Music Critic

This morning on the way to work, Nile and I were flipping through radio stations looking for music. Most of the local radio stations in the area has a lot of talking in the mornings. I get to the classic rock station, and the song "Dream Weaver" is on the radio.

From the back seat I hear Nile call out, "Whiny rock...!"

(this is something Tom would, and has, said).

Star Wars in Concert

On Wednesday, July 7, we, along with our friends Matt and Emma, went to Star Wars in Concert. I was a little nervous to see how the boys would do with an evening concert. But when you combined amazing music (performed so well that we would often forget that the symphony was live on stage) with movie clips on a giant HD screen (synchronized with the music), it was an event that both boys loved.

Nate's favorite? "Darth Vader"

Nile's favorite? "Everything."

Now, I can't wait to share the actual movies with them.

Before the concert we ate outside in the beer garden at the BierStube in Moline.

Here are Nate and Emma, during the intermission.


And here is Nate with one of the many displays of props and costumes from the movies.

Matt's blog entries from the event are linked below.

• Emma Frozen in Carbonite
• Darth Emma
• Emma and C3P0
• Emma and Ewoks
• Emma and Queen Amadalla
• Emma and Anne
• Intermission
• Nate and Emma
• Star Wars in Concert

a welcome diversion

This afternoon I leave for a (relatively short) trip to Germany. Even though it's only four days, the fact that I'm going alone and overseas is making me nervous and anxious. If any one of those two factors were removed (someone going with me or just traveling domestically), I'd be fine. Add that my last trip to Italy was awful, and combine with the fact that I will miss my boys incredibly, and I just am not looking forward to it.

So today instead of our regular trip to the gym, I decided to take the boys to do something fun.

We went to the Bettendorf Family Museum.

The boys loved playing in all the various exhibits...

But the highlight had to be a free (well, after paying admission) concert by Jim Gill - the boys love his music. There was a lot of singing, dancing, and clapping. Mostly by the parents, though. Nate did join in on several of the songs. I do admit some of the songs are catchy but my ears were done after 25 minutes...or maybe it was my stomach. It was lunch time.

Afterwards we went to Arby's for lunch. It was at lunch I realized I'd forgotten completely about my upcoming trip. And as I realized I needed to get home and finish packing, the butterflies set in again. Oh, well. At least I had three hours that I didn't think about it.

a grand finale

I was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee when the boys started making a huge amount of noise. It turns out they were playing "rock and roll." They had pulled out all the musical instruments in the house and were switching around, each time playing a different instrument (and occasionally "singing" with the microphone, which is what was making the most noise!).

I took a few videos of them (the first before they knew I was doing so), but this grand finale has to be the best one. I hope you enjoy it.



You'd think that all we listen to in this house is heavy metal. (not true!)

rock band

Tom bought the family Rock Band 2. We promised the boys that we would set it up today. You can see by the photo how excited they were (you can see in the background that the program was still downloading updates).

Nate already had the "drummer wink" going.
Nile and Tom were rocking out.

But the best performance, by far, has to be Nile on the drums. We had turned them off because he kept hitting the buttons on the unit and shutting off the game. So he was free to rock out without consequences. :)

Pink Floyd Lessons

Something I learned today:

When selecting Pink Floyd albums to share with your children, select carefully.

"Ummagumma - Studio Album" does not go over very well. A much better choice is "A Momentary Lapse of Reason."

It's odd, isn't it? ;)

If you don't know, Ummagumma is a kind of trippy, sit-back-and-let-the-music-sink-in type of album. Not really geared towards those in the under-5 age group. "Momentary Lapse" has more listener-friendly "radio-ready" music. Much better for the air guitarists in our house.

2009 Preschool Christmas Program

The annual preschool Christmas program at First Lutheran was a lot of fun, as usual. Due to a nasty bout of stomach flu, neither Tom or Nile was able to go. But luckily, Nate had already had the bug (see here) and I had yet to get it.

The program was full of the usual elements: singing, dancing, and crying. I think I've managed to have them all on this video - it's rather long but I think it was the one that best captured Nate's fine dancing skills. The crying is someone's younger brother who apparently didn't enjoy the preschooler's rendition of "Jingle Bells" as much as we parents did. (and no, it wasn't Nile - he was at home, sick, remember?)



