Before and After

We woke up expecting today, back to school, to be a little bit of a naff day. With some good stuff, like her music lesson to start with, her being well enough for us to have a cycle ride to school.... and back to band. She likes band but she's a bit fed up in the training band. She's pleased to still go but it's gotten far too easy for her and her teachers haven't realised.

It all changed today. We arrived to band and she set off to walk upstairs to their rehearsal room. B appeared and said "get your butt back down here... you don't go up there anymore", with a big grin on her face. Her band teacher was stood with B as well. Katie looked at Miss G... "really?!". Miss G nodded and said "yep. You don't belong up there anymore". Katie stood beaming. "Not going upstairs anymore" means that katie has been promoted to the Junior Wind Band. She was very excited. B gave her a wee pep talk and said she knew someone who could look after Katie and went & introduced Katie to one of her former students who's in the clarinet section. L is 15. She was twice Katie's height. Katie looked a little nervous by this point. Excited, but a little nervous. Sat with L were some of B's bassoon students. Katie had met one of them at festival. He's about 14. He cheered when he heard that Katie was starting their band. When it was time to go in, she trotted off without much hesitation.

I had planned to go for a run straight away but I hovered for a little while. B came to chat to me and said she was going to go check Katie was alright. A few minutes later she came back and said "she is SOOOO alright. She's got her entourage already. She'll be great". I could see her sat at the back of the clarinet section looking very little. Very very little.

I did go for a run so I wouldn't be there for break and she'd get on talking to her new band. When I came back for her, one of her teachers told me she'd done really well. He said it was funny watching tiny her next to her rather tall desk partner & that they'd given her a step for her feet because the downstairs chairs are higher. Too high for little 7 year old musicians.

Katie came out absolutely bouncing. She had a ginormous grin. An absolutely massive grin. She told me off on the walk back to the car for not keeping up with her high speed skipping and chattering. She said the new band was "not too hard, not too easy... just right". She skipped along and looked at me and said "mama, I am so full of happiness".