Saturday, July 10, 2010

Breakthrough!

Last night was an important night in our family as Donovan finally figured out how to blow bubbles. The whole "blowing" thing has been rather fraught for us as Donny was convinced that biting his lower lip was the proper embouchure for blowing bubbles or blowing out candles. Poor kid couldn't even blow out his own birthday candles. Any attempt to show him a better system would end in a meltdown (usually his).

Well, last night I was blowing some bubbles for him and he finally tried pursing his lips: BUBBLES! The kid was jumping up and down yelling, "I DID IT! I DID IT!" I decided to try the next level and asked if he wanted to blow out some candles. Still superexcited, he hopped into the kitchen while I lit the "fire fairies." I lit three candles and he blew them all out! It was great!

I would note here that "fire fairies" are a Waldorf thing--when the teachers light candles they sing a little Fire Fairy song. Mike and I have joked that the Fire Fairy song is like Waldorf Fight Club because Donny refuses to sing the song for us. He was so excited last night, tho, I thought I might catch him off guard. "If I light the candles again will you sing the Fire Fairy song for me?" Still jumping up and down, Donny said, "YEAH! Yeah, yeah YEAH!" So I lit the candles and what does he sing?: "Happy Birthday to You/Happy Birthday To You!..." Sigh.

It did remind me to look up the damn Fire Fairy Song. As you can see, its nice but I wasn't missing much.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

My Son, The Singin' Frog

Mike took Lil' Amadeus to his "mini lesson" with the Suzuki teacher today. The result was pretty much what I was expecting, which was call back in 6 months. The kid's just not ready to take instruction, which considering he is a 3 year old should be no surprise. The funny thing is, he did what he did after his last lesson, which is he refused to do what the teacher wanted him to do when we ask him, but then 10 minutes later, he's doing it and he's so proud of himself that he's laughing. This time it was playing in a rhythm--and anyone who's ever played an instrument will be familiar with the "Mississippi Hot Dog" rhythm. Also, he bowed for the teacher but he would'nt bow for me. He did bow for Mike a little later on but I missed it.

So, yeah, the world isn't ready for our Boy Genius yet. Which is perfectly fine. The teacher said to come back in 6 months or so to see where he is. Mark your calendars for January 2011.