Day +1006: Drum kit
Wow, 1006 days. The 1000-mark kind of slipped past me. I guess it's a kind of a milestone, but I'll be more looking forward to 3 years. Every once in a while something does make me stop and look back at where we've been. Today I donated blood. I'm embarrassed to say it was the first time since before we had Mina, and it was kind of an emotional experience. I was reading the literature where they talk about the different types of patients and how many units of the different blood types they might need, and I was thinking back on the countless units of blood that Mina required, and it just brought everything rushing back and I got kind of teary. It's amazing the emotions that can come back up at times like this. Or maybe it's amazing that it can seem so far away that I'm able to block it out almost entirely. Mina hasn't had an appointment since November, and isn't due for one until April.
Mina is doing great, though. She is really thriving at school and is growing up so fast. We finally got the report from her neuro-psych testing, and it confirmed what the doctor had told us orally, that she is above average on her verbal and language abilities, and only slightly below average in a couple of categories. She really loves her friend Anika, and they spend hours together playing "baby" at school and in the afternoons either here or at Anika's house. Mina is constantly making cards or drawing pictures for Anika, and the other day she made here a present. She asked Keri to get out the wrapping paper, and she took one her babies and wrapped it up and taped it all by herself.
She and Isaac will be going to a tumbling class starting this Thursday. It's happening at Acrosports, which is almost like a circus training facility located just a few blocks from our house. Keri has a friend who took a trapeze class there, and we went to watch her one time. It looked pretty fun -- they were a long ways up in the air! They'll all walk down there in the morning in time for Isaac's 9:00 class, then Mina and Anika will be in a 10:00 class together. I worry that our kids don't get enough exercise since they spend so much time indoors, so I'm hoping this helps out. Mina went to a trial class last Thursday and loved it.
Isaac has been having a bit of a hard time lately. He's so full of energy these days, but is becoming kind of hard to handle. He gets wound up and has a hard time controlling his body. Keri thinks it's due to lack of sleep, and she could be right. He's been getting up sometimes at 4:30 AM and not going back to sleep, and at night he's so wired it takes him a long time to go down. Teacher Julie says she's a bit worried about him, wondering if something has been going on, because he's had a hard time being kind to the littler kids and has been talking about how he likes to hit and push. This is pretty unlike him, so hopefully he's just having a testosterone surge and a growth spurt.
He still loves his music. Last weekend we went to a matinee performance by Kronos, a San Francisco-based string quartet. The performance lasted almost an hour and Mina was just starting to get restless, but Isaac didn't want it to be over. We went down to the stage and talked to the cello player a bit, and as we walked out I asked Isaac if he liked it a lot or just a little bit. He said "just a little bit. No, I liked it a LOT!" When we got home that night, he was taking his guitar, standing it on end, and using a drumstick like a bow.
We finally gave him his drum kit a week or so ago while Auntie Teri was here. This was the last round of Christmas presents (Mina finally got her stuffed puppu), so of course he was really excited. He'd been speculating for quite a while that the big box had "a bass drum and a cymbal". We got it set up and it's now his favorite toy, of course. It's been a bit frustrating for him, though, because it's very loud. He wants to really bang on it, but Keri is sensitive to the noise and sometimes asks him to play quietly. Isaac himself is sensitive to the noise, so it didn't take much prompting. Finally last weekend I took him down to the music store on Haight Street to get some muffled drumsticks, and we also picked up some of the metal brushes that jazz drummers use to make a softer sound. He loves the brushes, so maybe that is the right compromise. We'll still have to find a time when he can bang away, but maybe that can be when Keri isn't home.
The other thing is that he had a great routine going with his other drums. These were smaller, skin and wooden drums that weren't nearly as loud. He would set them up all in a row, and set his tambourine on an overturned basket to use as his cymbal. Then he would bang away to his heart's content. I have some video that I will post one of these days when I find the time. I'm not sure that the new drum kit has been quite as satisfying for him. I'm sure we'll get things figured out, though.
Mina is doing great, though. She is really thriving at school and is growing up so fast. We finally got the report from her neuro-psych testing, and it confirmed what the doctor had told us orally, that she is above average on her verbal and language abilities, and only slightly below average in a couple of categories. She really loves her friend Anika, and they spend hours together playing "baby" at school and in the afternoons either here or at Anika's house. Mina is constantly making cards or drawing pictures for Anika, and the other day she made here a present. She asked Keri to get out the wrapping paper, and she took one her babies and wrapped it up and taped it all by herself.
She and Isaac will be going to a tumbling class starting this Thursday. It's happening at Acrosports, which is almost like a circus training facility located just a few blocks from our house. Keri has a friend who took a trapeze class there, and we went to watch her one time. It looked pretty fun -- they were a long ways up in the air! They'll all walk down there in the morning in time for Isaac's 9:00 class, then Mina and Anika will be in a 10:00 class together. I worry that our kids don't get enough exercise since they spend so much time indoors, so I'm hoping this helps out. Mina went to a trial class last Thursday and loved it.
Isaac has been having a bit of a hard time lately. He's so full of energy these days, but is becoming kind of hard to handle. He gets wound up and has a hard time controlling his body. Keri thinks it's due to lack of sleep, and she could be right. He's been getting up sometimes at 4:30 AM and not going back to sleep, and at night he's so wired it takes him a long time to go down. Teacher Julie says she's a bit worried about him, wondering if something has been going on, because he's had a hard time being kind to the littler kids and has been talking about how he likes to hit and push. This is pretty unlike him, so hopefully he's just having a testosterone surge and a growth spurt.
He still loves his music. Last weekend we went to a matinee performance by Kronos, a San Francisco-based string quartet. The performance lasted almost an hour and Mina was just starting to get restless, but Isaac didn't want it to be over. We went down to the stage and talked to the cello player a bit, and as we walked out I asked Isaac if he liked it a lot or just a little bit. He said "just a little bit. No, I liked it a LOT!" When we got home that night, he was taking his guitar, standing it on end, and using a drumstick like a bow.
We finally gave him his drum kit a week or so ago while Auntie Teri was here. This was the last round of Christmas presents (Mina finally got her stuffed puppu), so of course he was really excited. He'd been speculating for quite a while that the big box had "a bass drum and a cymbal". We got it set up and it's now his favorite toy, of course. It's been a bit frustrating for him, though, because it's very loud. He wants to really bang on it, but Keri is sensitive to the noise and sometimes asks him to play quietly. Isaac himself is sensitive to the noise, so it didn't take much prompting. Finally last weekend I took him down to the music store on Haight Street to get some muffled drumsticks, and we also picked up some of the metal brushes that jazz drummers use to make a softer sound. He loves the brushes, so maybe that is the right compromise. We'll still have to find a time when he can bang away, but maybe that can be when Keri isn't home.
The other thing is that he had a great routine going with his other drums. These were smaller, skin and wooden drums that weren't nearly as loud. He would set them up all in a row, and set his tambourine on an overturned basket to use as his cymbal. Then he would bang away to his heart's content. I have some video that I will post one of these days when I find the time. I'm not sure that the new drum kit has been quite as satisfying for him. I'm sure we'll get things figured out, though.
posted by Arne Olson @ 10:14 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:04 PM PST,
Anonymous said…
wow guys! it sounds like you are all doing amazing! We really need to make a time to get together, maybe on a weekend so we can all be there. I can't believe that Mina is almost 5!!! Time goes so fast. I hope that you continue to do amazing. Let's talk soon.
Amber
Post a Comment
<< Home