A Little Bit Tiger Mother

I have music on the brain. While I love music and always have music on, there is a reason for an increased cognizance: music is now being played in our home - not simply listened to.

Sweet Cheeks has been asking to play the violin for years now. Yes, she's only 5, but it's been years since she has wanted to play. My niece plays the violin, and when we visited Arizona earlier this year she lent us her teeny, tiny violin. It's a 1/16, meaning it's 1/16th the scale of a full size violin. It's adorable, although doesn't boast the most  pleasing tone.

Lessons have begun and practices are held regularly. Lessons are wonderful. Practices are not. They are a bit reminiscent of the practice sessions with her daughter Lulu that Amy Chua described in her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. But it's better than when I was attempting to teach her. (Yes, I played violin as a girl. No, I'm not any good. At one time I had potential, alas I quit to involve myself in other high school related pursuits. And I never practiced.)

I will admit that I'm hard on my girls. I have high expectations, particularly of Sweet Cheeks. I see what she is capable of  and it drives me crazy when she tries to be lazy. In terms of violin lessons, these high expectations coupled with a clash of personalities has made for some stressful situations not devoid of tears, yelling, and threats - both idol and fulfilled. It's not something I'm proud of.

Not all practice sessions are horrible. If all goes well they last 10 minutes. With fighting, they drag on. Through this  I have definitely gained an understanding of what she Amy Chua was doing. Like her, I have come to understand that because parents do have the perspective their children lack, the parent often must push them beyond what the child feels comfortable with.

That being said, there is a balance that must be attained. I hope Sweet Cheeks sticks it out and plays into her adulthood. At this point she doesn't have the choice, but I hope, unlike Amy Chua, I don't drive her to quit something she loves.  I have to make sure my obsessive parenting doesn't outweigh the benefits violin lessons can bring into her life. Most important of all that it doesn't drive her from me.

At any rate, violin practice can be heard most days by both mother and daughter. I anticipate that will continue for years to come.

On a similar note (no pun intended) - Sweet Cheeks has been "beat boxing". I'm not quite sure where she picked that up, but it's quite entertaining. I'm wondering if one day she'll be like this guy:

Amazing, right? It makes me wonder about the back story from both his perspective and that of his parents. Something to think about.

Exhaustion and A Bit of Bragging

Whew...It's been a crazy weekend. From the reemergence of Doris (she came back with a vengeance, mind you) to a trip to Oz, mass group couples therapy and a birthday party for my favorite just turned 4 little girl - we were all over the place. And of course my heart and mind was in New York with Lester while she ran the NYC marathon. In 4:07, mind you. She did awesome. I'm exhausted for her.

Although things have quieted down, I'm super, super, super excited. By the way, I recently realized how much I use the word "super" when I noticed Addie-Cakes says it about 9000 times a day, but I digress. Anyway - I'm very excited and I have to brag because of an email I got earlier today. From Ticketmaster. Well, it was a forwarded email from Ticketmaster. Not to be redeemed until June 22nd. In Baltimore. Guesses, anyone? I'll give you a hint:

That's right...I got tickets to the U2 concert in Baltimore. Well, technically Lester got them for us and Otterpop. It's just easier to say I got them.

Let me just tell you, Lester has gone to many-a U2 concerts. She's practically a pro U2 concert goer. Okay, I exaggerate. But she has gone to several and does have a friend who is. Practically a pro-U2 concert goer, I mean. I stole this picture off her FB page that she took in Istanbul. She's a professional photographer, which explains a lot but this just shows how close one can get with General Admission Tickets. Which is what we got.

So my calendar is marked. Wednesday, June 22, 2011 I will be with Otter and Lester in Baltimore. All day. Camping out just so we can get close enough to touch Bono. Yeah, it's happened to Lester so I'm going to fire her as my concert tour guide if she doesn't make it happen for us. Not really.

You are all officially on notice. Anything you might plan in June that could involve us will just have to be postponed to a later date. Or you'll just have to do without us. 'Cause we's gonna be at U2!

