when "scorching" is the forecast...

our family loves playing outside in beautiful weather.  hiking, biking, paddle-boating - we like just about anything outdoorsy.  in the spring and fall, that is.  100+ degree temps, on the other hand, are one way to ensure that we keep our feet firmly planted on the floors of our usually air-conditioned house ("usually" because our upstairs unit pulls a once-a-year summer shutdown on us just to make sure we appreciate it).

but a few days ago the kids and i were climbing the walls and josh had developed a tic from spending the whole workweek in his windowless basement office so we waited until the sun dipped down a bit then we treated our lawn and our kids to some sprinkler time. 



one thing i've loved most about this past almost three weeks of having micah home is watching him experience almost everything for the very first time.  it's all new and novel, and it's encouraging me to see things in a new light as well.  i couldn't wait to see what he thought of the sprinkler.



what?  he doesn't look impressed??  he certainly had strong feelings about it...just not the kind i had expected.



jack tried to console him...



and while that did stop the crying, what he really needed was some momma and daddy time.





then he was happy to cheer his siblings on from the sidelines.



i didn't notice it at the time i was snapping these photos, but even the older kids' "sprinkler jumping technique" tells of each of their personalities.  take abby, for example.  abby is a rule-follower, and she loves to make a beautiful production out of almost everything.




izzy, while she can dig up some huge worms in our backyard, is our girly-girl.  she's delicate and sensitive, and she does everything with a sweet touch.




then there's jack.  i'm not even going to try to explain him...i'll just trust that you fellow mommas-of-boys understand.  :-)





but back to micah's "new and novel" time at home.  one of the first things we jumped on when we took custody of him was trying to facilitate some communication abilities between each of us.  not only were we trying to overcome a 10-month-old's lack of expressive language, but we were also trying to bridge the gap between the amharic and english languages.  here's a short video i took of him at lunch time today that just warms my heart.  (thankfully i'm a much better photographer than i am videographer)

HAVE A SUPER WEEKEND!!!!