pausing slightly before kissing Spencer or Emmarsyn just to reassure myself that I am not violating any rules when kissing that particular child. When one does "accidentally" kiss Matthew, you are required to remove the kiss. This is done by grabbing it with your hand and putting it back on your lips - kind of a kiss eraser. Isn't parenthood great?

Anyway, recently we have entered a period of kissing detente. It started with some sanctions for some undesirable behavior. Who says diplomacy doesn't work? (Not sure how I got on the foreign policy metaphors, but it's working for me.) Matthew went through a growling phase. These growls were pretty much a verbal eye roll. So I told him, that everytime he growled at me, I would kiss him. I got a few kisses in and he even growled at me on purpose a couple of times just to get a kiss. Then about a week ago, we had our biggest breakthrough. We are now allowed to kiss him...but each time we do our names go on his "Kissing List". Kind of like the Terror Watch List, he's got his eye on us but he is still letting us through security. So now I get to kiss all my kids, but I have to be careful about timing. If we are in a hurry to get out the door, it is not a good idea to kiss Matthew because he has to stop and add my name to the the list again.

The other problem is that I can't get that song out of my head!

Check That One Off the List

If I had a "Bucket List", tonight I would be crossing off "See Billy Joel in concert." One of my first rock music memories - besides listening to Devo and Blondie on my brown transistor radio when I still lived in California (I would have been no more than 7, which makes me wonder what I was doing listening to Devo and Blondie on my brown transistor radio) - was watching the "Uptown Girl" video over and over on MTV. (Again, perhaps not the best use of my time. But, in my defense, I do not believe MTV was the same beast that it is today.)

Anyway, tonight Bruce and I went to the Billy Joel/Elton John Face2Face concert. It was definitely worth the wait of nearly 30 years. And as a bonus, we got to see Elton John. "Face2Face" refers to the fact that to open and close the show these two piano geniuses sat facing each other at matching grand pianos that rose from the floor. I could probably go on and on about how amazing they sounded in person and how I would probably go see it again tomorrow if possible, but it is late and Bruce has already gone to bed - and when I am actually up later than Bruce, it means I am up way too late.

(Since we were too high up to get a decent photo from our camera phones, I found the above image here. It was posted by Todd. I saw no copyright info, so hopefully this link and credit covers it.)

Spencer's Opus (An awesome word I don't get to use very often.)

Spencer entered his school's Reflections contest in the Musical Composition category and received an Honorable Mention. The theme was "Beauty is...". His composition is called "Spencer's 9th Symphony - Caves Ahead". He related his work to the theme by saying "This song makes me think of all the beautiful things in caves like stalagmites, stalactites, and all that sort of stuff." Although he wasn't too excited about having to go up in front of the whole school to receive his medal, he did not take that thing off all day long.

Click the play button to hear his song - it is about 2 minutes long. If it doesn't work through the embedded player, you can click here and download it or just press play on the Box.Net player.

And since this post is all about Spencer, I thought I would throw this in...Spencer finally (his word) lost his first tooth! He is one of the oldest kids in his class, but was the last to lose a tooth. Personally, I say keep those baby teeth as long as possible - less time for the permanent ones to get cavities - but he did not agree.

Bruce's Band's Big Debut

There was a talent show at our church last night in which Bruce and his garage band buddies made their big debut. The program showed that just the children of all the band members were going to sing a medley of songs, but after they did the first verse of the first song the curtains opened to reveal the real act. It's hard to tell because of the wigs, but Bruce is the drummer (Aaron Mehrley is playing guitar and Matt Neddo is doing vocals). The video is somewhat choppy but it is already quite large and better quality would have made it ginormous. Yes, it is a little long (about 7 minutes), but if you persevere the singer gets a better microphone, there is a great little bit when Bruce drops a drumstick, and a bunch of kids come on stage for the last song. While I may be a bit biased, I must say that Emmarsyn steals the show.

(In the interest of full disclosure, it is me butchering "Give Said the Little Stream" on the piano. It was all going so well until about two lines in when I started thinking to myself that I was already half way through and hadn't messed up once. Then, of course, it all fell apart. But at home when no one else is listening, I can rock that song.)

Spencer's First Recital

Spencer had his first recital a couple of weeks ago. He got to play his favorite song, Beethoven's Ode to Joy and a little piece from one of his lesson books. He did a great job and we were definitely the stereotypical proud parents.

He may not be the next Mozart...

but he can play a little Beethoven...a section of "Ode to Joy" from his 9th Symphony to be exact. Spencer has been taking piano lessons for a couple of months and is doing great and having fun. This particular song is really cool for him since he recognized it from Little Einsteins.

Click here to listen.

A Duck in New York City

While I'd almost always rather be listening to NPR in the car, I am usually listening to kid's music or books on CD. So when I come across a CD that I love as much as my kids do, I get pretty excited. Last week at the library I picked up a CD called "A Duck in New York City" by Connie Kaldor for no other reason than that I found the title and cover art intriguing. It is the best kid's CD I've found since "Here Come the ABCs" by They Might Be Giants". We all love to sing along and the kids giggle through almost every song. Our favorite tracks are:
1. A Duck In New York City
2. If You Love A Hippopotamus
3. Laundry Bag
4. Belly Button
6. Seed In The Ground
8. Honey, Honey, Honey
9. I Love Tomatoes
10. The Nose Song
11. Quack, Quack, Quack

So if you are relegated to listening to kid music like I am, check out this album!