Ellie Live

09 Friday Mar 2012

Tags

Global Sound Studio, Monica Augustine, Telluride, Wildflower

I made it back from Texas last weekend just in time to catch Ellie’s first live performance. She sang Taylor Swift’s “The Best Day” as if it were her own. Her best friends came along for the recital along with her big sister and fellow performer Brittany. We all had tears in our eyes near the end.

It was unbelievable just how comfortable and confident Ellie appeared onstage as she sang. Normally she’s a fairly cautious if not shy little girl, but she seemed really at ease. I have no idea how a 9 year old kid can remember all those lyrics – this song has quite a number of verses. And it was such a sweet song for her to pick. We all felt like she was singing to each of us personally.

We signed Ellie up for singing lessons, not just because she walks around the house all day singing, but because her sister enjoyed it and we thought she would too. You do that with kids. You sign them up for stuff until they discover what they like. This was a home run from the start. We’re a bit more experienced at this after Brittany and knew an excellent voice instructor. Monica Augustine is simply fantastic. She hugs Ellie every session and they have a blast. But she also teaches her everything from getting good rest and nutrition to all the vocal basics which I can’t really describe. Monica runs the Wildflower School of Voice and wrote a song I love and still listen to regularly on my playlist – Telluride.

Here’s a pic of Ellie’s three biggest fans having a post performance dinner. And now the Mahoney family has two incredible singers. I should say three with Karen. Karen played guitar and sang for me on our very first date, and the rest is history. Check out the Youtube link above to see Ellie’s performance. I know many of my friends and family already have – she has nearly 150 views to date. And if you haven’t seen Brit’s Youtube site, click on this link. She’ll sing you a song if you request one.

Oh Dada

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Ellie Rose, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

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Ellie Mahoney

That’s what Ellie says when she doesn’t know what else to say to me. When she thinks I’m being silly. When she’s caught on to my joke, which she can do with an uncanny ability. She said it tonight and Karen called attention to it as sounding so sweet. I can’t reproduce her cadence in speech without playing audio in this blog, but it’s pretty sweet. And I love hearing it. I was a bit down at the end of the day and it made my night. Ellie says it with a fair amount of frequency and nothing makes me feel better. It’s the equivalent of her telling me she loves me – which she also does often – but it’s more sentimental. It’s Ellie saying she feels good being with me. There’s nothing sweeter.

Brittany did something similar. She would call me Daddy. Ellie calls me Dada and Karen Momma, while Brit always said Daddy and Mommy. But Brit always spelled it Dady with one “d” instead of two in the middle. I think she was in high school before I called her on the misspelling and she informed me that she was well aware of the grammatical error but she’s been misspelling it for years to purposely continue the cuteness of it. When did it switch from being cute to me to being cute to her?

This picture to the right is from Ellie’s first day of 1st grade – 3 years ago. She’s matured so much since I can’t describe. Her vocabulary is nearly on par with mine. I can sense the sophistication forming in her. Has she already reached the point like Brit to where she purposely says things knowing it will make me feel better without me catching on? Do I think of her as a 1st grader when she is oh so much more schooled? When do kids start playing their parents? Doesn’t matter I guess when it’s all with best intentions.