After the program the kids all got a special gift from their teachers. Nate was beside himself with excitement over the small stuffed penguin. He promptly named it "Pen" and said it could be the "aunt" to Pete, his larger penguin at home. Later he decided that it really was Pete's son.



And then, after patiently waiting (in the photo above you see that he is sitting by Santa's chair. He didn't move from that spot until Santa asked him to come up), it was his turn to talk to the man.

He told "Santa" that he wants a Transformer for Christmas. Apparently Santa didn't know what a Transformer is (come on Santa, this is 2009!) so Nate had to explain that a Transformer is a robot.

I am still amazed that the kid who has to have me explain the details of everything (note) accepts Santa. Flying reindeer, presents for every child in the whole world, magic elves: this is all accepted without question. Oh, well.

Introducing...Brown Bear

Let me introduce Brown Bear. Brown Bear is Nathan's preschool "Indian" name.
(I cringe even to type it, I'd rather say "Native American," but I feel I should stick with what Nate and his teachers were calling it).

Oh, and by the way - that's not red paint on his nose. He hit his nose with the lid of his laptop last week...

Today we attended Nate's preschool Thanksgiving Feast and program. Again this year I continue to be amazed at the improvement Nate is making. At last year's program he stood with the group and, well, just stood there. This year, he participated! Yippee!

Here are a few photos I thought I'd share.

The class singing one of the songs. (Nate is on the right side of the photo)


The boys go to do a little drumming while the girls dance.


The boys then got to dance while the girls played the drums.


After the program the families got to eat a special Thanksgiving meal that the class helped prepare. Vegetable soup, cornbread, applesauce, chocolate chip bars, and apple juice. Nate proudly informed me that he "dumped the corn into the soup!"

It was a good morning.

Pablo, Uniqua, Tyrone, Austin, Tasha... Nile!

Attention Backyardigans producers: We have a candidate for your next casting call. Call me. I'm willing to talk signing bonuses and benefits...my client would give Austin some pretty tough competition...

Nile's favorite song

Before I even saw Nile this morning, I heard him. Correction: I heard his mp3 player blaring Raffi.

I have heard the same song ("All I Really Need") no less than 50 times this weekend. It's gotten to the point that I know the drum intro by heart, and I can predict to the millisecond when Raffi will say "play it now, Mitchell!"

He's been up for 20 minutes and I've heard the song five times.

I have got to update the music on this thing.

Love and Hate

This morning in the car on the way to work...

We were listening to the National. A song came on that we haven't heard in a while.

Nate: "I love this song!"
Me: "Good!"
Nate: "It's so annoying!"
Me: "Wait, do you want me to skip it?"
Nate: "No, no, no! I love it but it's so annoying!"
I didn't tell him that's how I feel about him sometimes, too ;)

too much excitement

Nate spent yesterday morning with Tom getting a hair cut, the car washed, eating out for lunch, and sampling at Hy-Vee (all to stay out of the house for a showing), and subsequently had a late nap. Then after naps we went to our friends' house for dinner and play, and he had an even later bedtime.

If you know Nate at all, you know he never stops moving. This morning I had a Smashing Pumpkins CD playing in the living room. At one point I realized I hadn't seen Nate in a while. Here's where I found him, chilling out to the Pumpkins.

a duet

I caught them in a particularly agreeable mood today, they were singing together at lunch. So I asked for an encore, and they were happy to oblige. I think they were more excited about being able to watch it on the computer later.

Nile really does know all the words, but the TV was on (I had it muted) and he kept getting distracted...

dancing in the sunshine

I wanted to share one of those rare perfect moments in our household, when everything is going right in the world and everyone is happy.

dancining

Nile really loves Raffi...Becky gave him an MP3 player for Christmas and we've loaded it up with tracks from Raffi Live in Concert. Now that he's figured out how to get to his favorite songs, we're free from having to be "DJ Raffi" for him. Although this doesn't totally protect us from his love of repeat playings of "Baby Beluga," at least we are no longer continually being called to the stereo to start the song over. (Honestly, once I really did put that track on "repeat" for about a half hour...)

Tonight he was especially moved by "All I Really Need," so much so that he just had to break out into dancing. Or should I say "dancining?" Enjoy.