Logan and Lily

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We were having an ordinary day when neighbor Shawn texted to see if her son Logan and granddaughter Lily could come over to visit. She added that Lily was the one who was excited about it. Logan knew our doorbell was broken and that he needed to pound on the door to get our attention. I heard John greet the children, and their enthusiastic voices rose as he told them we had a new doorbell. Ding! Dong! It worked!

They wandered around, deciding what they wanted to do. Both sat on the bench and “played” the piano. They were respectful of the instrument and didn’t pound on it. John reached over to play a note, asking them if they could match that tone. That’s when I rounded the corner with the camera. Both of them sang the note on pitch with no hesitation.

Lily decided to leave when we suggested playing with a balloon. As Logan went to get one, I remembered that Lily declined to play the last time she was here. I wonder if she doesn’t like balloons. One of my children can’t stand them. She is convinced it will break at any moment, and she hates the suspense. We’ll have to think of something else the next time Lily comes.

Logan always finds something unusual to do. He pulled the mouth of the balloon over his finger, up to the knot, and made it thump rapidly. We were amused.

We batted the balloon about for a while, and Logan glanced at the clock. He said, “I think I’ll go home, even though I don’t have to be there for ten more minutes.”

I’m not a mind-reader, but I think he was feeling a bit responsible for entertaining Lily. He thanked us at least three times and added a thank you on Lily’s behalf, too. His manners are amazing. Six years ago when we first knew him, he was prompted to thank people. Now it comes naturally and sincerely. What a boy!

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

43 thoughts on “Logan and Lily”

  1. I love the way John asked the kids if they could match the tone — and they matched it right off the bat! Someday on down the road, maybe they’ll discover ear training isn’t as hard as it sounds and they’ll have John to thank for it.

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  2. It’s so fun seeing Logan growing up. I bet you are right about Lily and the balloon. I used to live in terror of the birthday parties where they had you race to a balloon then pop it. As for the piano – I remember when my (under two-year-old) son was very small and “playing” a neighbor’s piano. I was encouraging him to not bang on it, and my neighbor kindly told me to let him be, commenting it was no more abuse a piano would get when one plays Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique. I really appreciated that.

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    1. I’ve been giving our piano a workout since it was last tuned. The tuner lubricated it and said I must play it every day for a while. I’m sure the time is up, but the piano and I need to stay on speaking terms.

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  3. Logan and Lily are both fortunate to have you and John in their lives, as are you to have them in yours. I am a firm believer in intergenerational interaction across ages. I learned so much from those who were older and younger than I am/was, whether they were family, friends, or strangers. We all gain from it. And, I must tell you to tell Logan that I enjoyed his balloon/thumb sonata so much that I kept replaying it–seriously, over and over. 🙂
    That young man is not only courteous and thoughtful, he is talented. It sounded so rhythmic and lovely!

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  6. I wouldn’t enjoy playing with a balloon either but each to their own. How wonderful Logan felt a sense of duty to entertain! I have a piano too which I’ve been trying to give away for years. No one seems to play instruments anymore.

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  8. Hi Anne! It has been a delight stumbling on your page. I have read so many blog entries at a stretch but just realised I am a bit late. This dates back to 2015. So a lot to catch up on your sweet tales. Loving it so far. And you’ll see more of me around. 🙂

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  13. Logan has had impeccable upbringing and I am impressed as well. He is used to being around adults and being at your house no double influences him and he is more mature than most kids his age. Seeing John ping the key on the piano for the kids to sing the note made me think of many years ago when we sang in grade school and Mrs. Jamieson had a pitch pipe.

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          1. The accordion is still downstairs as well. The reason I wanted to learn guitar was when I worked at the advertising agency, the writers and artists would get together in one office and each had a guitar and they’d play together. They liked to play folk songs, but they were really good at Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas” … I liked listening to them and mentioned it at dinner enough that my parents bought the guitar for Christmas that year. I took lessons at the end of my street, but the instructor, who played in a band, did not explain much and spent more time talking about his band, etc. I cut my nails to down to the fingertips and they were still too long. I couldn’t manage the strumming right, and was lousy at tuning it. That’s why I know the pitch pipe is still in the case. It languishes downstairs next to the accordion. Remnants of my younger days. 🙂

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              1. I had the same thing happen! The teacher (just a young kid really, a few years younger than myself and he gave lessons at the music store end of my street) was sarcastic … first he said “cut your nails – you either want to play the guitar or have long nails” … I cut them very short – then, just like you, the tips of my fingertips were sore. I needed my fingertips to type and in those days it was an IBM Selectric typewriter, so some “pounding of the keys” was involved. I could not get callouses built up on my fingertips so I could push the strings down enough. It was a debacle and I stopped going. I had no idea all that was involved – my mom played guitar for years but no longer had her guitar. She had encouraged me to take the lessons after they bought it for Christmas … it was my father who wanted me to take accordion lessons … he was German and probably thought I could get a gig in an oom pah pah band. Now both instruments sit in the basement in their cases. Sigh.

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                  1. When we first moved here, my father wanted to join the Germania Club which was just as it sounds – a group of German people who got together at a club. So, my mom did not speak a word of German and neither did I … everyone else did, so we heard a lot of oom pah pah music, saw lots of dirndl skirts and lederhosen and ate German fare once a month.

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  14. It’s cute that Shawn’s son and graddaughter are almost the same age!
    That makeshift balloon play invented by Logan reminds me of an old toy we used to play with back in the 50s – it was quite a fad – the “Bolo Bat.” Do you remember that?

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    1. I’m not familiar with Bolo Bat, but maybe my area of the country had a different name. I looked it up. We called it Paddle Ball, but it’s the same as a Bolo Bat. Yes, I do remember it. I wasn’t terribly good at it. Were you?

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