Oskar Demonstrates the Importance of Nap Time

After weeks of illness I am thrilled to announce that we are ALL happy and healthy. We were viciously attacked by the flu just after Christmas. It just so happens that Oskar was the only one who got the flu shot and he is the one who brought this plague upon us and brought us all down. It is incredible to me how much the flu hurts. I've had it twice in my life and thankfully this time wasn't as bad as last time, but it was still absolutely awful. After the flu past we each had lingering issues and illnesses, however.

Oskar kept waking up with his eyes sealed shut from eye goop. I'm not going to apologize for how gross this is because none of you had to deal with the clean up. He had no other signs of pink eye so we waited a bit to take him in. We went in and discovered that, long story short, all his mucus was draining through his eyes while he was sleeping. Penicillin worked its magic and Oskar is good to go.

Dan had a cough that was doing nothing but just wouldn't quit. After about 5 days it was just gone. I was left with a terrible sinus infection. It actually made my teeth hurt. That was a new experience for me. After powering through bronchitis in November and December, and having gotten through the flu, I was fed up with powering through. Thank you Z-pack. I love you. Then earlier this week my stomach was attached with metaphorical knives. This hasn't happened since college and its return was quite unwelcome.

It seems I've been sick since moving here. It is beyond annoying. We are lucky though that we have jobs and schedules that allow us to be sick and heal at our own pace. So so so lucky.

A couple days ago we decided to go to Costco. This is not a rare occurrence. We enjoyed a lunch while there ($8 for the whole family, and that's only because Dan got a fancy sandwich) and we were super pleased with how well Oskar ate his food. We were going to pick up a couple things at Target, but Oskar fell asleep in the car so we thought we would bring him home so he could get a good nap. The transfer to his bed was successful, but about 10 minutes later he was giggling and singing. The day carried on and he fell asleep on the couch at 5:00 for a couple hours. No big deal, these things happen. What ruined everything was that Oskar was on antibiotics which need to be taken with food. He woke up and ate a bit and we put his medicine in his milk... and then forgot about it. Oskar woke in the night saying he wanted his milk (that he hadn't finished). I was exhausted so I got it out of the fridge and gave it to him and he fell asleep. A while later he was crying in his sleep. Dan went in and noticed that he had moved down to the middle of the bed. This was weird. Never happened before. Dan put him back and went to bed. Couple hours later- my turn. I pick him up,cuddle with him and watch a movie. He smelled a little weird, but again, I was exhausted and it was just a weird-ish milk smell. That's not new. At the end of the movie he reached for his cup again and drank some and fell asleep. I investigate my assumptions.

Sure enough- vomit all over his bed, that his father unknowingly placed him into when he moved him back up the bed. I had noticed his PJs were wet when I picked him up. I thought it was pee so I changed him and didn't think about it until I kept smelly his funky head. I threw the laundry in the washer and it clicks- the milk must have been weird! I'm rinsing out his cup, in which the medicine had turned the milk an exceptionally weird color. And what's that I hear? A vomitty Oskar on the couch. For never throwing up when he was little he sure is making up for it now. I call in reinforcements. Dan, who is disoriented at best when woken suddenly from sleep, pulls it together and helps. Oye. I love how this second episode was minutes after I had started the laundry too. Too late to add it in.

In spite off all illness, the holidays were a win. We were able to see many family members and I ate a lot of puppy chow.

I'm not sure how many of you know, but I am the Handbell Musicians of America Area 7 Publications Manager. Pretty much it means that I put a newsletter together 4 times a year. After this current issue, I will have *successfully* completed a year of newsletters. I say successfully with stars because while the year will have been completed, I don't think the people who read it know that I really don't know what I'm doing. I mean, I try, and I'm generally happy with the outcome, but it's really a guess and check process. I feel like there is a level of deception here, like I'm tricking people into thinking I have experience that warrants this responsibility. I don't. I went to school to design buildings and research cultures. And they won't even let me do those things...

We had a sparky outlet incident in our kitchen when we unplugged our popcorn popper the other day. I'm afraid to replace the outlet because I don't know what I will find in there that may have caused this. It's probably nothing, but I remain hesitant.

I hope you are all enjoying your start to the new year! And that you are and remain healthier than we have been.

Oskar Gags on Jello, Imminent Doom for Dorisa's Favorite Sweater

Oskar makes faces now. It's great.

