The Time of Our Life

Moving up in the world

2009-09-28T17:41:00.003-04:00

The other night, we arrived at William's hockey game a full half-hour early. That's plenty of time to dress, so I decided to continue Phase 1 of my Plan. My Plan is to escape having to go into the hockey change rooms this year. I want to be able to send William in there with his bagful of equipment, and not see him again until he skates out onto the ice for his pre-game warm-up.

Change rooms are just gross. Number one, they stink. Sometimes they REEK. Especially after a game, but often just as much before. They tend to feel damp and sticky, and they are chock full of rowdy male creatures. Big ones and little ones. I will help William for as long as he needs me, but really, I want out of there pretty desperately.

The first time I tried leaving him for 10 minutes, I went back in and he had everything on except his skates, with only one minor error - an elbow pad was upside down. This night, I left him for about 15 minutes, hoping for a similar result. But this time when I went back, he had one skate on and tied up! He was bent over trying to tie the other one, with less success. I was sure his self-tied skate was going to be loose and result in a wobbly ankle, but he had actually done a very good job. I "double checked" it for him, and tightened it only slightly. He absolutely could have played on his skate just as it he had tied it.

So Plan 2 is going to be to remind him to put his hockey pants on after his skates and leave him. He has pants with legs that zip open, so that skates can fit through. If he does that, he'll be spared the giant waist padding cutting off his air as he bends over to tie his skates. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but if I can get him that far, pads and skates, I don't think anyone will mind helping him snap his helmet shut on the way out the door to the ice. I wouldn't even mind doing that part!

He also got a very special phone call this week. He's been invited to join a small-group jazz number for his dance studio. The group is just 7 kids from his regular class, and they will learn a separate jazz routine for the two dance competitions this year. It means an extra dance class every week, and a few extra on-stage rehearsals in March, and extra fees (of course), but in general it's a great thing, and he's pretty happy about it. They started the choreography yesterday, and it's going to be a hoot.

2009-09-20T07:44:00.004-04:00

William played the first draft game of his life last night. It wasn't really a draft game for him, since he's marked down on the coach's forms as having to go into Atom C and being unavailable for Atom B. But still, it was his first draft game.

He came out like a house on fire. The first thing I noticed about him as he got underway, was that he was 100% able to keep up with the game. Last year, he was playing with kids who were 7, turning 8. These kids are 9 and 10, and most of them are in their fifth or even 6th year of hockey now.

As usual, he played his position to near perfection. He understands the textbook role of a defensive player and executes it precisely. It's kind of funny to watch in a way, because he's so formulaic with where he skates and what he does when he gets there, and as least for now, I can almost guarantee that he won't be making any offensive moves towards the net. That would be because the defence tend to stay back towards the blue line, helping to keep the puck in the offensive zone. If he crosses the blue line to charge the net, he would feel like he's abandoning his post. That may be an aspect of growth for him that is yet to come, or he may always be a "stay at home" defenceman. I don't think it really matters, because his offensive contribution is to pass the puck to the forwards who score, and he's secure and confident in that role.

He was extraordinarily focused last night. And he tried hard to shut down every single person heading his way with the puck. He messed up a lot of attempts to get to the next, and cleared the zone several times. He also did some new things I've never seen before.

1) He carried the puck around the net with the offensive players chasing him, to pass it up from the opposite side of the net from where he picked it up. He's never, ever done that before. He must have been feeling extremely confident.

2) He did a few "two part" plays. In the past, it has been his habit to randomly nail the puck in whichever direction is out, or away from his net. While that was a great start, it often led to the puck being intercepted by the other team and brought back his way. Last night, more than once, I saw him secure the puck (a), and then decide the best course of action for it (b). The result was a more controlled style of playing.

3) He intentionally took advantage of his size to keep smaller opposing players from being able to reach the puck. Last year, towards the end of the season, he finally realized he is big and that it can give him the upper hand. But he hadn't really begun to master how to use it, except to stand still and let small players fall down then they ran into him, or by out-muscling them on the boards a bit. Last night, I witnessed the transformation from "I'm big, if you hit me you'll fall down" to, "I'm big, and I can skate, and I can keep you away from the puck with my body". Several times I witnessed him in a race for the puck, where he not only kept racing with the belief that he could reach the puck (another first for him), but as he got closer to the puck, he somehow made himself bigger - he took a deep breath, broadened his shoulders and brought his elbows up a bit and then just rotated from the waist as necessary to hold back the guys who were trying to reach the puck. There was one very little guy that he kept having run ins with, and William kept using the press and block method with him. The little guy, who could skate like the wind, was audibly grunting against William as he was trying to get to the puck. Interestingly, William is giving full credit for the growing technique to his ballet teacher. He said he used the "pull up" muscles she taught him to use in ballet when he's doing double pirouettes. Go figure.

Then there was the rest of the game. Being left behind in the ice shavings of a few really fast forwards, falling down and stretching out by the net as a defensive technique, falling down and sitting on the puck briefly, and a few random swipes through the air that missed their mark and left the puck sitting there for the taking. But all in all, he did a fabulous job. There is so much for him to learn still. Like, how to increase his skating efficiency by using crossovers during the game, and how to skate backwards in the game as part of his defensive prowess. He can do both things now -- crossover and skate backwards -- but he saves those skills for drills. I think Atom C will provide him with an excellent opportunity to be coached to use everything he knows during the games.

