As of today, our little girl requires two digits to write down her age. We are celebrating this auspicious milestone with a sleep-over birthday that has entirely dispossessed me of any notion that girls are less rambunctious than boys. What boys exhibit in shear physicality the girls more than make up for with cacophony of sound and kinetic energy.
Despite a very long day in the office, I took time this evening, at his request, to cut Nicolai’s hair. After the first pass he accused me of intentional barbarism (pun intended) declaring that I had butchered his hair. I subsequently did a little more work addressing his bowl cut concerns and am actually very pleased with the outcome. This photo (taken the day after) as he raced for the school bus is being offered in defense of my hair cutting skills. Click on it for a closer inspection.
Early this morning Jeanine and I attended school with Maya where she and members of her class presented their Magazine Projects. Each child published a spiral bound color magazine on the subject of their choice. Little surprise that Maya chose a magazine entitled Dog-On-It featuring nothing but canines. The magazines contained feature articles, advertisements, poetry, fun pages, subscription cards, letters from readers, photo essays and just about everything else you would expect to find in a real magazine, all created by the student. With all the parents present each child gave a brief barker style presentation extolling the virtues of their publication. I was sold but Maya refused to sell me her only copy for the newstand price of $3.89.
After Nico’s doctors appointment Jeanine dropped me off at the office and drove my car back to Concord. After work I made the 45 minute walk from Sonos to Porter Square (with a very pleasant traversal of the Harvard campus) where I boarded the commuter rail to Concord. Taking the T would have saved time but it was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed the exercise.
Nicolai, after months of waiting, was able to see a specialist this morning to look at his knee. As you might imagine, hopping on one leg tends to put excess strain on one’s knee and Nico is having some pain in his. Playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, and wrestling probably don’t help the situation either. After reviewing new x-rays the doctor found nothing inconsistent with normal growth plate development, suggested some PT and agreed with the parents that basketball was probably something that needs to be done in much greater moderation since it puts the most strain on the knee.
Jeanine’s garden is now filled with vegetables which find their way to our dinner table every night. This is one of three beds and I am informed that I will need to build more next season. So far the deer have not been eating our crops and for this we credit Nala who patrols the yard constantly.
Adding photos of the dedication of Hakim’s tree taken by Ruth Glidden.
This is a Swamp Milkweed beetle with its heart set on a meal in our garden. For the time being I have taken a live and let live attitude but if this guy invites any of his friends over I may change my tune. I played in my final soccer match of the season this morning and we lost a well played game to the first place team in the division. I was finally able to shoot again with my right foot, my knee having now fully recovered. After the game the team gathered at the CCHS field where we remembered Hakim, the son of one of my teammates. We all chipped in to have a beautiful mature oak tree planted at the entrance to the soccer complex in his memory. It was an emotional celebration and I hope to obtain a photo of the event for future inclusion here.
Sadly, my brother’s family leaves to return to Minnesota today. It has been one of the best visits ever. After days of tournament style croquet with matches lasting well past darkness and finished under the illumination of car headlights the score between teams is dead even with all players having reached rover status. Rory and Nicolai in particular have made some truly unbelieveable long distance snipes to keep their respective teams in the hunt. As time runs out we convince the boys to settle for a tie and to resume the competition on their next visit. We have all enjoyed Sophia and Rose but none more than Maya who was both big sister and mother to them for much of the week. We all missed Mark and hope to see him on our next gathering.
Maya’s soccer team wrapped up their season this morning (except for one makeup game). They needed a win or tie to finish first in their division. The match was very exciting and the girls fought back from a 1-0 deficit to tie the match. Maya made a long run from her defensive position and served a perfect cross for the goal. Despite a rather average start to the season, Maya showed some real improvment by the end and despite her small stature has learned to use her foot skills and speed to advantage.
After dinner, we made an ice cream run. The four amigos made short work of the massive portions that are the hallmark of Kimball Farm.
As we arrived at home, the girls were decorating cupcakes, and in less than 10 seconds, everyone was working on their own canine masterpiece.
This morning I dropped Nicolai, Mario, and Rory off at the Science Museum on my way into work. Here Nicolai attempts to bring the ends of two L shaped sticks together while looking through a prism which swaps right eye view for left. Quite an amusing challenge for one and all. I picked them up after work and each had to cite 15 science facts they had learned during the day before I would take them home. Fortuantely they were up to the challenge.
My nieces are being as cute as can be. I miss having toddlers underfoot and am soaking up as much of them as I can.