The Week in Review

A few weeks ago I started teaching very basic piano lessons to Ava. She has been asking me to teach her for a long time, and I just wasn't sure she was ready until recently. So, every Sunday after church, we have been sitting down together for a lesson. At first, I thought Ava was more interested in the uninterrupted one-on-one time with Mom (I really try to make sure I am giving her the same attention I would give to any of my other students...David takes Ella and Dallin in the other room, and we set a timer to make sure they all know it is Ava's time). But about two weeks ago, I started noticing something. She was really learning! In about one month's time, Ava has learned the musical alphabet, can point to any given key on the piano (A,B,C,D,E,F,G), can find middle C, is counting rhythms quite well (i.e. knows the difference between quarter, half, whole notes, eighth notes, and can count them accordingly), and can play a few simple songs while reading the music in front of her. The only reason I dare to be impressed by this is because I've been teaching piano for about 10 years now, to dozens of different students young and old...and my little Ava is among the fastest learners I have taught. That's my girl! Granted, she's no little Beethoven just yet, but I think she is displaying some musical talent, just the same. I'm just happy that she seems to be enjoying it, and sits down to practice her songs several times throughout the week without me having to ask.
For today's lesson, she decided to wear a fancy dress-up.

Meanwhile, Ella played quietly on the computer in the other room. The combination of headphones and Nick Jr. is God's gift to mothers.

This past week it was also my turn to teach Ella's preschool. We learned all about nursery rhymes. We talked about rhyming words, read stories, and then played games that correlated with the nursery rhymes we read. For example, we had a race to "fetch a pail of water", we jumped over candlesticks, we ate "curds and whey" while pretend spiders sat down beside us, and they each got a turn to let Humpty Dumpty (each kid got a hard boiled egg) have a GREAT fall. Oh, and we played with watercolors. What day at preschool is complete without watercolors?
Let's see, what else did we do last week? Hmmmmm... oh yeah. We did a whole lot of snuggling with this handsome little guy.


OOoohh....he was trying so hard to crawl here. He was eying that toy. For sure.

And I finally decided to lay him in his crib at night! Hooray! He has been doing great. He is sleeping from 8 to 6 or so, just like normal. What a champ.

So, here I sit on a Sunday night, with everyone else asleep, and planning for the week ahead. It's strange, because I think I may be the only person in the entire universe that absolutely loves Monday mornings. For me, the dawn of a new week is like New Year's Day all over again. I feel fresh, renewed, and revitalized, with lists of goals to accomplish, and hope for a wonderful week ahead. Call me crazy, but it's true. In my mind, a "case of the Mondays" consists of a clean house, (Monday is always deep-cleaning day) fresh vacuum lines in the carpet, clean sheets, fresh bread, folded laundry, a yummy dinner and a fun family night. What could be wrong with a day like that? Ahhh Monday...I love you so. Okay, okay....enough day-dreaming about tomorrow (I have a serious case of OCD if I'm day-dreaming about cleaning, I admit it).

For now, here's a little look at my 4-year old Beethoven in the making... (sorry it's upside down, I was holding my phone the wrong way when I took the video).