perfect pitch

Ok, so we all know how much of a music lover my daughter is! I picked out Sansa mp3 players for Cam and Claire for Christmas this year, and they have not put them down in the last 2 months! It was a great way to get Cameron interested in music, since Tim downloaded a bunch of his favorite songs. Well, we loaded Claire's player up with mostly Barbie music but she's also discovered a new passion for Rascal Flatts and the Rembrandts! (can you guess who picked THOSE songs out?) Anyway, back to Barbie - Poppi has made sure that Clairely has every Barbie movie ever made, and Claire has memorized almost all of the movie soundtracks. She sings over and over again, but her favorite so far has been the Island Princess soundtrack. A guilty pleasure of mine, too, because the songs really are very pretty! :)
So Claire and I were sitting at the piano a few days ago, and I was figuring out the chords to one of her Island songs; got it figured out, and as Claire started to sing, she stopped and said, "No, that's not right, mom - you need to go down. Try it down!" I looked at her funny, but dropped the song a few keys to D and played it in that key. She nods, and says, "yeah, that's right" and we continue on. Well, the next day, she was watching the island movie, and that song was playing, so I ran down to the piano to check the key - and whaddya know - it was the exact key she told me to play it in - D! She's got perfect pitch! And we haven't stumped her yet - Tim and I both have checked anytime she's singing a song - she is always in the original key! This is the same little girl who can sit at the piano and mess around until she teaches herself a song by ear. She has learned 5-6 songs just by hitting a few keys until it sounds right. I am amazed at her talent!

snow, snow and more snow!!!

I am so tired of snow and cold! This winter has been one snowstorm after another, and it has been bitter cold - today it was 9 degrees waking up, with another dumping of snow. The schools didn't delay, so we slipped and slid on our way to school this morning. Our streets at home are always the last to get plowed, so it's like an antarctic mission just getting out to go grocery shopping! Not to mention the kids have been cooped up so much inside, it's driving me nuts! I'm tired of cleaning my house! Whine, whine - when will spring get here?!?!

little lamb

Caloway loves sitting on Tim's shoulders, and now he loves being a "little lamb"! He asks for it everyday - "Dad, can I - can I be a little lamb? Please?" I love it!

C+ - WOW!!

Cameron finally got a C+ on his math test!! He has been struggling with the 100-facts test that started last month. He is great at math, but when he has a paper in front of him with 100 tiny little addition facts, he stresses and blanks out. They only have 5 min. to complete the test, and he has failed the last 3. We were getting concerned, because we know that he knows his facts - he can fly through a homework paper of 20 facts. We'd had another IEP meeting to see what could be done, and the suggestions they offered did not help. Finally after his 3rd F, his teacher suggested flash cards. Ding ding - why didn't WE think of that? So we started quizzing him with cards and a timer for the last week, and yesterday, he took the test again, and got a C+! We were SO proud of him and the hard work it took to get through most of that test. YAY CAMERON!!