It's Still Summer

Heat takes on a new meaning when you can feel it with your eyelids. Just when I think that I've grown accustomed to the hot dry summers of this northern California town, the thermostat rises, testing my resolve.  Exiting my very air-conditioned office building, it takes almost three seconds before I feel it. I begin to think, "It's not too ba--" and before I can reach the word's second syllable, I feel a tightness around my eyes.  I squint in defeat, and speed walk toward my car.  It might be September, but it is still so very hot and reminds me that summer isn't quite over yet.

Lola started kindergarten nearly three weeks ago. She is in love. Every afternoon, she arrives home happily chatting about her friends, the various cultural studies they are engaging in (Botany! Zoology! Geography!), how she ate in the cafeteria, and the games that were played at recess. She loves her new backpack, her new teacher, her new lunch pail.  She loves it so much that she is pretty ticked when Saturday arrives.

"Mom, I thought you said kindergarten was 'every day!'" (Which I did say, as she only attended preschool 3 times a week. I should have known that I needed to specify that "every day" meant "business days.")

Given the difficult adjustment that she endured with preschool, it is a relief that the transition to kindergarten is going so well. I would post a photo of her from her first day except that I used the actual camera to take photos and now I can't find the cord that is needed to upload the photos to my laptop.  I did, however, take a photo on my phone of part of the first lunch that I packed for her. I took the photo because I spent ten minutes searching through the container of alphabet cookies to find ones that would spell her name, and then subsequently realized what a ridiculous waste of time the whole thing was and I swore I would never do it again.



Speaking of cuteness, our adorable baby boy is continuing to steal hearts every day. He, after spending the last 11 months quietly observing all of us from a stationary position, has decided that it is time to move and be heard.  In the past month, he has acquired his first two teeth, began crawling, and decided that his first word would be "ut-oh."  If you drop anything, he'll be sure to acknowledge it.