It's been AGES. I know. And I haven't uploaded any pictures in an embarrassingly long time either. I do post photos on Facebook, so if you're jonesing for Gaz, that's a good place to visit. (I know it's evil, but it's very convenient evil.)

My first year of law school is done, and I have now started my first week of summer classes. (The fun never ends!) Gaz still has another few weeks of school before her vacation starts, and then it'll be day camp time again. This year she's going an hour earlier to camp to help get her ready for next school year, when CPS schools are allegedly going to be starting earlier and staying later. I don't think they've worked that out with the teachers yet, but in anticipation of them doing so, I thought it would be useful to get Gaz used to getting up earlier sooner rather than later. Besides, more time at camp means more play time, which is never a bad thing.

First grade is going well. The report cards keep looking good, and while her listening grade went down, the conferences have all been glowing. My favorite part of life now is how much she likes reading on her own. She's always been into being read to, but it used to be tricky to get her to settle down with a book at home for some quiet time. Now sometimes she disappears and when I track her down she's quietly reading one of her books. Or she's quietly starting to read one of Mark's old science fiction paperbacks. Which has involved a bit of intervention (if she's going to go for the paperbacks, I want her reading the Terry Pratchett before the Mike Resnik), but still makes me happy that she's testing new reading waters.

She's also writing songs! They range from actually clever for a six-year-old to a lot of "yeah, yeah yeah" pop babbling, often all in the same song. But I love it. One song she wrote a while back was about how we have to teach the boys not to kill butterflies. I think last night's song was about ancient simian ancestors, but sometimes it's hard to tell.

In short, life is good although busier than I would prefer.