Keal Family Letter, April 2004

Hi all! Solomon here. We've entered April, and today (the 5th)
proved to be one of the coldest days I can remember all winter. We
even got snow here in Kempton! But the snow melted later on in the
day, so I guess spring is just around the corner.
We are all well in the Keal family. We are just getting over our
spring colds. Thea keeps progressing in her intelligence, and obvious
understanding of us... if only we could understand her. Not a word
yet. Well, that's not really true. She says Mama with what seems to
be a certain amount of understanding of it being a name for Tirah. If
we say "What does a duck say?" She will respond with short little
"Ah!" sort of like "Quack" without the q,u,c, or k. If she feels
like it, she can almost say "Ball," though without the double L at the
end. The other day she said what sounded almost like "Papa" but very
quietly whispered, as sort of "pahpah." As far as communicated goes,
she seems to be of the mindset that as long as she can get our
attention by screaming, why talk? Ah, the joys of parenthood. :)
She's getting very comfortable and stable when standing without holding
on to something, especially when we're not trying to get her to do it.
The other day she walked a few steps while I held on to her hands.
She is making slow and steady progress in all things, as she's always
done. We'll probably wake up one morning and have her walk into our
room and say "Wake up Mama and Papa! Today, I've decided to start
walking and talking!"
Tirah has recently been looking around at possibilities for how to earn
some extra money working from home. She looked at some "stuffing
envelopes" type jobs, but it looks like she's settled on developing a
home-made crafts type of business. She bought a whole bunch of yarn
(what is a "bunch" of yarn? Is it a "gaggle" of yarn? Or a "Tangle"
of yarn? Or is there no descriptive plural for yarn, since yarn is
really just one strand? These are Questions that I don't really wonder
about.) and she has already made one Afghan lap blanket, and is
working on a second. She will then try to sell these at craft sales.
She is very happy with this decision for her business.
As for me... this year is an exciting year for music. We have our tax
refund, and I have found the right music software, and I will probably
buy it as soon as I am done this letter. Also... My piano CDs are
finally available to buy online! They can be bough from three
different locations: Fountain Publishing, New Church Radio, and most
recently, CD Baby, which is an online music store for independent
musicians. Check them out! (www.fountainpublishing.com
www.newchurchradio.org www.cdbaby.com) The other exciting news
is that Peter and Roxanne just bought me a year's subscription to Taxi,
which is an independent A&R company. (A&R meaning Artist and
Repertoire.) They are basically middle-men, or talent scouts. They
communicate with big name artists who are looking for songs to sing,
and then pass that information along to "nobody" songwriters like me.
It's a lot more complicated than that, but I'll go into it later.
Anyway it's very cool and exciting. So as soon as I have my software
set up, I'll be able to make demo CDs of the songs I've written, and
then send them in to Taxi, who will potentially send them to some
artist who wants to sing my song!
Well, enough for tonight. Tune in next month for an update on home
renovations, and the final month before the new baby! - Solomon.