Catch Up

Well last week was my concert - which is why there haven't been any posts since Flashback to Easter - wow it's been awhile. So last week was busy with concert preparations (it went pretty well) and this past weekend we got the dogs rabies shots and planted the garden. It was so nice to be outside weeding and planting. I love this weather, and the trees have suddenly burst into bloom, which is just wonderful.

So I keep meaning to write an entry about the wonderful things my daughter says, but I can't always remember exactly how she worded it that made it so funny. She really is getting big though, and I can't imagine what life was like without hearing her two cents about every situation. Sometimes Eric and I can't even talk to each other in the car till I remind Genni that the adults are talking and she has to be quiet for a minute. Her and Wallace are little buddies now outside - I can weed and the two of them run around together. At least he has some redeeming qualities, to date he has destroyed - the garden hose, one of the panels of our canopy, 4 pairs of my shoes, two pairs of Eric's shoes, most of the landscaping in the front, multiple holes in the yard, not to mention all of the toys we have had to throw away from his chewing and the basement door. And that's just the stuff I remember! Anyway, back to Genni.

Genni has been sitting through church for the past 5 Sundays, I'm so proud of her. She goes running up to Gary for children's time (and I do mean running) and the whole church smiles. This past Sunday she cheered after the choir sang (yay! yay mommy!) and the whole church laughed and started clapping too. You can say that my daughter certainly lightens things up. Eric and I sit there smiling like two proud parents, especially when she sits there with the older kids for children's time. Anyone who knows my daughter knows that it is sometimes tough to keep her quiet and still at the same time. But when she goes up for children's time she sits nice and straight and quiet and listens. It's so cute!

Little Miss Independant isn't always cute though - she wants a drink "I want to hold the lid!" "what do we say when we want something" "Can I hold the lid please (please being the most high pitched word of the sentence)?" "I want to put my lotion on myself!" "I want to put it on myself" "myself, myself, by by myself!" But then when it comes to things she CAN do by herself, like go to the bathroom or use her fork, all of a sudden mommy needs to do it for her - can't she make up her mind? And then there are the "why" questions - does she even listen to the answer? By the time we get down to the last why I have nothing left to say except "because" "why?" "because I said so" - those aren't good answers but I can't think of anything else to say.


Well one of the new skills my daughter has developed is somersaults. This is very early in her doing this, now she just drops and rolls.

We went to dinner with Grandma a few weeks ago - Genni loved the lake and the whole time we were eating she wanted to go see it - Grandma and Genni were watching the boats on the lake in this picture:

Well that's it for now!

Mini Flashback to Easter....

We had such a wonderful week off together, it was so nice to have my family together! On the first Saturday of vacation we took Genni to an Easter Egg Hunt in the park near the Masteller's house - so Ethan came too. Of course when I was little and Easter Egg Hunt meant you looked for real eggs - so I wasn't really thinking about the plastic eggs with candy my daughter can't eat aspect. Luckily she is young enough to be excited about the eggs themselves and give me a chance to screen the candy without too much trouble. Here she is at the Easter Egg Hunt with Ethan...



Then that night after bath we colored Easter Eggs at home with Grandma and Grandpa Friedman (Genni says freed-a-man)



Then in the morning the Easter Bunny hid all the Easter Eggs we colored and Genni had fun finding them. I had a video of it but some how it got erased from the camera :(


So then it was getting ready for church:

Here are a few more pics of our trip to Rochester



and some artwork Genni created over break:

Letters of the Alphabet

So we went to the Strong Museum of Play on Friday (Genni did not want to leave, she had such a great time) with Genni's friend Ethan. Ethan is I think 3 months older than Genni, and sometimes I forget how much they can change in 3 months, so Marcie was telling us about how Etan knew all his letters by sight, and was getting confused because his mom had started the lower case with him - well I think - huh, I haven't done any letters with Genni really, I mean when she plays with blocks or we read books, but I'm sure she doesn'tknow what they all look like and thier names. So on the way home from dinner at Seneca Farms with Grandma and Grandpa last night, I start trying to do the letter G with her and the letter A on her Dora notebook - well I knew she wasn't interested and we weren't really getting anywhere so I was going to give up after a few minutes when after I erased it she said "which one is Genni?" so I wrote a G and she said "that's Genni!"- huh - so I wrote an E and she said "that's Emily" (her cousin) - huh again - Ok let's try this. Well I wrote two letters down and said - which one is Genni? which one is Emily? which on is apple? which one is cat? which one is lollipop? and Grandma and I went on like this for awhile - gosh darn it if she didn't get each one right. She can't tell you the name of it but she can tell you what word it begins. So I was all proud and amazed - this being my first time watching my own child develop like this, I figured you actually learned the names of the letters first. So today after school Grandma was over and they were playing with her wooden blocks. Now yesterday it was her choosing the right one out of two letters - this time she picks a block up and says - "this one is Seyda!" "this one is Wallace" "this one is mommy!" - she has never seen Seyda or Wallace written down - I'm always so amazed with how children's minds develop. Same with her colors, she has trouble naming them the right thing - but if she likes the color of your shirt she can go get the jar of playdough that is the same color. I can't wait to find out what she'll do next:).

