Ben Kantor is a toddler now, and other news

Ben is walking and talking. He says lots of words (his latest: kite, bike, bee, tree, duck ("wah wah wah"), drink, tub, baby. (I am told it is unusual for a 15.5 month old to know so many words, he knows several dozen, but most of them consist of just a few sounds {"oh" = open, "kee"= kitty, "ba"=bath, "si"=outside, you get the idea) He loves to play in the new Madison city pool--which is very toddler friendly-- the nearby park, and in our own yard in his little playhouse with the neighborhood kids, and of course with his cousins (Mike's brother's kids) who live a block up the street from us now (see below). He is a bit of a kamikaze on his little push trike, which he quickly learned to coast down our sloping sidewalk, terrifying his poor mother. See videos and pics at:

http://www.mathlearning.net/private/ben/200607/benJuly2006.html

His parents have been on the move, too! We moved to a house in a more family-friendly neighborhood right down the street from Mike's brother Dave and his wife and 2 kids, who are 4 and 6. Mom and Dad spent several weeks here helping out, which made it the whole process much much easier.

I am still a full-time mom, but trying to decide when to start working again part-time, or possibly starting school at the Population Health Masters Program at the UW (an epidemiology and health services research program). Not getting much knitting design done right now with an old house to fix up and settle into, and a VERY busy toddler. Not getting much of anything done in fact, but having fun all the same.

Vacation plans- We are hoping to have a vacation with Greg and kids somewhere nearby in August but summer is so nice in Wisconsin we seldom go away. Hope the Schettler Family Picnic happens again this year. Maybe we can move it to Swan Lake so Norm and Diane don't have to do all the work of hosting?