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.

How You Doin' (Part One)

I'm a failed blogger. Regular updates lasted roughly six months. Sounds about right. I really do have a short attention span. But just when I think I've reconciled myself to that fact I get the itch again.

I really do enjoy it. It's therapeutic for me. It's just time consuming. Maybe I need to reevaluate my blogging expectations. Does every post need to be a book? Of course not, but apparently I have a lot to say. And does every post need to have an image that has been edited?  Not really, but it's fun and I'm obsessive.

When asked by friends what I've been up to, I honestly have to think about it for a while. Things have, for the most part, been status quo. I guess that isn't completely true. There have been goings on. And status quo for spring is definitely different than that of summer. Spring ended along with school routines. Summer began bringing with it a desperate attempt to make some kind of routine.

So, in case you've been wondering, I'm going to give you a glimpse into the goings on of my life since spring. Now that I'm actually sitting down to do this, I'm realizing that it's just not going to happen in one, quick blog post, so here is Part One. Not to fear...you won't be left hanging. I'm in sincere catch-up mode. Which I swore I would never do, but that's a different story.

Without further ado, I bring you Part One:

Run You Mother: Yeah, not so much 
Remember how I announced I was signed up to run the Charlottesville Marathon? Well, that didn't really happen. See, I found out that it's really, really, hard training for a race through the winter. Especially when I ended up training solo. And then I got a pain in the butt, literally. Technically I injured my right piriformis (which is in the butt) and hamstring. It made running lots of fun. I was forced to take some time off.

I did end up running the half-marathon injury and all. Not only did I run it - I KILLED it. I wanted my time to be below 2 hours. Not only was I below 2 hours, I did it in 1:56 and placed 133 out of 629 women. Injured to boot. WAHOO for me. It helped that my sister ended up coming from Arizona to run the full marathon. Seeing her cross the finish line was fabulous. What was even more fabulous was that I wasn't sad that I couldn't run the full marathon. I was content with 13.1 miles.

After the race I took about 4 months off to heal. Which didn't work so I went to Physical Therapy. Good times. While I'm not yet 100%, at least I'm running again. Slowly. It's just good to be able to run.

The Little Dirt Diva Sweet Cheeks was on a softball team for the first time this spring. It was so much fun for her to play, and even more fun for us to watch. By the end of the season she understood what was going on, but even then she often found the pile of dirt she was building or something that caught her eye in the distance more engaging than the game. I have quite a few videos of it, which I'll eventually get around to editing.



Stay tuned for Part 2.

Music to My Ears

 
Scrubbing the toilet the other day wasn't quite the chore it typically is. Yes, I actually said that. Only because of the lovely background music, though.

You see, Sweet Cheeks was reading her sister a book. They hovered over a book all close and cozy-like the entire time I cleaned the bathroom. Crazy, right? Crazy and wonderful. Both that Sweet Cheeks is already reading, and that she's reading to her sister.

The girls have been playing incredibly well together lately. Of course there is the typical bickering, tattling, punching, kicking and hair pulling that all sisters put each other through. But more often than not they are best friends.

And those days when I'm not forced to referee every two minutes make me remember why staying at home to raise my girls is the best choice I've ever made. Until tomorrow when the truce is broken and Referee Mama is on duty. All day. Then I'll need another reminder.

There and Back Again

To Arizona. Back home, and some places in between - mostly this place called Life, really. That's where I've been. Somewhere along the road I lost my way. I once wondered how I would ever find enough material to supply a blog that's not a complete yawn fest. Then a transformation occurred and I began to see life as a series of potential blog posts. Well, that I saw the possibilities of blog posts in every day life is more accurate.

That's where I lost my way. Enough time passed between posts and I went from noticing a barrage of potential blog fodder to forgetting to even look for those things. Thus, the lapse in time. Worry aside - I have returned. The prodigal attempted blogger. Not that anyone but the nagging at the back of my conscious has even noticed the absence. At this point I wasn't planning to document our adventures. But then I was sifting through pictures remembering how much fun we had. I can't just pass by as if it never happened. I figure a glimpse will do. You can see pictures on my other blog.

• Arizona was wonderful albeit not as warm as I had hoped it would be
• I will admit to wishing we lived there on more than one occasion
• All of my siblings made it, though we were all together for just hours rather than days. At least we got family pictures.
• Ragnar was spectacular
• My parent's lemon tree was prolific. As in lemons the size of grapefruit. Seriously. I came home with 35lbs. Don't be jealous.
• Sweet Cheeks went to school at her Auntie Kenna's preschool
• And we visited Auntie LaNae's family in Yuma - what I've always called the armpit of Arizona. It's really not that bad. Once you get passed the smell of the lettuce plants. Plants, as in factories.

I had said I was going to visit Arizona to run Ragnar, but of course the real reason was so my girls could make actual memories of their family. Addie Cakes was an infant the last time we were there, so she was essentially meeting her cousins and some Aunties for the first time.

Before we left she had a hard time grasping the idea that she had cousins other than her "Virginia cousins", whom we see regularly. That is one of the hardest things about living far from family, which is actually why we are in Northern VA. Otter and I both wanted to make sure we were close to at least some family after we graduated from college in Utah. Virginia won. This was before we had children and the difficulty of ensuring meaningful relationships with my side of the family hadn't registered. Of course had we moved to Arizona instead the situation would just be reversed.

But now both of the girls have memories of their family. They see pictures and know names, and make associations that in all reality are probably just a vague recognition of a memory - for Addie Cakes, at least. But the associations are there. And for now that's all that matters. So while I miss my family every day, at least now I know it's not impossible. My girls love and miss my family - their family - more than the space that divides us.

Mmmm.....Butter.

Julia Child once said "one can never have too much butter." At least that's what she said in the movie "Julie and Julia". We all know how accurate movies are, so it's got to be so.

Apparently someone in my family agrees and would like to eat it by the cube. I thought it was the little one, but the big one fessed up. Not Otterpop. The other big one.

Anyone need a monster to come visit for a while? May subsist on a diet of butter and not a whole lot else.

Happy Happy Birthday Sweet Cheeks!

My Sweet Cheeks is FIVE today. How on earth can that be so? She's such a sweet, emotional and silly girl. And smart. Oh, so smart. And an old soul. And I'm lucky to have her.

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.

--------------------------------------

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

A Rare - Yet Fleeting - Treat

The girls are both asleep right now, and it's two o'clock in the afternoon. I don't remember the last time they both napped. Scratch that. In the time it took to start this post, Sweet Cheeks came strolling down the stairs with an oh-so precocious smile on her face. She knows how much I value quiet time.

But that's alright. The 20 minutes of alone time this afternoon were priceless. Both girls have been so tired lately from spending pretty much every morning at the pool.

Sweet Cheeks is doing swim team this summer, hence the morning swimming. I just might have a child prodigy on my hands, being that she's just 4 and already competing. That's right. Give us a decade and we'll be at the Olympics.

Okay, not really. A few of the communities in the area have swim programs for children 6 and under as part of their swim teams. It's essentially swimming lessons with the older swim team members helping the instructors mentor the younger kids.

The cutest thing about it is that there are "mini meets". Very few of the kids can swim the length of the pool, so the mentors help them across. It doesn't matter how they get there, as long as they make it across. It great fun for everyone involved.

Today was the first mini-meet. Her smile says it all. The kids did great and had a fabulous time. With the exception of the heat - well, more so the humidity - the parents had a great time too.

And...all those parent crazies with Olympian aspirations for their children kept it on the D.L. At least I think I did. Oh wait. I just gave myself away.