"Lazy yellow moon comin' up tonight and shinin' through the trees. Crickets are singin' and lightnin' bugs are floatin' on the breeze...."

Maddy cruising without her splints on

 Officially there are still six days to the beginning of summer, but summer has already hit Dallas with a vengeance. Our forecast for the next week is pretty boring...and hot. It goes something like: 98, 99, 98, 97, 99, and so on. We hit 100 Monday. Sizzle and fry.

Nap time's over Daddy

 However, summer has it's compensations. We've been doing a lot of ice cream and popsicle eating, playing in the pool, and grilling out.  Also, our tomatoes have grown to gargantuan size. They don't seem to be producing much fruit. We've gotten some cherry tomatoes, but nothing else so far.

our tomato trees...I mean bushes

 I had a little bit of a hard time adjusting to my new summer schedule of being home all the time. I didn't realize how much I'd gotten used to the little break of going to teach class. I really like it now though. The library has a story time on Tuesdays. I've been taking Maddy to the library once a week since my school got out but this week was the first time for story time. When we left the library, I couldn't really tell if story time was a hit or not. As the day went on, I discovered that story time is Maddy's new obsession. She asked to go to the library all day long. When Aaron got home she told him, "Going to library. Sing songs. Sit with kids. Wheels on the Bus. I like it." So I guess that will now be part of our weekly routine for the summer. They also have a pond behind the library and Maddy loves going down there to look at the swans and ducks.

Ice cream headache

drinking a yogurt smoothie

Splash!

Loving the sprinkler

We've done several BBQ's with several different groups. The picture above is Maddy playing in the sprinkler in a friend's yard. This was a BBQ we went to on Sunday evening. Their were 5 little girls there 2 years and under. It was so fun to watch them together. I don't normally let Maddy keep her splints on to play in the water but I did this time because there was several things it was easier for her to stand for while playing. I think she was the wettest kid out there when they got done playing. We also went to Rachel's apartment and played in the pool there and grilled out. It was frying that day so the pool felt really good. Georgia brought her big blow up seal toy and Maddy had a good time riding on it.

Riding the seal with Rachel's help

Master and Commander

the pool is cool

 Maddy has finally gotten excited about the pool again. She asks to play in the kiddie pool every afternoon. Today when I told her it was time to get out she looked at me and said, "Two more minutes?" Of course she got to play just a little longer.

fun with the hose

should I spray mom?

 We, of course, continue to do therapy over the summer. Maddy is now getting services from ECI so we have an OT come to our house. Theoretically she is supposed to come twice a month. So far she has been once, but she is scheduled to come again this month. We also get dietician visits from them. We still go to the hospital for her PT. This week she walked  with her walker from the front desk back to the kids waiting area and then back to the therapy room. After therapy was over she walked all the way out of the hospital. Then I carried her across the parking lot and then she walked down the row of cars to our car. She really loves being able to walk and she got mad at me when I made her let me carry her through the parking lot. Then we took her to the pond behind the library tonight. She walked all the way from the car to where the swans were and then walked a good portion of the way back. Every time I asked her if she was tired she said, "Walk some more." She was determined that she was going to go everywhere on her own two legs.

Strolling along the path

pausing to look at some ducks

off roading to chase some ducks. she face planted shortly after this picture :(

standing by a tree close to the swans

the motivating swans

I am big and awesome and I know it

Mission accomplished

Time to head home

Aaron is teaching a summer class this month. He has a whopping 6 kids and one never comes. DBU is remodeling the labs (much needed as the lab benches and a lot of the equipment in the labs was from the 1960's) so the labs are online this summer. This is great for Aaron because it means 2 hours in the classroom instead of 4 like usual. So he is having a more relaxed summer teaching wise which is nice because it gives him a chance to work on other projects.

That's all for now. Stay cool!