Little Symphony

I heard about a free concert series this summer put on by the Houston Symphony. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take Tate to hear some music and see some instruments. Most concerts, of course, don't allow 2 year olds and, also a huge bonus, that this concert was for kids and families. They even had an "instrument petting zoo" for the kids if you show up early. We weren't about to miss that. Unfortunately Tate was having a bit of an off day. Short nap plus choosing to skip dinner equals a lack of any expression and enthusiasm, but we're still convinced he loved it.

The drums were a favorite. As was the xylophone and of course, the violin. And we just had to try the French horn. (Don't worry mom. This was sterilized before Tate put it in his mouth.) Despite his blank expression, he was pretty excited about touching all the instruments, although we only knew that he was excited by how reluctant he was for his turn handling them to end. Here we are checking out the double bass. Just like Berlioz the Bear from one of Tate's favorite books.

The concert was so fun. Familiar and exciting music and just the right length for little kiddo. He was feeling better after we let him down his orange juice. A little sugar. That's all he needed to be happy. Pretty soon he was wiggling to the music, pointing to instruments, saying "cool" when he recognized one, and especially excited when he could see the cymbals. It was good fun. At the end we found the tympani and he said, "I want to get the tympani! I can get it!" So we walked up there and looked at them up close. Very exciting stuff, tympani.

It was a fun night. It was great to get out and listen to some beautiful music. I'm glad that Tate enjoys it too.

Catch up

I have quite the update about our neighbor boy but first there are a few things have been going on around here lately that I should probably record before I forget.
A few weeks ago we were visited by more ants. This time in the office. I was on the computer and an ant crawled out from between the keys...then another. I looked behind the computer and found a trail of them crawling up the cord and into cracks in the computer. I'm baffled at how these little beasties decide where to camp out. Why the computer? Really? Glenn got out the drops again and within a few minutes the papers looked like this:

They formed a line across our wall and down to a little crack in the baseboard. Luckily they were gone by later that day and we have yet to find them anywhere else. I'm tired of bugs. Last week it was a tiny lizard, in my pantry. I was very proud of myself for catching it under a bowl and throwing it outside. Yuck! Then later that week I found this big guy in the driveway. Still wiggling around. He was large. But at least he was outside, right? Unfortunately, bug season here has just begun.

Fortunately, there are many good things about our new little neighborhood. My morning jog now looks like this:We can go around the duck pond or down a little trail in the woods. It's great. Our neighborhood also has two nice pools and a little splash pad. The pools opened a couple weeks ago and we frequent them to keep cool. It's most fun when Glenn can come. Tate also has a new favorite pool toy. It's a little penguin with a propeller that he follows around. The pool has all these slides and fountains and all little guy wants to do is wander around with his penguin. We had the chance a couple of weeks ago to go to an Astros game using our friend's law firm's amazing seats. I guess they couldn't find anyone to use them that night so we were happy to take advantage. Obviously, they were in a great location, and also included were unlimited sodas and a great buffet spread. Yum.

All in all, a good start to the summer.