How to Survive Houston Summers

Question: What do you do to survive the summers in Houston?

Answer: Don't go outside!!! It is imperative to remain indoors at all times if you want to stay dry! If you do need to go outside for a little boy that constantly says "outside?", then be sure that water is involved. You're either going to be soaked with sweat or water...your pick.

Caleb enjoying the fountains at Market Street

Always more fun with friends (cousin Dallin and Drew)

Trying to look as cool as Drew does in his sunglasses

If you must do an activity outside and you can't involve water, be sure to keep the activity to a maximum of 15 minutes to try to avoid red faces and sweaty clothes.

Our 30-minute outing with the ducks, which was about 25 minutes too long for the heat. This picture demonstrates Caleb's definition of feeding the ducks, "one for me and one for you."


And lastly, to survive Houston summers, definitely DO NOT, under any circumstances, exercise outside.

I need to do better at heeding that advice. My sister and I are still running together every day, and I'm still doing some longer runs on Saturdays. Matt and I have also started playing Ultimate Frisbee again on Tuesday nights. This picture was taken right after a weekday run. I was hoping the camera would capture my soaked clothes and sweat dripping down my forehead and nose. Apparently my camera is not that hi-tech. If this picture would have been taken on a Saturday after my run or after Ultimate Frisbee, it would look like a bucket of water had been dumped on me. I can wring out my clothes when I'm finished. Pretty gross and pretty dumb :o).

The three-digit temperatures in combination with no rain for about 3 weeks has been a killer! Our water bill is going to skyrocket this month (in order to keep the grass green), and the electricity bill will inevitably go up as well. Hopefully not that much as I keep our house really warm during the day to try to save on cost. It's amazing how your body can acclimate to 80 degree temperatures full time inside when it's over 100 degrees outside!

Toasted Buns

So I'd like to think that we all have our "blonde" moments every once in awhile. Last Saturday was one of mine. Caleb woke up with really bad diaper rash and cried during each diaper change. (He had diarrhea, which resulted in A LOT of diaper changes! Poor kid.) I tried as much as I dared to keep a diaper off of him so that his bottom could air out and heal. What better solution than to go outside and play in the water naked? Matt had to go into work unexpectedly, which never happens on the weekends, so Caleb and I were alone. (Rather, Mommy was alone to deal with Caleb's cranky moods from not feeling 100%.) Caleb was having a blast playing outside in the water. My brother and sister-in-law just gave us their Little Tikes play gym, so at the bottom of the slide, I filled up our baby pool. He would run around with the hose, and I turned on the sprinkler after awhile. Needless to say, we were having so much fun that I lost track of time and stayed out there longer than I intended...and Caleb wasn't wearing any sunscreen. In my defense, we go on morning walks/jogs every morning for an hour, and I don't ever put sunscreen on Caleb! He's got his daddy's skin and tans very nicely. But his poor butt cheeks have never seen the sun, and they got a bit toasted. I felt so horrible! Not only did he have diarrhea and diaper rash, but he had a sunburned butt too. (I'm just grateful his front end didn't get burned also!) Luckily he was so exhausted from the day, that he slept really well that night and the next day most of the sunburn had sunk in. I felt so bad about the whole thing that the last thing on my mind was to take a picture, so this picture isn't taken until two days later. Most of the sunburn is gone, but you can tell it was the upper half of his cheeks that got burnt. Really I just wanted to post a picture of my son's cute bum :o) and his famous thunder thighs.