She's growing up!

Emily LOVES to play the piano. She plays for hours each day and is getting pretty good (in her mother's opinion!). She sang this song with Janelle in lessons (and we have the Steve Green CD) and then taught herself how to play it on the piano. She knows a dozen or so songs by ear so far - which will work against her when she starts to read music. But I can't really stop her from tinkering around and figuring things out on her own!!

We're taking a little lesson break from piano - it's hard to squeeze everything in in the summer! - and we'll start up again once school is back. Since February Emily has learned the different types of notes and rests, some music notation, hand positions, where the notes A-E are on the piano, and how to play a song by reading labelled notes in her music book. She has also learned some new songs and Janelle is now teaching her to stay on key when Janelle sings harmony with her.

We're very pleased with her progress, and mostly I am thrilled that she LOVES it. I never took to the piano and only lasted a few lessons when I was younger.
So here's a little video of Emily singing and playing You Knit Me Together :)

Feeling Blue

Emily has been begging and pleading with me to PLEASE paint her room blue. Everyday I hear something about it. She's been stuck on this 'blue streak' (sorry) for quite a while, so I don't think it's just a phase. I have been thinking about a room makeover for her anyway; as my parents move from one house to another we are coming into a few new items - a beautiful white desk, a new princess theme comforter, a white metal headboard, some new art work and lamps.

I thought I would be smart and show her a few google images that came up when searching 'girls room blue'. Of course, this is room she wants:


HA!! How this even came up with my search words, I'm not sure. I pointed out that the walls are NOT blue in this room and she said "I would trade my blue walls for a giant carriage in my room." Of course she would. So would I ;)

This is more along the lines of what I was thinking of:

Her new bedding is quite similar to this quilt, and we now have the white headboard.

What do you think?? When do you allow your children to start making pretty big decisions - like wall colour choices?? (I know, I know, in the grand scheme of things a gallon of paint is not REALLY that big of a decision. But to a 4 year old, it's pretty huge :)

Should I go for it and re-paint?? Jacob's room is soon getting a major over-haul as well. And the best part of his new room will be a fully wired, fully working one of these: (another treasure from my parent's old house)
I'm so excited :)

JACOB

In honour of Jacob's 2nd birthday, here is post all about him:

Let me set the scene:

The kids and I arrived home from picking up a few things at Walmart right around the time the construction guys were packing up. I quickly put 99% of my purchases away. In fact, I only did NOT put away one item.

Anyway, I then headed upstairs to do the daily construction clean-up; folding up drop cloths, dusting dressers, sweeping and vacuuming. Emily likes to help me with this chore, and she usually does the dusting. We had made our way through all the dirt and grime when I realized that I hadn't had a single interruption from Jacob. I went in search of him with a bit of trepidation in my heart - all moms know that no noise from a toddler is usually not a good thing!
And this is what I found.





I couldn't help but laugh. He was so proud of his tp tower. You could see in his eyes he didn't make the mess out of disobedience or rebellion. He just found some really cool building materials (and the bag of bags that had once held our other Walmart purchases.) and got to work. He enthusiastically helped me clean up and said an "I'm sorry" when I told him he has made a big mess.

Happy Birthday, buddy.