We met a friend for dinner a couple weeks back. Dan was especially pumped because we were going to have Chinese food. Dining with out with a toddler is not easy in our family. We trade the work of cooking a meal for the work of dealing with Oskar. The previous night we had gone out and Oskar was so good. He was a little antsy at the end of the meal, but considering he is 2, he was spectacular. I thought we had turned a corner. The next night, dressed in my favorite sweater and over-confidence from the success of the previous night's dinner out we headed into the largest Chinese buffet I've ever seen. Oskar was excited to see his plate, which included french fries, mandarin oranges, and wobbly red squares. I thought the jello squares looked a little big, but he handled the first one just fine, so I let it be, trying to ignore the voice in my head telling me to cut them smaller. Five minutes later, he gagged on some jello. It cleared pretty quick, but it still frightened him and he whimpered a bit so I gave him a hug. He had gagged once before this, and it was followed by an episode of vomiting. I did not know that this would become a "thing" of his. Hug, you're okay Oskar, pat pat pat, vomit. Mostly on me, his sweater of course is fine. Dan was wearing a sweatshirt so I was able to change but the smell lingered on my pants and the stain set on the sweater slowly freezing in the car. I was still hungry, so I tried to eat, but I was unsuccessful. It will be a while til I am able to go to a Chinese buffet again. For my part, there was no gagging or tears, but an utter deflation of spirit. Defeated by vomit. I was doomed to chase a toddler, who was crazy as ever despite the previous day's victory by the way, smelling like vomit, with crusty vomit hair, hungry but not hungry, and beyond frustrated. Dan helped chase too, no worries. Let it be known that even a vomiting toddler can't ruin good company, for without her the evening would have been a total loss.

The end of a well timed yawn, and the lock screen on my phone.

I generally don’t condone drinking alone before 11 AM on a Sunday, but Oskar whacked me in the butt with a spatula he grabbed out of the sink the other day, so I took the opportunity. In my defense we eat lunch crazy early around here, so I was drinking with a meal. I don't condemn drinking alone on a Sunday before 11 AM either. It just isn't something that comes up very often.

It may look like he's praying, but no, he is mooing.

Our guest room is painted! Come visit us! There is a bed and everything. It is very exciting.

Yes, that is my Alma quilt. If you don't know what that means don't worry about it.

Are there any other parents out there that would like to give Raffi a high five AND punch him in the face? The dude has crazy catchy songs and they do not leave your head. Oskar is absolutely in love with "Baby Booga." Listening to the whole CD over and over again isn't too bad, there are just 2 things I dislike a bunch. This includes the nonsense at the end of Biscuits in the Oven and the line "Nothing can go wrongo I'm in the Congo" from Joshua Giraffe. Wrongo is not a word and I'm sorry, but you are in the Congo- EVERYTHING can go wrong.

Smile Oskar! No. This face.

Oskar got really excited about running in Macy's the other day and took a significant multi-stage tumble. Knees then belly then face. His hands got trapped under his stomach so they couldn't prevent the face plant. The lack of coordination is definite evidence that he is the child of Dan. The mouth bleeds a lot. I was certain that he would have a loose tooth or be missing one, but they are all there and he was fine about 3 minutes later. He is very good about getting over getting hurt. I wanted to get a picture of all the blood, but that clearly wasn't a priority. I kind of got a picture of his fat lip afterward. It stayed poofy for about a day and then the poof retreated.

Poofy lip.

Trying out the toys.

He found his old chair in the basement. Then Dan carried him upstairs in it.

During dinner, the phrase that is repeated most often around these parts is "Oskar, sit down and stop conducting." Anyone else have this problem? No? Just us? Great. When the choir sang one Sunday, he stood on my lap and conducted them from where we were sitting- on the opposite side of the sanctuary. I just don't get where he got this from. He has seen plenty of conductors in his life, but not a crazy amount- definitely not a daily or even weekly occurrence. He is very strange. Our day care provider said he has a wonderful spirit about him- or something like that. This was nice to hear. She also said that he has never thrown a tantrum while in her care. This made me happy and hugely frustrated.

We got our first real sized Christmas tree this year. It was a little scary because we didn't get to see it because it comes all wrapped up since we got it at Costco, but it is one of the fullest trees I've ever seen. To water it, we have to use our baster. A watering can might work, but I'm not confident enough to go out and actually buy one. We had to cut the end ourselves when we got it back (so it was like chopping it down, right?) and this would have been easier if we had better saws. Even with that hassle it was worth the savings in price. We are very happy with our tree and Oskar has been so good about not touching the ornaments.

