He rocked his recital

Jeff and I don't really do Valentine's Day, so yesterday evening, I told Biscuit to pick somewhere for us to have dinner. He chose a Mexican restaurant, and as he was taking the last bite of his black bean quesadilla, he said, "Uh ... Mom ..."

I looked over and his tooth was bleeding and wobbly. He's already lost his front two teeth, and this one was right beside where his front teeth used to be. So now, his smile has a three-tooth gap!

I only mention it because Biscuit had his first big piano recital today, and he sang along with his third song. And although I'm sure nobody else noticed, when Biscuit sang "the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head," I could hear the difference in his "s" sounds.

The recital was originally planned for January, and we were excited because Jeff's parents were still here. And it was set for a Saturday, so my whole family was planning to come up. But Biscuit's teacher got the flu and had to reschedule a lot of lessons. And he didn't think it would be fair to the students to have a recital after he had to cancel two weeks of lessons.

Although I completely agree with his reasoning, it was disappointing to learn that the make-up date would be in February and on a Sunday. That narrowed our group down to just Jeff and me and my parents.

Then this past week, both my parents got sick. Daddy has a bad cold, and Mama has bronchitis. I had seen the weather report and knew it was going to be in the 20s here, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted them to just stay home and get well. They reluctantly agreed.

So it was down to Jeff and me. And Biscuit was just fine with that. I told him that we could make some phone calls after the recital to let his grandparents know how he did.

We got a nice surprise just before lunchtime today. We heard a knock at the front door that turned out to be my brother and my nephew. And Biscuit was so excited. My nephew is 10, so Biscuit really looks up to him.

When they arrived, I had just finished my house cleaning. All the stuff I normally do on Saturday, I put off until today. I knew I would have a lot of nervous energy, and I wanted to have something to do besides sit around and wait on 3 p.m. to get here. I can't believe how nervous I was. Jeff was the picture of calm, as usual!

After the recital was over, I gave Biscuit the choice of ice cream or doughnuts. I think the weather somewhat influenced his decision to get doughnuts. As we were walking in the shop, I asked, "Hey, were you nervous when you went up to play?"

"No," Biscuit said, matter-of-factly. "I just pretended it was you and dad and grandma and grandpa and grandmama and papa and my other people."

He played with a lot of confidence, and just as he finished the last song, he shot me this grin that could easily be translated as, "Yep, I rocked it!"

Here are Biscuit's three recital songs: