Music Sounds Better With You

I love going to school performances.

Sure, the scheduling and juggling meetings so I can head over there in the middle of the day is a bit annoying. They also tend to clump up at the end of the year, so The Husband and I end up playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine who has gets to see 24 presentations on national monuments. And I always roll my eyes at the sea of smartphones/SLR cameras/video cameras in the audience and the jockeying for the best sightlines.

But still. It's a window into what my kids do all day. It's a chance to observe them in one of their natural habitats. I get to put faces to names (of both their friends and that kid who got suspended AGAIN).

One of the best parts is when the kids come into the room, anxiously scanning the audience for a familiar face, and then their eyes light up and a shy smile steals across their face and they give a little half-wave.

I think I love the music ones the best. I'm a Mennonite Arts major - I dig the music thing.

(Ha - that looks like I majored in "Mennonite Arts." I so wish that was a real discipline.)

Plus The Boy is absolutely adorable when he performs. Music gets right into his body. He can't keep still. (Yes, that's a nine-year-old boy thing, but his wiggles follow the beat whenever he hears a song.)

He loves to sing, but he doesn't want to show how much he loves it. His chin tilts up and his eyes go to the ceiling and he half loses himself in his breathy voice. He sways and swivels and nods without realizing it.

He's still working on the whole rhythm and pitch aspect, but he's got the heart thing totally down. When he learns a song, it's in his blood. He can't pass a piano without playing his latest piece (we're on Can-Can now. A welcome change from Fur Elise).