Felix

 We have been reading old blogs at the dinner table, and there are dozens of entertaining old James stories. James was the first, you see, so we wrote about him a lot. 

There are also dozens of entertaining Owen stories, because even though Owen wasn't the firstborn child, he definitely was (and is) the very Owenest. The child demands to be quoted.

There aren't enough Felix blogs. Felix is content to do his own thing. A few days ago, for example, he taught himself how to ride a bike with training wheels. And when I say he taught himself, I mean that he went outside completely independently (we were working on school with the older two), managed to get his helmet on, and figured out how to work the pedals, which had been a source of frustration to him the day before. We learned that Felix knew how to ride a bike because someone happened to look out the window and notice that he was biking up and down the sidewalk. ("Felix, come inside! You aren't allowed to be out in the front without a grown-up.")

He is a mix of baby and big kid at four and a half years old. He still sucks his fingers, snuggles his George, and requires a daily "neck hug." But he also initiates conversations with unknown adults about which greek gods and goddesses they prefer, asks for prayers for endangered animals in church, and routinely solves his older brothers' math problems when they talk them through out loud.

His intestinal tract is in perpetual crisis. He denies that anything is ever wrong, and we fear to go out without a change of clothes still.

He barters in the complex currency of football cards, desirable LEGO pieces, helmets, and hockey pucks. He's been taken advantage of early and often by his big brothers, and this has taught him to drive a hard bargain and to make sure that an adult witnesses the transaction. I wonder if he might end up in finance. 

His head is still comically enormous for the rest of his body, although he's grown into it a good deal since his toddler phase. He pull 4T and 5T shirts over the thing without requiring grown-up help, and he routinely does. It isn't unusual to find him wearing 3-4 layers of shirts (he remembers about his football jersey or Lightning McQueen shirt, and just pulls it on over whatever he's already wearing) and 6-7 socks per foot.

He eats so slowly that sometimes he doesn't finish his breakfast until we are clearing the table to put out lunch. ("I'm going to still eat my oatmeal, just leave it out.")

He doesn't get as many stories read aloud to him as his older brothers did at his age, but he memorizes what he does hear in only two readings. ("The picadores were afraid, and the matador was scared stiff!")

He looks huge when you are with him in the house alone all day, but when you see him in a grocery cart at Wegmans you realize what a little guy he still is. His little years are coming to an end soon--he'll be in Kindergarten in the fall. He's been a treasure, especially since we've known he's our last one.

He is a good kid.

Phone part 2

 Duolingo, or "Baby Owl," as it is known to the boys, is the one app on my phone that they are regularly allowed to play with. I am strongly considering getting them an iPad just so that they can't make off with my phone every time I'm home doing school with them. James has an account to learn Latin, and Owen is theoretically learning Spanish. It's hard to make much progress when the only aural practice you get is on a little phone speaker with a math lesson competing in the background, but at least he's learning to pay attention to grammar and that there might be different words for the same thing in the world. My own Duolingo account I use mostly to practice French (which I do every day) and recently Modern Greek, which I've also been good about keeping up with on a regular basis. I finished the Latin course a long time ago, and wish that they would add more onto it. (It only had two main "trees," so there wasn't a whole lot of course to do.) I've also made a stab at the Modern Hebrew course and the Arabic, but haven't touched either in a long time. The French is good practice, though, and I'm currently keeping up a 1000+day streak. Some of it is incredibly useful practice (conjugating verbs in all of their different forms, practice de/du rules) and some of it is ludicrously useless. (Je vais acheter un helicoptere rose)

The next app is OverDrive, which is my link to Kindle and Audiobooks. I have an account through the Monroe County Public Library System and also (thanks to either Martha or Calvin, I don't remember which) the New York Public Library System, which is open to residents of the entire state. Listening to Audiobooks has been a relatively recent development for me, and there are certain books (like Chernow biographies) that I wouldn't go near on an audiobook. My favorite books to listen to are ones that I already know and want to internalize even further, or good mysteries. I am listening to To Kill a Mockingbird on my drives right now, and then will keep on going through the Lord Peter Wimsey and Hercule Poirot stories once that's finished.

A recently unused app (I've gotten away from using it for my warmup) is Seconds, an interval timer that is theoretically designed for athletes to exercise with, but that I repurposed for trumpet practicing. Every couple of months I write something on a post-it note in thick capital letters and stick it to my stand in the basement. It's always some variation of "You're playing too loud, shut up!" or "Take your time, idiot. Rest more often and don't spend your whole hour with the mouthpiece screwed into your teeth." Sometimes, when the piccolo trumpet is involved, the language is even stronger. The Seconds app, like these post it notes, is an attempt to save myself from my own worst instincts. It beeps insistently at me every 6-8 minutes and forces me to rest. But then again, I have to actually turn it on, which I haven't been recently. Might be time for another post-it note...

