friday=pizza@school… even for peter!

Today’s eating adventure has been brought to you by the letter P.

day four – eating more!

Fourth day – more new foods eaten:

What will tomorrow bring?
Does anyone have a good Lobster Thermador recipe?

eating exponentially

All right- now this is becoming absurd. Here is the eating portion of Peter’s daily school report (3rd consecutive day) :

“Snack: 2 Oreo Cookies 🙂 a little white milk & juice

Lunch: a few bites of hamburger (not happy, but he ate it).”

He IS running, isn’t he!

hot diggety dog!

OK. In yesterday’s blog post, I proudly announced that Peter actually ate some chicken. His diet had been stagnant for well over a year – maybe two! When his teacher sent home his daily report which stated that he ate some chicken nuggets, we were stunned and thrilled.

That was yesterday. Here’s what we found in today’s daily report:

“Snack: Pops Cereal & Chips and school apple juice 🙂
Lunch: HOT DOG! Four bite-size pieces 🙂 & PB Sandwich
Snack: Rice Krispy Treat 🙂

Notes: I am shocked and pleased Peter is eating lots of new things. At home too?”

NONE of these food items has ever entered his mouth before today.

He’s sprinting now! Run, Peter, RUN!

giant steps

It feels like yesterday – Peter’s developmental roadblocks seemed insurmountable.

• He wasn’t sitting up. He finally sat.
• He drank only from a baby bottle. He graduated to sippy cups.
• Peter needed to be dragged into school each morning. He loves going to school.
• He would not speak. He spoke (and never stops)!

In the past 4 days, Peter has rammed through two more major obstacles. Peter has been quite dogmatic about what, and out-of-what he drinks. There are only a few cups that he will use… until Thanksgiving day four days ago. He saw everyone else drinking water from a large red Solo cups that we all know. He asked for a “big red cup, pweeze”. We gladly obliged, and he drank several times throughout the afternoon and evening.

The next milestone was reached today at school, and reproduced here at home. The scope of Peter’s diet has also been very narrow, and getting him to try new foods is perpetually futile – until today. In his daily progress report, his teacher wrote, “lunch: ate part of a chicken nugget! :)” WOW! This is huge. Before you comment with a scolding regarding the negative nutritional value of a processed chicken nugget, understand that his entire intake of protein before today has been solely peanut butter. Period. At dinner, we asked him to eat a little chicken for us before we took a bath… and he did it!

It’s been a good week for Peter. It’s been a good week.

emma ice skates

This past Christmas, Emma really wanted a pair of ice skates. She had never been on the ice before, but she was quite set on getting skates & learning how to use them. After months of lessons, her confidence is really mounting, and last year’s holiday gift is still a big hit! She met a classmate today at the rink & they skated together – practicing their skills learned from the last lesson.

ha giocato il suo oboe mentre un cantante

I performed the Requiem by John Rutter this evening . The sixth movement has a huge oboe solo/obbligato accompanying the chorus. The performance went very well, and I had a good time playing this big oboe solo to a packed house.

The great reward I received, aside from an appreciative audience, was the comment made to me by the conductor after the concert. He told me that he assumed I must have extensive vocal training, due to the way I shaped the musical phrases and tonal colorations. Engelbert Brenner always taught me to think musically as a singer would, and his every note played was this way.

Lessons learned 20 years ago are still with me.

generation(s) gap

Francis Gillen (1927-1988) never met his grandson Peter Mankin. Here you can see how similar the two look at roughly the age of 1.5 years old. Amazing!

destination zoo

The kids had the day off from school today for Election Day. The rain came and went quickly early in the day, so we piled everyone into the car and drove into Washington, D.C.

Destination – The National Zoo!

Emma and Peter wrestle with the bears

“Don’t move, Mai Xiang
I’d like to get you in my
family picture”

“OK – got it!”

 

paul hindemith – oboe sonata

Among the many musical treasures left to me by Engelbert Brenner, I have a wall in my music studio lined with autographed photos of famous musicians, conductors & composers from the 20th century.

Here is a photograph of legendary composer Paul Hindemith. In addition to his autograph for Brenner, he hand-wrote the opening bars of his oboe sonata (written in 1938).