Flashback Friday

Summer 2002, Anchorage:


Fall 2002, Iowa:


Halloween 2002, Iowa:

March 2003, San Diego (the Gerry pack was our original babywearing device!):



Have a great weekend!

It's hot out.

Summer is in full swing here, with temps in the 110-115 range. It's hot outside and our house is hot (we keep the air on about 83-85, as anything cooler would be financially stupid). Our house is simply not capable of cooling with any normal energy expenditure - windows are '70s original single pane, doors have damage from years of dogs (not ours), and the house was poorly/not insulated anyway. So yeah, good times in hot Phoenix! Seriously, we get used to it. But it's hot :)

C is in art camp this week...the other three and I are just keeping busy with splash pads, friends, and swimming. OP has taken a couple of dives of off beds this week (eek!), but aside from trauma is a happy, smiley, super mellow little guy. L is B.U.S.Y. as one might expect a two-year-old to be...but I swear, I forget just how busy they are every time. He can climb on the counter, puts stools on chairs to reach higher, gets his own ice water, and lately has taken to joining us in bed every night...which happens to have a lovely side-effect of him sleeping past 5:00 in the morning! Wednesday he didn't get up until 8! Today was 7:15!

That's the news from here...sorry for the lack of updates. A few pics:

(above: a borrowed Didymos wrap...cotton/wool blend...I loved it so much I had to get one of my own (below)!)


(Light Blue Fische)

OP is a happily wrapped baby these days...too bad there's that heat element!

Rice. A post about my sister.

My sister planted rice in a rural Indian village this last weekend:
(second from left, red shirt, black head scarf)

She also drove on the "wrong side" of the road, playing dodge-the-cows:

I think I've mentioned it before, but I am so thrilled with google video chat and my webcam! I am able to "live" talk with A from half a world away...I often catch her in the morning, as she's headed to bed (12.5 hour time difference), and get all the updates of life in Srinigar, Kashmir, India...for those new to the blog, A is an Urdu language interpreter for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), based in Srinigar, India - the seat of the Kasmiri conflicts.

Silence.

That's what I hear right now. The boys are both asleep, and the girls left this morning with my mom for three weeks in Alaska!

We spent last week in San Diego, visiting family, playing on the beach, cruising the zoo, and generally just enjoying being over there. We lucked out with some amazing weather, but sadly returned to some (relatively) nasty humid heat here in the ol' Valley of the Sun.

Master OP has hit 16 pounds (at 18 weeks); Big L has started saying so many more words recently, and even combining for two-word sentences rather regularly.

One funny (?) from this morning...Big L was getting ice for his water from our freezer, and saw the ice cream. Well, he pointed to the logo and clear as day said "Easy." Confused? It's from Fresh & Easy and he actually recognized the brand! I thought that he did that the other day in SD too, when we drove by a store...but he was in the back seat, and I didn't hear him clearly. I'm convinced now that indeed, brand recognition starts early. Scary.