Photobomb. How dare I take a picture of anything except Oskar.

Official 2 year picture

We celebrated Oskar's 2nd birthday partially on Thanksgiving and partially on his birthday, December 7th. Dan and I had had a crazy weekend so we were not at all prepared for a party, even a small one. We were going to run to the store after church and get a cake, but luckily for us there was a funeral out at Split Rock the day before and they had lots of leftover cake. Yes I know how that sentence sounds and I don't care. Candles were provided by grandma and grandpa and Oskar blew them out. Twice. The church sang Happy Birthday to him and then we sang during cake time at home and then he initiated it once more before bed. I think he likes when his name is in a song. He also fully understands opening presents now, so Christmas should be extra fun.

Oskar has officially and successfully transitioned to his twin size bed. He has only fallen out twice and once was when he was trying to get down and got tangled up in the sheets. I do have to go in before I go to sleep though and adjust him around a bit. He doesn't usually move in his sleep, but when he does it is in a big way. Observe:

I'm thinking he was trying to make his escape and fell asleep...

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Thanks for reading and sorry I'm such a slacker with posting. Maybe posting more will be my unrealistic New Year's resolution.

See ya.

Dorisa Is a Liar

Never disrupt an artist.

We did not carve pumpkins of favorite characters and we have not made a pumpkin pie from scratch. I know this is a huge disappointment. Sorry for our infinite failure. Time has been in short supply.

I did, however, get Oskar's room painted and I am ordering a bed for him TODAY. This must happen. I was a little nervous at first when I put the paint on the walls because honestly it looked like putrid vomit. I powered through though and I absolutely love how it turned out. It is so much brighter in there. I also was able to touch up the floor quite a bit and it looks really good. I used a furniture polish that said to not use it on floors but to be honest, the floor looked thirsty and needed some love. I do not regret my decision at all. Sure it is a bit slippery, but Oskar doesn't fall down in there any more than in any other room, so I think it's fine. We got his windows covered with plastic and that is dramatically helping with the condensation problem and keeping the room much warmer. I was happy to learn that it is a pretty easy process too. The tiny shelf on the bottom of the windows made it a little more difficult and it probably will leak a bit, but hopefully it works okay for a while.

Before

Before

After. I will post more pics once his bed arrives. Also, this picture was taken with my phone at night,
so the coloring isn't great. I promise it looks good.

Work has been pretty busy, which is good. It was slow the week I painted Oskar's room, which was nice because I was able to get it done without too many late nights. I enjoy being busy because I like the work and it means more money, but I have another bedroom to paint and that is not happening very quickly.

This was the best Halloween picture we could get. It's a struggle to get him to wear pants,
we didn't want to deal with a costume.

Between nearing 2, getting 2 year molars, learning at the speed of light and alternating between feasting and fasting, Oskar's behavior as of late can at best be described as unpredictable. His favorite activities currently include building towers of Legos (see pictures), conducting whenever he hears music (audibly or in his head) and counting (2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10- he does not like 1 or 7). He also enjoys helping (and hurting) in the kitchen, reading books (if we only read 10 books we consider it a light day) and does not enjoy wearing pants.

We tried to get Oskar excited about leaf piles and jumping into them, but we weren't very successful. He eventually enjoyed running through them and throwing them in the air, but that's all we got. We tried to get him outside to play in the snow on Saturday but he wasn't interested. This is strange because last year we had a hard time keeping him inside.

This dude seriously holds a pen better than most adults I know.

Oskar is standing on a stool, by an end table, conducting while Dan plays the piano.

We (Heartland Handbells) had a concert a week ago and it went pretty well. I of course made mistakes I had never made in my life, but I don't think they were too noticeable. People said they liked us though and we were able to make a little money for our group. In other handbell news, I am going to a town called French Lick, Indiana in May. Can you believe that there is such a place? That is a ridiculous name.

Oskar "helps" at bell rehearsal. Because how is an arrhythmically malleted  F throughout an entire song NOT helpful?
That's not true, he had a rhythm going. It was all his own and he didn't care.

And a beautiful picture to end the post.

Dan and Dorisa Destroy an Ecosystem

Oskar says hello and apologizes for consuming all of his parents' free time and preventing the updating of the blog.