So, I'm ecstatic. He's confident and content and loving hockey. He's going to have a blast this year again, and I can't wait.

We love this thing!

2009-09-19T06:57:00.004-04:00

Back in July, it became clear that William was going to be very short of people to play with in the neighbourhood. The kids just weren't around, and while he did a couple of weeks at art camp, he really wanted to just kick back and have unstructured time. That was fine with me, except it wasn't like he could go knocking on doors for kids to play with -- there just weren't any kids to be found.

He's always been good at entertaining himself, but he was getting tired of solo bike rides and the like. And you can only sit inside and play with Lego for so long, especially when it's nice outside. Or nice-ish, at least.

I really wanted him to have something to do that he could enjoy on his own. So, I ordered him a Ripstik, pads, and a skater helmet. He'd been expressing his desire for a Ripstik for months, but I just sort of ignored him, based on my own concern that they looked dangerous and he might seriously injure himself. It's like a skateboard, but it only has two wheels. They are like in-line skate wheels that swivel on casters. It looks decidedly impossible to use. But before I ordered it, I did some reading and watched some videos and decided it looked like something William could handle. The deal was that he could get the Ripstik, but would always, always wear the complete set of pads while riding.

He was over the moon when the Ripstik arrived. We took it to our local park, with the nicely paved, smooth paths and he taught himself how to use it. Within two days, he was taking gentle slopes, and turning smoothly and easily. He put hours into mastering the Ripstik, and pushing the envelope just a little each time, and increasing his skill level.

After about five days of practicing on the park paths, I took him to the skate park for the first time. Our skate park has only been open since this past spring, but it's very popular hang out for boys anywhere between 10 and, uhm, older. I'd say the majority of its users are around 15/16. But of course, you don't find many teenagers out on the skate park at say 9AM Sunday morning, so William had lots of opportunities to try the ramps and hills and challenges of the skate park without having to watch for big boys flying by on their skateboards.

Every day for weeks I took him to the skate park. He Ripstik'd, and I sat on the bench with my book. At the height of his fun, he was skating for two or three hours, only stopping to re-hydrate. Then one day, a kid on a bike collided with William. Bikes aren't supposed to use the skate park, but there is no oversight as it's a city-run facility, and a gazillion bmx bikers use the place anyway. Thankfully, it wasn't a huge collision, and William wasn't really hurt, but it scared the living daylights out of him. After that, he started declining offers to go the skate park, offering up a number of feeble excuses as to why he didn't want to go. I left him alone, as it was clear that he wasn't ready to try again. Once bitten, twice shy, for sure.

Over the Labour Day weekend, we camped overnight with our friends. William brought his Ripstik to use on the paved camp road, and his friend Michael fell in love with it. Michael picked up it very quickly, and of course, wanted one. His Ripstik arrived last week, and he followed the same steep learning curve that William had experienced, picking up the basics very quickly.

Wednesday, I asked William if he thought Michael would want to try the skate park. I could tell he did, but he was still fearful from the collision, and very hesitant. I reminded him that the skate park was not likely to be very populated in the middle of a school day, and his face lit up. So off we went. Michael and William put in around two hours of Ripstiking on Wednesday, then Thursday, then yesterday afternoon. Every day, they both found new things they could do, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They had the surface mostly to themselves, with the occasional skateboarder or three showing up now and then. The skateboarders are by and large not a problem. They are very cognizant of where the littler guys are, and keep a close eye on where they are skating. I would say they put a good deal of effort into making sure they don't have any collisions or near misses. William is comfortable skating with up to about 8 other boarders on the surface. But if a bike shows up, he become so cautious, he can't really enjoy himself anymore.

All told, the Ripstik has been the purchase of the year, hands-down. It has led to innumerable hours of physical activity, and he has not gotten really hurt. He's gone down a few times and had to catch his breath, but his pads are doing their job to save his skin, and he seems to rebound quickly if he hits a hip or whatever. I think he feels like a really "big" boy, riding that thing like he does, and being amongst the youngest at the skate park. The older boarders are generally fascinated by the Ripstiks, and William has given countless riding lessons to the one who wanted to try the Ripstik. They handle completely differently from a skateboard though, and the common result is that the over-confident skater who sees this young kid ripping all over the place thinks it must be easy, and falls on his tush, repeatedly. William doesn't laugh though. He just tells them it takes awhile to learn, and lets them try until they give up. By and large, the Ripstik isn't their cup of tea anyway, because they want to fly in the air and do crazy rail-grinding tricks, and the Ripstik is designed to be much more tame. As it happens, William now has a good skateboard, too, and it has yet to really capture his interest. That Ripstik is just too appealing.

And we're...rolling!

2009-09-19T05:42:00.002-04:00

All of William's fall activities except orchestra started, or is starting, this week.

Tuesday morning, he went off to violin and piano. He was clearly very happy to see his teachers again, and quite ready to get down to business. Both lessons went very well and full steam ahead. William was delighted to move into the RCM Grade 4 book for violin, and decidedly pleased to be bringing home the main theme from "Star Wars" to learn on the piano. He's definitely feeling inspired.

