Annalisa

The highlight of our week was in Annalisa came to visit.  She flew in on Wednesday and left this morning and we enjoyed every moment together.  It is so nice to have a friend who comes to visit you who is just as excited about spending time with your kid as with you.  Annalisa and I did an internship together in Cincinnati in 2005 and even though we only lived in the same city for about 10 months, we became incredibly close and she's like a sister to me.  It makes me so happy that she and Evie have developed a great relationship despite the difference (Annalisa lives in New York City) and the time between her visits.  Evie immediately wanted Annalisa to be the one to hold her hand as we walked through parking lots, to pick her up, to play with her, and to read to her and tuck her in at night.

Annalisa's birthday was Thursday and when I told Evie that Annalisa was coming for her birthday, Evie started crying and said she wanted it to be her birthday so she could be four.  But she got over it and enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday" to Annalisa and reaping the benefits of a trip to TCBY for birthday ice cream.  Here she is, posing for Annalisa at breakfast on Annalisa's birthday.

Annalisa also came with us to ballet yesterday and snapped this picture:

Friday, Evie started violin lessons.  I've been wanting Evie to start violin when she was 3 as soon as I found out that 3-year-olds were able to start that soon.  I had called them in the fall to ask about lessons but they explained how intense of a time commitment it is for both the child and the parent:

• one half-hour individual class per week and the parent has to be in the whole lesson and learn how to teach the homework, 
• daily practice of 15 minutes of the homework which is instructed by the teacher
• one half-hour group class most weeks of the semester with other students learning violin
• daily listening to a CD of violin music being learned 

I just decided that at that point we didn't have the time to devote to all of that.  But this semester I am less involved in school (barely) and over Christmas Evie watched Addie play the violin (Addie already plays piano and has added violin in the last couple of months) and Evie was clearly very taken by it, much more so than when she watched Addie play piano.  So I figured this would be a good time to start.  Evie's first lesson went pretty well.  Her teacher is, as Annalisa put it, "the world's calmest man" and Evie was very compliant with his instructions for the most part.  At one point when she wasn't really understanding what he wanted, she did put her hands on her hips and gave him "the look".  I wish I had a picture of it.  It was all we could do (Seth, Annalisa, and I all went to the lesson together) to not bust out laughing.  We practiced yesterday after ballet and she did pretty well with all the homework, though I think 15 minutes is kind of pushing her limit of strict one-on-one attention and repetition of tasks.  Right now her homework is practicing rest and playing positions both with feet and the violin itself, singing the notes to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and practicing rhythms and arm movements that are similar to those she'll use when she starts playing the actual violin.  For now she has a cardboard violin, which is pretty adorable.

Language funnies: She wanted to sit in my lap to watch a movie and I had been working on something for work, so she said, "Mama, stuse ('scuse) your laptop."  Later I was rough-housing with her a bit by lying on my back and hoisting her into the air.  She held my hands with hers and I put my feet on her rib cage and put her up above me, then used my toes to tickle under her armpits.  She squealed and said, "Mama!  Stop your toes!"