Tallis Canon

September Recital

The Banana Boat Song with her special twist-

Stealing is good

Ds is playing (organized) baseball for the first time this spring. His team is currently on a 5 game winning streak and he is enjoying himself. He is throwing easily twice as far as he could when the season started, and way, way harder. My hand actually aches after having a catch with him.

Ds batted the winning run in tonight. I wasn't recording, but here's some footage from a previous game. Here he is stealing second-


Then third-


Then home-


And here's his ready stance, warming up before the game.

Spring '09 Violin Recital

This song was not part of her regular violin lessons. Her teacher did not assign it. She figured out how to play it herself, then asked her teacher if she could play it at the recital.

Very proud of her, and she is deservedly proud of herself.

Here she is with her violin teacher.


Her gymnastics teacher showed up too, and with a rose for her!


Note: She's wearing her great grandmother's pearls.

11/02/08- 11/08/08- Fall Foliage, Vultures & Politics

I declared this week the peak of fall foliage on our little mountain. Dh and the kids made some simple leaf presses out of wood and bolts. The kids and I identified trees and pressed some leaves.


Good thing. The latter part of the week was windy. Quite a few trees dropped all but a few of their leaves. This golden beauty- a black walnut, we *think*- was bare by the weekend.

The kids and I talked a lot about elections- the process of voting, the different

parties, the major issues in the presidential election. We talked about local races too. (Pictures related to the one tight county race fell behind the couch.) We voted as a family. We went home and watched the major networks call the EST and CST states. Dd kept a list of electoral "points," while ds colored a map. I packed them off to bed pretty early, once Obama's total + the as yet uncalled west coast assured his victory. We watched his victory speech online the next morning.

We attended a combination geology class/ Hawk Watch at Caesar's Head State Park. (Can you see the face in the pic?)

The naturalist/ranger there, Tim Lee, is just awesome with the kids. Hell, I think all of us parents learn just as much as the kids do each time we see him. We talked about the escarpment and the minerals of which it is made. We hiked through a crack in Caesar's Head called "The Devil's Kitchen" and through the woods a bit as well. We were supposed to watch for kettles of hawks migrating last month, but that event was rained out. So, we spent the last half hour of our time on the overlook watching for migrating vultures.

Otherwise, dd had a violin lesson and practiced almost every day of the week. Both kids took gymnastics, visited the library and spent a couple of hours at our group's park day. They went back to the gym a few days later for a three hour "fun gym," a.k.a. parents' date night.

10/26/08- 11/01/08- How Many Days Until Halloween?

Three days officially on this week. Ds completed three math lessons and two science lessons. Dd completed one math lesson, a language arts lesson and two science lessons. Dd took a violin lesson and practiced about every other day. Both kids took a gymnastics class and visited the library. Park day was rained out. Lots of free reading and ds drew quite a bit.

Of course, it was all just killing time, waiting for Halloween night.

10/19/08- 10/25/08- Two Days On, Three Days Sick

We worked on Halloween costumes early in the week. For the kids, that meant applying glitter, cutting patterns and foam, and some hand sewing.

We made it to our support group's park day and spent about three and a half hours playing. We visited the library and stocked up...just in time for yet another #!!$%%@!# round of viral crud.

For the better part of the week, we read, watched movies and played games while I picked up tissues and plied them with juice/water.

10/12/08- 10/18/08- Workin' For the Man

This week was dominated by paid work. Both kids colored comic strips for dh in Photoshop, plus various other minor tasks like erasing pencil lines. I am (seriously) going to file '08 tax returns for both kids. They won't owe any tax, but I might craft a simple finance lesson around the baby IRAs we can open.

They also began swimming lessons- two this week. Per their request, I am the instructor.

Otherwise, dd had her regular violin lesson and practiced for a half hour every day. Both kids had a gymnastics class and performed near a billion handstands at home. They completed one math lesson each. We spent four and a half hours at our support group's park day. Free reading and drawing were plentiful.

3 Things They'll Remember

Their ears perked up when he spoke to his daughters.

Ds: “Oh my gosh! They’re getting a new puppy!”

The envy in his voice was plain. We can’t have pets in our current (rented) home.

More striking, to me, though was the instant connection he seemed to feel. This previously recorded family standing in front of a ginormous crowd on the screen of my laptop was suddenly human and, at least in one small respect, very much like him. He’s been saving most of the money he has earned and received toward the future purchase of his very own dog. Our local library is void of juvenile books on dog breeds; they’re all at my house.

So, one might be the much coveted promise of a puppy.

They lapsed back into silence, and probably a tinge of boredom. At one point, ds commented that his imaginary friend didn’t really understand what the man was saying, but liked “his tone.”

More silence, then-

Dd: “Mama, what’s wrong?”

Ds: “Oh my gosh.”

I was crying. So much positive talk. So many allusions to MLK’s famous speech. Such a historic moment. So much diversity- peaceful, blissful unity in the crowd. “Yes, we can!”

My tear ducts had their own agenda. While this man was my choice of the two major parties, I cannot overemphasize how skeptical I am. For so many reasons, e.g. the fact that we made it through this longest presidential campaign without a single material discussion of the debt and looming boomer entitlement liabilities. (and what those things (should) mean for all of the big programs bandied about)

Still, two might be that Mama cried happy tears.

The speech concluded and I turned off my computer.

Me: “Wow.”

Ds: “Yeah, the first dark-skinned president. And I’m alive to see it.”

Dd: “Me too.”

Though superlatives never fail to interest them- best, worst, biggest, smallest- I think that firsts interest them even more. Excite them. Lasts are sad and require ceremonious goodbyes, but firsts are exciting.

Too, they’re both beginning to define what’s historic for themselves, in the context of their own lives- especially ds. He’s grasping ever larger numbers and the fact that his life could very well span three centuries is impressive. Flags were at half-staff when dd was born in 2001. I caught a glimpse of impact when she touched the twin tower girder section at the state museum.

Throughout election night and our time with Obama’s victory speech the next morning, they both mentioned how cool/great/big this first was. (Wonder what they’ll say after we study American history in greater depth.) I enjoyed entertaining visions of them telling their great grandkids that they were alive when this first took place.

Definitely, three will be that the first dark-skinned president was elected this year.

The Whole Post

10/05/08- 10/11/08- Off

We still went to dd's violin lesson, both kids' gymnastics classes and park day. Lots of reading, drawing and talking. But I won't be counting every day of this week in attendance.