Yamaha Annual Recital

This past Sunday was Lauren's annual Yamaha Music recital. She's only been taking lessons for 8 months and I've had my share of concern for the other kids in her class (a number of whom are younger and, ahem, less mature). But her teacher, Miss Grace, is wonderful, and she makes Lauren feel special. I also think that, beyond being a proud parent, Lauren has a real knack for the music and actually enjoys the fact that she's learning to play the piano. I've promised her that if she keeps it up through the end of the year, I'll look at investing in a real piano (as opposed to her current keyboard). Almost as exciting as the anticipation leading up to the recital was the exhilaration associated with wearing a new super fancy dress (selected all on her own at the world's most fabulous little girl's store called The Duck Pond), new shoes (that she dubbed her first pair of "high heels"), having her hair done (so it would be away from her face and make her mama happy), and getting to wear a dab of lip gloss and mascara. It was a performance, after all. As fate would have it, the recital was held at the JCC, our usual stomping grounds. Lauren strode confidently in, completely at home. Shortly after arrival, we greeted Aliya, who is in her kindergarten class, but a year ahead at Yamaha. Lauren's class was second up in a program of 14 performances (generally consisting us 2 songs each). There were actually 2 classes jointly doing her songs together: Ode to Joy and The Cuckoo. 18 children on 16 electronic keyboards, one regular piano, and one grand piano. Out of those 18 children at her level, guess which one was chosen to sit center stage and play the grand piano? Miss Grace told everyone it was because Lauren was the "tallest." That Miss Grace, always so considerate of others' feelings. Post-performance, all the kids were given medals and took a bow. Admittedly, because of all the children playing at the same time, we couldn't really discern Lauren's ivory tickling from anyone else. As always, however, Nana, Pop-Pop Mark, Daddy and I were still so, so proud to watch our girl perform. Just another 7 months until the holiday recital, when she'll get to play a song by herself for the first time. She's already talking about it. Looks like I had better start saving up for that big piano.