A very musical weekend

This weekend was a very musical one for me, and one that required a lot of sitting quietly and listening for the girls. They were really great sports and I couldn't have asked for more from them. On Saturday, I had my recital for all my music students, and Ethan, Julia and Madeleine came to see the performance. Julia, although not always sitting quite still, was quiet as a mouse throughout the whole recital, which is especially impressive seeing as she decided to sit by herself in an empty pew rather than sit with Ethan and Madeleine in the pew behind her, or sit with me up in the front row. Since Ethan was on keeping-Madeleine-quiet duty, Julia was really on her own, and she definitely delivered. The most exciting aspect of all for me was that when we got home, I played excerpts from a few of my students' recital pieces ("Pink Panther," "Fur Elise," etc.) and Julia was able to correctly name which student had played which piece (with the exception of "The Entertainer," to which she exclaimed, "Hey Mama, that's from The Princess and the Frog!") So lo and behold, it seems she may have actually paid attention to the recital. Madeleine, on the other hand, was not so much interested in the music as in the people at the recital, and at the end of the program, when I went up to perform a piece, she was thrilled out of her mind to see me up there in front of the audience. She started doing her guttural "Ah! Ah! Ah!" fake coughing thing, with a big delighted smile on her face, as if, after seeing all the unfamiliar faces going up to perform, she finally spotted someone she knew. (And just about her favorite person on earth, at that.) Luckily, I have mastered the blocking-out-of-kid-noises skill, since that's the only way I'm able to practice music at home, so I managed to tune out all the gagging and focus on my flute playing.

Yesterday, we attended a party organized by our chorus; however, this differed from our usual end-of-the-year gathering in that it was an event specifically designed to celebrate and honor our director's 30th year with the group. So rather than the usual casual, non-structured party we have in June each year, this event actually had an hour of dedications and musical performances in the middle of the otherwise social (eating, drinking, and mingling) affair. The kids had a great time all-in-all; when we first arrived, Julia got to happily munch on hors d'oeuvres and Madeleine was in explorers' delight given that we were in very tight quarters; all she had to do was reach her arm out and she could grab somebody's sleeve, plate, or even grab at the food on other minglers' plates. At one point during the musical performances, she reached out and hooked her pinky in the pinky of the guy standing next to us, and when we let her roam free off in the "kids' corner" (the area of the room where all the kids decided to hang out), she of course went straight for the chairs and crawled around underneath, pulling herself up to standing on the rungs just like she loves to do at home. Julia spent a pretty significant chunk of the party rolling around on the floor in her pretty dress, exposing her undies to the room full of people, and another good chunk of the party playing a wild and crazy game of Ring Around the Rosie with some of the other kids, a version which ended with the kids all pig-piling on each other when they fell down. At one point, she was doing her "gallop time," and our director came over and asked her, "Are you dancing?" She shook her head, then exclaimed loudly, "I'm FANCING!" He didn't quite know what to make of that, and I've gotta say, I don't blame him. Despite her abundant energy during the mingling part of the party, she did, once again, sit quietly during the performances, so I really was proud of her (especially considering I was one of the people performing, which meant Ethan was on Madeleine duty once again and Julia was somewhat in charge of her own behavior.) Madeleine was also quiet through most of the music, although she got a little over excited towards the end and started babbling away through the last performance, as well as during the director's thank-you speech. Hopefully a little voice piping in with "A DADADADADA! BA BA BA!" wasn't too distracting for the rest of the crowd...

Finally, on a completely different note, Julia enjoyed watching the movie "Up" twice over the weekend, since it is currently on Starz: On Demand. She had seen this movie with us in the theater when she was 2.5; she definitely understands it a lot better now that she's older. Which, unfortunately, means she is scared of the "mean dogs" part now that she understands that certain characters actually have malicious intent. She needs me to sit with her during all the mean dog parts, yet she wants her space and independence during the rest of the movie. When I first turned it on for her on Sunday morning, I immediately put my arms around her to snuggle her and sat there thinking how special it was to be cuddling cozily with my precious daughter. Apparently she had a different interpretation of the snuggling, because she said to me, "Mommy, could you please go away now?" Burned! When I got up to head into the dining room, she turned to me and said sweetly, "Mommy, are you so happy I used my manners?" Uh, yeah, that really softened the blow, thanks Julia...