Recital

Today I had my student recital for all the kids I teach, so Ethan and the girls got to sit in the audience and listen to the piano and flute performances. Or, perhaps I should say that Julia got to sit in the audience, while Ethan got to stand up holding Madeleine with all his strength as she wriggled to get down and made loud exclamations throughout. He spent most of the recital either outside the building, or at the very least, outside of the recital room with her. While Julia wasn't exactly perfect (for instance, she thought it would be a good idea to lift up my dress and expose my underwear as she sat next to me in the audience, then after I reprimanded her, to lift up her own dress and splay open her legs), she did sit more or less quietly. (And I use the term "sitting" somewhat loosely, as she spent a lot of the time wiggling around in her seat and turning around backwards to gaze at the kids behind her.) Madeleine, on the other hand, felt the need to make noise the entire time she was in the audience. ("Say Backpack! BAAACKPAAACK!!") Her finest moment, according to Ethan, was during the last student performance, done by a girl who happens to also baby-sit for our girls. Since Madeleine recognized the familiar face, she felt the need to squeal the student's name loudly over and over, occasionally punctuating the name with "FWUTE!" As Ethan was taking her out of the room for the umpteenth time, he whispered to her, "Madeleine, you stink," to which she exclaimed "Stinky BUM!"

I remember, at one of my student recitals a few years ago, thinking Julia was so distracting because she ran up during my performance at the end and banged out a few notes on the piano. Madeleine was in my belly at the time, so I had absolutely no idea what distracting could really mean and that I literally had another thing coming!