At the end of last summer, Ella started violin lessons.
This past Saturday, after just over ten months of blood, sweat and (literal) tears on both of our parts, Ella achieved her "Twinkle Graduation." This means that she stood up in front of her group class and performed six variations of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" back to back. So basically, the equivalent of her last recital...times six. All while demonstrating the proper posture, bow hold, and other basic skills. A tall order if you ask me.
I was nervous and sweating as the moment of truth approached. Of course, Ella didn't have a care in the world. She just stood up there and knocked it out of the park (video below).
Afterward, she got to join the music school's "Twinkle Garden." She has been planning out that purple hand print (in the upper left corner) for months now.
After the group lesson, we headed to the toy store where she finally got her much coveted Jessie doll (and a mini Buzz Lightyear to boot).
She spent the next hour whining at Claire for inexplicable reasons, and asking me to put Jessie's hat on about a thousand times.
But let's keep our focus on the positive, shall we?
I have to say it was one of my proudest moments in my short five-year stint as a parent so far. Of course, there have been innumerable proud moments. It just comes with the parenting territory that you are generally proud at even the smallest of accomplishments.
But this was different. Ella actually had to work really hard to reach this level, and it was a really amazing experience to watch her reap the fruits of her labor. (And not to take the attention away from her, but do I get extra points for enforcing and overseeing daily practice after having a brand new baby? Because trust me, there was many a night when it would have been much easier to send Ella to bed without practicing.)
Perhaps the best part of Ella's graduation? Now I might actually be able to go to sleep at night without hearing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in all its various forms going round and round in my head. Yesterday at Ella's private lesson we got to start learning something new. Thank goodness for "Lightly Row!"