Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick

The minutes till summer are slipping away - HOORAY!

With both concerts done and school winding down, our family has some more time together and a significantly lower stress level. Not leaving the recorder entirely behind, however, we discovered that Maddie has a good ear; she identified the beloved "Snuggle Puppy" and "Cows" songs from hearing Bob play them on recorder. If you're not familiar with this modern instrument (of torture), it's a plastic tube with open holes that's supposedly simple enough to learn in 3rd grade. We think they pick 3rd grade to send home recorders because the kids are roughly in between the terrible two's and the horrific teen years, and the parents need some kind of test of their patience to keep them on their toes. Maddie's picking it up a little early, though. :-) She can blow through it and lets us finger the notes occasionally, and loves it when we play her songs. Always a dancer. She's also singing along with songs now. The ABC song gets its phrases completed, and she can fill in words in a handful of other songs. Our favorite is the "Whoa-oh-oh-oh-Nose!" part of the song, "Your Nose". ;-) Neil Sedaka fan, we guess.

We hope to do more singing and dancing this summer. We're still counting the days (17 school days or 28 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes total) and making little lists of things we want to do and stuff we want to go see. Zoo, beach, park, backyard, repeat. Gonna be good. Well, happy getting close to summer everyone. Hanging in there till then.