Tuesday evening saw his first ballet class of the year. All summer long he's been taking private or semi-private lessons from his favourite young ballet teacher, Christina, trying to improve in a few areas and in general, become more flexible. He truly loves to dance, but he has to work very, very hard at it. He is by NO means flexible naturally, and every bit of bendiness he has acquired, he has to work very hard to achieve. I saw clear improvements over the summer, and so did his teacher.

But, his ballet class is now being taught by the head of the studio -- this is her 35th year teaching, so her style is established and time-worn for sure. She is a perfectionist, driven to demand constant tweaking and improvement. Thankfully, Christina is an assistant in the hour and a half long class, so she can provide a bit of a buffer for the kids. As it happened, William was a target on the first night -- apparently the teacher was up one side of him and down the other about everything. More than once I saw him near tears, and I noticed that Christina had moved away from floating all through the class to sort of hovering around him. When she came out, she whispered to me that William was getting very frustrated and that the teacher had been picking on him all class. She was sticking close to him to help him get through to the end. She also asked me to tell him not to worry, because he did a great job and worked hard, and that the head teacher was only picking on him because she could see his potential and was trying to help him reach it.

Sure enough, when he came out, he was upset and needed to spend a long time verbalizing (at great length) everything that had happened, and how he felt about it. I passed Christina's wisdom on to him, and we talked a bit about how he wanted to proceed. This included the option of maybe just doing recreational dance instead of competitive, but he would hear nothing of it. He truly seems willing to endure what he has to endure to continue dancing competitively. My idea was to maybe shy away from the dance and spend more time playing hockey, though I didn't say that to him.

Wednesday night at dance was 100% better. Christina taught first his tap class, then his jazz class. In jazz, she started with all the things they had worked together on over the summer, so he was very well positioned to succeed. He was, in fact, SO successful, that he called me into the studio after his class to demonstrate how high his split-jumps were, and how tight his turns looked. He's never felt so good about something that he had drag me into the studio to show me -- usually hes's out the door before I can blink. But those are two skills he worked extremely hard on over the summer, so he deserved some recognition for sure.

Next up is a hockey draft game tonight. He's going to have fun and enjoy the ice time for the four Atom B draft games, and then play three C draft games "for real" to land on an Atom C team. I feel like I've been waiting forever for hockey to start again, and now it's finally here. I'm very pleased and impressed to note that of his 12 team-mates from last year, playing at the Novice C level, EIGHT of them bypassed Novice B to go into Novice A this year! Way to go, Warriors!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2009-09-13T08:41:00.005-04:00

I had this "time of the year" last year, but it was in such a hurried frenzy, I didn't have any time to appreciate it. This year, I can savour every minute.

It's time for William's hockey to start. Almost. His first draft game is next Saturday. It was almost exactly one year ago now that he uttered the words, "Well...I might want to try playing hockey on a team someday..." and BAM, I flew into action. He said those words last Saturday October 4th, after a hockey birthday party for his friend Michael. By Wednesday October 8th, he was on a team, had all of his equipment, and we attended our first team meeting. By his first game a few days later, his name was on his jersey and he was ready to go.

I have a video of the first time William stepped onto the ice in hockey gear. I watch it often and laugh and laugh. You can't not laugh. He's so stiff and awkward and he had to do a long swooping turn to join the group because he didn't know how to stop. I'm so, so glad I have a record of what he looked like that day, because a year out, I would never be able to remember it without evidence.

After one regular season, and some 3-on-3 and a hockey camp this summer, he's a different boy. He can stop. He can skate backwards passably well. He can cross over, but not spontaneously yet, only in drills. His balance is superb (thanks, dancing!!), and he no longer skates parallel to the play, waiting for something to happen -- he gets in there and shakes it up. If he chooses to, he can skate pretty fast with those long legs of his, and he has an eye for where the play is going to go.

He'll play in Atom C this year. He's attending the Level B draft, but won't be drafted into B. His dancing schedule includes classes every Tuesday and Wednesday evening, and Atom B games are every Wednesday night. That would cause a huge conflict. And, if he somehow squeaked into Atom B (not likely, anyway), he'd be at the bottom of the totem pole skill-wise. Atom C plays on Thursday nights (no conflicts!), and I think he can be a strong player at that level. I think. I could be wrong, only time will tell. But when he goes for the B draft, he's going in with a note saying he's there for the ice-time only, and not actually draftable. As well, I have decided to take the Director position for Atom C, and I really want to do it, so he needs to be in Atom C.

I foresee another year of tremendous hockey growth and fun for William. I've been attending some Atom A level draft games just for fun, and I'm appalled at the level of nonsense that surrounds that draft. People are crazy, that's all I can say. I plan to never forget that hockey is for THE KIDS, and not for the parents to be wheelin' and dealin' and trying to live vicariously through their children. Whacknuts. My plan now and for always is to hope that William lands on teams with coaches who are kind leaders, and work to instill a love of hockey in their players. As it is now, William is really, really looking forward to his new season starting, and after waiting for nearly 8 years for him to express an interest in hockey, I couldn't be happier.

