scared

James is scared of a few things lately - well mostly birds and bugs. But only birds when they fly in our house. I can't say that I blame him.

We heard a bird on our chimney the other day. Recent events have made us a bit wary of those birds. James says:

"I sared!!" (which is his adorable way of saying "scared")

"Are you scared of the bird?"

"Just a litter." (aka "little" - this has got to be one of my favorite words he says, it is so cute it melts my heart)

I go into James' room after his "nap" and he is standing by the door, frantic.

"Mommy, Mommy, a BUG!!"

"Did it scare you?"

"No, it talk a me."

"What did it say?"

"Hi!!"

And I found these pictures from the other day. Had to put 'em up.

picture happy

flashlight fun

learning the art of shadow puppetry

reading - a favorite activity in our house

my boys

me and James

sweet boy

had to have his trains in the pictures

loves trains

hey it's me

blue fishbowl jell-o

So I have this glass bowl/vase that is shaped like a little fish bowl. So I thought, hey - I'll make blue jell-o and put Swedish Fish inside, and make a little edible fishbowl!

James loved it, he helped drop the fish in and had tons of fun. I have to say that the Swedish Fish actually don't taste that great once they've been in jell-o for awhile - they get a little slimy and sticky. Kind of fishy, really. Still a fun little activity, nevertheless.

love at first sight

Five years ago tonight, Jonathan walked through the door to my apartment to pick me up for our very first date, and I took one look at him and thought, "huh - he's pretty cute!" The rest is history.

We had a Little Caesar's pizza tonight for dinner (which is what we ate on our first date) to celebrate.

I love you, Babe!

A Winter Concert

A couple of weeks ago my amazing little (hardly - he's like six feet) brother Josh performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on the piano with his high school orchestra. Now, I knew he was talented, but I actually had no idea how amazing he really is! He did an amazing job and I was so darn proud of him :) You may or may not be able to view a video of the performance by clicking here.

We decided to take James to see his Uncle "Dosh" perform. James was so excited to go to the concert. All day he kept saying, "Go a carcert??" He couldn't wait. Since Josh was the final performer of the evening, we decided that it might be a bit hard for him to sit through an entire concert, so he and his daddy went on a little outing to the bookstore and had tons of fun, while I went to the concert. They met us there at the very end, and James could not wait! He was so good during the whole performance and clapped for Uncle Dosh. It was actually really sweet; I think it really made a big impression on him.

When we got home that night, James was so excited to read this cute book that we have, called "A Winter Concert." It is really an adorable book, about a little mouse who goes to a concert on a winter night. There is a grand piano on stage, and after the audience gathers, the pianist comes out and plays a concert of beautiful, beautiful music. The illustrations are all black and white drawings, but when the pianist starts to play, beautiful colors come out of the piano and fill the whole concert hall and pave the little mouse's pathway home.

Thank goodness for good music, good books, and wonderful uncles.

friends are the best

We had a sweet little evening on Saturday. James has a little friend named Spencer. His mommy and I are friends, and so James and Spencer have played together a few times. Usually it is type of playing where one toddler is playing with one toy on one side of the room, and the other is playing with another on the other side, with occasional sad faces and crying about sharing "mine toys!"

We watched Spencer on Saturday night so his parents could go on a fun date. The boys played pretty well, but not really together. We had lots of fun with trains and bikes. And then they just looked so cute that I had to whip out my camera.

"Oh good, pictures!" said Spencer (Jonathan and I decided that the boys talk in two different toddler "dialects" - very cute). We somehow got them to sit together on the stairs. Jonathan made a funny face and noise (as only daddies can do), and it was like magic - all of a sudden these two little buddies bonded! And this happened:

From that moment on they played together and had the best time. James said, "come on, Spencer!" and took him upstairs to his mommy's and daddy's big bed in the loft, where they had a grand old time jumping on the bed, touching the ceiling, and playing with flashlights in the dark.

It was the sweetest thing to watch our little boy to really play with his first friend, and to discover the joy that comes with friendship.

teaching children kindness

I love how my James is learning and growing and discovering the world. Life really can be magical through the eyes of a toddler, can't it? The simplest things are just amazing to him and he finds joy in the smallest things - like playing with balloons or carrying a flashlight around the house, shining it on everything in sight, and learning to make shadow puppets with his Daddy.

