Quick summer update

Quick summer update! Aria is 6 3/4. Audrey is 3 3/4. (She likes to say "I'm 3 and three-quarters and a half.")

Aria finally lost her second top front tooth yesterday after an extended battle with fate. It was really loose for two or three days. She was so miserable because she couldn't eat very well. She was afraid she'd swallow it. She asked Hosie to call me at work to tell me the news, but I couldn't talk right away, so I called back in a few minutes. Aria answered the phone. It startled me a bit because that's never happened before. *sniff*. She's growns up and she's growns up and she's growns up.

We went to the Moonlight Classic drum & bugle corps show, which was held in Sacramento for the first time. Usually it's at UOP in Stockton, but this time they held it at Sac State. We were really glad it was local. But Sac State screwed up and couldn't get the stadium lights turned on. After all the B Corps played, we all had to leave. It was hugely frustrating. The one silver lining was that the A Corps all played some music out in the parking lot. We had parked right next to the Vanguard buses, so we watched and listened as they played through their show selections in front of our van. The girls were both in such awe. Plus we all got two musical treats: first, they played parts of The Planets - Jupiter and Mars - which Audrey recognized instantly ("Daddy! It's The Planets! IT'S THE PLANETS!!!!!!"). Then they played Subterranean Homesick Alien by Radiohead (from OK Computer), mostly played by the keyboard percussion. What a treat to hear such a beautiful melody played by an array of marimbas, xylophones and vibraphones. Ever since we went, Audrey has been playing a song that, depending on when you ask her, is either her trying to play that song, or it's a song she made up that sort of sounds like that song.

Also, we measured the kids a couple days ago. They've both grown an inch since January. Aria's at 45" (3' 9") and Audrey is just a hair shy of 40" (3' 4").

And now, pics.

Us being silly in bed:

This is a drawing Audrey made. It's of a fun Funderland ride. At the top is a little hand. It's Garfield's hand. That's the start of the ride. The end of the ride is the place at the bottom where the black line goes to the edge of the page. Audrey loves to color and her artistic sense is just starting to really flower. She also loves playing music on the drums, the piano, and especially her little cat keyboard (the "Meowsic Maker"), and she loves books of all kinds. She's even made a couple attempts at sounding words out.

Here's a drawing of Garfield that Aria did. She's really into Garfield right now. She got a couple Garfield books from the library, but went through them so quickly that she asked to use some of our kid budget to get a big fat Garfield book from Barnes & Noble. Aria can read just about anything nowadays. She often settles in with a stack of books right after breakfast. Her favorites are any cartoons (especially Garfield and Calvin & Hobbes), the Life of Fred math books, and whatever we've gotten from the library. In addition to reading, Aria loves climbing trees, dancing (she still puts on "shows" any chance she can get), rough housing with Daddy, playing with Legos, and playing with her friends at Wish.