February highlights include:
- a pre-Superbowl beach clean up with the kids — here’s a few quick thoughts (captured on video) from the kids on their experience
- me shaving my beard for a few days — kids thought I looked funny, weird and scary
- a visit to Farsh and Mary’s where the cousins got to hang out and be silly
- Lilah gets her Martin Luther King letter published in the GATE newsletter
Lilah
After 2.5 years, Lilah has decided to take a break from piano. She’s been complaining for a while about having too “tight” of a schedule — piano, Spanish lessons, and soccer — to juggle with her regular school work so we’ve agreed to suspend piano for now. We didn’t make it easy on her though. Cathy said that if she wanted to stop taking lessons, then she would have to tell her instructor herself. Although it took her a few weeks to build up the courage to tell her teacher, in the end she followed through and now she has her break.
If she does not go back to piano, she will have plenty of opportunity to pick up a new instrument in the fourth grade when the public school music program begins. Lilah and her classmates all had a chance to see and try out musical instruments as part of a school music showcase. Lilah really enjoyed playing the trumpet. She, along with another boy, were able to blow the horn on their first try with plenty of volume. Lilah liked the trumpet so much she skipped experimenting with some of the other instruments in order to try it again.
This month we also read the children’s novel, Despereux, which I believe is the first novel I have ever read aloud from cover to cover. It was also the first time I’ve ever seen Lilah so interested in a book. Every spare moment she could find, she wanted me to read a chapter or two of the book to her. Now that it’s over, she said we need to find another book. Maybe we will read another book by the same author so that we can continue to foster an ongoing love of books.
Luke
Luke had a great time hanging out with his cousins this month. He hadn’t seen them since last August so they had a lot of catching up to do. It’s great to see the interaction with the boys and to hear phrases like the one cousin Aram uttered to his brother, “aaaah, you almost hit Luke in the penis.” Yup, that’s five-, six- and eight-year old boyhood fun alright.
Luke had a great phrase of of his own earlier in the month. It came when I was half joking to Lilah that she should not be too quick to give up on things, otherwise she could end up becoming a “loser.” Well, Luke jumped right in to defend his sister with some pretty quick thinking and wit, responding, “no you’re a loser because you got a ticket.” That was impressive because it showed that Luke took two very different events — Lilah taking a break from piano and me getting a speeding ticket — and tied them together to form his own stinging rebuttal. Touché Luke.
It seems like this month I’ve noticed a lot more of this type of thing from Luke. No, not him calling his daddy a loser, but the fact that he is really paying attention to what you say and how you say it. I’ve taken to calling him a little lawyer because he has a knack for using what you say against you. For example, if you say to him, “If you don’t behave I will lock you up in your room and leave you there,” he’ll retort, “Good that means I don’t have to go to school.” If you counter with the statement that your threat only applied to the current day, he’ll say that’s not what you said initially and it’s too late for you to change the rules. He sure knows how to keep you on your toes.
That’s all for now. Until next month…