The Fabulous World of VK: August 2005

VK discovered the concept of spinning around poles on our walk today.

Action shot! As a side note look how fast Winnie is moving at 13 years old . . . thats 91 in dog years!

New shoes from Reebok that light up (sadly you can't tell in the pictures).

More Winter Prep. Snowbunny suit.

Trying on a new coat.

Getting ready for Winter

Savoring summer.

A rockin party!

We had a party at the house this weekend, mostly for the band to play for real live people, and VK as usual was a wonderful hostess, running around making friends, sharing her yard and toys with other kids and charming the grown-ups. She even took her turn on drums and sang a few choice words into the mic.

For pictures of the actual band you can go here: I Wanna Rock!

Mommy is the best!

Augustin shows VK his kung fu!

VK and Augustin

VK and Julian enjoy the empty pool

Nap time. . . hehe . . . (yeah right!)

Who's so silly?

VK and CC help Dad out with his guitar pedal

.

She is serious

VK working the drums

VK and Dad hanging out during a band break

Vk loving on CC bear

That's my daddy rockin!

Where are all the people?

VK enjoying the weather

Evening walks

We have been trying to take walks in the evening between dinner and bath time with VK, and it usually amounts to pushing her in her little car or in the stroller. Lately though she has prefered to walk with us instead. Several times she has walked all the way to the park opting to ride home in the stroller.

Last night was a big night at the dinner table where she sat in a booster seat in a real chair at the real table with mom and dad. She then on her own grabbed dads Chicago Cubs baseball hat an put it on her head (it is rare for hats to stay on her head for long and even more rare for her to put them on by herself). We walked to the park with our tennis rackets and took over the tennis court. Fortunately there wasn't anyone else there, but VK loved it. Running around with a racket chasing balls and laughing and generally having a blast. After that there was a little swinging on the swing set and a ride home in the stroller.

Needless to say she slept through the night.

VK gets ready for dinner in her big girl chair

Distracted by the new view from the table

Daddy's Cubs hat

Evening walks with VK have turned into actual walks

She still has the hat on

Introducing VK to tennis

Paying close attention to her 1st tennis lesson

Running down a loose ball

Getting ready to serve

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! THAT WAS OUT!

She's had enough tennis for one day

VK shows a promising net game

Time to swing on the big girl swing

WHEEEEEE

The little girl swing is more fun though!!

The stroller bites the dust

QUICK UPDATE

I thought a quick update was in order. VK managed to get sick at the end of last week and was struggling with a runny nose and a cough all weekend. None of us slept very well all weekend, and she was generally un happy most of the time.

Today she is MUCH better. the below pictures are of one of the few happy times this weekend, when we were playing with her hair which even though it is plenty long to gather in a ponytail and put a hair thing on, it is still so curly that it hardly looks like much.

Enjoy.

Ponytail

Streaking wasn't just a '70s thing

A day at the Zoo

The whole family got out of the house early this morning to head to the zoo to enjoy it when it was relatively cool and uncrowded. We were rewarded for our efforts with a fabulous time. The zoo was alive with animals enjoying the cool morning and there were no crowds until later.

We got to see the polar bears out and jumping in the water and eating fish, pet the goats, see the hippo out of the water, and generally have fun as a family.

It is really cool to reflect on the last time we visited the zoo as a family (not counting concert visits) and to see how much VK has grown, how she is really seeing things and remembering her favorites. The last time was Presidents day (February). Here is a photo from that visit: Riding the pony