Bella looking back and looking forward

Bella came for a Baba Day and regaled me with stories of their vacation with her other grandmother. That included Disneyland: the rides, the heat, the food (she was delighted to find plenty of vegan choices), and a sad awareness that the last time they went to Disneyland, their grandfather was with them. She said nobody mentioned Tata’s absence nor his death this past January, but everyone felt it. 

She has one more year of middle school and then she’ll move on to high school. She has decided which high school she’ll attend, and part of the reason for her choice is that she wants to be in an orchestra and play the cello. Right now she’s playing saxophone in the middle school band, but she had six years of instruction in violin, and the cello, she told me, “gives me a feeling in my bones.” Her dad wants her to choose viola because it’s more convenient to haul around, but her mom says she should do what she really wants to do, and she told me nothing compares to cello. 

I fear the next couple of years may present challenges for all of us. I hope she gets to play the cello. The nose ring is temporary. She's not sure she wants a real piercing. May that be the hardest decision she needs to make for a while.