05/02/2012

1.  Today marks 23 years from the day my little brother Jacob died.  I think I will always shed some tears on May 2, no matter how many years go by.  I miss him, that's all.

2.  Today was otherwise a fairly normal Wednesday.  School lessons went OK.  Everyone was pretty willing to do their work, but for some reason no one was very fast about it, and we did not get through everything.  As the school year draws to a close, I'm finding myself caring less about that. 

3.  Brigham had another slightly hard day at piano lessons.  He's getting better at speaking up and being more clear with his teacher about what he has done during the week, but I do think she needs to be a bit more effusive with the praise.  She normally is very good about that, but as the big boys have gotten older and better at the piano, I think maybe she feels like that isn't as necessary.  I totally get it because I'm guilty of the same thing.  I figure I can just cut to the chase and let him know what he should be working on, instead of taking extra time reassuring him about what he did right.  But as I listen to his lesson from the other room, I think I can "hear" things more from Brigham's point of view, and being more generous with praise I think is important for him.  I feel a bit out of the loop for Joseph and Mosey since I never hear their whole lesson (I have to take Brigham to violin and miss the end of one lesson and the beginning of the next).  I think Mosey was more polite this time.