Bekah composes her first song

This weekend, Bekah composed her first song on the piano! ...a worship song! She calls it "Sing the song of Grace." She is so amazing!

She wrote the music sheet on a sheet of paper - complete with lyrics and notes! Then she memorized the song and played it for Tammy and I. When Bekah gets motivated about learning something, she doesn't back off until she has blown my mind away.

P.S. We have only had the piano for 8.5 months, and she has only been playing diligently for about 2 months!

Bekah's 6th birthday party sleepover party

face painting, bungee jumping (kinda), presents, cupcakes, and a tea party.

Pics uploaded here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/tammy.r.norwood/BS6thBirthday

Note to self: six yr olds are too young for a sleepover. wait until they're seven...teen.

Caroline/Bekah and singing

My girls are growing up in a quasi musical household. Music is in their DNA...or at least in half of their DNA. You see, Tammy grew up in a musical home - no question about it. Her dad was the band director for Southeast High in Bradenton, FL for decades. He had a Ph.D. in Music before such things even existed at most universities. Everyone in her family sang, played an instrument, or both. The Jackson Family was a modern day Partridge Family - and proud of it!!!

This is in direct contrast to my upbringing. In the Norwood family, we struggle (note the present tense) to fight our way through "Happy Birthday" each year. Not that we don't like music - we just typically find ourselves comfortably seated in the audience at concerts, not on the stage. even though I am increasingly moving closer to the stage by deepening my guitar playing skills, I am still much more confident sitting in the audience.

Forgive the trip down memory lane...but I distinctly recall one Christmas when I dating Tammy and her mom packed everyone in the van and took us around the city singing Christmas carols. This would NEVER happen in the Norwood family. N.E.V.E.R. To this day I still think that Christmas day was part of a Jackson family hazing ritual or weed-out process to see if I really loved Tammy.

Anyhow...back to Caroline. So she's growing up in a quasi musical family. She is constantly surrounded by music - either from her mom singing or from her daddy who is listening or playing the guitar. Over the last few weeks, Caroline has begun to sing along with us. In the car, her favorite song to sing along with - hands down - is Hosanna by Hillsong. As a father, it is nothing short of AMAZING to hear her sing "Hosannnnnnna, Hosannnnna! Hosanna in the highest!!!!" Tammy is also head-over-heels for "Last Train Home" by FM Static...and Caroline sings along to the chorus on that song too. At bed time, Caroline has learned the first and last verses to Amazing Grace (something that daddy has taught to both girls) and sings along loudly right before bed.

For posterity's sake...

Bekah's first song that she sang in the car was "hey there delilah" by Plain White T's. I remember how blown away I was to hear her sing that song for the first time. I think I almost wrecked the car turning around to see her sing for the first time!!! today Bekah sang Defender during church. It killed me to praise God side-by-side with my daughter this morning.

Proverbs 23:24-25 - The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him. May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!

Bekah catches a BIG BASS!

While spending a day over Grammy and Pappy's house, Bekah landed this HUGE bass!!!

1st Dance Class

Today was Bekah's 1st dance class. She seemed really excited all week, but anyone who knows Bekah knows she needs lots of encouragement to do anything she doesn't want to do! So I was concerned that she would get in there and freeze. Or maybe even want to quit entirely. We talked and practiced all week, and I let her wear her dance clothes the other day and got some great videos of her "dancing".

Dance #1


For more of her dances, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZEX6Nadd4U (notice the tongue) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJG6iTa1eIE

All my fears were for nought! She did amazingly well at dance class! She listened to the teacher, obeyed, and generally had fun. When we were getting in the car, I told her how good she did. She said, "I know. I didn't even cry. It's because I loved it." :) Later in the car she said, "but now I know how to dance, so we don't need to go back." That lead into a great conversating on practicing things to get better and better. Here are some pics of her in dance class.


Left: All dressed up with her shoes in her bag Right: Trying to stand on toes like a "real" ballerina


Above: All girls are at back of class facing the teacher, but Bekah decided she should stay in front next to the teacher. :)

Bekah Catches Her First (10) Fish!

Grammy and Pappy kindly took care of Bekah on 12/21 while Tammy and I hosted a Christmas party at out house. Grammy and Pappy just bought a new home by SR 675 in Myakka City that has a pond in the backyard. No one knew if the pond had fish and if it did how many fish it had. Bekah and Pappy were determined to find out!!!

Bekah quickly snagged her first fish (pic below) and subsequently went on to snag NINE MORE FISH over a period of about one hour!!! Her perspective on fishing will be clearly jaded for life!

Bekah's First Trip to Disney

Yes, so at the ripe old age of three, Bekah went to Disney - joining Cousin Parker, Aunt Jami, Uncle Forrest, Mom Mom, Grandad, and her parents.

As usual, she dared to go on the "scary" rides...such as Dumbo and the carousel.

One question - why is Uncle Forrest still wearing a Superman backpack?!?!? I thought that he would have got over that after elementary school???