Beach Boys

2009-09-12T07:43:00.003-04:00

After a cool, damp, limping summer, the warmth and sunshine arrived in September. The picture above is William and his good friend Michael, playing on the beach at Brimley State Park in Michigan. All summer long, I tried to get over there to camp, and couldn't. Even the week I booked in August was an impossibility, as it was so cold and raining. It's one thing if you have a motorhome or trailer, but we camp out of a tent, and in order for it to be comfortable and enjoyable, warmish and dry are a must.

Last weekend, over the Labour Day long weekend, our friends were camping at Brimley and invited us to visit. We went over around 10AM with snacks and drinks, planning to stay only for the day. But it was gorgeous out there. Sunny and warm and summery and it smelled like, well, camping. Both William and I were tortured at the thought of having to leave. But again, tent camping also means having to pack all of the cooking and eating supplies separately, as well as a cooler for food, and clean-up materials, etc. etc. etc. Joining our friends on our own camp site wasn't really a possibility as we would have to come home on Monday regardless.

But my friend saved the day -- she suggested I go home, get just our tent and sleeping stuff, and come stay the night on their site with them. And that's exactly what we did. My tent goes up like an umbrella -- it's that easy, and it stays dry if it needs to, and it doesn't take any time at all to pump up the air mattress. We stayed for the day, enjoying our cooked outside supper and a huge campfire with marshmallows, turkey dogs and s'mores. William was in his element. As the fire wore on and the adults settled in for a fireside chat, the boys went and watched Kung Fu Panda in Michael's trailer. We headed for our tent around 10:30PM, where William and I read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by lantern-light.

The night could have gone better. Having never camped that late in the year, I didn't realize how heavy the dew would be, or how much the temperature would drop over night. And drop it did. I spent pretty much the whole night freezing, and making sure William was as warm as he could be. He was fine, of course, leeching out all of my body heat without a second thought! I also had to pee all night, and was too cold to get out and go, which made for a lonnnnnnnng night. We were decidedly damp in the morning, too. The dew was running in rivulets down the outside of the tent. While we were mostly dry inside, we still picked up a layer of dampness and were a tad uncomfortable pulling on long sleeved sweaters that weren't wet, but weren't really dry either. Thankfully, the dampness passed fairly quickly.

In the morning, we had a heavy fog. This was made all too evident by the fog horn going off at the lighthouse every 2-4 minutes, starting around 5:30AM. The fog cleared by 11'ish and once again, the sun shone brightly for us. My friends packed up their trailer and two smaller kids, and I packed the tent and accessories into the car. Then they headed out to do some errands and go home, and I stole Michael and took the big boys back to the beach. The boys played hard out there for about two hours before opting to head back to our house to play with Lego.

The summer weather has continued in full force. The humidex has been up at 30 degrees for days on end now. It's an unbelievable gift after such a dismal summer, and we are making the most of it, being sure to spend a good deal of these beautiful days outside.

Today is August 25th

2009-08-25T17:16:00.002-04:00

And it's been five months to the day that I lost my best friend of 12 years, my most wonderful companion, my black lab, Coal.

I stopped blogging when Coal died. Every time I tried to say something, it just got lost and blocked with grief. Even as I tap out this tiny post, the tears are plopping down onto my shirt.

I was taking William down to the pool today when the song by Green Day that inspired the title of this blog came on the radio. I turned it up, and listened. At that exact same moment, I realized today was the 25th. They lyrics spoke to me as they always have, and prompted me to realize that Coal's death was a turning point for me, and I largely grinded to a record-keeping halt as a result of it. I think, because, no other records to follow were going to include him.

But life goes on, even without the most precious dog in it. I realize I've missed documenting a lot in five months, and so much has happened. Coal was a hard, hard, hard loss for me, one I don't know that I'll ever really get over. But I've got him tucked securely away in my heart for all eternity, even if I won't have new posts or pictures of him to share.

This post is just one small step... I hope there will be more to come.

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - Green Day

"Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don't ask why.

It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life

So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.

Tattoos of memories
and dead skin on trial.

For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life."

Ballet Boy

2009-03-12T05:23:00.003-04:00

This is ballet boy, dressed for an on-stage rehearsal. I forgot to get pictures of jazz boy, but they'll show up here eventually.

Busier than your average bear

2009-02-28T07:47:00.003-05:00

"Busy" sums up our schedule nicely. In general, we don't get bored, rather, we embrace the blocks of time that are free of run, run, running. Today isn't one of those days.

William has a hockey game at 9:00AM, a ballet class from 2:30-4:00PM, a jazz class from 4:00-4:45PM, and another hockey game at 5:30PM. The two-game day is due to a local hockey tournament, normally he only ever plays one game a day. However, I have a feeling he will be running low on energy by the second game, so I've rounded up a couple of fans from his dance class to come and watch his hockey game after dance, and have a bite to eat afterwards. That should fire him up nicely!

If his team should make it to the semi-finals, he'll have a game tomorrow morning, as well. This is a likely eventualality. And if they win that game, he'll have yet another game at 1:15 - smack in the middle of his ballet and jazz classes tomorrow. We'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it, but in this case, the final game of a tournament takes precendence over a regular dance class. Even a month away from competition.

