To me last night really started summertime, even though it was cool and sort of rainy-ish. It was our neighborhood's first block party of the summer. In the winter we'd started to be isolated from the neighborhood/world, especially this year since I, the family's cruise director, have been going to school. So it was a heartwarming moment last night at 5 p.m. when people brought out the 8 foot folding tables for potluck dishes. And put up sawhorses with signs at the ends of the street.

Even though we get a permit from the city to do it, it still feels like we're getting away with something rascally when we blockade both ends of our block so we can play, eat, do whatever we want--standing in the street. And it's also fun that I can come to a potluck, realize I forgot the tongs, and walk mere yards back to my kitchen to get them.

Even when I'm tired and not in a super chatty mood, it feels cozy and joyful just to stand around and be surrounded by familiar friends, all catching up on lost time with each other--laughing, joking, grilling food. Meanwhile, kids of all sizes are playing with stomp rockets in the middle of the street, running enormously long chalk lines to nowhere, and rolling down our neighbor's tiny grassy "hill" on the front lawn. New neighbors stop by, introducing their dog or their mom visiting from Brazil (I loved that mom. And that dog). One of the older kids brought out some face painting supplies, as you can see on R's cheeks.



Also lots of fun: one of the moms brought out a hand-crank ice cream maker. This was great work for all the kids to take turns doing. In the end the task was completed by taller people.


Besides churning ice cream, Rosalie has been interested in preparing food in other arenas. Lately in the mornings Michael has been getting Rosalie involved with making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He gives her a safe spreader and she does the spreading. Looks like she's been doing a little cutting, too!



Everything's an opportunity to count. Here are four pieces of sandwich!

Cute quote from this a.m. after breakfast: "We don't need to wash Bear's face because she didn't eat.....very much."




We got a positive weekly review from Rosalie's school this week. I think the teachers are noticing a similar phase of super-awesomeness from our cutie lately as well. Full of joy, using her words, being a friend!

Happy Father's Day 2011

We had a nice Father's Day today. Hope yours was good, too! We had some good friends staying with us this weekend but they left this morning. After I cooked the three of us a family brunch, we headed down to our favorite family walk: The Locks.

Many things to climb on,

Many things to pet.

A huge personal advancement for the Big R happened at naptime today. She woke up from her nap and went into the bathroom and went potty on her own. She then moved the stepstool over to the sink to wash her hands, and went back into her room to continue her nap. Holy moly. We were all proud!

After naptime, Michael had some well-deserved and -needed down time solo while Rosalie and I pulled out a toy she didn't even know she had: a Light Bright!

Rosalie is getting really good at building her patience. Light Brights can be a little frustrating, especially when you are new at it. She was relatively methodical and showed dang good fine motor skills punching those pegs through the paper to the holes. She also was able to identify the different letters as colors (a hole marked V was violet, so she puts a violet peg in there. P is pink, O is orange, etc. At the end of all this Rosalie told me that she wants to be an artist when she grows up. Frankly, I could see it happening.

Oh, another fun thing from this weekend was our visit to the Pacific Science Center. We saw the dinosaur exhibit, the space exhibit, and my fave, the butterfly exhibit. They had one butterfly that looked mighty familiar:



But seriously, it was amazing to see so many butterflies so close and personal. One even landed on Michael's shoulder and hung out for awhile. Here are a few butterflies having some lunch.


All in all a great weekend. Cute times! And as they say, cute news is good news.

New PJs, New Lessons

Rosalie had a chance to pick out new pajamas yesterday and went with the cupcake motif. She reminded me that she loves cupcakes several times during the day. She's also been reminding us that she wants to go to the pet store to get a kitty for her house. We did not get her a cupcake or a kitty yesterday, but as you can see, she's still pretty cheerful overall.

Yesterday Rosalie taught me many things that she had learned in school. She showed me the sign language for breakfast, flower, and night. Also, she told me, "Grasshoppers are nocturnal animals! Also, owls!"

Once she saw that I was a receptive student, she went on to tell me that "There are lots of different kinds of families. Some families have one dad and one baby, and some families have two moms! Or a baby and a baby and a baby and some parents." Have I mentioned that I love Rosalie's school?

Changes

Let me tell you, Rosalie does not get tired of her "pom balls." Here she is picking out all the small ones, which are the babies. They will then be set into their nest where they will have a nap.


Rosalie's school has moved to a location closer to our house, so I've been walking up to the school so we can stroll home together.

This has been a joy and pain:

Joy, because it's nice to spend time with Rosalie without household distractions. Instead the distractions are purple flowers and tall grass and doggies passing by.

Pain, because her little legs do get tired on this walk. She's still getting used to that mile it takes to walk home. And when she, who has had a long day at school, gets tired and cranky with me, who has also had a long day, pain-in-the-neck ensues. Blech. By the time we get home, it is really tired time. Still, I feel like a good mother doing it so I'm probably on the right track. I'm gonna keep doing it.

The transition to the new school location has been interesting. It's all the same teachers, her same friends, the same toys, but the new place just takes getting used to. Michael says that drop off is just a little more tentative than it used to be at the old place. She's getting used to her new surroundings.

One day recently, Rosalie came into school, looking around, and suddenly all the kids started saying "Rosalie, Rosalie, Rosalie!" and they started crowding around her. Michael said, "Look, Rosalie! Everyone loves you!" Those kids are lucky to have each other. They really are great kids & families.

Speaking of school, the teachers have brought out...the capes. Those pieces of fabric seem to have been an amazing magical presence in the day. Lately, in photos posted from the day, there'll be at least one kid drawing a picture, wearing a cape. When I come to pick up Rosalie, I'm often greeted with someone wearing a cape.

Michael says that the other morning, Rosalie showed up at school, and everyone was wearing capes. She wanted to join and wear a blue cape, but that one was a hot commodity and already taken. I mean, who wants the silver one? Blue is clearly better, especially when your new favorite color is blue. Somehow she was able to barter or negotiate to get the blue one during the day. Thank goodness.

The next day, she planned to get to school and wear that blue cape. But when she got there, nobody was wearing one. So she asked the group, "Does anyone else want to wear capes with me?" No, no takers. But she put one on anyway.

I'm gonna have to bring my camera to school to get some cape shots.

Oh, I forgot to mention about the picture at the top of this post. In addition to the pom balls, you'll notice that she has several boxes stacked on top of one another. She called each of these boxes her "collections." So she's got shells, crayons, beads, and pom balls. To me, it feels so HER that she has collections and has them organized in a stack of boxes.