This one is for Grandma...

Eric's mom requested that I record Genni singing her favorite book:

The actual words to this part are:

In came the doctor, in came the nurse, in came the lady with the alligator purse

(omited) Mumps said th doctor, measles said the nurse, nonsense said the lady with the alligator purse

Penecillin said the doctor, castor oil said the nurse, PIZZA said the lady with the alligator purse.

Of course the whole beginning story line about tiny tim getting a bath and eating all the soap and water and trying to eat the tub also was missed...but you get the idea:).

Flashback #1

Flashback to last summer - August actually - We had been wanting to get family photos done for a long time, and probably should have done it sooner - but we were waiting for us all to have time. Our good friend and Genni's godfather is a photographer and we went over to his house in August to take some photos. He actually made me look pretty good, quite an accomplishment because I am very unphotogenic. If you live in the area he does senior pictures and weddings!

http://www.mikesimonsphotography.com/

Alphabet Girl!

This is my first try uploading videos, and it's from the canon rather than an actual video camera, but it's still cute. We went from Genni filling in a few letters to the other day I realized that she must have been singing the whole thing for awhile now but I hadn't realized the jump. I really wish I had started this blog when she was younger, but I may do a few flashback entries just to put down what I remember while I still can and post pics and videos from that part of her life.

In other news, they just posted on Sherry's website that she may get to go home tomorrow!! Miracle child, some people spend a longer time in the hospital from having children! I'm so proud of her!

Went to CCC with the sophomores today, a pretty well-behaved class, I was impressed. It was career day.

Two more days of school and then break!

Genni singing the Alphabet song, mostly on pitch too! Only a music teacher would care about that....

Here's Twinkle Twinkle (I know, same tune, different words) at the end of the video she gets up so that she can see herself on the camera. At least she stays to actually make it now! She used to not even sit still so I could take a picture, she was more interested in the camera itself.

And she's only two and a half! :) I know probably normal for her age, but I'm her mother so I get to think she is amazing no matter what:).

Lots of Stuff....

Well - let's catch up...

Last week I played in the Bath show, Aida, so that took up most of my evenings. They did an outstanding job, I really enjoyed playing for it and seeing it performed. Lots of talent in that senior class! At the same time, the East show has been going on and I got to see a performance of that yesterday, super funny and well played. Nice to see such talented young people in these communities. The weather was beautiful yesterday and now we are in for a rainy week - I'm hoping for some good ones next week though when we are on break!

Speaking of talented kids, one of my talented students was in a car accident Saturday. 4 of Bradford students actually, but one of my band kids was seriously injured. http://www.the-leader.com/news/x549594440/4-teens-injured-in-Riverside-crash

I am very angry about all the negative comments at the end of the article, these are all good kids and my heart goes out to all of them for the physical and emotional injuries they have incurred. I heard that someone actually came up to them at the accident scene to berate them. How sad that they had to deal with this! This was an accident, not brought on by any misdeeds on their part. Their families need our support not anything else. Sherry is recovering very well, but had surgery to remove a portion of her fractured skull and replace it with a metal plate, and a fractured pelvis. My mother-in-law had brain surgery this summer so I know that the healing process will be slow and long, but she is a very strong and dare I say stubborn young lady so I know that she will be Ok. My prayers go out to all the families involved. Perhaps more prayers should go out to the people who have nothing but angry words, I hope someday their view of how special children of any age are and how heartbreaking it is that they should have to go through such trauma is will change and that they will be considerate enough to remember the human beings involved in these news stories. Sherry, Amanda, Dylan and Pat - you are in my thoughts and prayers!