Our bank app (we are with M&T) is next, which is pretty boring, except that now whenever I login I can see the boy's savings account totals as well. In a perverse twist of fate, it's possible to transfer money from our main account into their savings accounts, but when they "owe" us money I have to actually go to a bank and fill out a physical form. Owen still owes us $13.25.

I keep eBay in business. I'd like to think that I break even with buying mouthpieces, because I sell a lot of mouthpieces too. But eBay does pretty well preying on the eternal optimism of trumpet players who think "if I could just get this but with a flatter rim or with a little bit bigger backbore." Here is my complete list of "saved" eBay searches. (I get a notification every time a new item in one of these comes up) 

Bach 25A C Trumpet (it's a rare leadpipe configuration that I'd love to have on a spare C trumpet. Yes, if my wife is reading this, I know that I only need one C trumpet)

Bach 7DW (piccolo mouthpiece)

Bach 7E (piccolo mouthpiece)

Bach 7EW (piccolo mouthpiece)

Bach Artisan Piccolo Trumpet

Bach ML Bore C Trumpet (I don't think I'd buy one of these...but it's nice to keep an eye open)

Balibaris Trench (I tried one of these coats on at a men's clothier in Paris and loved it, but it cost 500 euros brand new...)

Buffalo Bills Lapel Pin (Go Bills)

Cornet Underpart (possibly to build a hybrid piccolo mouthpiece with)

Curry 1.5 Mouthpiece (the rim combination for my regular mouthpiece)

Curry 7 Trumpet Mouthpiece (for high notes)

Curry 7P cornet (I actually have one of these...I should delete this search)

Curry 8.5P (piccolo trumpet mouthpiece)

Getzen 3810 Cornet (I don't have a C cornet...)

J Crew 38R slim (It's nice to get a new jacket)

J Crew 38R White Tuxedo (The white tux that I've had since my first RPO gig is way too big)

Ludlow Dinner Jacket 38R (Another name for the same search as above)

Malacca Walking Stick 

Parkhurst Boots 11

Schilke G Trumpet (Would just be fun to own)

Severinsen Akright Bel Canto (This is the trumpet that Maurice Murphy recorded the Star Wars movies on)

Youtube is the next app on my phone. Current video history: Josh Allen Stiff Arming/Trucking people; an Aebersold backing track to On the Sunny Side of the Street (this is like jazz karaoke--it's a combo playing the chord changes so that you can practice improvising over it), A Last Week Tonight episode, then about 10 games worth of highlights that the boys watched on a Monday evening while I was practicing in the basement and J was out teaching.

BPM is a great app, although it only has one use. You tap the screen, and it gives you exactly the beats per minute that you are tapping. It's like a reverse metronome. You can use it to figure out how fast something is going that you don't have an exact marking for. (It's great for settling arguments)

SPQR is my Latin dictionary app, and the right below it is my Ancient Greek Dictionary (just called Ancient Greek) which is by the same developer. Both apps come with some vocabulary cards and texts, but are mostly useful just as straightforward dicionaries.

Keeper is our password app. It's annoying in that it flashes an upgrade screen to you every time you log in, but it does store all of our passwords securely, and J and I can pool our info in the same place.

Quizlet is a flashcards app that I love. This is another reason why we are thinking about an iPad for the boys. I currently have decks to review of Ancient Greek particle rules, Taxonomic names of animals, Cocktails by ingredients, Ancient Greek preposition rules, Capitals of Canadian provinces, countries of the world by map identification, etc...

The last app on my front screen is the HondaLink app, which is completely useless. I thought, when I downloaded it, that I'd be able to see my fuel efficiency and other driving data. It turns out that those features are only for hybrid vehicles. I need to delete the app.

Bonus story: Owen was driving everyone nuts and generally entertaining himself by being obnoxious when he declared that he was now big enough to fight me and win. J asked me to please fight him. I came in from the other room and told him, "I'm going to enjoy this." Sensing his mistake, he tried to run away. I picked him up, pinned his arms behind him, and sat on him. Then I tickled him until he couldn't breathe and begged for mercy. As soon as I stood up he scrambled over to the stairs and yelled, "I won! I beat Dad! I mean, it was at least a tie!"