I'm Digging this Fatherhood Gig

Life has been fine here. Two nights off from work and plenty of sleep for all four of us. The girls just keep maturing rapidly. Latest hits:

• They're with me in the kitchen to cook pretty regularly now. Poor Leia started crying when Alisa beat her to setting the table.
• Hirono and I saw UK in the city last week. It was the first time the girls went to sleep without at least one of us to put them to bed. They fared well and we got to see the whole concert uninterrupted. The next morning I showed the girls a video of the band in concert. Ever since, Alisa has been asking regularly about playing violin again.
• Leia seems more interested in piano lessons, though her ear is not so strong. Girl got rhythm.
• They like playing "concerts" with us, where we play whatever instrument is at hand and switch around quite often. There's plenty of dancing and singing as well. We're all looking forward to another concert after Alisa wakes from her late nap today.
• We're struggling to find a good violin teacher. Alisa nearly cried yesterday when the violin teacher didn't show up (a fatal strike for that teacher, for sure) to just talk about starting lessons. She's really eager to get going. Luckily, Hirono's friend is a violinist in the SF symphony and is helping to find someone in in the South Bay.
• All three girls have realized that if they speak together in Japanese they can leave me as a clueless bystander. I think they're plotting something.
• Their Saturday morning にほんごひろば, aka Japanese Romper Room, classes are ending. The teacher's children have just grown too old for them and she's moving on to dance instructions. Both girls have indicated interest in dance again, though I'm suspicious that they may just think they'll miss the teacher.
• Leia beat the pants off me in hopscotch today.
• They're both into stories; but, particularly Alisa. She's intent on getting all the way through The Last Unicorn, Peter Beagle's masterpiece set to graphic novel. She also has asked for The Hobbit a couple more times; but, tires of the lengthy prose after three or four pages. She makes up her own stories, short affairs lasting about 2 minutes to tell, many times a day.