And while, yes, this is an amazing world to discover, it can sometimes be harsh and scary and not so magical. I only hope we can teach him what we need to in order for him to be a great man (like his Daddy and all of his uncles and his two amazing grandfathers) who will influence the world for the better.

I hope we can teach him to be kind to others. I feel like this is one of the very most important things we can teach our children. This is something I have been thinking about lately, and I think that for many in our world today, being kind is a lost art. It is probably one of the most simple yet powerful ways to help and influence others, to serve the people around us, to share our beliefs, even to be successful.

It is so easy these days, especially with the technology we have, to share our opinions and put others down in order to make ourselves seem cool. I am sure we are all (myself included) guilty of judging others at times. I hope I can teach my boy to give others the benefit of the doubt before judging them, to steer clear of categorizing people, and to be slow to take offense.

What a lot of responsibility that comes with being a mother!

"Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other."
- Marvin J. Ashton

The Birds

You've seen Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds," right? Well we had our own little "The Birds" experience yesterday...

We live in a 3-story townhouse with a fireplace that has a long, tall chimney. Pigeons nest on top of our chimney all the time. In fact James is really good at making a pigeon noise because we hear them often. Yesterday morning we heard this loud flapping sound in the chimney, but didn't think much of it because we hear birds up a lot. (Although we did joke about the part in "The Birds" where hundreds of birds fly out of the fireplace into the house!) All of a sudden a BIRD fell out of our chimney and flew into the room, madly flapping and flying in circles. Poor James came running and I scooped him up and we ran into the bathroom, while our brave Daddy got the bird out of our house.

Pretty much a creepy experience. Last night I kept thinking I heard birds in our house (totally just my imagination). Maintenance just came and climbed on our roof and I'm hoping did something to prevent this in the future.

If you come to our house in the next few days (or until I get my courage up to change it) and notice our furniture rearranged with the couch in front of the fireplace, you will know why.

I will never complain about box elder bugs or moths ever again (unless they are really big, or if they attack me, in which case I reserve the right to complain).

my little sis is gettin' hitched

I took some engagement pictures of my little sister Abby and her fiance Ryan this weekend - and I think they turned out so cute! They are such a cute couple and I am just so happy for them :) Here are a few of the pictures put together in a little video. (I think the song is kind of fitting, because when she was a baby we used to call her "Happy!") See more pictures on my photography blog!

calling all piano teachers

Yesterday in the car I was listening to the radio, and Classical 89 was celebrating Chopin's 200th birthday by playing a lot of his pieces. On came his Polonaise-Fantasie, the piece I ended my senior piano recital with. I seriously almost got a little teary - I SO miss practicing for hours at a time! I just love the piano, and teaching piano. As a mom it can be so hard sometimes to fit practicing in when you are already pulled in so many directions. But I keep on resolving to try harder to practice more regularly. (I figure if I say that on my blog, there is more pressure to follow through, right? ;)) It is something that I definitely need to keep in my life!

Lately I have had piano on the mind a lot. I have been working on becoming certified as a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music, which is pretty cool. I have been teaching a bit and trying to get more students, and trying to become a better teacher.

One thing that I miss about college is being with other pianists all the time and having the chance to talk to them and perform for each other and learn together. Now that my "piano friends" and I are all off in the world, starting studios of our own and putting to practice all the things we learned while working on our degrees, we have often emailed each other or had little discussions online about different aspects of teaching, and it has been wonderful to hear different ideas and get different perspectives on things. Which is why I am excited to announce...

my new blog!

My friend Janina and I have started a new blog, The Teaching Studio, which is all about piano teaching. We want it to be a fun place where we can share experiences and ideas with other piano teachers, and hopefully help inspire each other to become better teachers. Along with the posts that we write, we have a few other piano teachers as regular contributors who will share their insights. We are excited to get piano teachers from all over to visit our blog and make comments and share their ideas.

We want this to be helpful and inspiring for all types of piano teachers - the teachers who have taught for years and have college music degrees, as well as teachers who are just starting out and may not have a ton of formal training in piano pedagogy. I know I have lots of friends who fit into either of these categories, so come check out our new blog!

it's coming up!