July 2012

July has been a great month! The weather has been perfect–80’s, no humidity, sunshine, cool nights. Today I washed all of our bedding and hung it out to dry, and sheets were ready to be put back on the beds within the hour. No better way of capturing that solar energy and putting it to good use.

I have been working a few days a week, which Nora spends with her babysitter, Laura. Anders has done a tennis class, ju jitsu class, and soccer camp. This week was art camp with his friend Henry, most of which has involved making props from the Harry Potter stories, so he is in heaven. He finished the Harry Potter series on his own this month. He’s so proud, but also disappointed that the story is over. He has been listening to the books on CD now from the library.

Nora continues to thrive. She loves going to the library and her Little Gym dance class. Today I was home with her while Anders was at art camp. I packed a snack and lunch for her and we got on my bike to get to a marionette show at the library this morning. Nora adored the performance, and when we got home this afternoon we got out our marionette tiger and made another out her duckie. She had big plans to make several more, but her worker was not willing 🙂 I’m sure that we will be having a show very soon.

After the library we went downtown to buy some tap shoes for her dance class. Then off to the co-op to get some groceries and lunch for me, then to the park to eat our lunch. I packed Nora’s lunch, so we sat in the grass to eat and read the library books that she checked out. She keeps coming back to Bread and Jam for Frances and Angelia Ballerina, two all-time favorites. Then we biked over to the Little Gym for dance/gymnastics class, which is a great time as always. Nora loves going there. Her teacher is sweet and listens to all of her crazy stories, while creating fun adventures to keep the kids moving and giving them a chance to practice their skills. They do 15 minutes of tap, 15 minutes of ballet, and 30 minutes of gymnastics, all incorporating songs, stories and imagination. Nora is in heaven.

After Little Gym we biked home again, washed all of the sheets and made our marionette dolls. After Anders came home from art camp we had our dinner and cleaned up the house before the kids got a little video time and quick baths. They are generally very sweet and agreeable lately, and get along nicely. They were both in bed by 8:30, which gave me some time to cook up more breakfast cookies for Nora and post these pictures. Today was all I could ask for on a regular old summer day, except maybe I would have my boy around a little more and my Ted home. We get Ted back tomorrow, so we can shoot for a slightly more perfect day very soon.

That’s just a little snapshot of a good regular day when I’m home with Nora. We’ve done lots of other fun stuff this month, which you will see in the pictures, including going to Corvallis Knights baseball games, music in the park, and hanging out with friends. We’ve had the good company of our friend Cora all month while Mike has been on the East Coast doing an intensive professional course. The kids have learned that they have to get her on the trampoline before dinner, as is the case with all adults, in general. We look forward to getting Mike back next month to keep working on our complete majong game in the evenings.

Click on the first picture for a slideshow.