The heat broke today sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. The windows are open and a cool refreshing breeze blows through now, replacing the stale air conditioned atmosphere we've had since returning Friday from our trip to Evanston for the 4th of July. The weekend heat was simply oppressive. Even a foot dip in Ed's wading pool didn't take the edge off.

We had a great time in Evanston though. We got to see some family on the 4th, and then John and I went to the Police concert at Wrigley Field on the 5th. It was a great show; John offers better details on his blog. We were amused and chagrined at the Chicago Tribune's crowd description: "more mini-van than mosh pit." Truth hurts I guess. For the record, we don't drive a mini-van, but substituting "station wagon" would have sacrificed the alliteration.

The picture above is Ed on the 4th with Shadow, my aunt and uncle's extremely patient dog. His best efforts to hide in corners, under chairs and even once in the bathroom did not thwart Edward's determination to show his "love." We're working on "nice" gentle petting of animals, to varying degrees of success. Edward can say "niiiice" but the actions don't always follow.

Other words in his ever-expanding vocabulary are: car, outside, all done, and of course, NO. He's been saying this for a while now without any exact meaning, but has started using it as intended in the last week or so, much to our dismay and frustration. In this video he demonstrates some of his language, his understanding of the difference between hot and cold and his version of the sound a dog makes.