June

Katie's last day of school was on June 1st. The parents had a potluck breakfast on the playground with the kids. It's hard to believe that Katie has only one more year of pre-school and then it's on to kindergarden! She made a lot of new friends at school and had a lot of fun. She learned a lot too. She enjoys naming letters and writing words (sometimes backwards) and making up nonsensical knock-knock jokes.

Now that school is over, Katie has been trying to stay cool in an unusually hot June. She's been playing in her pool, sitting under a big umbrella, and going to a splash park with her friends Ava and Marin.

Last week my company Definitive Logic had a fun summer get-together on a big riverboat, the Cherry Blossom. Everyone had a great time. Katie got enough tattoos to make us nervous and did the limbo with the other kids. Luckily there was no overly realistic pirate this time to scare the kids. The boat left from Old Town Alexandria and went upriver to DC and then back. It took about 3 hours but the time flew by.

After the boat, Katie got a balloon flower from her favorite balloon guy on the riverfront. She reminded him that he gave her 2 balloon creations last time and asked him for another. He politely declined. I guess you can't blame her for trying. And she continues to amaze us with her memory because we think it was nearly a year ago that he gave her 2 balloons. The bird people were there also and Katie got a big cockatoo put on her arm. Then we ate ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and listened to the wine glass guy play songs (like here and here) and then called it a night.

Peter and Katie went to a Rocknoceros concert last weekend. Amazingly, Katie predicted what song they would play first ("Pink"). Katie has been playing with Peter a lot and is very good at calming him down when he gets fussy. Peter has rolled over a few more times and is babbling a lot. Sometimes it sort of sounds like he says a word. He likes grabbing everything within reach and putting it in his mouth.

Peter had a really rough night a few nights ago. He kept crying and was uncomfortable but we couldn't quite coax him to sleep. He looked so tired and sad. Yesterday Nancy thinks she found the culprit -- a new upper tooth!

This weekend Nancy, Katie, and Peter went to Scranton for Michael's high school graduation. Then they're going to Naugatuck for a few days. Rusty and I stayed behind to catch up on our sleep.


Last day of school at Beverley Hills.


Katie's homemade graduation hat.


Snuggling with Peter on the couch


Peter discovers Katie's nose.


Cuddling in bed with Daddy.


Katie decided the way to stay cool outside was to setup the big umbrella (smart) and sit in a laundry basket (not sure about that one).


Taking Rusty for a walk.


The Cherry Blossom boat, site of the Definitive Logic summer party.


It's a bit breezy on the boat.


The Riverboat Queen.




The boys on the boat.


Sleepy Pete


Our hula girl


Katie with her balloon flower.


Which one likes to echo things we say?


Katie and Nancy at the Rocknoceros show.


Peter enjoyed it too.


The band with the non-stop dance floor in front of them.


Katie on a train.


Katie and Peter on a train.


On a carousel.


Katie's new favorite things are monkey bars and slides on a playground. She used to want nothing to do with them. She can swing on the first bar but has trouble going much further.


We went on a family walk last week and I naively thought it wouldn't be a problem to put Peter in the big stroller for the first time... except that I didn't realize that Katie still considered it her stroller (Nancy, for the record, knew it would be trouble). While I was adjusting the straps, Katie tried to talk me out of it. She was very convincing but she eventually relented and we had a nice walk. But this may crop up again.




More snuggling on the couch.


No room in the cart for the merchandise at Target.