It all started when we moved in and learned about garbage. Technically the garbage can we had was too big so we went and bought a smaller one. We have a pleasant small garbage company that backs up your driveway where a guy gets off the truck and puts the garbage bags (limit 3) into the truck. It is completely unfathomable that garbage is done this way and after 4 months I still get nervous every time they back up the driveway thinking, "Really? Is this okay? I don't think this is right." I actually watched them do 3 more houses one day just to be sure I wan't missing something. Anyways. When we moved in there was extra garbage made and there was garbage left here (in the too big bin) by the previous inhabitant. Over the first couple months of the summer we made sure that we got rid of the garbage bit by bit... or did we?

Around the beginning of August I was working in the garage just being absolutely annihilated by mosquitoes. If you know me at all you know that mosquitoes are the worst and cause me to get giant welts. Frustrated, I chose to work inside that day instead. We noticed at other times that fruit flies were bad, but they were bad inside the house too, so whatever. Then the real flies were bad, but garbage cans have flies and it didn't seem ridiculous, so we didn't give it much heed.

Enter team radon. We had a radon mitigation system put in a couple weeks back and they happened to open the garbage can that we don't use anymore and thought was empty. I feel bad for them. At first I was angry because we don't use that garbage and everything needs to be in a bag- we can't have random bits of trash in there and because of this I new we would have to dig it out and deal with it. Then I was glad because they brought a truly terrible situation to our attention. There have been few smells I have experienced in my life that are that awful. We turned what was a mosquito free day into an June evening in the Boundary Waters in about 3 minutes. It was terrible. Doing all this with a toddler running around made it extra fun. But hey, what would life be without a bug infested summer boiled liquid garbage challenge? The answer is awesome. It would be awesome without this challenge.

It's funny how much they can say to each other without really talking.

Dan turned 30 on September 27th and my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews came to visit. We had a great time playing and eating and walking. As with all weekend visits with crazies who have jobs that require them to work on Sundays, it was too short, but at least this one time we weren't the ones driving!

Oskar and his long shaggy hair. Also he is about 3 seconds from sleep in this picture.

I cut Oskar's hair last Sunday. We both had colds so I put on Nightmare Before Christmas and noticed that he was sitting extremely still while I was playing with his hair. Then there was about 20 minutes of internal dialogue. "Can I do this? Probably. Should I do this? I don't know. It's only $14 at the salon. Yea, but he cries, and I dread having to deal with that. I dread even scheduling the appointment because it means that soon I will have to deal with him in the salon, that's why he looks like a girl. You could just bring him something to watch at the salon. That and a sucker might do it. I don't want to do that though. And then you are covered in hair, and sucker stick, which attracts more hair and you are thinking about adding a screen? No. Can I really do this? You've watched his hair get cut many times, you know what to do. Plus you've cut some of your friends' hair before and that went fine. Yea, but I've cut my bangs too short before and that is not good. He's a little boy. make small cuts it'll be fine. Can I do it? Do it. Put him in his chair, make him a sandwich and get started. Go. NOW!" That's just a sample.

Short hair- somewhat disheveled. Yes that is a potty. No it has not been used. No it will not be located in the living room. He did have a successful number two while sitting on it in his clothes and diaper. I take this as a good sign.

Lunch time during this process was a mistake. But he wasn't that hungry anyway. I started cutting my baby's hair about halfway though Nightmare Before Christmas and Voila! After that movie, 2 episodes of Super Why! and vacuuming both the floor and my child multiple times I found a little boy! Note: getting vacuumed with the bristle attachment probably is not the nicest thing you can do to your half naked toddler, but it works, and their memory is still pretty bad.

I found one bookshelf I liked after looking through many furniture stores. It was five hundred dollars. Then I went to JoAnn Etc. (Impossible to find in Sioux Falls by the way. I had two different addresses/locations given to me by the internet and they were both very wrong) I bought some crates (half price) and used leftover paint and stain to build my boy a book shelf type thing.

This was 20 minutes after I set it up. $30 for the win.

We had our first home ownership casualty last week. Believe it or not, our avocado green dryer stopped working. It had been in the throws of death since we moved in though. It squeaked with every rotation of the drum. And not just a little squeak. A resonating squeak that could be heard in every corner of the house. No lie. So, we say "goodbye avocado" and "hello cheapest dryer we could find." The dream of course is to have a beautiful matching set, but that doesn't make sense with our budget and a location in an unfinished room in the basement. We have had our new dryer for a couple days now and it works incredibly well. We are happy and our ears are happy.

