We've been trying to stay cool here at the Kenyon household these past couple of weeks, as the heat, humidity and dew point all conspired to make things seem quite tropical. We passed the time in a number of different ways. Edward, with a lot of help from Mom, reads Moo, Baa, La La La.

Here Edward keeps cool with some water from his new sippy cup. He hasn't quite mastered this -- he doesn't know to tip it up so the water actually comes out, but the spout has proven to be a tasty new chewable toy. Once he figures this out, it will probably be more fun for him and messy for us. The doctor suggested taking the no-spill valve out until he gets the hang of it, which means it's free-flowing when upside down. Because the bottom has proven as appealing to chew as the top, this will mean frequent spills. It's only water for now, so we'll just have a soggy Edward.

As mentioned last week, Ed has a new "breathable bumper" on his crib. He's found ways to make that fun, too. I laid him down for a second on Saturday while taking out a dirty diaper. In the moment I was away, he rolled from his back to his front, and found himself lodged up against the side of the crib. I came back into the room and called his name. His head popped up to reveal a pair of eyes over the top of the pad. I pulled it down to reveal him giggling. He was more than happy to reprise this for the camera a moment later.

For recreation he took a piggyback ride around the house with me (note his ingenioius use of hair as a handle) and, once the heat broke over the weekend, went swinging in our neighborhood park (after donning his soon-to-be too small hat and a good dose of sunscreen) with Mary. All told, it was a good full week.

The only real news to report is that we got our car back last weekend after it suffered another minor relapse while we drove back from Davenport weekend before last. They had installed a "black box" which recorded the problem, and we hope the fix will do the trick. We'd kind of like to get back to the "worry-free" part of having a new car.