We're Staying on Vacation!

Fall Break at Charlotte's school began on Thursday afternoon. To quote Charlotte, "We're staying on vacation" this week because "vacation is coming to us."

California, here you come: We began our break with a visit from my friend Kath G. from Palo Alto. Kath, Charlotte, and I went to the Art Institute. It was Charlotte's first visit to an art museum. She enjoyed the Impressionists for about 5 minutes, lingered in front of Seurat's Sunday on the Grand Jatte for another 3 minutes. Her interest in Seurat is courtesy of the wonderful book Feed Matisse's Fish. She's seen the painting dozens of times in the book. Seeing it face-to-face and looking for details that we can't see in the reproduction held her attention for a few minutes.

The Thorne Miniature Rooms really captured her imagination. Sixty-eight tiny reproductions of period rooms from different eras and locales across the United States, like little dollhouse rooms. We made a game of finding items in each room and deciding what rooms were fit for princesses.

I had not seen Kath G. since Charlotte was about 8 months old. She and Charlotte clicked and had a great time. At lunch Charlotte asked if Kath was coming home with us because she wanted to play more with my friend! Visiting with an old friend (ancienne, pas vieille), was delightful, even more so because Charlotte was angelic most of the day.

Stay tuned for more of our "stay-cation". We're planning fun excursions and we'll have exotic visitors by week's end.

And guess what? No doctors' appointments all week. I think that's a first!