Apres-visit

Dad, coming to pick up his son after a visit at our house: Oh my God - Ben, your snowpants are soaked!
Me: Um, yeah, sorry about--
Dad: Cool! You guys must have been playing outside for hours!
Me: Yeah, they were.
Dad: Excellent! Ben, you can come visit here any time!

Hand over that Mother of the Year Award

Daniel learned his Christmas carol, and is working on the dynamics. Justin has been working so hard it's heartbreaking, especially this last week, but cannot manage to remember where his fingers go. If he looks at the music and it's got each letter and finger written on top of the notes, he gets distracted and flustered. If I erase the cheat notes, he's just lost.

He wants, so badly, to be able to play Away In a Manger for his grandparents. And it's not going to happen. He's been learning piano for three years now, and wants to play a very very simple four-line tune. Two of the lines are identical, and only require him to play with the right hand. The other two are similar, and require him to play with both hands doing the same pattern.

I even took out the left-hand part of his last line. No dice.

Three years learning to play. Four weeks practicing two one-hand lines and one two-hand line. And he can't do it.

I feel like the worst mother in the world, for telling him he could do it. I feel even worse for wanting to scream as he slowly and laboriously goes over four-note patterns twenty, forty, sixty times, before getting it right... and then promptly forgets them the next day.

But I can't help thinking I don't have time for this! I had a list of things that absolutely needed doing this week before we left for Calgary. Then Chris decided that we needed to shut down our Royal Bank accounts and open up at a different bank. Over three hours were spent on this, as I wistfully thought of all that I needed to get done, that wasn't being done. Not a problem, though: I still had Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then I realized I'd forgotten to write an appointment on my calendar and there went another three and a half hours. Then I got calls re. information needed right now which meant another two hours. Then today was the NAC. And the popcorn deliveries. And my list is almost exactly where it was on Monday, because everything else has taken priority. No matter what comes up, it must be more important than my piddly little concerns.

I'm starting to panic.

And into the middle of this comes Justin's piano piece. His four-line piano piece, which he has been struggling to learn for a month now. I don't know how to tell him that it's just not going to happen.