Archive for the ‘mir’ tag
Happy Halloween!
Big sister (at last!)
Last day of school!
Phew, and mama needed the break!
B got really burned out this year, but she's excited about the adventure of middle school this fall and proud that she made it through elementary school.
HM worked hard to meet her goals this semester and made honor roll!
And Mir got student of the month for her class! She is so proud, and I'm proud of her, especially after reading this narrative from her teacher that accompanied the honor:
Way to go! Mir is our May Student of the Month. Mir exhibits all the qualities of a model student. She is very helpful. She is always on eof the first students to follow the directions. Mir is a great listener, too. She is dependable and always wants to lend a helping hand. Also, Mir is kind. She shows others she cares with kind words and actions. Mir is a hard worker. She is very dedicated to doing her best. Mir is extremely involved in classroom activities and discussions. She is an amazing student. Congratulations!
So proud of all my girls!!
She finally gets to be a big sister…
Mir is SO EXCITED to meet Jake. She's 7 years old and currently the youngest in our family – and she has always been the most nurturing of my three girls. She's been oohing and ahhing over babies since she was just a toddler herself.
Having a baby sibling is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for her.
My growing belly is making this so much more real. She's always snuggling up to my belly and talking to baby Jake. And this morning before school she announced that she was going to do everything she could to help me take care of him. She will snuggle him and hold him and pat his head a lot.
"And also, mom, when he gets hungry, I will even put him on your boob for you!"
Pregnancy progress: Sibling bonding
Here are a couple sweet belly bonding snaps from our visit to Tuscon's Reid Park Zoo yesterday afternoon (more about that and pix in a separate post later).
Boys and guitars
Seemingly out of the blue in January, my stepson A (age 14) decided he wanted to learn guitar.
Since he started taking a guitar class at his middle school, we have really been impressed with his dedication and improvement in skills! He really does seem to be committed and passionate about this. It's fun to see a formerly somewhat grumpy teen having so much fun and showing this much enthusiasm for something.
So he'd been playing Scott's electric guitar to practice on at our house, sans amp. It's worth about $1200 so no way he's being given this one, nor is it even allowed to go back to his mom's or to school or friends' houses, etc.
To that end, we started discussing getting him his OWN guitar that he can transport according to his desires and after doing some research found that you can get a pretty good quality electric in the $300 range. Research also indicated that it was important to get a guitar that the CHILD thinks if fun to play, otherwise they are more likely to lose interest.
So we had A research various makes and models and write the pros/cons of his top 3 picks. Scott also researched and suggested a few others that A might consider. Lots of emails flying back and forth with links, etc. (what a great exercise this all turned out to be in being a smart consumer! He read tons of reviews and whittled down his initial list – based mainly on what the guitar looked like – to several intelligent choices based on quality, value and construction, with looks further down on the list of considerations).
And the bonding, oh the bonding. He loves to talk about guitar.
Last weekend we took him to a guitar store to try out his picks.
At first, he was leaning towards the Schecter Omen 6 Electric Guitar. My goodness, it is stunningly beautiful, too. The photos do not do justice to that gorgeous, intense indigo color.
But then he held this Ibanez (RG3EXQM1 Quilted Maple Top Electric Guitar) in his hands. Then that was ALL he had eyes for.
This guitar apparently has really high quality pickups, designed for lots of the metal distortion A so loves. What he especially loved about it was smooth, fast, narrow neck – none of the guitars he was considering in the $300 price range were made that way. The sales guy personally felt A would probably be better off with the very popular Schecter – more versatile, not as metal oriented. That comment made Scott and me also lean that way, but in the end we let A make the final decision.
We ended up getting him a guitar he LOVED that was initially out of his price range, but was on sale for $239, so he came in well under budget. Everyone is happy. 
His little sis, Mir, was MOST impressed by his skill. And she loved the little guitar lesson he offered tonight. A 14 year old boy doesn't have much common ground with a 7 year old stepsister. It was sweet to see them connect like they did tonight. 
Cousin love
Mir and her cousin McK were SO CUTE this past weekend, don't you agree??
Mama brag
I received the following note from Mir's music teacher yesterday:
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You can be proud your child, Mir, has earned this special note for outstanding participation in music class.
Mir has a wonderful singing voice, is very musically talented [!], and is doing a GREAT with her movement for our songs in "A Year with Frog and Toad." I appreciate all the effort she is putting forth and really ENJOY having her in my class.
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I didn't know she had a good singing voice and is musically talented. Must find out more about this!
Anyway, she's very excited because her mad musical skillz landed her one of the speaking parts in the first grade musical performance coming up in a couple weeks.
Of course I'm proud. *beam*
Mom to 4 kids and 2 stepkids, I am a writer writing in the heart of chaos. I am the co-founder and former editor of 
