For those of you who are new to our blog… My family of origin is very Swedish (almost 100% Swedish on both of my parents’ sides):
MorMor = “Mother’s Mother” in Swedish
MorFar = “Mother’s Father” in Swedish
A couple of weeks ago my mother called from her cell phone. They were at an antique auction with some friends they were visiting in Vermont. There was a “real trombone” at the auction, they thought they could bid and get it for $40. They wanted to know if they should go for it. I practically screamed into the phone: “OH MY GOD! YES! BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!” They did. My parents then spent approximately 20 hours (yes, TWENTY hours!) polishing the thing. Surely it had been stuck in the corner of someones attic for a very long, long time. My parents said it was very grubby. We said, “don’t worry about it! he won’t care if it is shiny!” But MorMor and MorFar insisted. Only the best and brightest trombone for their boy. By the time MorMor and MorFar carefully packaged this instrument and shipped it off to Pennsylvania, the thing was as beautiful and shiny as you could possibly imagine. Every single time a box has arrived through the mail at our house for the past six months Kyle has said, excitedly, hopefully, optimistically: “Maybe it is a trombone!” For six long months he’s endured disappointment—- “no, it is some books for Mama’s work”; “no, it is a computer part for Papi’s office”; “no, it is a new water filter”; “no, it is new shoes”; “no, it is _________” [fill in the blank, never a trombone]. The poor child. But he’s handled it exceptionally well, all things considered. Never has he expressed anger or upset or frustration. Only just genuine hope that “Maybe the next time it will be a trombone.” For lack of anything better to say, we’ve said, “Yes, maybe.” (not wanting to burst his bubble, but at the same time not very optimistic ourselves at the prospects of him receiving — from us, or anyone else — a “real trombone”… Braydon had done the research on eBay… these instruments, even old and used and beat up, were pricing out in the thousands.) Fast forward to Saturday evening. Unbenounced to the boys, a box had arrived in the mail earlier that day. After dinner, the box was brought out. As always: “Maybe it is a trombone!” Kyle said. “Maybe!” we said. My heart was racing. We were very anxious about how he’d react. The boys got their scissors and we opened up the box. The look on Kyle’s face was priceless. Indescribable. I put my hand over his little chest. His heart was beating so hard and so fast it was practically jumping out of his chest. Yes, it was a real trombone. The 45 minutes that followed were greater than any Christmas morning or Birthday party that Braydon and I have ever witnessed, anywhere, ever, in our lives. This child was beyond cloud 9. “I really love trombones” he kept repeating over and over and over and over. We had wondered if he’d even be strong enough to hold the thing. Yes, he could hold it. We had wondered, even if he could hold it, could he make any sound come out of it. Yes, yes, yes, he could. At the first attempt he could play it, loudly. He could slide the slide in and out and play various ‘notes’ (not pretty sounds, mind you, but sounds, loud sounds). And he could play it and march with it at the same time. It was hard for him to fall asleep Saturday night, just knowing that trombone was in the house. Sunday morning he woke up at 6:45 am and literally ran to our bed– “Papi, please I play my real trombone Papi pllllease?” He was in the basement with his Papi playing the trombone at 6:46 am on Sunday. He had a hard time parting with it at any point yesterday. This morning, same thing– ran to our bed (this time 6:40am), “Please can I play the trombone? Right now? Please?” We told him he had to wait until Owen woke up. They were both downstairs, Kyle playing trombone, Owen playing sand-slide cymbals, at 7:00 am sharp. We had a two-man marching band around and around our bed from about 7:02-7:30am. By 8:30 this morning, less than 48 hours after its arrival, with all four of us in the playroom, Kyle was playing a very short and basic trombone version of Mozart’s Eine Kline Nachtmusic. No joke folks, no joke. You sorta have to see it to believe it. These photos don’t nearly do it justice.
I was at school today dropping off the boys and we had all kinds of drama. Someone had smelled gas around 7:30 and called the fire dept. There were three enormous fire trucks that K&O&I watched. I held them up to look in side; they loved it.
Everyone was hanging around back waiting for the all clear and I met another father whom I had not met before. Heather sometimes gets comments like the following, but I rarely do. The conversation went like this (every one knows K&O of course):
Father: Which one is this, Kyle or Owen?