Hockey Phases

2009-02-21T06:35:00.005-05:00

A few days ago, I watched the video I took of William at his very first hockey practice, on October 9th, 2008. I remember that day clearly, and probably always will, because it was a huge thing for me to see my own little guy suited up, ready to play hockey, the game of my heart. That day, I remember thinking, "Hmm, not bad for a brand new beginner!" When I watched the video this week, I burst out laughing. He was stiff and awkward and skated out of the frame at the end, because of course, he couldn't stop. But I was soooo proud of him. And I've been proud of him every single time he's gone out to play -- he's given it everything he's had since day one, despite being behind the group in skating skills and knowledge of the game.

He's gone through phases all season long. The first bit was just learning where to line up and that kind of thing. Like, having to rush across to the other side of the ref when he looks around at a face-off and all the shirts around him are orange, when his is grey and blue. Then came the experimental knee bending phase. In this phase, he would skate without lifting his feet off the ice at all, but experimentally bending his knees and sort of swaying side to side. It's hard to describe, but it was definitely a clear phase of learning that he was paying close attention to as it happened. During that time, establishing a rhythm seemed to be important to him.

Then he came to the "ready position" phase. I think this one was my favourite. For every face off, William lined up like this, bent deep, waiting for the puck:

He did this for weeks, usually letting himself drift backwards on his skates into that deep bend. I never said anything about to him, just got a few pictures and went on my merry way. But geez, he looks funny.

This last couple of weeks has brought on an entirely new display of hockey prowess. Instead of merely skating after the puck in a normal fashion, and waiting more or less quietly between plays for the next thing to happen, he's doing all kinds of tricks with his feet. The most enviable one for me is how he stands straight up and alternately slip-slides his blades back and forth underneath him very quickly. It kind of looks like a jig on ice. And it requires seriously good balance to do it and not crash to the ice. I should know, I'm afraid to even try.

I've also seen him take three or four very quick cross-overs to get somewhere when plain skating would do the trick. This is a huge development, as it may well lead to him using cross-overs to his advantage during actual game play, when they do matter. And at his last game, he would drift along on one skate for a long time with the toe of the other foot tucked behind the ankle of the foot he was skating on...then switch over and do the same thing on the other side. It's clear that he's loving what his feet can do for him now, and while his antics don't have a lot to do with the game at hand, they are a phenomenal indicator of how much he's developed over the course of this season.

Oh, another new trick. This one made me laugh out loud the first time I saw it -- he likes to jump straight up as high as he can off both feet and land it successfully. The reason I find that so entertaining is that my friend's son (Hi Debbie!) went through just such a phase, I think at almost the exact same age. Because you know, jumping high on your skates is vital to your hockey future. If Debbie's son is any indication, jumping over things while skating will be William's next likely trick.

This hockey post was prompted by me getting up very early for William's 8AM Saturday hockey game. I wish I could complain better, but I can't. I love, love, love watching him play hockey. Even if it's at the crack of dawn in the dead of winter.

Poor old bass clef

2009-02-20T18:56:00.005-05:00

Somehow, the bass clef has been left behind in the dust of the treble clef, and now even the alto clef. William has the treble clef by the horns and has it completely mastered. He is eating up the alto clef now, too, working through "I Can Read Music" for viola at breakneck speed. Knowing him as I do, I've thrown several "Here, instead of playing these notes, just tell me their names" tests at him and there's no question that he is identifying the notes by name and location in alto clef. He knows the notes on the D string and A string and has just started the G string. Last week, he described the alto clef to me as the "ledger line clef" as it eliminates the need for all the ledger lines for the notes between the treble clef and the bass clef. So he obviously understands how the three of them go hand in hand...in hand.

However, big however, the bass clef is still not coming to him automatically. There are a couple of notes he can name, fairly readily, most of the time, but as a rule, he examines them carefully, checks their positions relative to F, and goes from there. He still makes his corrections when playing assigned pieces by sound -- if it sounds right, it must be correct. If something sounds off, he has to make a change on his left hand. He tends not to consult with the written music when making his corrections in the bass clef...he just uses trial and error until it sounds like it should. Now that I mention it, I'm not even sure how much treble clef he's reading in piano - he might just be doing that by sound, too.

With the addition of the viola, it has become clear that the stringed instruments are his "primary" instruments. Violin being first, no question. I think he prefers unstructured, free-range, two-handed piano playing to plunking through the carefully arranged black dots one by one. For now, at least. Readiness is a difficult thing to assess sometimes -- it defies logic that he'd be so capable in the treble clef, coming up fast with the alto clef and fairly out to lunch in the bass clef. We're just going to continue on as we are, and see what happens.

Not write now

2009-02-19T05:30:00.005-05:00

I left William some pages to do in his "Sentences to Paragraphs" book yesterday. It's fun, gentle grammar work, which he enjoys. And it requires at absolute minimum of writing, which he loves.

At the end of the book, he was asked to write six sentences describing some farm pictures. I thought, "Oh no. He'll never manage". Because to write six sentences, you have to, you know, write.

Well, I got a huge surprise when he handed me his book. He'd put his own twist on things, and chosen to write out the entirety of "Old MacDonald" with his own funny spin on it here and there. It filled all of his workbook page AND and an entire blank page, spilling over onto the back. The best was his addendum at the end, in brackets, which read, "Easier said than writ!". Writ? Writ?? Time for grammar Book 2 I think...Writ, indeed... lol

It has to end sometime

2009-02-19T05:28:00.002-05:00

Last week, we had a thaw. The temperatures were above freezing, and the roads dried out.

