On Monday night Claire had her second concert with the studio where she takes violin lessons. June marks one year of lessons for Claire, and it is neat to see her little fingers really starting to move.

Just in the last few weeks she has begun to place her fingers on the fingerboard herself to play an E scale (technically just the first four notes of the scale) and an A scale. This is a pretty big step. Having played myself for so many years I forget just how many little skills go into something as 'basic' as coordinating finger placement on the left hand with bowing on the right.

She did well at the concert - my primary goals are that she be proud of whatever she did and that she enjoy herself. Both were true. She was glowing when we were done.

Ella is working hard at her speech right now. She repeats many of the words she hears, and the babble to English ratio is dropping.

Each week Ella tags along to Claire's group violin lesson. At this age, a lot of what is taught are rhythms with words which the students will use in various tunes as they progress. Ella picks up on most of these.

One rhythm is "ta-ka-ta-ka-stop--stop--" (each - represents a quarter note duration).

Ella runs around the house yelling "Taki! Taki! Taki!" and clapping, which is pretty cute.

Another is "Run--po-ny-run--po-ny-" and that one has Ella in stitches as she shouts it out. Every now and again she changes the words and says "Run the pony run the pony" which I think is pretty cute.