confidence

I attended our annual IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for Peter on Tuesday.  It was an excellent meeting between teachers, principal, specialists & parents. Peter’s progress is noticeable in every aspect of his school presence.  Rather than wait through the summer break, it was decided to let Peter spend more of his day in his mainstream kindergarten classroom for the remainder of this school year (under 3 weeks).  I was nervous about this decision, even though it is exactly what I was hoping would come out of this IEP.  I’m sure the school staff was just as nervous, but it was time to let Peter flourish deeper into new places & things.

Two days have now passed since this meeting.  On his first day post-IEP, Peter spent triple the amount of time in his kindergarten classroom, and yesterday it was quadrupled.  Peter proudly jumped off the school bus both afternoons  and gleefully told me that he had a great day.  Last night we ran to the mall to pick up a few items.  Peter walked next to me without holding hands very often, and I even caught him walking smartly with his hands in his hip pockets.  I’ve never seen this posturing before, and I have never seem him negotiate the world with such confidence.

It’s only been 2 days – and I know not every day will be perfect & strong, and there may even be days that I wish we hadn’t pushed him… but maybe not!

My pride in Peter & his newly found confidence is staggering.  My true hero doesn’t wear a baseball uniform or appear on TV or in the movies – he walks with his hands in his pockets by himself in the mall.

dragon joe

To a half million vets & Harley riders who participated in yesterday’s Rolling Thunder event, Joe Lozano is “Dragon Joe”.  Joe is a Viet Nam veteran, and travels these days from Georgia each May to participate in Rolling Thunder.  His wife, Mee owns & rides her own Harley Davidson motorcycle as well, and is a veteran of the US Army and of Rolling Thunder.

To us, Joe & Mee are also our former neighbors from our first apartment, and we try to see them each year after the Rolling Thunder events have wound down.  We met them and several of their military brothers at an old favorite restaurant – Magic Wok in Springfield, Va.  We even saw our original waiter from the 1990s there.  He remembered all of us.  It was a great reunion!

There are a half million brothers & sisters of Dragon & Mee in town, and we salute them all with gratitude.  Thank you for your service & sacrifice.

David, Mee, Joe & Kathy

peter’s prodigious piano premier

It’s a moment I have thought about ever since it became clear that Peter has perfect pitch. I knew I would someday introduce him to the piano keyboard & see how quickly he grasps the concept of a musical scale, and the relationship of physical up & down on the keyboard and higher & lower pitches.

I set up a video camera next to the piano, gave Peter a quick (30 seconds or so) explanation of a C Major scale and how the keyboard works, and I then turned on the camera.  What you see here is unrehearsed, and quite literally Peter’s 1st time playing the piano.

[my apologies for the audio quality – Murphy’s Law kicked in & the video’s audio track sounds terrible – go figure]

red robin read

There were four adults in the room – all with mouths hanging wide open in disbelief of what they heard.

Peter came into the kitchen holding a balloon.  The balloon was from the burger restaurant Red Robin.  We were at friend’s house, so he had never seen this balloon before, nor has Peter ever been to a Red Robin.  He pointed to each letter in the Red Robin logo, and said…

“Rrr Eee D….  Rrr..Oo..B..Ii..Nnnnn”.

Peter read to us!  Peter read to us!

emma makes her performance debut

Bravo, Emma!  Grandma Charlotte is smiling down on you.  And you KNOW dad is proud as can be!