Oskar is my little home improvement friend. He takes his little paint brushes and brushes the walls, tries to get color samples to stick on the walls and has been helping sand his head board. What wasn't great was when he started sanding an already painted wall, but it was fine. What I love is that everything he knows is simply in little blips of observation. He isn't really around while I'm painting or sanding, he just sees a little bit now and then but picks it up so quickly. All of a sudden a few days ago he started counting to 10 too. It's fun to watch him learn. And more rewarding than when he accidentally (or so we tell ourselves) headbutts you in the nose.

Stay tuned to see what happens when Dan and Dorisa try to turn a pumpkin into pie, and other pumpkins into beloved movie characters! Coming soon!

Dan is the fastest man in Brandon*!

Dan ran a 5k a couple weeks back and won!
*The high school cross-country team was not allowed to participate and the guy who got second was recovering from an injury. While winning a race is something to be proud of, we can’t have our favorite ginger pastor friend getting too cocky.

A greeting from our little guy:

That plant often has at least a couple dozen bees on it so we spend a lot of time explaining bees to Oskar. Little things, like no touch and don't pet it like a puppy. He does pretty well and spends a lot of time waving and saying 'hi.'

Monday was going to be so productive. After 3.5 months of living here we were going to get our licenses switched and get new plates for our car. We arrived at the DMV with many papers and a sleeping chomper in hand. After a no-nonsense discussion with the DMV lady I discovered that to switch my license I need my current license, birth certificate, social security card, marriage license, and two pieces of mail. Seriously? Don’t you think that to receive my current license I have already proved who I am? I don’t really want to switch it over anyway, it’s just a hassle that I need to pay for with my time and money. Oh, and what about the license plates? Can I get those at the Department of Motor Vehicles? No, no I can’t. I need to go to the courthouse for that. Obviously.

I'd like to thank all of you who participated in the lively children's sheets discussion on Facebook. We clearly have the big problems of this world under control. Some of you may be wondering why I'm looking for bedding when my child is still under 2. We never got a crib. With the travelling around and not knowing what was coming next, it was cheaper and easier to get a pack'n'play. While convenient, it does have a bit of a downside. It is about 4-6" shorter than a standard crib and my kid is a bit on the tall side for his age. Observe:

Dude needs more room. We are skipping the toddler bed because I don't want to spend money on such a temporary thing. He still often sleeps in a ball and is rarely this stretched out so I don't think he is uncomfortable, but he will be soon. I did find some bedding I'm happy with (colorful tiny monsters) and we picked up a headboard at an antique store today. I texted a picture of it to my parents. My dad said it looks a little rustic, and my mom told me to watch out for splinters. It's an old gate, and it needs a bit of work, but it was cheap and I'm excited to see what comes of it. Next month I will be able to get Oskar's room painted and hopefully get it set up for real. I've waited because I want to sand the walls a bit and there is a possibility of lead paint a couple layers down. Dan's sister is moving out some time in October so then he'll be able to sleep in the spare room while I fix his up and be free from danger.

At MOPS last week we took a personality quiz/strengths inventory type thing and although it turned up no surprises, it was still fun to do. It listed restlessness, impatience, stubbornness and bluntness as my natural limitations. To this I replied that being stubborn is not a limitation.

We picked up some free grapes at church a couple weeks ago. They looked like sweet red grapes. They definitely weren't. They were very sour, with big seeds and yellow flesh. Very interesting- like a grape/cherry hybrid. I could hardly put them back so I decided it was time to make some jelly. I had never made jelly before and the whole process was very much an "I don't know if this is right, let's see what happens" experience. I also went from, "I don't think this will make very much, we probably won't need to actually can it" to "Ahhh.... crap.... I think we need to can this... how do we do that?" I say 'we'- Dan was my taste tester and hot jar clean-up guy. I definitely made jelly- and I even sealed the jars correctly! The jelly is sweet enough, but still has a sour-ish after taste. I never should have doubted myself- once I got the food mill assembled correctly on the first try there was no stopping me!

Before

During

After

Dunzo!!! One for the fridge, three for the cupboard.

