Small Victories

My piano practice is going well. I played two songs on Sunday and messed up a little bit - I think playing with people singing made me choke a little. But I kept the right hand going, just messed up on the left hand. It was fun though, and my goal is to just improve a little bit each week. When I practice, my plan for the next 2 months is to redo the songs I did (so just 2 for now) and then add the two new songs I'll be doing next Sunday, and I have to play them through until I can do it with no mistakes. And then half way through the week, add two more songs for the next Sunday and start to try and get familiar with those. It's really fun, I'm so thankful my friends gave me this keyboard to practice on. One week with it and I've already made some good progress I think.

And speaking of that little piano keyboard, here's something that happened yesterday ~ well kind of Monday night. I went to go practice the piano and saw that these little buttons on the power and volume slide things were gone.

These little girls, who are just so curious about everything, have discovered that these little buttons come off. 

So I went to practice and they were gone. Usually they are on the floor close by... I looked on the floor and then panic immediately set in cause the maid had been over all day cleaning and sweeping everything... and if the girls took them off when she was here... oh dear, I was sure she had swept them out. They're gone out in the trash! She had put out a huge garbage sack of stuff when she left at 4:00. I opened the gate and went out to get it with fingers crossed that it hadn't been picked up by the garbage man yet. They pick up the garbage everynight, so we just put out whatever sacks of waste we have out on the curb and they get picked up sometime after it's dark. I ran out and luckily it was still there. It was too dark to look for it right then, and we have terrible lighting inside and outside anyway, so I just left it by the front door and decided I'd try my luck finding them in the morning. Back inside I asked the kids if they had seen them and if they took them and if they knew where they were at all? When I asked Lily she said she saw one and quickly ran off and returned with one of the buttons, yay! That gave me a little bit of hope that if I didn't find them in the trash, maybe they were lost in some corner of the couches or something. Will have to wait until morning to find out for sure. So that was Monday night....

Tuesday~ after my walk, the sun was up and it was a nice day and I was in good spirits after my nice morning and music. The kids were waking one by one and after pouring bowls of cereal, I went to start to pick through the garbage with a prayer in my heart that I'd find the other two little button pieces. Little girls are stinkers (we think it was Sophi). And Corey seemed apologetic and understood that this is a con to having a maid. If I had been sweeping my own house, like I do at night, I would have seen them and known they were not garbage. Oh well. I really prayed I'd find them, I didn't want to return the piano when we leave Brazil with the buttons gone - it's not good to return something in worse condition than you got it. The top 2/3rds of the garbage was from outside - mostly leaves she raked up. After that I got to all the sacks of trash. I tore them open and picked through them one by one, telling myself it was okay, I can wash my hands... Please help me find the pieces. I could tell which sack was from what room, and felt encouraged when I found one piece in what looked like dining room/patio area rubbish. It was with some dirt and pieces of paper that were swept up and mopped outside in the patio area, I could tell by the plants that were there. Yay, two down, one more to go, and just a little bit of garbage left. I kept looking carefully, said another prayer, and a few more minutes later found the last one. I was super grateful, thank you Lord. Only inconveniences were about 20 minutes of time and a bit of a sore back from squatting over with my pregnant self.

That started the day off well, then we had our fun un-birthday party. It didn't go well potty training-wise. Sophi went #2 in her pants while I was gone at the store. I knew the timing wasn't good when I left and that I was running that risk. I gave Mel some instructions about how to handle it and for her to leave me any big clean up. Luckily it wasn't bad and Mel took care of it all, love her. Then for the rest of the day Sophi had 2 more wet accidents. I think she probably lost her focus a bit with all the un-birthday toy distractions. But today she's back on target, and we even got our first #2 in the potty, so we're all super excited. I might make a Sam's run tomorrow to get her a prize. After seeing the legos yesterday though, she's said no to the unicorn and wants legos, but the kids all want her to have the unicorn and are trying to persuade her, telling her it's a big queen unicorn, and "don't you want to ride the unicorn?" They've almost talked her into it. As for the possibility of Legos... I haven't seen them anywhere here. Corey said he's sure there is a store close by with them. Mcassab is the official and only distributor of Legos here in Brazil, and I found locations for them in Sao Paulo but not here, not that I know what all that Portuguese on their website says anyway. We'll see. I patted myself on the back for being so wise to bring Lily's present though. It was $55 at Target, here in Brazil I can buy it for $349 Reais, which is $115 - double the price. (btw my son Ethan is amazing) That's brutal, as expensive as Chile was. It's bad enough at the US price, sheesh. Well Sophi, you're gonna have to wait if you want a Disney Princess Lego as your prize. I can have Joseph and Ethan bring it next month. But I'll still get you that unicorn at Sam's if you want. Your call. Hopefully we've truly turned a corner with this toilet training. :)