Yesterday was a big day for two Dearlove boys, as A and I both marked significant milestones.

For A, it was his last day at daycare (the picture is from the graduation ceremony they held a few weeks ago). A was only 16 months old when he started at Pinocchio – just a wee lad in diapers with a limited vocabulary. It’s been amazing to watch him grow over the past three years and develop strong friendships with some of the other kids. He’s become especially close with Myles and Sebastian, we’ve gotten to know their parents, and I hope we’ll all stay in touch despite the fact they’ll be at different schools in September.

We really lucked out with the boys’ daycare. Pinocchio is a city-run daycare at the old Ottawa city hall, which is a pretty cool building. The teachers are great, it’s a nice facility, and the boys love it. One of the biggest sources of stress for young parents is finding good child care, and we were really fortunate that spaces were available when we needed it.

As for me, yesterday marked my last day as orchestra manager. I spent part of the day talking to musicians from the National Youth Orchestra about my experiences over the past nine years, the audition process, and issues facing orchestras today (I think I may have gotten a bit evangelical at points). I certainly didn’t know what I was doing when I took the job, and hopefully I gave them some concept of what happens behind the scenes.

So, I’m on vacation now for the next 31 days (wow, that sounds like a long time). On September 4th, A and I will both start new chapters as he’ll start Junior Kindergarten and I’ll move into my nice new digs.