This is a picture of Abby at the piano when she was about 4 months old.

I took piano lessons when I was little and at age 6 hated most of my time spent at the piano. I remembered crying through entire lessons, barely able to see what I'm doing with my hands and hating practices. I stopped taking lessons around 8 when my piano teacher fought with her husband and he smashed the piano. I didn't think much of the piano after that and picked up playing the flute in 4th grade, enjoying it immensely. In high school, I decided I wanted to revisit the piano and started taking lessons again and made a lot of progress in a very short amount of time.

Although I never became great at the piano, I was proficient and music lessons in general gave me a deep appreciation for good music. Several teachers have asked if I had perfect pitch. I don't, but I have an ear for good pitch, which is the reason I will never sing.....not being able to ever come near the note I'm trying to hit.

I don't want to push either one of my girls with music, as traditionally expected of a Chinese mom, but I want them to be exposed to it enough to appreciate it, know that they can achieve whatever they set their minds to, and have the opportunity to learn as much as they want.

Lucky for me, I found the perfect neighbor to listen to this particular rant. It turns out that Andrea had been a private piano teacher and a school music teacher for decades before she retired. She was itching to take on a brand new piano student if Abby proved ready for it. We made arrangements for Abby to visit her that weekend and be evaluated. Age 4 is a good time to consider starting piano lessons, but a lot of kids aren't quite ready at 4 to begin, so she wanted to gauge her interest as well as ability to grasp simple concepts, such as recognizing the grouping of keys.

She assured me that I need not stress about Abby's musical education at school because she will supplement whatever she needed. Huge relief during this time of nerve-wracking school research!

Remember that I had recently gone through sinus surgery? Well, my doctor's kids all studied piano with Ms. Andrea and the Physician's Assistant who is doing all of my debridements also studied with her. I learned from them that Andrea was a wonderful lady (of course, I knew that already) and a great music teacher (fantastic!).

As it happens, Abby was more than ready to begin and she was eager to learn. She has been taking lessons since the end of July - just 30 minutes a week. She loves it and looks forward to "playing" with Ms. Andrea. With her toy whale, Shamu, in her arms she heads across the street every Saturday morning. (Shamu helps with clapping rhythms.)

From what we're seeing Abby is doing extremely well. Andrea is surprised at how quickly Abby is moving through the books and is already ready to start her second set of books just one month later. Her 30 minute lessons expanded to 45 minutes starting at week 2 because Abby likes to keep going.

Just as with gymnastics, we will support her to continue lessons so long as she continues to enjoy them.