But that was last week. It snowed most of yesterday and all night, and now it feels like -24C and the dry roads are long, long gone, replaced by snow-covered roads and fresh snowbanks that no one can see over safely.

Sigh. I'm fairly desperate for spring this year. So is William. This is quite the setback!

VOILA...VIOLA!

2009-02-12T05:31:00.007-05:00

We're embarking on a new musical adventure, at William's request. He has decided he wants the viola to be his ensemble instrument, and has set about learning to read alto clef. The viola he's holding in the picture is his own -- it's a robust Franz Hoffman Maestro that his father sent for him. William has been a busy bee this week, using "I Can Read Music" for viola to begin his mastery of the alto clef. Orchestra is tomorrow night, and he is ready to play the viola part for the Batman Theme, their newest piece. I was intially quite certian his teacher would pale at the thought of him turning to viola "on the side", but she was very enthusiastic and encouraging, noting carefully how playing the viola will only strengthen his skills on violin. And for William, it's a natural progression -- he has always embraced harmony and loves to listen to the cellos in the junior orchestra (there are no violas). He is 100% aware that his role as a viola player, especially at this level, will be to provdie a strong "DUM, rest, DUM, rest, DUM DUM DUM" kind of support to the melody makers, but that's where the appeal lies for him. And there's nothing like opening another door of opportunity for down the road.

Wow, just wow

2009-02-10T08:17:00.005-05:00

Last night William's dance group had their first on-stage rehearsal for their dance competition in April. It's one of 7 or 8 of them, if I'm not mistaken. It was supposed to be a "dress" rehearsal with complete costuming, but as their costumes have not arrived yet, it was just a rehearsal on-stage.

Dance has been a sucking vortex this year. Before Christmas, in addition to the 2 hours on Sunday and one on Tuesday, they added in an hour on Saturday and an hour on Wednesday night. After Christmas, that changed to 2 hours on Saturday and Wed. off. So he averages five hours of dance a week. This week, both 2-hour dance classes were after his hockey game, so he played hockey like a maniac for an hour, had a short rest, then went off to dance hard for two hours. I could never do it...he is definitely showing a serious commitment to this dance thing. And already, at just 7&8 years old, the kids come out of dance red and sweating. It's hard, hard work.

They ran through their ballet first last night. They looked so small up there! I couldn't believe how collectively tiny they looked. None of us could. And they were so excited to be up there, ready to dance, that they were hilarious in their happy energy, scattered around like frantic chicks in a hen house.

And then they danced. It was awesome. I had no idea they were that good already. There is a ton of room for small tweaks and improvements, but the foundation is there and it's strong. And William made it very clear what he's been working on for all those hours over the months -- he was strong and confident and poised up there like I've never seen him. There was a maturity in his execution that I was absolutely not expecting, and for the first time, I really got a glimpse of the dancer he might become.

Their jazz routine was just as impressive and received a rousing round of claps and cheers both times they ran through it. I didn't think to bring the camera -- that's probably better saved for when they have their costumes anyway, but there were a lot of happy, excited face on the stage last night.

Dance has a been a real trial this year, mostly due to the schedule, partly due to the dynamics of the class. There are two other little boys in the class, and they are sweet, cute little boys, but they are very, very rambunctious. They are constantly being corrected and re-directed in class, much to William's disdain. William doesn't "do" rambunctious, especially in a class situation and as such, has been distancing himself intentionally from the other two boys for the entire year. I've worried about that off and on, because it seems like he should bond with the boys, but I was watching him last night, laughing and talking with his favourite girls and it's clear that he is perfectly happy to stay away from the rowdy little boys and engage with the more mature, serious girls in his class. So he does have his niche, it's just not the one I was expecting.

Movin' on up

2009-02-08T16:00:00.005-05:00

After a lengthy delay, William finally has three 3/4 sized violins in his possession, one of which will become his own on Tuesday after his teacher gives her nod. One dropped out of the race immediately, so it's come down to two, and they are neck and neck. (Scroll and scroll?) I have a feeling I know which his teacher will lean towards and it's probably not going to be the one William is leaning towards. I've discussed it with him, and he is happy to go with his teacher's recommendation.

It's clear already that the 3/4 size is going to have a very limited lifespan. William is growing like a weed, and will likely be ready for a full-size violin inside of a year. Crazy.

The decision to wait on the Book 4 Vivaldi Concerto in A minor was a good one. Having taken some time to work on shifting and his left hand posture, William is playing the pants off the Vivaldi. Not only the first one, but the second one, if you ask him to play it. He loves the music and is very invested in playing it just right. It's all even more glorious on the 3/4 size instrument.

January 2009 has been lost from the fossil record

2009-02-08T15:50:00.003-05:00

Holy cow. I have no idea what happened in January 2009. Hmm. I'm scrambling to remember, but it basically feels like the distant past now. I know William danced a lot. And played hockey. And did his music. And I tried to keep up with it all, as usual. Oh, I played some hockey, too. My team is in the basement this year. If you look down the Stats page, we are at the very bottom of 12 teams. We're still having fun though! And for the last three games, I've played defense and found it a pretty comfortable place for me to play.

