They grow up so fast

It seems like only yesterday my little girl looked like the photo here. I was going through some files for an earlier version of this site and found my original photo gallery setup, so I had to download them all so I can start moving them over to Flickr. She gets that ginormous head from me, of course; I sometimes have trouble finding hats that fit. She's always been photogenic and a huge ham, so I've got some great pictures to upload. My favorites are from before she learned to fake smile, back when every grin was genuine. Nowadays, of course, she's all grown up, turning nine this summer. One the one hand, this means she's old enough to argue intelligently with me and less likely to take "because I said so" as a valid answer. On the other hand, she's big enough to put to work when we spend a day doing yard work. And, of course, she's big enough to rock out! And that's exactly what we did with part of our afternoon. I fired up Rockband while she was eating lunch so I could entertain her with the Judas Priest songs I'd downloaded (the entire Screaming for Vengeance album was released on Tuesday). Once she finished eating, she wanted to jump i, too, so she could sing "Still Alive." She really digs that song. Later on, when we'd finished working outside for the day and gotten a little rest, we fired the game back up and got into our band's world tour. She was absolutely incredible! Songs she already knows well, like "Maps" and "Say It Ain't So," were a breeze. She really showed her chops, though, when we hit some serious rock she didn't know. First was The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," which she belted out like a champ. Then came KISS with "Calling Dr. Love," which she sings better than I do, and I know the words. I kept turning up the volume as we played, and by the time we hit our finale with "Wanted Dead or Alive," we were probably annoying the neighbors. My little girl is so much fun!