A Very Merry Un-Birthday

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, Daniel has become quite the band geek. He eats, drinks and sleeps music right now. Of course, it is marching band season so that fills up lots of his free hours. He is also the kid that actually likes to practice. In fact, sometimes we have to tell him to stop practicing. His sax, though a student level instrument, is only three years old and and his hand-me-down clarinet has been fulfilling its purpose. But knowing the brand and age of his current clarinet and knowing that it isn’t going to take him as far musically as he wants to go (honestly, I am astounded at the great sound he can get out of the thing), Kev and I decided to get him a new clarinet. This decision has taken us months to come to, but we just want him to have an instrument that will allow him to grow as a musician. Although we know there are others who upgrade their kid’s instrument as a graduation gift, we decided we wanted him to be able to play and enjoy it all the way through high school.

Since his birthday is in December, he gets his birthday present from Kevin and me on his half birthday. So this morning we all hopped in the car and headed to Summerhays. Daniel did not know why we were going and when we arrived and he saw Kevin’s parents were there to meet us, he was mightily confused. We went in and selected a few instruments for him to play and he was happy as a clam. He has actually played some of the professional level clarinets before, so this was not a completely uncommon thing. In fact, he and his friend Cody like to just play all those new instruments and drool…although not literally because yuck. Anyway, Daniel played and had narrowed down the assortment to the one he liked best. The one he picked was not a surprise since it is the same one he’s had his eye on since at least March. Then Kev laid the decision before him. We were prepared to walk out the door with that beautiful clarinet on the condition that it would be his Christmas and birthday presents for the next three years. We were not going to force him into this arrangement, it was a choice. Not unexpectedly, he was totally ok with the deal. He didn’t even have to stop and think about it. He knows he will still get small gifts from us and gifts from his siblings and such, but having that new instrument was worth sacrificing any big Lego sets he has his eye on. Again, not a surprise to me. Kevin’s parents were in on the deal as well-they purchased Daniel a new mouthpiece since playing the new clarinet with the old mouthpiece would be like putting a rubber band engine in a Ferrari.

He’s thrilled. And wants to practice all the time. And makes me sound even less skilled when we play together. I better get my act together musically if we’re going to play something together and not sound like I’ve run over a cat with the car. ;-)

And as a side note, while all the official payment info was in the works, Matthew got to try out a trumpet. He has wanted to play trumpet for three years now and is standing firm in that desire. He was completely stoked (yes, I realize I just blatantly revealed my status as a child of the 80’s) when he was actually able to create some sound. And Nathan test drove the pianos, very nearly drooling over an Italian-made 7 ft. grand with a price tag of $78,000. Talk about a heart attack. But he said the touch of the thing was amazing and getting a huge range of dynamics was so easy and it sounded beautiful…yeah, keep dreaming kid. But yeah, I totally get it.

He’s Nine! (And A Half)

My birthday is only a couple of weeks after Christmas so when I was a child, my parents would give me my birthday present from them around my half-birthday. It was nice to get something in the middle of the year instead of getting everything new all at once and then waiting for an entire year for something new. Since Daniel's birthday is just a few weeks before Christmas, we presented him with the half-birthday option at his last birthday and he was all for it. So today he got his birthday present from Kev and I and we had half-birthday cookies to celebrate his half-special day. He received a model and his very own set of model making tools.


He also got a headboard for his bed. He is the kid who has already been warned (and grounded a few times) for reading with a flashlight after bedtime so we thought a headboard with shelves for a few books and a place to hang a small desk lamp would be terribly useful. And to his credit, he has not been found reading after hours for a while now so hopefully the lamp-holder won't inspire him to choose poorly.