So there's my ode to January. Sorry January, I'll try to catch you next year!

Spreading the Cheer

2008-12-19T20:05:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, William and I stopped by our local Christmas Cheer depot to drop off some donations. He offered some gently used toys he had outgrown, as well as several new toys we'd acquired over the last while. The elderly ladies at the depot were smitten with William and whisked him off for a tour of the whole operation. He was fascinated and thoroughly impressed with the way things were set up, with the doll-dressing station, the "Mr. Fix-Its", the food-sorting area, etc. etc. He didn't want to leave that day at all.

The same lady who took him on the tour invited him to come today at 6:30AM to help pack the fresh food boxes for the families in need. Since William doesn't like to wake up except on his own terms, I never thought he'd agree to volunteer for anything at 6:30AM. But he told the lady cheerfully that he would LOVE to come in and help. She told him the police, the fireman, and army would be there, and that the mayor comes and brings donuts! That sealed the deal -- the mayor and his donuts... So at 5:30 this morning, William willingly woke up and got dressed to head over to the Christmas Cheer depot.

I knew it was going to bigger than I bargained for when the first thing I saw on approach to the depot were the red parking flares of the police cadets -- they were out there in the freezing cold directing parking. In Sault Ste. Marie, parking only has to be organized when something BIG is going on.

After we parked, we made our way into the warehouse where maybe a hundred people were already at work (at 6:20AM!). I hung up our jackets, and we made ourselves at home at the potato-bagging table. Our job was to assist with putting 6 medium potatoes into grocery store produce bags, tying the top, and adding them to the potatoes already bagged. After about half an hour, that job was done, and we moved to apple-bagging. We bagged apples for at least an hour. Maybe longer. Same gig -- six apples to a bag. The efficiency of the operation was astounding. People were circulating, providing new boxes of loose apples and produce bags before we could even ask for them and carrying away the full boxes of bagged apples.

Packing the food boxes followed the apple-bagging. William and I got into a routine where we each had our respective jobs in the process, which maximized our efficiency to that of a well-oiled machine. It went like this: He would get in line for a food ticket (which had the name of the recipient of the box, their address, their zone and how many people they need to feed). While he was in line, I would get a box, open the flaps, and prepare the label that needed to go on the outside. He would get the ticket and read it on the way to the table -- then he'd hand it to me so I could copy the information on the box label, and he would take off to get the potatoes, carrots, and either a chicken or a turkey. By the time he got back, I had the oranges and apples ready to go in the box and the label filled out and taped to the side. As soon as he was sure I had everything I needed, he would get back in line to return his ticket and get a new one. We continued in that vein for around an hour, packing boxes until the last box was packed.

The Canadian Armed Forces were there, with their vehicles, transporting the packed boxes to their vehicles and packing them for delivery to various pick-up depots all around the city. Their presence impressed William to no end. And while we didn't see the mayor this time, the donuts were there, as was homemade soup, rolls with butter, muffins, cookies, candy, gingerbread, coffee, pop, water, and hot chocolate. Once all the work was done, we slipped to the back of the warehouse for a bite to eat. The homemade soup was divine and William loved the rolls with butter.

All told, it was a fabulous experience. I hope this year was the birth of a tradition - William has already said he can't wait 'til next year. This year, the incredible volunteers of our community spent about six weeks preparing gifts, staple food boxes and finally, the fresh food boxes for 1,575 families in our area. It is my hope that when William finally decides there isn't really a Santa Claus, he will understand that the true Christmas spirit lives in everyone, and that even HE is Santa Claus.

This link is to a video about the massive volunteer operation this morning. I can't wait 'til next year either. Christmas Cheer Video.

Christmas Recitals

2008-12-19T19:52:00.003-05:00

This time of year always brings music recitals. Piano was first. William played and sang "We Three Kings". His voice has matured and he is now able to sing out over the piano fairly easily without compromising his tone or tuning. His voice is high and clear and beautiful and outshone his piano-playing, which was also pretty darned nice.

His violin recital was two days later, and he played a standard traditional version of "The First Noel", shifting to third in the middle of the piece and playing a verse up there before moving back down to first to finish. His shifting is really coming into itself these days. The challenge that evening, for everyone, was that their violins had been tuned down (way down) to the very flat piano at the retirement home and tuning was a very real struggle for the whole evening. You could see and hear the children fighting to nail their intonation with fingers that were no longer so sure of where they should be landing. Despite the challenge, they did well and the residents were delighted by their performances, as always.

COLD

2008-12-19T19:49:00.003-05:00

We've had some cold, stormy weather of late. The other night William went outside in it, to play, of course. I estimated that he'd last about 30 minutes. The windchill was about -25 that night, after all. But he lasted two full hours and only came in because I made him come in. He kept himself warm by shovelling neighbour's driveways with a friend. Somehow, he neither noticed nor cared that his hat had rotated around to cover one side of his face almost completely.

Wills the Builder

2008-12-19T19:32:00.006-05:00

William's choice of toys these days has centered entirely around building-type toys. And now that I think of it, he's well-situated to build and build to his heart's content given the acquisition of building toys we've done over the years.

