B.T.M.

Piano/Voice Recital

I needed a picture of Tess and this is one of my favorites. She did such a great job at her recital and looked spectacular...don't ya think?

Tess has only been in school for 6 days so far this year. After Christmas break, the kids had a week of school, then several snow days, and most recently a four day weekend. I am all for celebrating MLK day, but to give the teachers a work day the Friday before? Really?

Her grades for the semester were straight A's.....what a smarty pants. I continue to have to remind her to stop reading and go to bed each night. What a problem to have.

If only I had the same problem with having to make her stop practicing her piano. It is such an odd struggle between us. She is such a gifted kid musically. She can sing and play notes on the piano just by listening. But asking her to sit still and practice for an hour(30 minutes of piano and 30 minutes of voice) is about too much. We are working on ways to break the time up into smaller portions so her gnat sized attention span stays in check. This Saturday she will be videotaped singing two songs to be posted on Youtube. It is a singing contest her teacher has several voice students in. The first place prize is $500, and until recently, she was seriously trying to figure out how she would spend that cash. Not that I wanted to squash her dreams, but the reality of thousands of kids competing was a big bite of reality sandwich.

The last two Saturdays, Tess has played basketball with her KHRA team. Both times they won. She scored 6 points in her first week, and was a defensive force this weekend. Her daddy(aka "coach") texted me and said she "really looked like a basketball player"....I'm pretty sure he was smiling from ear to ear as he hit -send-. She loves the game. We love watching her play. What JOY.

Tess and her newly turned 5 year old sister got bunk beds about 3 weeks ago. So far, so good. I am so proud how she has welcomed Kate into her room, and hasn't completely freaked out at her new loss of alone time/privacy. I hope the newness of the beds doesn't wear off too quickly. Turns out she sleeps like me...can't fall asleep if there is the slightest oddity of noise. By oddity I mean snoring. One night I walked into their bedroom and saw Tess leaning over Kate. I surprised her, she surprised me....when I asked what she was doing, Tess tells me she was pinching Kate's nose trying to get her to stop snoring. How does she know that works? I usually just elbow her dad.