Ballet concert

Lara had her ballet concert on the first Wednesday of December. 'Sleeping beauty' was this year's production and Lara was one of the little red riding hood. This being her second concert, Lara seemed less overwhelmed and quite excited about being on stage. She 'directed' a younger girl to the right place on stage and didn't forget any of her dance. The 2 Saturday rehearsals plus a dress rehearsal on top of the normal lessons made us all very busy (& tired!). Prior to the concert, Lara said she wanted to do gymnastics with Matilda next year but she has since 'changed her mind' and told me she really wanted to do ballet next year. She was very inspired seeing the other big girls dance. All my hard-work (yes it was hard work taking Lara to all the rehearsals) was worth it when I saw how much she enjoyed the concert.

The little red ridding hoods get ready to get on stage!


Unfortunately, I'm not sure doing ballet would be possible next year. I found out Lara didn't get a single day of after-school-care next year despite me making every effort to hand in the application form early. I found out by accident, no one in the school bothered to inform me! (this is another story, don't get me started) I can't even work out Sam's daycare for next yer let alone trying to fit ballet class in there as well. Hopefully when things settle down, we'll be able to continue ballet.

The Christmas bug

This Christmas happened in a big rush. We had two lots of family guests over, there always seemed to be people leaving and people coming. There was an extra guest, many shopping trips, and the cooking took some time. I was either in the kitchen or attendint to one of the kids and didn't even take any pictures. oh did I mention both kids were sick at x'mas?

Lara had diarrhea on Friday, vomited in the middle of the night and spent most of Christmas and Boxing day lying on the couch feeling miserable. Simon must have caught Lara's bug and also had diarrhea early x'mas morning. Sam had eczema on and off for two weeks before x'mas. A friend of a friend (a dermatologist) saw Sam on Friday and thought the eczema was severe and it needed medical attention. It prompted me to get to the doctor's at 5pm on Friday. I knew the itch bothered Sam but I dind't realise it was that bad and thought it would get better by itself. After taking antihistamine (kids Zyrtec), Sam did seem better. It didn't last long as he also caught Lara's gastro bug. He vomited over my new x'mas dress and three days later still vomiting. We had to change his bedding 3 times last night. I didn't think there was anything else left to be puked up!

At one stage (on x'mas morning) we thought we had to put off x'mas lunch! Luckily, besides the kids, nobody else got sick and Simon felt better. The good thing is we have enough food to last us for a long time so it's one less thing I have to think about.

Violin practice and concert

Lara had her violin concert last Saturday. She was included in the group twinkles at the last minute because she has not done all the twinkle variations yet(note 1). It was good training and great to see Lara trying to play the twinkle she has not yet learned by ear. There was a small group practice just before the concert. This was the first time Lara played with other kids (she played with me at home). Even though the other kids are more advanced than her, she did her best. The home practice sessions after the concert were very good and less tears. It's like a driving force, a goal (she already picked out a song she likes in Book 2) to work towards. I like the concept of group lessons in the Suzuki method, and look forward to more of these in the new year.

The home practices had been up and down. Practice was easy at the start, because it involved singing songs and playing games. I remembered the fist time Lara practiced the left hand at home. She thought she could not do it therefore refused even to try for 3 days. I'm glad we got over that hurdle! We usually spent about 1/2 an hour a night practicing violin. Most of the time, I got Lara to play the twinkle variations she alreay learned 4 or 5 times (each twinkle was about 1 minute long so that's 5 minutes). I don't know where rest of the time went. My next thing to try is perhaps to make practice a little more productive but keep in mind that music is just games and play for kids at this stage. Rather than a block of 30 minutes, I want to try 15 minutes of practice twice a day. Still trying to figure out where the second practice could fit in.

I went to check out some violins last week. I had to decide whether to rent the violins for another 3 months or buy a new/second-hand one. I don't know a lot about violins so the risk of getting a second hand one might be the set up fees on top of the violin. Lara is on a 1/8 violin at the moment and as she grows, we'll have to change violin sizes. Anyway I was talking to the violin dealer and I told him how Lara cried at home practices a lot, not because she didn't want to practice (she was usually the one who reminded me to practice) but she was frustrated she couldn't get the sound right. The violing dealer told me he got a lot of school violins for repairs. "One of the hardest thing I had to do is to clean the tear marks off" he said and showing me where the tears fell on the violin. So Lara is not the only kid who does this.... I have great admiration for any kids who play the simplest tunes because I know how much work is needed behind the scene...Here's a snippet of Lara's violin concert.



note:
Twinkle variations:
A - Busy Busy Stop Stop
B - ? (not learned yet)
C - Long little Long little(or Run Mummy Run Daddy)
D - Pineapple Pineapple
E - Running little catepillar

Paint bedroom

Lara helped me paint her bedroom today. I have wanted to make the kids' bedrooms more 'kid-like' for some time, but procrastenated until now. To minimise work, I've only done one feature wall. It is blue, Lara's favorite colour with free-hand clouds on other walls. Sam's bedroom will have a similar theme, maybe I'll do that next week. Lara helped me with the first coat, but was 'too tired' so she watched Harry Potter while I painted the second coat. Where was Sam? He was in family daycare. One of these rare days where I can spend some quality time with just Lara.

ps colour: dulux - sky babe

Perfect ears

Sam had his ear check-up again this afternoon. We were only in the specialist's office for about 5 minutes. After Dr looked into both ears, he confirmed they are now perfectly normal and healthy. It was worth the one hundred dollar fee just to hear these words. The troubles we took to both work part time so Sam could stay out of daycare was the right thing to do. Now the test will be to see if his ears can self-drain next winter (the cold season).

After we left the doctor's office, we bumped into a ukelele group playing outside. Lara insisted we stay and watch. With good news in mind, the afternoon breeze, and some live festive music, it was a good Friday afternoon to end the week.

Now Sam does not have any execuse to not listen to me!

Remote controlled cars

We stopped at a garage sale on the way home from violin lesson this morning. I bought 2 remote controlled cars for a grand total of $4. Simon never had remote-controlled cars as a kid and was thinking of buying one for Sam for Christmas because he was sure Sam will love it! Simon was very excited when he saw the cars. He recharged the batteries, put new AA batteries in and fixed the wheels. All these were done very quickly, much more efficient than, for example, when I asked him to change light bulbs in the house. He was nearly late for his massage because he couldn't wait to try them.

Simon and Lara spent some time outside trying the bigger car in the afternoon (they also played with the smaller car inside). I heard lots of laughter and screaming, they must be having fun. I had to do preparations for some work I had to do at night so I couldn't join in.

Zeb busy chasing the car...


Oh how do we get the car out?


As for Sam, he went outside to watch the remote controlled car after his nap. Was he interested? No, not a bit. I guess he's not getting remote control car for Christmas this year then!