Two summertime favorites

Our nearby ballpark opens this year with a swimming pool pavilion on the lawn. You can swim and watch a baseball game at the same time! For $2,500, you can rent the pool, which includes tickets, food, Dr Pepper and visors for 25 people. It would be the perfect spot for Cooper's 5th birthday party if it were about 90% cheaper.

We're hoping we can still find room on the lawn when we attend games this year. Reserved seats are just too stifling for this active family.

Books we read today

It's Ocean Week at Cooper's preschool, so he really loved Sharks by Seymour Simon. I could have done without the photos of sharks eating fish, but I'm not a 4-year-old boy. The rest of today's list:

• Pretzel
• three stories from The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
• God Made You Special
• Ten Little Ladybugs
• The Polar Express

Religion A-Z

One of my weekly freelance assignments is writing about topics in alphabetical order for The Dallas Morning News' Religion section (H is for halal, I is for Ignatius, etc.). This week I'm working on John Newton. Here are the topics we've covered so far.

Catching up on photos

I've finally uploaded photos for January, February and March on KodakGallery. Now I just have to get to all those Christmas photos! Here's the link to the Damm family gallery.

Katie at 9 months

Katie is 9 months old this week. At her check-up, she weighed in at 19 pounds, 13 ounces (75% for girls her age) and measured 29.5 inches long (off the chart for girls her age). Here she is, just before going to bed Monday night, her 9-month birthday.