Lettin' Her Light Shine - Part II

Sweet Cheeks hasn't relented singing her new favorite song. In fact, she actually sings it more now that I bought the Lower Lights album. Which, by the way, is really fabulous. Without further delay, for your listening and viewing pleasure I present to you Sweet Cheeks:

(I ran into issues uploading the video. So I edited, compressed, and here we go.)

Lettin' Her Light Shine

Sweet Cheeks has been singing the song This Little Light of Mine since she heard it on Little Bill a few weeks ago. Non. Stop. As luck would have it, I found a fabulous blue grass version of it on CJane's blog. When I asked Sweet Cheeks what she thought about it, she said "That's not how it goes. I like my version better."

So there you have it. Little Bill apparently is better, but you just might enjoy this too.

This Little Light of Mine from The Lower Lights on Vimeo.

Boys are Over Rated

For as long as I can remember Sweet Cheeks has had an aversion to boys. Not boys her age. She has lots of friends her age that are boys. Really, it's just boys that are older than her, and not really even grown men.

It's like she has panic attacks when she has to have anything to do with them. At church her teacher had her sons sub a few times, and she was so hysterical that she has to go to another class.

Tonight I attended a church meeting where a nursery was provided for those needing child care. This time the babysitters were a group of seven or so 12-13 year old boys. She immediately went into hysterics and clung to me for dear life. I left her anyway knowing she would be fine, and if she wasn't they would come get me.

When I picked the girls up, Sweet Cheeks was all smiles and so happy to be playing with a room full of boys. Of course there were other kids there, but it was the boys she enjoyed. When we left she giddily said:

"Mama...I really like boys!"

While shaking her hips. And I only wish I could capture the tone of voice. It sounded like she was already boy crazy. Good grief. I'm gonna have my hands full.

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In other news...I've been on the hunt for new music. Lester has been quite accommodating, as always. But I found a song by the Temper Trap that I fell in love with.

I like to think I find music that is at least a bit off the beaten path, which I thought was the case with this song. Until I heard it in Taco Bell. And then on some random TV advertisement. Silly me for thinking that when it was featured in the movie 500 Days of Summer (good movie, BTW).

Oh well. I still love it.

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

We Bought a Cow

Yes, it's true. We bought a cow. Well, technically a quarter of a cow. And it's sliced up. In our freezer.

Some friends of ours told us a while back about this ranch in West VA that raises cattle free of antibiotics, hormones, and all the junk that's super good for you. And it's grass fed.

Basically the cow is better for your body than the chicken pumped full of hormones that you get from your local grocer. Wanna know why, read this book and you'll see. The short version is you are what you eat eats.

When a group of friends decided to go in on a cow together, we decided we were in too. Let me just tell you how weird it's been saying "I'm so excited to get our cow!". This is me who in high school was kind-of-vegetarian. Who now rarely eats beef and would be pretty happy eating no meat for weeks at a time. Alas, I can count on Otterpop asking "where's the meat" every time I cook without it.

So now we have 93lbs of beef in our basement freezer. What on earth am I going to do with that? Well, Sunday I'll slow roast Carne Asada. Then we'll have a barbecue with friends and grill up some porter house steaks and hamburgers. And then we'll do beef kabobs. And beef with broccoli. And beef fajitas. You get the idea. We'll be eating A LOT of cow. For a very long while.

But really, I am excited to have healthfully and humanely raised animals on my family's table. After all, we are what we eat eats.

By the way. Otterpop apparently had the steak of all steaks in Lubbock, a.k.a. The Land of Cows. He actually said he didn't know if he would ever be able to eat a regular steak again. I gently reminded him of the 93lbs of beef in our freezer that would prove otherwise. Can you guess what dinner will be welcoming him home Friday?



P.S. I don't often hear songs on the radio that I love. There are a few I like well enough, but I hardly ever HAVE to know the name of a song and artist. The other day I heard "Animal" by Neon Trees and I was hooked. Come to find out, I had written the group's name on the running list I keep of music I hear and want to hear again. So I bought the album on iTunes. And I love it all!! Plus it's pretty cool when a band of boys has a girl drummer rockin' it.