February 23, 2008

Music Man

Today was Zach's musical from his drama class at Spotlight Performing Arts down the street. It was a riot watching him on stage. We practiced the two songs he needed to know from Sound of Music - Do a Deer and Favorite Things. I can't say that we practiced them that much and he didn't even want to practice them on the way to the theatre tonight. He did have a 4 hour dress rehearsal this morning though. Anyway, it was quite interesting. First off, I didn't have him dress up for the dress rehearsal. He said he was the only one not wearing what he was supposed to be wearing. The main reason was that he was supposed to wear black dress pants and he doesn't have any. I didn't want to go and buy a pair just for this concert. So I called around to see if we could borrow a pair and no one had any that were his size or black. So the little guy wore his dark blue dress pants that my mom bought him - part of a blue suit. It looked fine on stage. You couldn't even tell that they weren't black.
When Zach's group was singing (1st and 2nd graders), I was cracking up like crazy. Zach and his friend Summer were so cute! I was pretty much crying because it was so hilarious. Zach was so animated. He had this humongous grin on his face while he was singing. He just seemed to be really enjoying himself up there. This is one of the reason's why I signed him up again. At first, he wasn't going to continue the next term for the drama class, but I told him that it wasn't going to be singing this time and was going to be Aladdin Jr. I also told him to tell the teacher that he should play the part of Abu, the monkey.
Anyway, back to the musical. Zach was right up there in the front. He didn't look nervous or shy at all. He looked so natural and just really like he was enjoying it up there. You could tell he didn't totally know his part because he looked at Summer a few times to see what she was doing. The teachers also threw in an extra song 2 weeks ago. Zach's drama class only meets once a week, so that was kind of late to throw in a song. It was one that everyone sang in but they stuck Zach's group right up front. He sure did look like he knew the words though. The only part was at the end, he was supposed to stick his arms up in the air and he was the only not doing it. Then he noticed that the people around him had his arms up, so he stuck them up at the last beat. I saw him put his head down like he knew he messed up. But the lights went out at that point. And I noticed that his hands were still up even though every one else's were now down and they were lining up to leave the stage. It was too hilarious. The good thing is it seems like stuff like this just rolls off his back. Sports stuff - when he messes up or loses, he holds it more to his heart. But messing up on stage, seemed like just fun. He didn't mind as much. We'll see how it goes with this next drama class, but he does seem like a natural.

February 12, 2008

Another scare

I think kids are sometimes created just to freak the heck out of the parents. Keep the parents on edge. Make them paranoid. When you don't have to worry that much about someone else, your life is so much calmer. Then all of a sudden, you give birth to these little beings and you have to nurture them, feed them, clothe them, and make sure they grow up to be good people. That's a lot of pressure. Egads! So to add to my paranoia on whether my kids will grow up to be outstanding citizens, Asia adds this little piece of kindling to the fire.

Apparently, she was standing on a chair trying to get something and fell off the chair, possibly hitting her stomach on the chair. I was in the kitchen and just heard this groan. I knew she was really hurt with that kind of groan. So I ran over to her in the dining room and she's bowled over, holding her stomach, still groaning. I asked her what was wrong and she said she hit her stomache. Then she kind of went into a trance. I picked her up and she stayed in her bowled over position, like she was frozen. So I sorta straightened her out, patting her on the back, and calling her name to wake her up. She wasn't asleep, just in shock. I called her name and turned her head to look at me and her eyes was open but not really seeing. Then I called her name again, and she finally responded, "What?" I told her that she hadn't been answering me. She just had this scared look on her face, like "What are you talking about Mom?" Boy did that give me the shivers.

Anyway, she was fine after that. Just a little shaken up. She ate some spaghetti then lied down for a little bit and then she was off to play at her friend Lydia's since today is a snow day so no school. Just to re-assure myself, I called the doctor and he said that most likely she scared herself and should be fine. If she starts to vomit or complain about pain, then I can take her to the ER. So is he saying my daughter's a wimp? She can't take the pain? Ha. Anyway, the paranoia sets in when you think... what if she does this at school or anywhere where I'm not there? That's a mom's paranoia. What if something happens to your child when you're not there to save them...

Enough paranoia for today. I'm going to get some coffee or maybe chocolate. That'd be good.

brown baby

A song that Asia learned in school. But here's her version:

John's brown baby had a cold in his chest,
cold in his chest,
cold in his chest.
John's brown baby had a cold in his chest
so he slobbered it with mentholated goo.
Eww!!


I think the words are really supposed to be like:
John Brown's baby had a cold in his chest...
so he slathered it with mentholated goo.

But hey, brown baby makes sense too. The mentholated goo word was a bit tough to get the first time. It was like menth.... mentho... mentholated goo. So she did get it eventually. No prompting from me since I didn't even know the words.

Now Asia's singing:

It's Valentine's day.. it's valentine's day.. it's valentine's day tomorrow.

February 02, 2008

Glasses for Z.N.

Zach has glasses now. I think his prescription is something like -1. Yes, nearsighted. Just like his mom and dad. Just like my parents. I'm not sure if nearsightedness is hereditary or not. My mom said her mom had 20/20. But then there's the theory about reading at night without adequate light - straining your eyes and thus making you nearsighted. Who knows. Zach even eats lots of carrots, which are supposed to be good for your eyes. But to no avail.
The good thing is, he looks good in his glasses. They're these cute dark blue plastic glasses. We actually got 3 pairs for him. One from the eye doctor, the other two from a web site that sells glasses starting at 9 dollars or so. Add on shipping, and other things like anti-glare, and still your glasses only cost 20-40 dollars. Pretty good. Especially for kids. And here's why.
Zach's always losing his glasses. Since he's not used to wearing them all the time, he'll take them off and place them where-ever. Including the floor. Well, yesterday, he left them on my bed. I didn't know this, though. I thought he was wearing them when he went to school. Later in the evening, I notice him wearing another pair and found out that he didn't know where his blue glasses were. Turns out that Jersey had made a chew toy out of them. They were under my bed. One of the glass panes was gone. Still haven't found it yet. And the frame was cracked. Jersey had a good time with those glasses. Nevertheless, I made Zach pay for 1/2 of the cost so that we could buy him another pair just like those cute blue ones. Good thing it only cost him 12 bucks.