For over a half hour or so I heard strange sounds in our apartment.

They were one part soft thumps and one part something that sounded like the water backing up in the drain behind our house. Because our oldest was taking a bath, I thought she might be messing with the water. The problem was the thumps weren’t accompanied by the hiss of running water. This made me afraid the toilet might be having issues.

Then the sounds stopped and our oldest entered the variety room still in her day clothes, which meant she hadn’t taken a bath. She was flexing her fingers, though, and I realized what I’d been hearing.

One of the creepier things our daughters do is play the piano without sound. If you don’t know they’re doing it, it’s especially creepy. The piano is a Kawai digital piano (similar to this one). It has proper keys and levers that make it feel like a proper piano (which we can’t own in this complex) but it can by silenced by plugging in a pair of headphones.

The girls mostly do this kind of practice at night when the sounds of the piano would disturb the neighbors or when one of us (usually one of them) wants to watch a show at the same time the other is practicing.

Even when you’re sitting in the room with them, it’s kind of odd. It’s a bit like hearing the bass part of a song leaking out of a pair of headphones. Watching them is like watching a less-than-sane person play a broken piano.

This, does, though, leave me with a dilemma. Should I be proud of our oldest for practicing or mad at her for not taking a bath and going to bed as she was supposed to?

I suspect the answer is “yes”.