We were late, because Katrina blew out all over the cute outfit I'd picked carefully for the occasion. Who notices cute or feminine clothes the most? Brothers! Julian liked the pink corduoroy overalls she had on and said, "ohh, how cute!" Yeah, adorable -- for about half an hour.
As I went upstairs to get more clothes, I left her bare in the bathroom. When I returned, she'd opened the lid to the baby potty, sat on it, and peed in it! And, was handily splashing around in it. Well, maybe that helps her get the idea that she made it happen. This turned into a bath for her, the potty and the floor.
For the most part, she had a good time in music class. She didn't like it when we all sat back down after a train song, and was very insistent about pulling my hand to get me to stand up again. She went through fits and starts, but was pretty distractable out of the fits, thank heavens. Overall a win.
I took the day off work because I had two meetings with contractors today. The first meeting was late, but went well, and I was feeling encouraged, if still apprehensive, about the daunting task ahead.
While I waited for the second, I pondered again how to get Gabriel into piano lessons. The Parks & Rec session starts this week; could I manage Thursday afternoons at 3:30? Despite the conflict with Julian's remaining two skating lessons? There's also a Monday class starting at 3:30pm. Too bad I didn't think of this before, it's already Monday and it's 3pm, and I have a meeting.
3:10, contractor's not here. Maybe I can sign Gabriel up for the Monday class and ask if we can attend this coming Thursday's class to make up for the first one he'd miss today. Call Cupertino, left a message for the person in charge.
3:20pm, I worked on the online registration for the 3:30pm Monday class. Let's do it! I'll figure it out, worst case, we miss the first class.
3:25pm, call contractor. Oops, he thought it was at 4pm. We reschedule.
3:31pm...hell, we can do this!!! So what if the class started a minute ago? I called CDC and asked them to get Gabriel ready -- I was picking him up for a piano lesson!! I arrived at 3:38, we got to the community center at 3:46. He missed the first third of his class, but he made it!!
Who signs a kid up for piano lessons minutes before it starts?! Only someone who completely overcommits and pushes to the edge. And this was the hairy edge.
But it was worth it. We arrived at the end of the music theory part (whole notes, half notes, etc), then came the playing part. Mostly this class was introduction and calibration for the kids, getting used to the concept of a music book, a teacher, clapping along to a simple rhythm that they'd "read" from what the teacher wrote on the board, handling the keyboard.
After the playing practice (some kids had never touched a piano), the kids went back to the whiteboard to play a music tic-tac-toe in which they reviewed what they'd learned. Gabriel was calm but very, very alert and focused during this class, and later said it was AWESOME. It was great, exactly what he needs, and a nice palateable introduction to piano lessons.
I'm so excited I found a way (by deciding to miss yet more work) to make this happen! Mondays will be my new favorite day, between Music Together with Katrina in the morning and Gabriel's piano lesson in the afternoon.
Gabriel helped me with Katrina when we picked her up from Melissa's (clutching his new music book, from which he would not be parted). I'm happy to say she's much better now about being guided by hand, both from me and from her brothers. She's turned new corners at home too, being much more interactive and explorative too; getting into all sorts of new things in new ways (opening boxes, unwrapping stuff).
Back to the grind tomorrow, but I can go into it happily knowing I had one of the best Mondays possible!
4/7/08
No comments:
Post a Comment