He got the Star Wars Lego AT-AT for his birthday. It's motorized and it walks. Well, it will walk one day, when more of its 1100+ pieces are assembled. But he has started, and has been working away on it, carefully and precisely.

A week or so ago, the Rokenbok came out again. He put hours this week into discovering all the new designs he is able to make now that he's a bit older. (Like, older than he was six months ago, the last time he had a Rokenbok obsession). I LOVE Rokenbok. It is far and away one of the best toys ever to come into the house for this boy. It has paid for itself in pure play-value - the powerful learning aspect of the toy comes as a pleasant, but not insignificant bonus. The only thing he asked for in his letter to Santa was more Rokenbok. I hope the chubby ole friend comes through for him.

The picture above is a simple Rokenbok monorail track, overtaken by giant silly baby cats.

Tonight, after months of solitude in the basement, the Knex found their way into the living room. Together, William and I made this ferris wheel, and thanks to the motor in the middle, it really works!

Cats, cats and more cats

2008-12-19T19:17:00.008-05:00

I love these monsters. All four of them. They are all as different from one another as night and day. Quincey is nurturing, infinitely masculine and very, very sweet. Phoebe is elusive, mysterious, and particular with her affections. Alya is pure orange evil, brilliant and adorable. Emerson is 100% pure squishy love. He's a mama's boy and I'm his mama.

Quincey:

Phoebe:

Ayla:

Emerson:

Quincey and Phoebe together nicely, not wrestling. Look quick!!

"The Babies" doing their shared-bathing thing.

December 7th, 2008

2008-12-16T16:59:00.004-05:00

Brought me an 8-year old!In a mere 8 years, my short little chicken-legged infant (7lbs 6oz, 19") has morphed into a 4'6", 89lb bruiser.

William's birthday started with an 8:15am hockey game. He was happy and eager to play, as it was a semi-final tournament game. His team played hard and won 2-1. Which brought us to the 1:15pm final game the same day! His team played an out of town team that got slotted into the wrong division -- the end result was a 10-0 win for them, but they stopped counting goals at 5-0. The best thing about it, though, was that our little guys played their hearts out and persisted as hard as they could right until the last second of the game. At no point did they surrender to the likelihood that they were going to lose, and that was an amazing, inspiring thing to see.

So he came home on his birthday with a silver medal that reads "Steel Blades 2008". He was thrilled.

The silver medal joined his first hockey medal that he won the day before. On that Saturday, he secured a Best Defence medal for himself by playing the best game he'd ever played in his two-month hockey career. He's not fast, he's not graceful, but he's big and he's not afraid to stop people from going past him with the puck. Just that very morning I had spent a good amount of time explaining that as much as I knew he wanted to win an individual medal (there were two per team at each regular tournament game - MVP and Best Defence), it was next to impossible as he couldn't realistically hope to out-play kids who have been playing for a few years already. My analogy was that if his whole hockey team were to bring out their violins after 2 months of learning the violin and compete in a "Twinkle" performance, chances would be excellent that the guy who has been playing the violin for three years would win the "Twinkle" award simply because he had more experience and it would be so much easier for him. Given the actual outcome of the situation, I think I'll just shelve my analogies and let nature takes its course.

There's a Wildcat in the house

2008-12-01T18:01:00.003-05:00

For the past few weeks, William's dance class has been doing the choreography for their competitive jazz number. The music is from Disney's "High School Musical", and it's actually quite a catchy tune. So I avoided having anything to do with this High School Musical business right up until two weeks ago, when we borrowed the first movie from a friend and got the second one from the library, so that William would understand the spirit of the number as it pertains to dancing. As it turns out, he loved the movies.

It's going to be cute. It can't not be cute. There are three adorable boys front and center, and they will be dressed like basketball players (in red, just like from the movie), surrounded by a small sea of extraordinarily cute little girls dressed in red and white cheerleader outfits. The kids absolutely love the number and go it full throttle every single time. About half is already choreographed and they've done a stellar job learning, and remembering, all their moves. It never fails to amaze me just how much fun those children have dancing...they get so excited, they can't stop hopping around and smiling and poking at each other. Until the music starts...then they dance.

The ballet number is underway as well, and that number is set to this enchanting little piece. I haven't actually seen the choreography for this one yet, but I've heard a lot about it. Apparently the boys are front and center again (they always are and always will be, that's the nature of boys in dance), and after a long, determined wait, William finally gets to lift a girl. The mothers who watched the class where he learned he'd be doing a lift couldn't wait to see me at the next class so they could re-enact his excited response when he found out. Apparently, he was literally jumping up and down and clapping. I'm not surprised...he's been telling me for at least two years, and maybe three, that he couldn't wait to start lifting the girls. So he has a sweet little partner, who likes to turn around and shake her finger at him if he doesn't do things exactly right. Yeah, well, he asked for it!

Priorities

2008-11-30T08:10:00.003-05:00

This morning I suggested to William that we get his violin practice out of the way early, as he has a busy day ahead of him. He said, "I can't. I'm watching a documentary on the Disovery channel about Mitchell Nostradamus, the prophet".

Mitchell. LOL

He wins, violin can wait.