Mothers Day

I got to swing by Nana's place to snap a pic of Nana with her children the day before Mothers Day.  Aren't they all adorable? :) Jim and Da, Paul and Rita, Mary and Felshaw and Mark and Marla.  You would truly be hard pressed to find people who are more loving and genuine, loyal and kind, smart and interesting.  I feel so blessed to be one of theirs.  I have inherited quite a legacy.

Sunday at Coco and Bill's after church, we had a performance of Ruby's guitar recital piece from the night before, accompanied by Tizzy on the toy piano.  She was hilarious.  She tried so hard not to play the piano during Ruby's piece.  With a pained expression on her face, she sneaked one finger to the keyboard and softly played a note.  Then another note, quietly.  Then a few fingers softly plunking an accompaniment to Ruby's lovely Bach.  Tizzy knew she shouldn't, but finally she couldn't take it anymore.  She got this determined look on her face and just unleashed everything she had, pounding that poor piano for all she was worth. It's so hard to be good!

Unless you're Nana.  Then being good is second nature.  The famous quote is "Es be goo," Nana's childhood version of "Let's be good."

Coco and Bill made a delicious lunch for all of us.  I'm sure everyone knows how great my parents are.  If you were in heaven and you looked down and had to choose a mother, you would definitely choose my mom.  I'm fortunate that I got to be one of the three lucky winners who got sent to Mary.  She was the fun mom who let us turn the furniture upside down to make forts, and she's still the fun mom who always has a new adventure planned for the grandkids, whether it's an art project at the kitchen table or a trip to Paris.  (I had to throw a Paris reference in there.  It's MY MOM we're talking about!)

I had just dyed my hair for Miami.  Nana said she "wasn't sure if she liked it."  ha ha

Next stop in our Mothers Day marathon, Grandma and Grandpa's for a nice dinner!  Scott was in NEw York with Araceli and Freestone, so we sent him a picture of him mom.  She is the epitome of motherhood at its best.  She always knows when to step in and when to step out, how to keep the peace, and how to let each of her family know that they are loved.  She is a mother through and through, every second, to the core of her being.

Having tow of my brood away from me on the big day was fun, because I knew they were experiencing things that would change them for the better for the rest of their lives.  Their eyes were being opened to arguably the greatest city on earth (sorry, Mom.  I meant besides Paris).  And isn't that the whole ironic goal of motherhood: to set the offspring free.  Then you hope they make their way, hold onto happiness and sometimes return home for Sunday dinner.

Endless

Part of having kids in every age group is that they're never all asleep at the same time.  Or maybe it's just that teenagers never sleep.  Golda and Ruby are up when I go to sleep and up when I roll out of bed in the morning.  Scott and I long ago gave up the notion of a quiet evening at home, kids all tucked in bed.  We do remember the good old days: kids in bed by 7.  Wow!  What did we do back then?!  Sighs of relief, then lots of books and TV.  I like the stage we're in now better, though:  kids coming and going until 10 pm, family prayer with whoever isn't at ballet or play practice. one wave of little people after another coming in my room to flop on my bed and talk before they take themselves to bed.

I especially appreciate it now, as Golda is preparing to leave the nest.  When she comes in our room late at night, it's not about the 6th grade field trip or moving up a level in ballet or junior high friend drama.  It's to talk about what freshman classes to take and how to decorate her dorm room.  I look up from my book and stare at her when she isn't looking.  I try to imagine how it will feel when she's not here, but I can't even.

All those nights when the kids went to bed so early, it's easy to look back and say, maybe we should have just kept them up longer, looking up at the stars or reading stories for just a few more minutes.  But who knew they would grow up and we'd run out of those nights?  They seemed so endless.

Then they ended,

Danse Rustique, Etc.

Hello everyone!  I'm back from Miami.  Before I left, a bunch of fun things happened.  One was Araceli's cello recital.  She played Danse Rustique great, but not perfectly  Elliott took the accompaniment faster than they had ever played it, and Araceli just went with it.  The faster tempo gave it some good energy, but the intonation was iffy.  It's a fun piece, and I hope she gets a chance to play it in some more venues.  

Meanwhile, Scott and Ruby took Tizzy to her dress rehearsal for her ballet recital.  She looked in the mirror and said, "Ooh!  I'm magic!"  She had announced that she wasn't going to cry this time, but she did get hit with some stage fright at the recital.  Scott sent me footage of her scared little face watching the other girls dance around her onstage.  Poor little thing, she's all bark and no bite!

