Surviving the Heat

I'm finding it difficult to blog about our summertime lives because they're just not super exciting. We're spending a LOT of time at the pool. We're probably there 4 times a week or so. We love it. It's just about a quarter mile walk from our front door so we get in our suits, Tate hops in his stroller, and we head over for as long as we want. Unfortunately I don't have pictures because it's impossible to take them when I'm there with Tate by myself. I'll try to get some when Glenn's home this weekend.
Tate is getting much braver in the water. Last year he didn't care for water in his face at all. This year he thinks he can swim, in spite of the many, many time he's jumped off the stairs to us right before we look and sinks right to the bottom. When we grab him he usually comes right back up with a big smile on his face. At least he knows how to hold his breath. So far. Gives me a heart attack every time.
Our pool has a little play ground with a slide and he's started to love climbing up the stairs, braving the sprinklers, and going down by himself over and over. A feat he never would have attempted last year. It's so fun to watch him just love being in the water and it's a very nice way to pass the time in this nasty heat.
We still get out in the morning for our brief jog around the duck pond and then we've been spending lots of time in the toy room, watching shows, getting things done around the house, running errands. Most of the time Tate is very sweet and patient. Sometimes the poor kid feels like a caged animal. So this morning, we decided to brave an early visit to the zoo. It has been months and Tate was as excited as the first time we went. Poor kid. He just yelled as we drove up, "I see the zoo! I see it! I see it!" He put on his sunglasses himself. I thought it was cute, so we left them. He was just thrilled to see the animals again and kept telling them, "Hey komodo dragon, I came to visit you!" "Hey, big fish, I came to visit you!" "Hey chimpanzee, I came to visit you!"
Oddly enough, I think one of the highlights was seeing this "diver" cleaning one of the fish tanks. Tate thought it was the coolest. He kept waving at him and talking to him. "Hi diver, I'm Tate." We remembered quickly why it's been so long since we've braved a long outside outing. It was so crazy hot. We always visit the drums in the African section, but this time we lingered for about 20 minutes. It was a great little stretch of shade.We both kept guzzling water, seeking every bit of shade we could find, and still left completely soaked in sweat. Yuck. It may be another while before we visit again.
Play dough is another classic keeping cool activity these days. Tate has his own version of play dough play. He wants us to make him cars. Play dough cars. Not just any cars. The cars from the movie "Cars". Here he has Mister the King, Sally, Lightning, Chick Hicks, Luigi, and the tractor. Of course he dictates the color. They must be in the correct color. He especially likes it when the tractor says "mooo" and tips over. We're determined to have a good time in spite of the heat! Thank heavens for air conditioning!