A hair-brained Hotspur, governed by a spleen...

April 26, 2008

Every once in a while, when the powers that be determine that the sisters in the stake must be particularly poor in spirit, there is held a mammoth, marathon, stake-wide Enrichment activity that lasts for several hours but concludes with the provision of an apologetic meal. Today witnessed such an activity, an activity graced by Lia’s attendance. Our junior editor reports that the meeting was uplifting, edifying, even powerful—and that even if it hadn’t been, the food was good enough to exact a universal pardon.

Meanwhile, Justin and the girls were busy, as the saying goes, painting the town red. Julia had her creative movements class, and the editors can assert, with all parental modesty, that Julia’s movements were, um, more “creative” than the rest. Justin tried to play with Eli in the hall while Julia disported imaginatively about the dance floor, but Eli insisted on watching Julia, though, shockingly, she did not insist on moving creatively herself.

After CM the trio went to East Rock Park for a community clean-up activity, but those conducting the activity were already finishing up. Instead, our heroes played on the formidable East Rock playground. Playgrounds are always a harrowing experience for any parent, and this one especially so. Eli is decidedly not big enough for it, but she insisted on scrambling about in the midst of a maelstrom of other children decidedly too big for it. Justin’s heart turned anxious somersaults until, mercifully, Eli pronounced herself tired and declared her desire to go home. Julia protested, but off they went.

The rest of the day was uneventful, though in the evening Justin and Lia watched the first hour or so of Kenneth Branagh’s marathon production of Hamlet (actually, “marathon” is hardly an apt description these days, what with Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya recently winning the Boston incarnation of that paean to masochism in a blistering time of little over two hours), duly skipping the irrelevant and indecent flashback scenes.

April 27, 2008

In Church today we sang “The Day Dawn is Breaking,” as the opening hymn. Since that is the only grown-up hymn the girls let Justin sing in the car, the girls have come to know it quite well. But when the members of the congregation saw and heard Julia singing along lustily, verse after verse, through all four verses of a moderately obscure hymn, some thought they were witnesses to prodigious precocity—others saw evidence of paternal tyranny. Eli sang along with the chorus too. Lia was at some pains to defuse some rather awe-struck observations after the fact.

In the evening we visited the Cheneys, in company with Sander and Bianca and at the entrance price of a delectable German chocolate pie (superfluous to add that Lia made it). Julia immediately endeavored to pilfer the Eiffel Tower paperweight that is for her the sacred relic of the Cheney household; Eli bounced back and forth between Kirk, Gretchen, and Bianca with boisterous thunderclaps of, “You’re Kirk!”; “You’re Gretchen!”; “You’re Bianca!” Gretchen’s mom was there, too, which added to the fun, and Justin pulled any number of stunts to divert Lia from her resolve to get us out of the condo by 8:15. He succeeded, but only by a few minutes.

After putting the girls to bed, Lia pronounced herself exhausted and announced her solemn resolve to put herself to bed as well. She then spent the next three hours in a frenetic spree of blogging, emailing, and general merriment on the world-wide web (i.e. looking for recipes and dress patterns). [Editor’s note: The last paragraph has not been corrected for authorial exaggeration]