This tall, beautiful girl also had her final orchestra concert with the Fairfield Jr, High orchestra.  I love these concerts, and it's even more fun when Ari is playing than Golda, because the flutes are always buried in the back and we can't see them!  At least with flute, you know it's your child if you hear it because there aren't many.  Anyway, all these year-end things are a great way to celebrate the hard work of the year, and to mentally close out tabs you think should stay closed for awhile!  Is it summer yet?

Scott's Gifts

Scott is smart enough, or scared enough, based on what happened on Mothers Day in 1998, to just give me a gift.  This year, I begged him not to give me things.  I told him a trip to somewhere would do.  Just one little trip, not even a matching set.  Just one.

Ironically, he was in New York with Araceli and Freestone on Mothers Day.  Not exactly what I meant by "one" trip.  Nevertheless, Scott did present me with a tower of treats before he left.  Wednesday night he asked me if I wanted the present now or on Sunday.  I said, "What is it?  Because if it's chocolate, obviously I want it now.  If it's not, I don't care.  I can wait until Sunday."

Scott is a good gift giver.  He would never get me something I could wait for.  And he always knows what I'll want before I do. This week, while I'm in Miami, I tell him what restaurant we went to, he looks up the menu, and guesses (correctly every time) what I ordered. Today, I asked him what he thought I was GOING to order for lunch at Ms. Cheesious, this kitschy grilled cheese place. He guessed I was going to get the crab melt, so I did, because if Scott thought I would order it, I must like it.

Thanks for saving me a lot of thinking, Scott.   Now just tell me this: what do you THINK I'm going to get you for Fathers Day?

Tee Ball

This is my favorite picture of Ptolemy from his first tee ball game. He was so enthusiastic, he fell down. Ptolemy is stoked about tee ball. It's adorable, him and his knobby knees all dressed up in that get-up. He loves the hat, the mitt, the new socks. Of course, Ptolemy thinks everything is thrilling. I took him to a furniture store. Boring, right? He looked at the rugs hanging in rows and asked me, wide-eyed, " Are those REAL MAGIC CARPETS!? Do they really fly!?" I didn't want to say no. So I said yes. I had to. I hate the idea that anything could dampen this fresh, pure, happy spirit. So carpets fly and boys are tee ball heroes, until anyone says otherwise.

Ruby's Journey

While Scott and the kids were in New York, life went on here at home.  I took Ruby to her guitar recital, where she played part of a Bach cello suite in D.  A Minuet, I think.  She has always had a musical intuition, perfect pitch and a love for the guitar.  She is a delight to listen to.  When her piece ended, the audience let out an audible sigh of pleasure.  She is one of the oldest students in Roy's studio, and some of the parents have watched her grow as a musician and a person for years now.  Other newer families just look to her and the older kids as examples of what their little kids are going to become, just as I did when Ruby was younger.

Ruby also played a Christopher Parkening piece with Atticus.  She has group class with Atticus and Roy every other Friday.  I made Ruby pose for these pictures because it was the day before Mothers Day.  Ruby thought I could have asked for a better present than pictures of her, but she was wrong.  One of the most gratifying parts of being a mom for me, and this isn't news for anyone, is seeing that my kids are developing a love and understanding of music.  My kids aren't the ones who practice 4 hours a day and end up with scholarships to Julliard, but that wasn't our path to take.  We're happy on our path.  We practice and we develop gradually, and we appreciate the unfolding of the journey.  Golda's senior recital last November was such a watershed moment for me, encapsulating everything Golda had accomplished over her whole life and demonstrating that she did, indeed, reach the heights that I had hoped for in the beginning phases of Twinkle Variations.  Ruby is on track for that same goal.  The guitar is my favorite instrument.  My heart aches when I hear some of the music written for guitar.  It's a big part of why I spent two summers in Spain; this music and the culture it came out of, a desire to know more about the place that could produce such haunting, heartbreaking, delicately crushing music.  Needless to say, I can't get enough of Ruby's practicing.  I'm thankful she loves it, and thankful to share the journey with such a mature musician and such a deeply soulful soundtrack.

Brooklyn Bridge

 Yes, Scott did crawl across the Brooklyn Bridge.  At least for a minute.

 Wow!

 These two together gets seriously ridiculous sometimes.  You can't stop it.  You can only hope to contain it.

 This guy...

 Last slice of the trip turned out to be a whole pizza.  Why not?

 Looks like Scott completely wore him out.  Mission accomplished!  When I picked them up at the airport, Freestone went straight to ballroom team pictures, then ballet.  Araceli had jazz and a big load of homework.  Welcome back, kids!  I think they're starting to understand the post-trip blues.  Re-entry is hard, especially when you've just been to the greatest city in the world with the greatest dad/tour guide in the world.  At least they got to bring the tour guide home with them!