Piano Lessons

I started piano lessons. If I practice more than 3 times a week I get to pick out some stickers. I am only playing the black keys. My fingers are different numbers, like my middle finger is three and the one to the right is two and the one to the left is three. I even wrote my first song!

I took Emma for piano lessons with Asuka Fu. She lives in the building across the street above the Duane Reede. She teaches Emma's good friend Natalia. Emma is excited to learn a new skill. Today I had to remind her to practice. "Emma, have you practiced this week?" I said. The answer was, "I was really busy this week." At her first lesson I sit on the couch across from the piano for a half hour, the super proud daddy. Now I just drop her off, but I can sneak in whenever I like.

My first full year of a one hour ballet class

Hee-haw, I'm dancing ballet, partner.

The Company. We will be performing next at the Garden State Plaza Mall, a blending of jazz fusion and ballet to Usher.

Dedication, single minded focus, placing your hand in the hair in a way that makes audience members want to cry.

Even though it is super hard work, you have to remember to dance from your heart. Or at least, that's what Sally Fields says. This was my first full year of a one hour ballet class at Steps, which is a dance center that means business. I deserve a rest! Daddy: Pictures taken with my new Nikon 1. Ashton Kutcher's been hawking this camera on TV. I could be the next ad campaign, a nervous, desperate dad, under the gun, his wife next to him, asking, "Do you really know how to use that thing?" Nikon had better come through for me. Nikon comes through for me, could be the tag line. Nikon comes through for me or I sleep on the couch.

The sea of blue balls

You might think it is strange, "A sea of blue balls," but really, in the world of New York birthday parties, it is within the typical modern day normal. I have done Marcarana with neo Nazis and been terrified by existential puppeteres hunting for lost elephants.

Mommy and Maddy were in the sea of blue balls. Mommy wouldn't jump in.

Daddy: I am ready for anything at today's kids birthday parties. The sea of blue balls is at Chelsea Piers. Emma takes the search for the site of her upcoming 7th birthday party very seriously. "Daddy, it's my choice," she tells me. "Chuck E. Cheese is out of the question," I told her, for the 50th time. "But, it's my choice." Is it wrong to fight Chuck E. Cheese?

Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.

Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.

Schiboom, schiboom. Schiboom, schiboom.

Each tap of my toes is Morris Code, as my feet make their own music. Daddy: As I lumber along in the adult class across the hall, at Bridge for Dance, trying to get my toes and heals to move when I tell them to move is like tapping my head and circling my hand around my tummy at the same time. Goal: to tap with Emma in Madison Square Garden or in front of Madison Square Garden for quarters. Photos by the fantastic photographer, Julie Dermansky.

Build-A-Bear

Maddy: Mommy made it a surprise. I knew I was going to have my birthday party, and I knew I was going to be four. I Just didn't know where the party was. Build-A-Bear is great. I built a dog! I named her Princess. All my friends from class room 716 were there. It was like school but it was all about me. I got to go first. In fact that was a rule at Build-A-Bear, "the birthday girl goes first."

Maddy just starts spontaneously dancing, even after all of the guests had left (I don't think there was any actual music.)

Maddy was proud. "I blew out the candle with one breathe."

Picking out the outfits for the bears took total focus.

This is the magical stuffing machine.

Emma and Maddy sat on Grand-Ma Renee's lap for the Doc McStuffin's Marathon. Daddy: Maddy really had fun. Plus she was very gracious and occasionally let other kids go first and took all of the attention in stride. Afterwards we went to the Parker Meridian Hotel and I took the girls swimming and had a room service picnic with Grand-Ma Nee (short for Renee) Everyone slept well that night.

The "Macarena" in Jamaica

Maddy: The "Macarena" is a Spanish dance song that is played in Manhattan and Jamaica to bring kids to a frenzy. The weird thing about it is you know it's coming, "The crazies," but once the music starts you can't stop. And when Big Bird and Zoi and Elmo show up, it is too much for a kid to take.

Michael: It doesn't bother me, the "Macarena," is back.
Well, maybe it does bother me.
Maybe it never ever left. I just blocked it out. I was never a huge fan of the "Macarena." Now that my girls are being taught the "Macarena" where ever they go, I have to face my feelings head on.
How do you feel? (That is a blogging talking point, thrown out to the blog-oh-sphere)

Would you trust a dolphin with your child's life?

Emma: I swam with a dolphin in Jamaica. The Dolphin fell backwards and I grab his fins. It was fun. I can do anything. Next trip I'll swim with an Orca. That's a killer whale.


Daddy: I had a dream before dolphin day that Emma was standing on two dolphins as they swam across the ocean. Than the dolphins tilted her into the water between the two of them and nosed her ribs and pulled at her little body like seaweed.
Emma was looking forward to swimming with the dolphins and I never, ever want to disappoint her. I realize, I am too trusting of the world, leaving my little girl in the hands of a strange mammal, trained by a Jamaican dolphin trainer. Jamaican people, as a stereo type, seem to not get too upset when something goes wrong.
"Yah man. The dolphin was just playing with your daughter. They love to play."
Well, I am one of those kind of people who trusts a dolphin with his child's life. Oy, Emma, I'm sorry.