Friday, September 17, 2004
Tonight I asked Benny what he wanted for supper. His response: Salad. With croutons. I gave it to him, and he said, "Is this corn you are giving me?" I said, no, it's salad. He said, "Is this lettuce right here in the salad?" Yes. "Oh GOOD JOB MOM!!! Thank you for giving me this salad!!!!" Wow, sometimes I just have to shake my head and wonder.
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Thursday, September 16, 2004
Hey Benny is doing AWESOME in Karate!!! He can count to ten in Korean! HANA! DOOL! SET! NET! DASUT! YAUSUT! Et cetera! He loves it. I got him a "puzzle floor" which is this set of mats that connect like puzzle pieces... like a workout mat or something. It's a small version but just like the floor at Karate and he was very very pleased with it. Now we take turns being teacher and student and go through the different stances, punches, and kicks. I don't think he can learn any forms yet -- he's still working on the very basics. Tomorrow will only be his third class. However, he's extremely enthused about it!
What are we working on this week in violin? Playing TOGETHER. Last week's play-in was a disaster as far as Benny's contribution was concerned -- he raced to the end of each song and proudly said I WON in this hideously smug and fatuous manner. NOT OKAY. So we are working on listening to the other person (me) and staying together on all the songs. Not an easy lesson for Mr. Competitive but we're dealing with it. :) :) :) He also got okayed to do regular bow hold instead of beginner but he has rejected it. So I'll let Mrs. Ford argue with him over that one. :)
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What are we working on this week in violin? Playing TOGETHER. Last week's play-in was a disaster as far as Benny's contribution was concerned -- he raced to the end of each song and proudly said I WON in this hideously smug and fatuous manner. NOT OKAY. So we are working on listening to the other person (me) and staying together on all the songs. Not an easy lesson for Mr. Competitive but we're dealing with it. :) :) :) He also got okayed to do regular bow hold instead of beginner but he has rejected it. So I'll let Mrs. Ford argue with him over that one. :)
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Ack.
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I forgot to share a weird shivery thing that Benny did just recently -- one of those spooky Benny things that make you think he's a total freak of nature instead of just a rambunctious four-year-old.
He got a new violin, right? He moved up from a 1/10th to a 1/8th. So on the first day of practice with the new violin, I tuned it up and handed it to him and told him to play Twinkle. And he kept playing it WEIRD. Like instead of E he would play F# and he was playing it all funky-crazy. And of course I thought he was just messing around and so I was like Benny, come on, this is Twinkle -- let's not be insane here. And he KEPT PLAYING F# INSTEAD OF E and I was like, losing my mind, because he wasn't communicating why he was doing it and I was unable to see what the heck was up his nose... UNTIL! I went and checked the violin's tuning with the keyboard which is tuned to proper pitch and I realized that the violin was tuned a whole step flat. So when he was playing F# on this violin, he was actually playing an E. I retuned it to the right pitch and he played the song fine and looked at me like, duh, come on Mom, can't you HEAR the difference? Uh, no. I can't. :)
YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And file this one under "I thought I was done with my twenties but apparently not": I just gave myself a haircut in the bathroom mirror! WHEE!!! Didn't use the meat shears this time so hopefully that shows some emotional growth.
*thud*
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He got a new violin, right? He moved up from a 1/10th to a 1/8th. So on the first day of practice with the new violin, I tuned it up and handed it to him and told him to play Twinkle. And he kept playing it WEIRD. Like instead of E he would play F# and he was playing it all funky-crazy. And of course I thought he was just messing around and so I was like Benny, come on, this is Twinkle -- let's not be insane here. And he KEPT PLAYING F# INSTEAD OF E and I was like, losing my mind, because he wasn't communicating why he was doing it and I was unable to see what the heck was up his nose... UNTIL! I went and checked the violin's tuning with the keyboard which is tuned to proper pitch and I realized that the violin was tuned a whole step flat. So when he was playing F# on this violin, he was actually playing an E. I retuned it to the right pitch and he played the song fine and looked at me like, duh, come on Mom, can't you HEAR the difference? Uh, no. I can't. :)
YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And file this one under "I thought I was done with my twenties but apparently not": I just gave myself a haircut in the bathroom mirror! WHEE!!! Didn't use the meat shears this time so hopefully that shows some emotional growth.
*thud*
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
BTW pictures are forthcoming.
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Benny and Dan went to see Hilary Hahn perform with the Virginia Symphony on Saturday night. What an experience! Hilary Hahn is a violin virtuoso at age 24 -- she cut her first CD when she was 17! We got tickets through the Academy of Music, and Dan took Benny as a special outing. Sadie and Ahno and I stayed home to ponder what was going on with Benny's first experience with the symphony.
They looked so adorable all duded up to go. He very much enjoyed riding the elevator up to their seats in the dress circle. He was EXTREMELY good throughout the first half -- only kicked his feet a little bit. The people sitting in front of him turned around to praise him for being such a good listener, and got into a conversation with Benny and Dan about his violin playing, etc. He was totally charming, I'm sure! :) During the intermission, Hilary Hahn was signing CDs. The accounting manager for the VA symphony struck up a conversation with Dan, and took him over to meet Hilary Hahn -- so Benny and Hilary had a nice little conversation! :) Apart from two little girls maybe age 8 or 10, Benny was the only child in the place. :) So he did stand out. He came out to the parking lot saying, "Dad, I'm going to work very hard so someday I can play my violin there!" And he was up until about 11:30pm just wired to the max from the experience. He's been listening to one of her CDs in his bedroom CD player. The one Dan bought has the Mendelssohn concerto that he's been so stuck on for so long -- he was THRILLED to hear Hilary Hahn playing one of his favorite and most familiar songs. When we got in the van today, he asked for violin sounds #1, and said, "So we can hear that song like HILARY HAHN plays but it's NOT Hilary Hahn playing it's SOME OTHER GUY!" Hehehe. Definitely the first time he's realized that different people record the same pieces on different CDs. But it has renewed his interest in the Mendelssohn and aren't we all just thrilled to pieces about that? OH YES. SO THRILLED.
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They looked so adorable all duded up to go. He very much enjoyed riding the elevator up to their seats in the dress circle. He was EXTREMELY good throughout the first half -- only kicked his feet a little bit. The people sitting in front of him turned around to praise him for being such a good listener, and got into a conversation with Benny and Dan about his violin playing, etc. He was totally charming, I'm sure! :) During the intermission, Hilary Hahn was signing CDs. The accounting manager for the VA symphony struck up a conversation with Dan, and took him over to meet Hilary Hahn -- so Benny and Hilary had a nice little conversation! :) Apart from two little girls maybe age 8 or 10, Benny was the only child in the place. :) So he did stand out. He came out to the parking lot saying, "Dad, I'm going to work very hard so someday I can play my violin there!" And he was up until about 11:30pm just wired to the max from the experience. He's been listening to one of her CDs in his bedroom CD player. The one Dan bought has the Mendelssohn concerto that he's been so stuck on for so long -- he was THRILLED to hear Hilary Hahn playing one of his favorite and most familiar songs. When we got in the van today, he asked for violin sounds #1, and said, "So we can hear that song like HILARY HAHN plays but it's NOT Hilary Hahn playing it's SOME OTHER GUY!" Hehehe. Definitely the first time he's realized that different people record the same pieces on different CDs. But it has renewed his interest in the Mendelssohn and aren't we all just thrilled to pieces about that? OH YES. SO THRILLED.
