Hanging Out with Charlie

Our friends Kristy and Mikes' daughter, Charlie, came over to visit with Christopher last Friday....they had a great time. They played some piano for a little while and then swam for an hour or so before they both took very long naps (separate beds, of course). It was a good time for them.

...and I must apologize for the messy house, we're getting some work done in or kitchen so everything that was in our kitchen is now in the corner of our living room next to the piano...thanks for your understanding.

Christopher Swimming

The second half of our 4th of July festivities took place at a friend of the family's house in Bensalem, PA, which is about 5 miles or so south of Levittown, wehre I live. The family has an in-ground pool. Christopher was more than excited about getting to swim in it.

Now, the significance of this post? I mean, Christopher has certainly swam before, so this is no reason to triumph or celebrate, no? So, the signficance is that Christopher has graduated to being able to swim with his swim-tube without having to be held...swimming all by himself (sort of). So this post is to mark this point in his life. He was proud as a peacock about it, yelling "I'm swimming! I'm swimming! Good job!" repeatedly. He swam for over 3 hours without and had to literally be forced out of the pool because he was so tired he was being obstinant and wasn't listening. It was truly a great day.

Jamming

In keeping with the "making sure my child has some culture" process, may we now introduce:

Christopher M. Kane's rendition of Bob Marley's "Jamming"...

please hold your applause until the end and I apologize for messing up the lyric.

Our Little Mini-Vacation

The Kane's took a little vacation last week. One of my coworkers was extremely kind to us and allowed us to use their little house down by the shore for 3 days for free....which was fantastic. The house was about a mile away from Sea Isle City, so it wasn't right on the shore, but we were okay with that. Our goal was to get out of Levittown for a while for a couple of days away from everything. It was a very nice trip...we really had a good, relaxing time...aside from Christopher being a complete disaster for much of the trip (mostly when we went out to eat). (For the record, Christopher and I had a few "come to Jesus" meetings...which were effective at least in short-term situation....which was nice.) He did have some fun though. I, being the person I am, forgot to pack the digital camera, so we were unfortunately relegated to using my cell phone and a Kodak disposable camera....we eked out some pictures of two of the highlights of the trip. We did a lot more, but its very hard for me to get pictures on my cell phone sometimes...I really need to be able to manipulate both hands freely and, with Christopher on the loose, that's pretty much impossible. It was a good time and we did a lot of neat stuff, which was cool and very much needed.

AT THE BEACH


Christopher and Mommy






The ocean taunting Christopher, and Christopher retaliating with a frisby




A couple of nice scenic-type shots with the cell phone

AT THE FREE ZOO

Cape May, NJ, located at the southern-most tip of the New Jersey shore, has a free zoo...its actually about 5 or 6 miles north of Cape May city. If you're ever down there for any reason, its actually a very impressive zoo for being free-of-charge. They do ask for a $1.00 donation, but that is it. Definitely worth it...but, again, only if you're in that area in the first place. Now on to the story.

Again, unfortunately, I didn't have an opportunity to effectively take cell phone shots so we were stuck using the Kodak disposable camera...which, as anyone who's used one knows...is kind of hit-or-miss depending on environmental variables. Colleen, who, by the way, is 8 months (and some change) pregnant, couldn't be much help with Christopher as she was having a hard time ambulating. She was a trooper throughout though...no worries. About an hour into the zoo excursion, Christopher began another volcano-esque melt-down. Before that went down we got to see the lion and watch him roar at the crowd, some tamarins (Golden Lion and Cottontop types) jumping around their cages...which he really loved), an aviary...he wasn't a fan, and a bunch of other animals. He had the most fun feeding the goats, and, of course, it was the only activity at the zoo where we could bust out any sort of workable shots...

Above was the orginal goat that Christopher was feeding. Everything was all good until the big bully showed up and pushed the little guy off to the side. When the goat was queried he replied, "Its not my fault being the biggest and the strongest".

One of Colleen's best friends, Annette, and her husband, Mike, welcomed their new daughter, Ella, into the world on June 21st in Delaware. Congratulations to them and good wishes to their "new" family.

above: the new family, Annette, Mike, and Ella

below: Colleen and Ella

Love,
Thomas, Colleen, Christopher, and "Baby X"

Random Cell Phone Shots

Sorry folks. I've been terrible about keeping up the blog. Being the music teacher at the school has proven to be quite a challenge of late. All of the things that the music teacher would be involved with all sort of took place within the last month and my life has been very hectic. I had to co-facilitate a talent show (which went over very well with all the staff who went to see it), an evening activity called "Celebration of the Arts" which featured the Daily Living Skills and Art teachers as well as myself (also went off very well), and, the latest the high school graduation (messed up "God Bless America", but, in my defense, the lighting was very poor and I couldn't see the music at all. I totally winged it and totally crashed and burned about half-way through the piece. Gotta love it.

Colleen is feeling good, but she's ready to "get this baby out of me" of late. I can only imagine the discomfort these final weeks must cause and I really appreciate and respect tremendously what she and all the other mothers out there have to endure during the pregnancy. We still have stuck with the unknown gender thing. Of course, we have nothing done as far as the house is concerned preparing for the new baby. The new baby will go into Christopher's old room and he will go into our soon-to-be-formerly spare bedroom. I have to paint it and the room needs to be cleaned out in a very bad way. This does mean, however, that we are all bedroomed out now. The next step is an addition...whenever and if ever we can afford it, but that's another post for another day...probably a day far, far away.

Realistically though, there is probably little interest in the goings on of Colleen and Thomas and more interest in updated Christopher photos....here they are.

eating cake at Max's birthday party eating ice cream with Daddy

at the park with daddy in his KU outfit from Grammy

on a walk with Daddy on a local hiking trail

New Summer Buzz-Do

Below are some pictures of Christopher's new short hair-do. With the onset of Summer and the hot, humid temperature and climate the season brings, we thought it best to give it a shot. I have to admit that we were initially concerned how much we would like the do without the curls. I have to admit, though I prefer the curls, I like this look for him. He really looks to me like he's graduated from being a baby or a toddler (even though he still is a toddler) into a little boy. I've put up some pictures of him with his new do and him playing with his new fascination,"cart-uhs" [pronounced kar-tuhs]. He absolutely loves about anything with wheels (which is strange because none of us have any remote fondness for such things....at least to the point where our child has such a crazy addiction to them). He's gathering quite a collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars...but he still loves his blue Easter Bunny that sings "I Love You a Bushel and a Peck". Good stuff. Anyway, enjoy the pictures.