Heat Wave!

Sunday marked the beginning of the first big heat/humidity wave of the season.  I hate hot & humid weather.  Austin loves it.  We all cope.  Our new house does not have central air conditioning.  It does have a big, old, clunky wall unit in the living room, lots of shade trees and a ceiling fan in every room.  We're looking into putting in central air, but it's not quite in the budget yet.  In the meantime, Austin got a small window air conditioner for Emily's room upstairs on Saturday.  Emily thought it was pretty cool being able to stick her hand out the window and wanted to "help" screw in everything.

On Sunday afternoon we broke out the little blow-up pool I had purchased 2 1/2 years ago on clearance at Wal-mart.  As you may or may not recall, Emily refused to put on a swimming suit all last summer and never set foot in any kind of a pool.  This year she was eager to put on her new suit, although we did have to explain that you don't have to wear underwear. ;o)  It's actually at least one size too big, but that doesn't matter as much at this stage.

Lincoln was happy in his trunks and swim shirt, too.  I had originally purchased an 18 mo. set for him.  When he wasn't growing as fast as I had expected I got him a pair of 12 mo. trunks at a consignment shop in Rock Valley.  The 18 mo. shirt is nice and loose and his swim diaper barely even holds up the 12 mo. trunks.  He's a gangsta swimmer. :o)

Both kids loved putzing in the pool for a good chunk of the afternoon while Austin & I relaxed in the lounger chairs (best deck chairs ever!).  However, I think we may need to look into the possibility of purchasing a second, bigger pool.  Both of them playing nicely together in a space smaller than the bathtub with all those plastic and blow-up toys is not going to last very long.
  
Here are some more picture highlights of the pool.  There are also some videos in the video player.

Today we got out the pool again but also got out the hose.  At first I attached the little ladybug sprinkler to the end.  That entertained Emily for quite awhile.  Then I changed it back to the regular nozzle head on the "shower" setting so it wouldn't be a constant flow.  That was even more exciting.  Emily spent over 4 hours outside this afternoon discovering all sorts of fun things you can do with hose from filling up various containers to making mud puddles to creating rainbows with mist.  She even figured out how to make a better sprinkler by propping up the nozzle in the grass in various places (see video).  All I can say is that our backyard, and especially the trees, are going to be well watered.  Some people may call it a waste of water.  I call it a cheap babysitter!  Besides, I know that's exactly I spent many afternoons growing up and it's one of my fond childhood memories. :o)