The Circus Music in the Background is Fitting

Pretty typical week day for Kate and me. Music class and then over to our friend, Amelia's house to make chocolate chip cookies. Personally, I do not much care for the music class-pretty hokey(I mean one look at this video you'll see why. The music is crap, but it has a simple beat that Kate can learn to keep time with...), but I just get a kick out of watching Kate sing. She sings to every song, whether she knows the words or not. Listen for the end-I was beaming with pride...

Swimming

It has been like a million degrees here, so we have been spending a lot of time swimming. Here are some shots of Kate swimming with her friends yesterday.

MIA

We are finally back from a technology hiatus where I have spent many precious rapidly disappearing nap times trying to get all of our pictures and videos backed-up, organized, and consolidated. At the same time, I have been immensly enjoying the written word and have devoured many books as of late. So, the brief time that I can sneak away for myself has not included technology and more importantly TV: only music, books, and the entire series of Arrested Development. Can I just say that it is a blemish on our society that we canceled this brilliant television show, to fill prime time slots with Celebrity Family Feud and The Two Coreys? But I digress, now we are cleansed and ready to go.

Speaking of books, this is the standard view beside Kate's bed. She has this book thing, and "reads" , all day, every day. She pays special care to stack the books up and at bedtime she actually "cuddles" with her books-tucks them right in beside her.

And speaking of bedtime, I snapped this picture of Kate this month. The thing about this picture is that Kate is actually holding her baby doll, Lucy, not a creepy-crawly reptile that she normally fancies. This brought tears to my eyes. (Her fascination with her baby really only lasted until the following morning where Lucy was kicked out and replaced by three rubber frogs; a blue one and two green ones.

And speaking of tears, of monumental importance this month was the completion of our bathroom renovation!! This pleased us to no end. Hard to get a good picture without a wide-angle lens, but here goes-the shower is not shown, and that really is my favorite part...

And speaking of favorite parts, I was able to sneak a get away to Amsterdam this month to join Pete for some play time. And Kate was able to get away from us and spend some major fun time with Grandma and Grandad. A win win, as we all see it. Here is a picture from the fresh flower market.

While we are talking about play time, here is Kate about to go down the BIG SLIDE at the park...

And Happy Birthday America, here is Kate in her first Independence Day Parade at storytime. Who doesn't love a parade?

And lastly, speaking of firsts, this is Kate on her way to her first day of summer camp. This is a biggee for both mother and daughter. First time for Kate in a sort of formalized education setting, where I am not included. I couldn't get the quote,

"Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them." Oscar Wilde

out of my head this whole day. Even only at 3, I can see the natural evolution of the parent and child relationship looming in the future.