Me: This one is Kyle – his face is a little longer than Owen’s.
Father: Oh. They’re twins, right? I have twins – you have my sympathy! [jokingly]Me: Oh, yeah – no kidding – how old are your twins?
Father: 7…
Me: Oh wow – Kyle and Owen are 3….
Father: Wow – 3??? – they are huge. I can’t imagine what your wife went through!I pause, not sure exactly how to respond.
Me: They’re adopted.
Father: Ah, ok. My other son is adopted too.Well, folks, there is a lot we don’t blog about. This (see press release below) has been one of those many, many, many things that have been off-the-blog-radar all along. In addition to everything else, for the past 3+ years, Braydon has been working his bum-bum off, round the clock, 24 x 7, to create, start, build, and launch his own business. It is an internet start-up ~~ a social networking music download service. This is a big deal for us. We’ve been investing heavily in this since January 2004. Investing our money, our brain-power, our energy, and most of all… our time… into this. We are hoping it pays off. But either way, Braydon is just incredible for getting it as far as he has. Unless you have ever started your own business from scratch (or supported your life-partner doing it), then trust me, you really can’t even imagine how intense the whole thing is. Believe me. It is a tough row to hoe (especially when you are also in the process of adopting, bringing home, and raising twin Haitian-American boys AND you have a wife with a full-blown career herself). “Tough” is the understatement of the year. Anyway, today the rVibe beta is launching. Big day for the Johnson-McCormick household. Big, big day. I’m so incredibly proud of my brilliant, determined, brilliant, persistent, and BRILLIANT husband and soul-mate. YOU GO BOYFRIEND!!!
rVibe Launches Innovative Social Networking Music Download Service.
Bethlehem, PA – October 1, 2007: rVibe, a new online music download service, announced today the beta launch of its software. rVibe’s unique model allows for the legal peer-to-peer exchange of music. Members can purchase and download music from their friends, make money for recommendations, and give their rewards to charity..According to Dr. Braydon Johnson-McCormick, founder and Managing Director of rVibe, “rVibe’s goal is simple, to create value for our members, our artists, and our advertisers. We want everyone who touches rVibe to have a great experience finding, sharing, and buying music.”.Currently, rVibe offers over 1 million tracks in high quality DRM free 320 kbps MP3 files, and its catalog continues to grow quickly. Tracks are $.99 to download and $.03 to stream. Users may also stream millions of tracks in a radio format from their friends and groups..rVibe is an installable, desktop application available free for Windows..About rVibe: rVibe is a community based music download and streaming service where members make recommendations and get rewards when other members download music from them. It offers users the best in music discovery, community, and downloads. It also provides the means for artists to register music and get paid, and for advertisers to effectively deliver highly targeted ad placements. For more information, please visit http://www.rvibe.com/..Copyright, 2007, rVibe, LLC
Glory be – a dream come true! I took the boys to the Collegiate Marching Band Festival today. Now just to be clear, this would be Kyle’s dream if he had known such a thing existed. This is not my, Heather’s and not Owen’s dream, but it is most definitely Kyle’s dream. And it was a dream come true – a was a gorgeous day, perfect weather and it was very exciting. Kyle and Owen brought their trumpets (toys) with them and carried them for the entire afternoon.
We arrived and got a chance to see a few bands warming up including the Morgan State Marching Band. I think it was the only all black band there (not entirely sure), so I was thrilled that we happened upon their practice. And they rocked. Really – a good marching band is really something to see.
Once we got to the stadium it was pure Marching Band Action – and both boys were enthralled. We got to see three different Marching Bands perform (there were 17 that day) and for us Morgan State was the best. Kyle Grooved to it, “playing” his trumpet and moving it up and down like the bands were doing. Owen lost interest after a while, but found interest in jumping from bleacher to bleacher and acting as traffic cop/toll gate to people down the stairs.When it was time to leave we got to walk through where all the buses were and Marching Bands were lined up to go into the stadium and others were doing final touch ups on their performances. Both boys managed to touch pretty much every single instrument and performer they saw on the street.
A marching great day all around!
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