Tea and a beautiful concert

We used to have a full-size upright piano in our living room.

I sometimes miss it. I bet Audrey misses it more. She used to foist herself up onto the piano bench at a very young age and play with the keys. She was always very gentle to it. I remember we marveled at how well she could match pitch with whatever key she happened to tap.

We traded our upright piano for a keyboard a number of years ago. We have a couple of smaller keyboards around as well so there's no shortage of options in our house.

Last night, Vivian made her way into the basement and called upstairs to me that the "plano" needed batteries. That's her way of saying that she couldn't get the piano to work. I plugged in the small keyboard that was sitting on the floor for her.

It didn't take long for Audrey to intervene. Because that's what Audrey does. If something that Vivian is doing interests her, then Viv needs to step aside and let Audrey take over. Usually that involves a defiant cry/scream from Vivian but last night she was totally cool with it. She did, however, insist on serving me tea and invisible food of some sort with her tea set.

I drank enough tea to appease Vivian before I slowly slinked out of the room so I could make dinner.

Audrey continued playing the piano but to be honest, I wasn't paying close attention. After a short while, Audrey came upstairs to ask me if I'd like to come down and listen to her song. I told her that I had been listening (it's not hard to hear from the main floor) but she insisted that I needed to come downstairs. I'm SO glad she insisted.

I sat down on the floor to get ready for her performance. To my utter surprise, she was playing the song "We Shall Overcome." She just learned the song in music class at school for Martin Luther King day. [She sang this song to us a few days ago and her singing sounded so angelic and beautiful. She even showed me the accompanying sign language.]

I sat there stunned while I listened to her play and sing along . . . . two verses! She then explained to me that the song was in two parts and both parts had the same notes so it was pretty easy. She would sometimes hit the wrong key but she very quickly figured things out.

I've been toying with the idea of getting her into piano lessons. I think I should stop toying and start acting on it.

We shall overcome, we shall overcome,

We shall overcome someday;

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,

We shall overcome someday.

We'll walk hand in hand, we'll walk hand in hand,

We'll walk hand in hand someday;

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,

We'll walk hand in hand someday.

Random musings

Hey there. How have you all been?

I don't have much to report even though somehow I feel like I haven't had an idle minute since before the holidays.

My New Year Resolution to get back in shape is in full swing and I'm still hard at work at it. Not bad for Jan. 28th. I've had a few slip-ups with my diet here and there but I haven't missed a single work out yet. It feels pretty good to have my muscles screaming at me.

I've become a huge fan of myfitnesspal.com . I've been keeping a food journal in there. They make it so easy. They're nice people at myfitnesspal. They're probably pretty, too. I'm obsessed with it, to be honest. My goal is to stay under 1200 calories a day.

In other news, I went to see Curt's show last weekend. He was in a musical about the Patty Hearst story. Our friend wrote and directed everything - including the music. I'm not sure what to say about it. I sat in the audience sort of dumbstruck by the whole thing. First of all, it's not a very happy story. It's pretty depressing, actually. And I wasn't crazy for most of the songs. I did like "Back to California" but that was because Curt sang it and he added his own style and flourish. Curt can do that in ways that other singers just can't.

So, rather than focusing on the story, I decided to pay attention to the other aspects of the show. I found myself really enjoying several of the performances. There were some talented people in the cast.

This show was a staged reading and our friend hopes to mount a full production in 2010. I hope Curt is not involved since the script calls for nudity. Actually, I already told Curt he couldn't be involved. Yes, I'm THAT kind of wife. Curt is all cool about it, but I seriously doubt he wants to do naked push-ups in front of 200 people every night for a four-week run.

Or perhaps he does and I'm depriving him.

A picture -- a thousand words

Audrey has a homework requirement to read 15 minutes every day.

That doesn't sound like much, does it? You'd think this would be an easy thing to squeeze in every day. But for some reason, this little task gets saved until the very LAST moment of her day since she likes to read at bedtime. I guess I do as well. I always take a book with me to bed ---- and I'm always sleeping within 10 minutes of cracking it open.

So, it makes sense that this 15-minute read often becomes pure torture in the absolute LAST moments of her waking hours.

Two nights ago, she chose a picture book to read. A picture book. Full of pictures.

However, each section of the book she picked has an introductory page that describes the pictures that follow. I made a deal with her that if she read those introductory pages, she could use this book for her reading time.

What happened next blew me away.

Not only did she tackle those paragraphs, she did them nearly perfectly. Words like magnification, cross-section, composition, figures, collection came spilling out of her mouth. She was able to sound them out beautifully. I was quite impressed. Her favorite new word was vivid since it sounds like Vivian. She laughed and pointed at Vivian, who was sitting on Audrey's bed putting her baby doll to sleep.

Audrey has no idea how great her skill is. She's always telling me how well the other kids in her class read. "Logan reads chapter books" is the kind of thing I hear . . . as if there's no way Audrey would be able to do that.

And then yesterday when I picked Audrey up from school, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Mom, I started AR today."

"Uhh . . . what's AR?"

"Accelerated Reading program."

ah HA!

Yes We Can!

I'm meeting a friend for lunch today at Conor O'Neils because they have TVs. I hope we can get a seat!!

Flippin' surprised!

