the boy | matching tracksuits

Treble Clef

Wednesday 02 December 2020 | 0 Comments

Today the Boy had music for his related art class in school. They're working on the treble clef.

"I took the after-lesson quiz," he explained, "and I got 3 out of 20 right! I took it again and only got 4 out of 20 correct!" His frustration was mounting to the level I'm sure it achieved when he was struggling with the material in class.

Checking school lunch. "Daddy, this is what I'm having tomorrow! It's delicious!"

After dinner, I printed out the old methods of memorizing the treble clef: "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" and "FACE."

We went through his work together, and he made a perfect score. "That was easy," he decided.

He noticed, though, that there are two D notes on the treble clef: one just beside middle C, and one almost up at the top of the clef.

"Two Ds?!"

So we went to the piano and started poking around. We talked about the patterns of the black keys and used that as a way to show which keys corresponded to which note.

"This is D," I said. "See how it's between the two black keys? Now show me another D."

Trying Coffee

Sunday 29 November 2020 | 0 Comments

The Boy is often eager to try new things.

Today, he tried a sip from my coffee.

It wasn't a hit.

Forbidden Island

Saturday 28 November 2020 | 0 Comments

Out of the blue this evening, the kids decided they wanted to play Forbidden Island. At least that’s how I understood it by the time they made it down to the livingroom with the game. I’d wager it was more L’s initiative than the Boy’s, but they were both excited about it when they came down.

I was less excited. About playing the game, that is. I don’t understand the game. It just seems to be a bunch of randomness pawned off as a prize-winning game. “How many drugs did they do before coming up with the arbitrary rules that make up that game?” I laughed with K once the Boy was in bed and the Girl had retreated to her friends on Facetime.

But none of that really mattered — here we were spending time together without any fussing, without any arguments. The kids are at a tough age: E is young enough to derive joy from irritating people and the Girl is not quite old enough to be patient with it all. These moments, while increasing in frequency as the kids grow up, still feel relatively rare some days. So we make the most of them when they are here.

Family Game

The Day After

Friday 27 November 2020 | 0 Comments

“Friday, it’s going to be beautiful — warm, sunny, inviting,” K proclaimed earlier this week. “We are going on either a hike or a bike ride.” We headed to Dupont State Forest, which has 40 miles of cycling trails. Off-road trails. I currently have 25mm tires on my bike for commuting (ask me how many times I’ve ridden this year…), which can make any offroading a bit of a challenge, to say the least. What I’ve found is that it’s not a problem going uphill: I can power through most things, and the tires are not that slick (even though they would appear to be so), so keeping up is not a problem. Going downhill is a different story, though. Our nearly-fourteen-year-old leaves K and me behind; our eight-year-old does the same.

I blame it on the tires.

The Day Before Thanksgiving

Wednesday 25 November 2020 | 0 Comments

The day before the big day, which will be a small big day this year, started off with a little bit of a change: flu shots. I've never really been one for getting a flu shot, not because I don't believe in their efficacy but because I just never took the time. And I so rarely get sick that I think I'd lulled myself into a likely-false sense of security. But no more. Covid changes many things, my sense of security among them.

The rest of the day went by in a relative flash -- butternut squash soup, playing with the kids and the dog on the trampoline, a quick shopping trip to pick up last-minute items and a cigar for tomorrow evening (what's Thanksgiving without a cigar to put a bow on the day?), dinner, and then some family baking.

As we made pumpkin spice baklava, the Boy regaled us with select passages from Fox in Socks.

Murder Mystery

Sunday 22 November 2020 | 0 Comments

E and I were heading back down the driveway Wednesday night after taking the garbage cans out to the side of the room for morning pickup when we heard the most awful screaming coming from the woods behind our neighbor's house. We thought it might be a cat fight, but it quickly became clear that it was only one animal screeching. I remembered when Clover encountered a raccoon on the other side of the fence this summer and the sounds it was making, and I told E, "It's most likely a raccoon."

Clearing out the leaves to improve water flow

Today, we decided to go out for a little adventuring in the creek behind our house. We hadn't been for quite some time. I guess we just overdid it this summer, and the Boy was just tired of it. Still, today I talked him into it. We didn't get very far before we found out what happened to the raccoon:

"There's a dead raccoon in the creek!" E exclaimed with a mix of fascination and disgust in his voice. We talked about what could have killed it. "We've seen blue herons in the creek, but I don't think one of them would attack a raccoon," he reasoned.

"No, they're not going to do anything like that, especially at night," I confirmed.

"Perhaps it was a ... " His voice trailed off. He really didn't know what to think. "It's the second one we've found," he recalled, and then remembered what we'd reasoned about that raccoon: "Maybe it was a copperhead! Or maybe a snapping turtle."

"I don't think it would be either of them," I explained. "They're both cold-blooded, and it's cold these days. They'll be tucked away somewhere hibernating."

"But Dad, we're wearing shorts today -- it's not that cold."

Carving

Wednesday 18 November 2020 | 0 Comments

One of the skills the Boy is supposed to be learning as he works toward his Bear badge in cub scouts is whittling. We were supposed to be working in soap this week.

It's really a perfect hobby for the Boy: it requires patience, patience, patience, and we're finding as he gets older, the less patient he's becoming.

Warship

Monday 16 November 2020 | 0 Comments

I was reading The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism this evening, a frightening look at some Evangelicals’ attempt (and often more than just an attempt) to inject religion into government; K was working on documents for a listing she’s preparing; L was Facetiming a friend; E was drawing and writing a story about clowns. I realized it was seven already and I hadn’t done much of anything with the kids other than talk to them at dinner. I headed to E’s room and suggested we play with Legos.

“Yes!”

We’ve built a number of things with blocks over the years. A church. A school. A prison. Multiple boats. Countless wheeled vehicles. A bridge. A few houses.

Today, we took the remnants of the bridge, destroyed part of a prison watchtower, and broke apart the remains of some cars and other nonsense to create a battleship. The ultimate battleship. Complete with gigantic booms coming off the side that can smash any vessel that comes too close, a number of guns, fore and aft, that could take out a small armada, and a newly-invented weapon: