Monday, April 28, 2008

Mini Maestri



Or would that be "Maestroes"? I have no idea. But it sounds right. ANYWAY. I have my old keyboard lying around to help me out when I get stuck with a piece from choir, or I need to see if my flute is properly tuned....we keep it in our mudroom of all places, and the boys just can't resist it. I'm wondering when the best time to start piano lessons would be for Jonathan? Hmmm, perhaps when we can actually find the time, floor space and funds for a piano?
This past weekend, we were in Pittsburgh. We went up, mainly to just get away: change of pace, change of scenery. Pittsburgh's not that far away - just over 2 hours or so. We visited the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (photos of that venture later) and also went to one of our favorite brew-pubs - the Penn Brewery. German food and awesome micro-brews - an indulgence we started before we were even married that has endured the test of time, geography and children. One of these days, I'm going to start listing the brew-pubs we've been to across this great nation of ours, but that's probably fodder for another whole blog altogether. I'll see.
At any rate, what does it say about family travel when the best behaved traveler, including the parents, winds up being the dog? Bella was an awesome little traveler! She never peeps, she's great in the car, very comfy in the hotels, and she's so patient. We did leave her in the hotel room for about 5 hours on Saturday - when we came back to get her later, we discovered she'd been curled up - probably the whole time - in our suitcase we'd left open. We don't even know how she got up into it, but that's where she was. Not to say that everyone else wasn't well-behaved, but those of you who travel with children know what a challenge it can be sometimes. It is getting better, though. Slowly, very slowly. At least this time we didn't have to take the two of them on a plane - twice in six months in 2007 was enough of that, thank you very much! No, this was a good old-fashioned road trip, and not even a very long one. A few weeks ago we invested in the greatest invention ever - a portable DVD player - and we bought the case that you can use to string it up between the seats or over the back of the front seats. Wonderful. Mark and I actually had a conversation with each other about something other than highway exit numbers, having to go pee-pee-potty, and whether we should be dispensing animal crackers or goldfish. Seriously - for once - the kids did their thing, we did ours...at least for PART of the journey! Our next car will definitely have the "entertainment package" - something we opted out of when we bought our first mini-van - oh, hindsight. Where were you?
Anyway - back to the grind now - that's one thing about weekends away - you get back on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning comes way too fast!

1 comment:

C.S. said...

My mom bought a portable DVD player a few years back and gave it to Megan last year and it is pretty cool! But I told my mom that we would only be using it in the car and she thinks that's just silly. I keep explaining that for the first time in 8 years, we actually have 2 TVs in 2 different rooms both with cable and why in the world would Megan sit hunched over this little screen, in my living room, exactly 3 feet from a regular TV when she doesn't have to? "For fun?" my mother's reply was. Uh...no! But lately, I've found myself taking it to bed and watching stuff. With headphones, in the dark and then just flipping it off and going to bed. Yes, I am now hunched over this little screen, 20 feet from my television...for fun! Don't tell my mom!
It's maestros, but I love putting an i after anything to pluralize it. (Hey! Is pluralize a word? It is! That's awesome!)
Matthew's face is so angelic. He's just beautiful!