It's late night again and Mommy is still working.

August has always been my least favorite month. Maybe that is because there are no holidays or extra special occasions for my family. But this time, I am really looking forward to August. It means no more 60-hour work weeks and, hopefully, back to life before May.

We introduced Samantha to Michael Jackson, ironically, two weeks before his death. She is in love with him and his music. She constantly peppers me with questions about him and his life or looks (goodness knows there are lots of questions there). She understands that he was very, very special to Mommy and that she misses him. But as I told her today, he lives on in his music. The fact that she and Alyssa beg me to play his music makes me very happy.

Samantha has turned into quite the swimmer. She loves swim lessons and is doing things that would have brought her to tears before. Next year I'll have to get her into swim lessons earlier.

Alyssa is getting so big and talking a lot. It's really hard to understand her, but if you think about what she is doing and follow the motions, you'll get it. Today she told Tanya, "See you tomorrow."

Alyssa is getting another large batch of teeth. Eight at a time is difficult. The other day she was in tears for what seemed like hours. We're beyond all remedies at this point. The only thing that seems to soothe her is dancing with Mommy and a good swim in Gammy and Papa's pool. (Yes, we're those goofy parents who have a dance session or instrument session with our kids for one to two hours. And we wouldn't change it for the world!)

It's been a while. I don't know if anyone actually reads this, but what the heck.



We've had a busy couple of months. Samantha finished her preschool 3's class in May. We had a good time at the end of the year school picnic. We've just been notified that Samantha got in to the morning Pre-k class--she was slated for afternoon. We're really happy about this change. She's going to begin swim lessons next week. She's going to go for two weeks. I hope she likes it. In August she's going to Vacation Bible school at her preschool. Her teacher, Ms. Anna, (from last year) is going to be helping.



Alyssa is doing great. She's now 29 inches long and 19 pounds. (Samantha was this big at 10 months.) She's starting to talk up a storm, but it's hard to decipher what she's saying. Her new favorite word is Gam-ma-ma, which makes my mom pretty happy. She is always dancing and jumping and tackling (mom mostly). She cut her two eye teeth today, only 6 more to go (that we can see anyway).



I've been working a lot. I am looking at 60-plus hour weeks until the end of August. I'm none too happy about that. In the evenings I've been catching up on Harry Potter, rereading all 7 books before the movie comes out. I've got a project in the garage--painting an armoire--that I've been ignoring. And Samantha's been begging me to paint her room purple.



Al's doing well. Work hasn't been too stressful so that is good. He's been working, with a lot of help from Gordon, on the two large arbors in the backyard. We started about two plus months ago and still aren't finished. But at this point it is well beyond my phyisical abilities. He's been running about 3 miles at least 3 times a week, which I totally give him kudos for--the most exercise I get is when I mop and mow the lawn.

We all took a trip to Disneyland last week. It was terrific. The weather was fantastic and the kids had a blast--we all did. My parents came along with us and seemed to enjoy themselves. They were good sports about riding Dumbo and going on the really slow rides. Samantha wants to go back next weekend. Boy, do I wish it were that easy.