Last weekend we all went out with a group from our church to volunteer at the 20th Annual Buddy Walk that promotes acceptance and inclusion of those with Down syndrome. It was a fun morning- despite the bug bites that turned into baseball-sized welts. We stood along the path holding signs featuring some of the kids with Down syndrome. Oskar said 'hi' like a pro to people as they passed us and we helped some take pictures with their signs.

Oskar flies down the slide in his giant t-shirt.

I mowed the lawn the other day and despite taking precautions, I ran out of gas. The left front of our yard has a 2'x10' mohawk. Very trendy.

Dorisa grates her hand in the Cheese Grater

I blame the small, delicious piece of Parmesan. That's probably all you need to know about that.

Dan and Oskar play the guitar.

It has been relatively crazy around here with the start of the school year. This is somewhat odd because we have no school-aged kids, but all the church programming of course starts up around this time so that has kept Dan busy. He was installed at Brandon Lutheran last week and at Split Rock Lutheran (the country church) yesterday. Both installations went well and the Associate to the Bishop did a very nice job with the services. As far as behavior went, Oskar did much better at the Brandon installation. At Split Rock we were in the service for about 5 minutes. His attitude during the service ranged from super cute, when all the kids came up for the blessing of the back packs and he shouted 'hi,' to freaking out because after he shouted 'hi' to all the kids he was invited up as well and the pressure of being in front was too much, even though he had been running around up there for the previous half hour. For all of you out there wondering, toddlers don't make sense. I tried to keep him outside during the service because it is a small country church and my kid is super loud but dude wanted to be inside running around. Again, this was weird.

I love this picture.

Work is going well, and after a tiny lull, things are picking back up again. I'm still really enjoying the flexibility and since I've been doing it for a while now, I feel like I kind of know what I'm doing. The only thing that throws me off is when we work on a place in a weird county that I'm unfamiliar with. I also don't like when we do condos. They are the worst, but luckily because we are in Sioux Falls and the surrounding area, this doesn't come up much. I have been working a little more at home now which is nice but I desperately need a desk and office chair. I have them all picked out, just need a place to put them. Currently our house is full though and our basement isn't really use-able, so I'll have to wait.

They had some really neat old farm equipment hanging about. And as always, Oskar needs to know what is going on in the bird bath,

I went to a MOPS meeting a couple weeks ago and a potluck last Friday. Holy moly do a lot of those women have a lot of kids. I would say 75% of them have at least 3 kids and it wasn't uncommon to have 5. It is cheaper to have kids here than in the cities though, so it kind of makes sense. I'm pretty sure I was the only one there with only one kid. It seems like a nice group of women- full of different types of people so that's nice. Oskar had a fit being left in the nursery, which again makes no sense because it is at the church. I honestly don't think he knows what to do when he is surrounded by kids his age because usually he is running around the church with 4-10 year olds. At the pot luck he was playing with a 3 year old for a while, but I think that is the youngest kid he's been interested in at church.

Many of you saw on Facebook that we went apple picking. Oskar LOVES apples and had a great time. We went out to a Split Rock member's house and they have apple trees and puppies, and all sorts of room for Oskar to run. He was thoroughly exhausted after this adventure. This was also nice because we had the opportunity to sit down and actually get to know some people. Contrary to popular belief, meeting everyone at the church in 3 minute conversations is not the most effective way to get to know people. Just an observation- I know this is surprising.

RUN!

If you don't know or care about handbells you can skip this paragraph because you will not understand it. I have joined 2 choirs here. One is at the church- 3 octaves, pretty easy music, but the selections have been very good, so that's cool. The biggest struggle I had here was on the night I also had to watch Oskar so I was holding him and trying to play my bells with one hand. Even at E4/F4 this was a bit of a struggle. The other choir is the community choir in Sioux Falls and they play much more difficult music and I think there are even like 5 people under 30. This is great. The music wouldn't seem that hard except they do the thing where the bass doesn't play the notes in the chromatic order. UGH. So difficult. I play E3, A3, and D4 (Eb3, Ab3,and Db3). Not only is it hard to sight read this because you're looking all about, but then we get into a key signature with a lot of sharps and all of a sudden I have to look for D#3, G#3, C#3 and D#4. There is one song where I'm playing 7 bells, and not like 4 bells with an accidental here and there. Actually playing 7 bass bells. I had to bring my book home and circle my notes. It was just too weird and difficult to find all of them. I should probably just try growing more arms.

Just chillin'.