Can I share the happiest fifteen minutes of my week? Believe it or not, it involves the trombone. Like many new kids starting out on an instrument and dreaming of being Katy Perry or T. Swift, the reality of learning an instrument quickly sets in. Practice, say for the piano or trombone, for instance, can quickly become a grind, for parent and child alike. 

To her credit, Ce’s enthusiasm for the trombone remains high after almost a month and this week I feel like we might have crossed some magical rubicon. Typically, Ce will practice by racing through each song, good or bad, three times and calling it a day. It drives me crazy. I’ve been preaching for the last year about deliberate practice. Don’t just play the song, work on the song. Go over a sticky measure a few times. Or practice her scales. You can imagine how that went over. About as well as suggesting doing flash cards for “fun.” Fun!

However, this week, out of the blue, she used the piano to help find some notes for the trombone. And then she went over that string of notes over and over. Deliberately. It felt like the heavens had cracked open.  I’m honestly not sure if she knew how to practice before. It was like a veil was lifted from her eyes. She was excited. I was excited. At least until she went back to Hot Cross Buns…

We started this Saturday morning back on our home couch with Liv & Maddie, but also a special guest (who conveniently dodged out of many pictures)! Zia was visiting from San Diego and the girls were very excited.

So excited that I woke up to Ally singing frere jacques at 5:45 am. She stayed in bed because Cecilia has trained her that they can’t go downstairs until 6:30. It’s good to have one rule-stickler of a child.

While I was off enjoying some very running weather, Cecilia was getting the breakfast bar set up with her patented mini-breads and soft scrambled eggs.

Pop quiz: Is Cecilia dressing up as Debbie Gibson for Halloween or does everything eventually come back into fashion, even denim jackets, side ponies and big hair bows?

After a rainout last week, soccer was back in full swing. I’m not sure the layoff did anyone any good but the rain held off, the popsicles were cold and coach survived another week.

Cecilia, like her Dad, not really a hugger. Even with her favorite Zia.

After soccer, the girls needed a Target run to finalize some costume accessories. Ally tried to overcome her fear of characters with some immersion therapy. Didn’t work.

At Wegmans, Ally requested a sample of the fish eggs from the sushi woman. Pretty sure the woman thought we were kidding. Nope. Girl loves her roe.

Cecilia is not being Debbie Gibson or Tiffany, but rather some sort of vampire pop star thing and has been searching and pining for the perfect fangs for weeks. I think we found them today. Thank you Target for ending the nightly dinner table discussion about fangs.

Hot Cross Buns. Live!

An afternoon of board games and Hamilton music. Not a terrible way to spend a few hours on a mostly gray day. Yes, Ally prefers to only wear pajamas inside the house.

While I taught the girls proper board game trash talk, Michelle and Zia hit up the wine shoppe.

And charcuterie samples, apparently. Love the local wine shoppe. Also love that we always see familiar faces in there. A parenting refuge on Saturday afternoon.

The Noon Hill reservation ambassador got his woods walk and made lots of friends along the way.

And that was it. The rest of the day I put the phone down and deliberately practiced staying comfy, watching Halloween movies, and eating takeout.