Aidan's First Piano Show/Recital

On September 25th, Aidan had his first piano show/recital. I was not only a proud Mommy that day, but also a proud piano teacher.

Since Aidan is the only piano student that I am currently teaching in my spare time, it was interesting coming up with a piano program that featured only him (usually you see something like that for a senior piano recital, but not typically a child’s first piano recital). Aidan insisted that even though he was playing piano, he wanted his first piano show to be fun. So with that idea in mind, we came up with this piano program and Mike did a terrific job making programs:

One of the things Aidan had trouble accepting as we prepared for his piano show was not stopping regardless of any mistakes made, but instead, finishing the piece and acting like nothing wrong had happened. As it turns out, Aidan is very much a perfectionist like his Mommy and it sounded terrible to him to find out that when he performs, it is better to continue finishing a piece even after mistakes were made, rather than starting over and trying again. But with Mommy being his piano teacher, he practiced this technique during his piano lessons as the day of his piano show approached.
Everything that Aidan chose to do for his piano show program I felt comfortable with, except for the violin and turtle puppet parts. Aidan had only been taking violin lessons with me for 2 months and I honestly wasn’t sure if his first violin piece would be ready in time for his piano show (there was a lot of screeching coming out of that violin beforehand). Aidan, however, was determined to surprise everyone at his show that he could also play the violin too. He was also determined that his puppet friend, Mr. Turtle, also be at his first piano show (whenever Aidan is finding a certain music skill or concept difficult to practice, he is often cheered up and made to laugh by his puppet friend, Mr. Turtle…brought to life by me :P). I honestly think I have terrible puppet skills and cringed at the thought of having our family witness it during Aidan’s first piano show, but I love my little boy….so how could I refuse?

Aidan felt so special having his first piano show in one of the biggest studios at Mommy’s workplace (Levine School of Music) with a Steinway grand piano for him to perform on…oh, la, la! On the day of the show, we arrived early into the studio to practice while Mike and Yeh-Yeh set up the chairs, as well as a table with a variety of cookies that Mommy and Yin-Yin had baked during the week. They also decorated the room with a few music balloons for the kids to take home after the show.



Then Aidan’s first piano show began:



Aidan did an amazing job! He was so happy and proud of himself! Caleb was so proud of Aidan too! Mike and I were concerned that Caleb might be distracted during Aidan’s piano show so we wanted him to sit with Yin-Yin just in case he needed to be taken out of the studio. Caleb, however, watched the whole piano show attentively, always excited for when he could clap after each piece Aidan performed. It was too cute!
After the piano show, we went home for lunch where Mike and I gave Aidan a new Nerf gun present. Later that evening we took Aidan out to the Daily Grill to celebrate all his hard work (Aidan asked to celebrate at a nice restaurant as a reward for not giving up when performing during his show, no matter what happened). At the Daily Grill, Aidan ordered and ate his first chicken pot pie. After stuffing his face with the pot pie, he ordered a chocolate cake for dessert. Then before bed, Mike and I each gave Aidan a book that we had picked out and signed, telling him how proud we were of all the hard work he had put into his first piano show.
After a day like that, it wasn’t any surprise when Aidan asked the next day when he could have another piano show :)

Aidan's 1st Day of Kindergarten (afternoon)

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon enjoying my one-on-one time with Caleb while anxiously looking at the clock from time to time counting down for when it was time to head back to the bus stop to pick up Aidan. When it was time, I got Caleb ready, grabbed my camera, and asked Dad if he would join me to videotape Aidan coming home off the bus. As we walked to the bus stop together, Caleb kept saying with excitement “Get Aidan bus!” A few minutes later his school bus pulled up, I got the camera ready to take a picture, and…… Ashley ran out yelling to me, “Aidan isn’t on the bus! I didn’t see him come out of the school!” Yes, I started to freak out a little bit (thank goodness Dad hasn’t figured out how to use our video camera yet, although, it would have made for a memorable recording). I quickly asked Dad if he would watch Caleb while I drove to the school to check if Aidan was still there. I was definitely worried that Aidan had either gotten on the wrong bus or was waiting at school upset. On the way, I got a call on my cell phone from the school office informing me that Aidan missed his bus and was waiting for me in the office with his teacher. When I arrived at the school office, Aidan was there looking at the fish in the fish tank. I quickly thanked everyone in the office for keeping an eye on him and we headed home. Caleb greeted Aidan with a big hug when I brought him home. It was very cute to watch. As we all ate a small snack at the table, Aidan basically told me that he missed the bus because he wasn’t paying attention to when they were calling out the bus colors/numbers. After our small snack, we did Aidan’s reading homework, and then I lead the boys downstairs for a surprise that Mike and I had been working on over the summer to give them since they were both starting school….a new office!

