Tai and Luc were playing soccer.
Tai: The score is 3 to 3. Whoever gets to 99 first, wins.
Luc: (thinking….) How about whoever gets to 1 first, wins?
First piano lessons: Please get up from under the table.
22 OctFirst Lesson.
So, I was pretty excited to get started. Tai and I had observed several lessons last month. I nearly died when it was finally Tai’s first lesson and he dove down and clutched the leg of a table in the room after the teacher asked him to come and take a bow. It took all my might to keep my mouth shut. I just threw the teacher a sheepish glance that read, “Good luck with this one.”
Finally, he managed to get control of his nerves, took a bow and sat down at the piano. I have to admit I was hoping we might do the bow and how to sit at the first lesson and call it a day – knowing that we could easily “master” that in a week of practice at home. But no, we learned Do. (I’m finally going to have to master Solfege as I am accustomed to letter names for notes). I thought the Mississippi Hot Dog rhythm on Do was pretty challenging. Each note has to be soft, staccato and sound the same as the others. Ok, we can do this. But then she added Sol with the 4th finger (and a quick lesson on finger numbers in between). Yikes!
Well, Tai practiced very well. We kept it short and sweet. There was some very mild frustration and goofing around (like toppling over during the bow), but Tai happened to get a terrible case of croup midway through the week so I was easy on him.
First piano lesson.
Second Lesson.
On the way to the second lesson, Tai mentioned that he was going to learn La. I told him that often in the beginning, learning is slow and we should expect to have to stay on Sol for a while.
This week, Tai greeted his teacher in a friendly and polite way, took the most beautiful bow. He sat at the piano with the most beautiful posture. His teacher worked with him on the tone of Mississippi Hot Dog on Do. She does not say things like good try, she does not compliment him on things that are unrelated to what he’s trying to do, she is clear about what she wants to hear and has him try again and again until she hears it. Tai was working very hard. Then they played Sol.
Then, they added La! Tai’s smile was so big. Not only that, they went back to Sol, then to Fa, Mi, Re and Do. The whole bread sections! Tai excitedly looked over at me and I matched his excitement by pretending to furiously scribble down all the extra notes in his notebook.
When we got into the car, Tai said, “That was fun, fun, fun!”
At home, he asks to practice. If I say, “In a minute,” he says, “Ok, I’ll wait at the piano.” Since the teacher asked us to focus on going from Do to Sol, we do that 10 times and only do the rest of the notes once. But Tai insists on 3 times and changed it in his practice chart.
I’m savoring these moments because I know it will not always be like this.
Piano Lessons!
22 OctTwo lessons down, 487 left. Tai started Suzuki Piano Basics lessons this month.
Why Piano?
Before I was pregnant, I was absolutely sure I would have girls. As soon as I got pregnant, I knew it would be boys. Similarly, I was absolutely sure my kids would play the violin. Now, I know Tai will play piano. [When he's 9, he would like to start the trumpet - an instrument that really does seem to match his voice.] Tai and I had a couple of false starts on the violin. The first time, he was too young. The next time, it just didn’t feel right. I have a very hard time balancing the dual role of Teacher and Parent. Tai is very active. He likes to know exactly how something should be done before he does it. He was easily frustrated on the violin. It takes some time to make a good sound on a little violin. Also, piano is just a good all-around instrument to play that is useful in many settings. Now that we are in Sacramento, there is no real Suzuki violin community (and back in Chapel Hill, there was no real Suzuki piano community). However, there is a thriving Suzuki Piano Basics community.
Piano Basics is a “branch” of Suzuki piano that focuses on a very specific technique devised by Kataoka, Suzuki’s accompanist. The fingers almost immitate a bow and actually move down the key as the note rings. The wrist is high, the hand is balanced over the keyboard so the palm is over the keys. The default hand position is closed, not spread out. The emphasis is on tone. This is what I love most about Suzuki music education. One might think that you just press the key and the piano makes it’s sound, but I was surprised at the nuance and subtle differences I could hear when students were instructed in technique at the lessons I observed. I was also thrilled to find a teacher near our home with a strong personality to guide Tai along. She has studied directly with Kataoka and travels to Japan every 18 months, often with students, to continue learning more about teaching. Of course, the Suzuki piano repertoire is just beautiful.
Tai hugs his new (used) piano.
Somehow, Tai has been excited to start piano lessons for a while now. I gave him a choice (after a miserable start to violin) of playing violin or piano. Of course, after agreeing to wait until he is 9 to start trumpet, he said piano. We started listening to the Volume 1 CD and he always hummed along – something he never did with the violin music.
Music Monday: When the River Meets the Sea: John Denver and the Muppets
3 OctI didn’t like this song much when I listened to this album as a 7 year old, but I like it now. Wrapping up an emotionally exhausting Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Music Monday: Foster the People: Waste
27 SepIt seems strange for a mom to dedicate this song to her 3 yr old, but here goes…
Steroid Induced Psychosis
25 SepThis is actually a side effect of the steroids that Luc takes. Luc is not psychotic, but he did have what seemed like a sudden personality shift this last month. It’s as if the steroids never left his body even though it’s been almost 2 weeks now since he has had any. His behavior was actually a little scary. Everything has to be just so or he gets very very angry. It’s like 3 years old…on steroids. Yesterday, a few times, he dug his nails in me so hard it was very painful. He tried to bite me, too, but I was able to stop him. He’s been uninterested in eating anything so he must be a bit nauseous, despite taking his Zofran regularly. Luc is a sweet boy and I cannot stand to see him being so mean. A couple of weeks ago, he hit Tai in the head with a toy car. We were sitting in a Truckee diner, all tired at the end of a quick day trip to Donner Lake. Tai and Luc started arguing about something when Luc whacked Tai in the forehead. Blood everywhere. It was quite a scene.
I suppose it could also be just cancer-induced-madness. Perhaps it just hit him all of a sudden. He is 3. He’s supposed to be increasingly independent and in charge, making choices, exploring, takings risks – yet many of these opportunities are denied to him and his body lags behind his brain. I think I’ll get in touch with child life and see what suggestions they have. Time to change around the play room for fall so I think I’ll try to include some ‘real’ work choices a la Montessori. In addition, his routine has been messed with a bit. We’ve been going out more, expecting him to go through more transitions than usual.
That said, something about the behavior seems so “chemical.” Normal discipline just doesn’t seem to apply. Leaving him alone seems like the wrong thing to do. Every bit of this journey is about guessing. I hate guessing.
Speaking of guessing, the new standard protocol involves a steroid pulse once every 16 weeks rather than every 4 weeks. In other words, they have no idea whether the steroids are worth the trouble. I just can’t believe we could be going through this for nothing.
Meanwhile, I keep telling Tai he is in training to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Wonder if Luc would appreciate the joke?
Tags: 3 year old, Angry Birds, behavior, cancer sucks, chemotherapy, dexamethasone, discipline, leukemia, peace, preschooler, psychosis, side effects, steroids
Music Monday: Foster the People: Helena Beat
20 SepGreat song – one of my favorites right now, but the video is disturbing and odd.
Tags: Foster the People, Helena Beat, Music Monday
Ca-Cawwwww
13 SepA bit out of character for me, but I entered Luc in the Angry Birds Biggest Fan contest. If he were 18 or over, he would win a trip to Singapore on a special Angry Birds Finnair flight. Instead, he is in the running for “prizes.” We got knocked out of the the Top 5 fans, but I was very surprised and touched by the support we had!
The Contest
Luc's Entry
Tags: Angry Birds
