Photos: July, August & September Highlights

Some photos that didn't make the blog (and a few favorites that probably did):

July 27, 2018

Aug. 2, outside of COSI

Aug. 2, outside of COSI

Aug. 6

Aug. 19, National Museum of the United States Air Force

Sept. 11, Beatty Recreation Center

Our New Piano

It may have been my largest spontaneous purchase to date.

Not in terms of cost, but sheer size. Last Friday we had a piano delivered!

It came about like this: I saw the piano listed for free on a neighborhood buy-sell-trade site on Facebook. Free pianos pop up every once in a while, and I had never seriously considered one before. But this one struck me for some reason. Simple and elegant. After a short conversation with Paul, I claimed it.

The next day we went to look at it, and the following day I had made arrangements with a piano moving company to have it delivered to our house four days later. Edith was so excited to go to school that morning knowing that a piano would await upon her return! Honestly, I was too.

Paul and I played around with it all weekend, and I managed to get through a beginner book that Paul still had without too much trouble. I definitely need to work on my left hand (and relearning the bass clef notes in general!) but my two years of lessons 25 years ago are coming back to me.

Edith, too, is now eager to take lessons (yay!), and both kids have been surprisingly respectful of the new instrument. I never would have guessed that I'd be so excited to have a piano in the house.

The 9/11 of Birthdays

Now that 9/11 was 17 years ago, the pain and surprise of that day has somewhat faded. It'll never be gone, never. I had just turned 20 years old a few months before, and in many ways I consider the day of those attacks the turning point between childhood and adulthood. The day I realized that things don't always go according to plan. Lives don't always go according to plan.

I remember thinking for a long time that it would be terrible to have a birthday on 9/11. I wonder if that is the case anymore. For a kid born today, right this instant, 9/11 will be just another world event that their parents lived through. The way I consider Vietnam, perhaps. Paul himself was born on Pearl Harbor Day. When we talked about it last night, we called December 7  the 9/11 of the Greatest Generation.

And so we look at the same events through different lenses. What will be the defining event of our children's lives? If it's the 9/11 of the coming generation, I hope we don't find out for a long time.

Edith Starts Kindergarten

Edith started kindergarten last Tuesday ... kind of! The high temperatures have made the school schedule all topsy-turvy. Her school has air conditioning, but not every school in the district is so lucky. With weather in the 90s, the entire district got out 2.5 hours early to accommodate the school bus schedules.

Then it happened again Wednesday. Thursday and Friday the temperatures were cooler, and she finally had two full days of school. Then today was yet another early dismissal. And the district just announced that school tomorrow is cancelled.

So even a week in, none of us have a routine. But she loves her classroom, classmates and teacher and no tears have been shed. Success.

Atticus misses his playmate ...

... but not all of the time!