On their desks Mike and I also gave each of them a wrapped book that we signed with a message. For dinner that night, mom made one of Aidan’s favorite meals, meatloaf with mashed potatoes. At bedtime, Mike read the new books to the boys. Then we reminded Aidan how important it was to listen at school, especially so that he could get home on his bus. Later that night, I told Mike that it is hard for a teacher to remember the names of all the kids in the class on the first day of school, but I was pretty sure that after today she knew who my kid was. The next day Aidan made it on the bus after school and came home very proud himself!

Aidan and Caleb Share a Room

A few months ago Mike and I made the “big” decision to finally move Caleb into Aidan’s room. This decision was set into motion when I was tucking Aidan to sleep and we had this conversation:
Aidan: “Mommy, I’m lonely when I go to sleep all by myself at night”
Me: “You don’t have to feel lonely baby, remember that God is always with you”
Aidan: “Yeah, but everyone else is lucky not to be alone and have somebody. You get to sleep with Daddy, Yeh-Yeh and Yin-Yin have each other, and I have nobody”.
Me: “Caleb sleeps by himself, and when I was little I slept by myself till I married your Daddy”
Aidan: “But since I’m marrying you, can’t I just sleep in your room now. Or maybe Daddy and I can take turns so that it is fair”.
Me: “Well, I got a better idea. How about if you show what a big boy you are by going to sleep right away every night without stalling, then Daddy and I will talk about moving Caleb into your room so that you two will never be lonely”
Aidan: “O.k., that sounds fair! I’m going to sleep right now!”

When I told Mike about this conversation he laughed. We both agreed that even though we might lose a few nights of sleep that there were more positive reasons to move the boys into a room together than negative. And what are those, you might be wondering? Well, here is what we came up with:
Pros:
• Aidan starts Kindergarten in the fall for a full day, which means that he and Caleb would see less of each other so it would be great to continue to foster the close relationship they have already by having them share a room.
• We could turn the spare room in the basement into a study room for both boys to do homework, file, and display their school work.
• Mike and I could listen to the TV without headphones and not have to whisper for fear of waking Caleb.
• Aidan could practice piano, do homework, or play in the basement while Caleb took his naps upstairs in their joined room.
• We would only need to listen to one baby monitor at night instead of two.
• Tucking them both in at the same time would be much quicker at bedtime
• Caleb has a limited vocabulary right now, so it is not like they can talk all night long…

Cons:
• Both boys will probably take a little longer to go to sleep in the beginning of this process, because they are going to talk and goof off.
• If either of them have trouble sleeping during the night, that means going up 2 flights of stairs from the basement.
• There will probably be occasional times when one will wake up the other in the middle of the night due to a bloody nose, feeling sick, or nightmare.

So when the time came to move Caleb into Aidan’s room, Mike and I basically picked a weekend where we were both physically and mentally ready to lose sleep. Here is a short video of what the beginning of their first night together was like:



Luckily the first night wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be. They ended up talking for a while but finally went to sleep around 10:30ish. Now that they have been sharing a room for a couple of months we have learned a lot of things:
• They are always trying to get out of bed and play with each other (especially Caleb. He is often trying to climb into Aidan’s bed).
• Even though Caleb can’t carry a conversation, he and Aidan manage to talk A LOT after being tucked into sleep.
• How quickly the boys fall asleep hinges on Aidan. If Aidan is exhausted from a busy day, both boys are more likely to go to sleep by 9:00ish. But is Aidan has had a nap during the day, then both boys are more likely to go to sleep around 10:00ish.
• Caleb sleeps like a rock at night. Aidan has recently been talking in his sleep and sometimes even yelling in his sleep, and yet Caleb has never woken up!
• Both boys are definitely closer. Aidan is often telling me things that he knows about Caleb’s personality that I don’t even know!
• Even though the boys share a room, they both need their own story for story time.
• Tucking them both to sleep is quicker, but only based on how you look at it. We can put them into bed, kiss and say goodnight, and shut the door because they are eager to have time together in the dark. However, we do have to come into their room a couple of times during the first hour and ask them to be quiet and go to sleep.


Even though we know that it is possible that the boys might not want to share a room together as they get older, so far they are very happy to be together at night. And when they are happy and growing in their relationship with each other, Mike and I get joy from that. Here is a video of them after being tucked in a little over a month later (they even created a team cheer in this video about going to sleep "Go Sleeping!"....it obviously wasn't working fast enough).