one eventful wednesday

when you plan to take two toddlers to get their flu shots, you don't necessarily expect a stellar day.  but as it turned out, the shots were a minor bump in the road, confined to 5 minutes of joint crying.  really, either one of them would have been over it in 2 minutes, but there's nothing like empathetic screaming =p  for the record, this is the best thing a nurse can possibly offer an upset toddler:

that would be a can of juice.  we saved it for home, but you should have heard it.  juice is a treat at any time, but they've never seen it in a can. 'dis itty tiny can!  yike daddy's, but daddy have soda in it!'

the rain changed my outdoor plans, so we headed somewhere i've had in the back of my mind since i first saw it - a violin shop.  a month ago or so, we stopped in at another music store, but the smallest they had on hand was a 1/10th.  i suspected we needed at 1/16th to begin with, which the violin shop had.  and we walked out with it =)

lucy is checking out the case - we didn't clobber her ;-)

seeing chloe with that tiny little case that fits her so well brings up all kinds of memories.  she's quite taken with it so far, and learned almost immediately to handle the case and get the violin and bow set up to play, minus the bow hold.  i was quite pleasantly surprised to find that she could also identify and play each string individually without trouble and with a minimum of squeak (video below):

people have been asking me when i would start her on piano or violin practically since the time she could walk.  i've had reservations, mainly because i don't feel like she takes instruction particularly well from me (nor do i feel like i'm a particularly good teacher - i've said this before).  we've done pretty well with both of those though in our recent 'preschool' activities, mostly by letting her take the lead (more on that another time), so we'll run with the violin for now.  i figure any kind of background i can give her without pressuring her can only be good.

and not to be forgotten, little lucy is watching and loves it too.  it's funny to see how even a 1/16th looks oversized on her, but she gives it a pretty good shot and it's pretty darn fun to watch =)

as if that weren't enough for one day, we got a halloween package from grandma and grandpa nicholson with some yummy treats:

and we lit the pumpkin they carved with daddy over the weekend:

what a day!