Week in Review

On Monday, much of the United States experienced that rarest of occasions, a full solar eclipse. Southern California only experienced a 65% eclipse at its height, so it was still very light, but with an odd hazy effect.

The girls learned about the eclipse at school, and Cora's class viewed it outside through its shadow on the ground, through a hole in a sheet of paper.

I met up with my dad at Central Park, where the astronomy club set up telescopes and offered special glasses that made it safe to look at the sun.

I found friends in line, and borrowed their glasses and a cereal box pinhole camera viewer. They both worked well, and it was great to see the eclipse.

My dad took this photo through the glasses - pretty cool!














And I learned this old-school technique for viewing the eclipse, by seeing its shadow through your own interlaced fingers.

We had Sophia over Tuesday after school, and the girls were responsible and got their homework done together. They sounded so old, doing math together. Then we went to the pool, soaking up the summery weather.

Later Tuesday, Cora went to her first flag football practice of the season. Yes, you read that right. She's trying a new sport, a sport she's been wanting to try two years since watching our friend Chris's game.

On Thursday, we continued our medical journey this year with both girls, as we tested Violet to see if she's putting out the proper amount of growth hormone.

She was hooked up to an IV, so the nurse could draw her blood multiple times after she took medication designed to stimulate the pituitary gland into producing the hormone.

We were in the office about five hours total, and Violet was such a trooper. She relaxed comfortably and watched the TV in the room, and even took a nap.

The nap was partially because she also had a 102-degree fever from the onset of a cold. Cora had the same illness, so she stayed home with Grandpa.









She was such a good girl, and so brave, that she earned a new Beanie Boo on the way home.