I signed Lex up for piano lessons. He has been super excited, until, of course, this morning when it was time to go! Fortunately I was able to get him out the door with relatively little fuss and we made it to his first lesson. He absolutely LOVED it! The woman teaches lessons in her apartment. She also holds group lessons once a month which she encourages kids to attend so they can meet other piano players and play together. I think he’ll like that once he gets a little more practice. She was very impressed with his existing knowledge, once or twice glancing over his head towards me with a look of surprise. He is so excited and loved the lesson. As I was sitting there listening to them (parents are encouraged to stay, which is a good thing because I was staying) I was noticing how completely comfortable he was. The place was homey (her home!) and quiet and it was just the two of them together. He just settled right in and played!

Each finger gets a number. They practiced wiggling each number. :)

He’s so cute! He has to scoot his little butt back and forth across the bench to reach from one end of the piano to the other.

Alan had Eve for the morning so when we left we decided to get some lunch. Along the way we found a sparkling piano! To celebrate their 50 years, the Hopkins Center has placed 50 pianos all around town (the exhibit is called Hands On Pianos). Each has been donated and decorated by local businesses and artists. There is also a Valley Quest to go along with the exhibit. Each piano has a letter written on one of the keys. Collect all of the letters and they form a song.

Lex and I got some lunch, ate outside on a bench, and stopped along the way to play several of the pianos. He is excited about the Valley Quest and we’re going to try to find all 50 pianos this month! :)

This one was missing it’s letter!

Some of the pianos have extra games on them. This one has 50 smiling faces, some more famous than others. They challenge you to identify as many as you can and email them. I think there is a prize for the person who can identify the most. It will not be me!

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We got in the car and were about to pull out of the parking space when Lex spotted this one. We had a few minutes left on the meter so we jumped out of the car again and went to check it out.

This is a neat looking one with whales swimming above the skyline.

We spent quite a bit of time at this one once we realized the front opened up. Most of the others were painted shut or somehow otherwise secured shut! Lex studied the inner workings of the piano while I did my best to explain things to him. His mechanical mind is so far beyond mine!

This afternoon we went to a birthday part at a playground and despite everyone being hot, tired, and hungry on the way home we took a quick stop at this piano we spotted along the way.

When we finally got home this afternoon we printed the Valley Quest and matched up the clues we could with the pianos we visited this morning. We know where a few more are and are exited to visit them and find the rest. Apparently the game ends on July 31st, so we have to stay focused! :)

I often find myself wondering at what age kids should start attending to personal hygiene things themselves. For awhile it was showers. When do kids start showering? How do you teach them? Funny thing, parenting is, because things just happen when they are meant to happen. Lex decided one day it was time to start showering. That was awhile ago and now he showers sometimes and bathes other times. But it just happened when it was time. I say all this because a new thing I’ve been wondering about for awhile is nail clipping. It’s one of my least favorite jobs. The kids don’t fight or protest, but they just barely cooperate, and their nails grow so fast I feel like we are clipping them every week! This evening Lex fussed about not liking to have his nails clipped so I said, “Want to do it yourself?” He jumped at the idea!! It was hard work for him because he’s still developing that fine motor control, but he did a decent job. It took him a long time, but I was patient and he was patient and he was super proud of himself when he was done! I guess right about seven is the answer to that question.

I thought hard about getting the camera but he was sitting on my lap and it was sweet and he was working hard and I didn’t want to interrupt the moment. Why don’t I have an eye-cam yet?!?!