So, I took a minute to read some Slate Magazine articles and one of them reminded me of something Audrey asked us about the other day. Apparently someone flipped the bird on national television at the Golden Globes.

Last week on the way home from school, Audrey asked me what the "bad word" was for using the middle finger. Huh?? I was surprised since I didn't even think she knew anything about the middle finger (that's grade school for ya'!)

I told her it was such a bad word that I didn't want to say it. But she insisted on knowing what it was.

I got out of it by telling her to ask her Dad.

Perhaps I should let her read this article instead. That's what my mom used to do. Instead of telling me about the birds and the bees, she was like . . . "uh . . . here. Read this."

Busy: full of activity : bustling

I think I've been too busy to blog. Either that or nothing all that exciting or interesting has happened to me lately.

Hmmmmm.

I'm going to go with too busy.

My life is far from dull most of the time. With a hectic work schedule, a husband who's currently in rehearsals for a show and two small children, there's never a dull moment in our household.

Heck, I can't even keep up with my Facebook notifications or my Google Reader (I've got 116 unread Slate Magaine entries) much less type up a blog.

So that makes me wonder WHY I'm so busy suddenly???

I already mentioned my busy work schedule. Damn it all. BUT, I'm very happy and feel very blessed to have my job. Moving on.


I started a new workout program. For the past several months (ever since I was in MY show) I have really slacked off on any regular workout/diet program. I'm taking my New Years Resolutions seriously this year. I pitched every dreaded cookie and piece of candy from my house (except the Bailey's chocolate that Curt bought me for Christmas -- a girl needs a small indulgence every now and then), I cleaned out the fridge and went shopping for whole foods. Yay! But that means I'm doing a LOT more cooking these days.

I also started lifting weights again, which I LOVE. The program is called ChaLEAN Extreme and it's GREAT.

The other reason I'm so busy is that my family keeps requesting our presence in Ohio. We drove home last weekend (in virtual white-outs) to attend my nephew's wedding. I found out at Christmas that my nephew and his girl-friend were expecting so it was no big surprise when I got the call from Mason that said, "hey, I'm getting married on Saturday. It would be great if you could come." Uhhh . . . yeah!

Curt and I sang "From This Moment" as Kolby walked down the hallway of my parents' house into the living room where the ceremony was held. That song was longer than the marriage itself! It was really sweet, though. I heard my brother (Mason's dad) say under his breath, "now THAT's the kind of wedding I like!"

And finally, my husband is doing a show right now. It's a staged reading of the Patty Hearst story . . . and it's a musical. If that sounds horribly confusing, don't worry - I have no clue, either. The show runs next weekend and I'll have more information after I've seen it.

But his rehearsals run from 6:00 to 10:00 - which means he goes straight from work and he comes home just before I'm about to hit the hay. The girls and I are batching it for a couple of weeks. I hope we don't pull each others' hair out.

I wonder if that's why I've been a little grumpy lately?

Clothing wars

Audrey went to school today in peach-colored yoga pants topped off with a pink and black princess shirt with jewels on it. In addition to that horrible combo, the shirt is just a tad bit too small. That was not the clothing suggestion I had displayed on the top of her dresser.

I always making clothing suggestions for Audrey but she rarely follows through with them. Sometimes, I'll make two or three. I figure we're at least a tiny bit closer to getting some clothes on her in the morning even if she doesn't like it. "I don't want to wear THAT" means we have one less from the 2,457 clothing combinations that are left.

I must be softening. In the past I would have begged or bribed her to get her to change her clothes. This morning I merely suggested that she might want to pick either different pants or a different top. In her defense, she did want to wear pink pants but the peach pants were the closest she could find. Sigh. Is it possible that she doesn't have any pink pants at the moment??? Hard to believe but I think it's true. I guess I need to fix that. (I also need to put that top she wore today in storage.)

Curt thinks this is all very amusing.

At least Vivian was stylish this morning.

Christmas Birthday party

Holiday breakdown

We had a fantastic holiday!

I already posted a ton of pictures on Picassa and on Facebook so it seems redundant to post them here . . . but a few highlights might be called for.

The extended Kinninger clan are gathered on the floor of Grandma and Grandpa's waiting for Santa to call their name with a present!

Audrey is a huge Santa fan!!

This is the first time that Vivian has smiled in Santa's presence. It's a start . . .

Mom and Dad arriving at Karen's for breakfast Christmas morning. [I look eerily like my sister in this picture. I rarely say that. Even though everyone else always says it.]

Audrey is using her 13-year-old-speak to explain some travesty that Vivian has created in the other room.

Audrey finally got her pink guitar!!!

Now THAT's a Christmas face!

No wait . . . THAT's a Christmas face! Audrey was SO excited to get her first (probably of many) Mymeebas!

Squeeze!!

Mommy and Daddy showing off the beautiful picture and frame that Vivian made for us. Those are pasta noodles glued on the frame and then spray-painted gold.

Dinner at Erin's. I think Audrey ate only bread and mashed potates . . . complete with lots of butter provided by Grandma.

Grandpa explaining something to Vivian . . . or vice versa.

The kids do the Christmas reading and the brothers play with cameras.

Scrambling to get into place for the group photo.

Here we are!

Happy birthday Daddy!!!!

!