Summer is officially here and boy did it make an obnoxious entrance. Yesterday was beastly, to say the least. The type of weather that leaves you exhausted and dazed no matter how much sleep you get. A presence of heat so burdening that you can barely muster up the energy to do more than sit still in a chair and wish time's passage to hurry on. It's triple digits out there, people! The funny thing is that I spoke with Angela and she's dealing with East Coast heat (read: heat and humidity that sucks your breath away!). It brought back a lot of memories from Texas, and all of a sudden, things didn't seem so bad here. Today, I'm holed up in my apartment with my friend, the a/c, and I'm not going anywhere! I walked to Subway to get lunch and that was quite enough for one day! When it cools down, though, I'll go for a walk, since I'm trying to keep up with that.

I didn't mention that yet, did I? Yep, I started walking! Quite by accident, in fact. It's just that I've had to take BART over to see Victor every day (what with the absence of my car and all), and I walk a mile from the BART station to the house. Yesterday, I got a ride, so I just made sure to walk to the park and back that day. Like I said, today I'm home. Not because of happy reasons, though -- it's because Victor's sick...

Yesterday, Victor and I visited the park again. It was the second day in a row that someone at the park asked, "So does your husband have red hair, too?" And I found myself wondering what to do first: answer their question, or tell them Vic's not my kid! I ended up saying it sort of all together, and adding that it'd be cool if Joe and I did have kids that look like Vic someday.

We played in the sand that was in the shade, which granted us only minor reprieve from the heat. Still, the kids seemed to be mostly enjoying themselves. Their play was unusually slow and quiet, though, a weird sight to behold. One little girl crawled over to the play area in the sunshine, then froze, and began crying. Her mom had to go rescue her from the too-hot sand. Finally, we went home, and by the time we got there, I was positively exhausted (and full of Gatorade). I let Vic play with his stroller buckles for a bit (his new favorite pastime!) before heading upstairs with him and our stuff. I set him down on the other side of the baby gate and went to the bathroom to splash cold water all over my shirt, my face, the back of my neck, and my hair. I grabbed my water bottle and his, and a bottle of milk from the fridge, and sat down with him in the chair in front of the fan. He had already had a ton of water during the day, and so had I. So we were hydrated, which is a good thing. I gave him his bottle, which he sipped quietly as he lay in my arms. As he was drinking, I took off his shoes and socks. As I did that, he started giggling to himself. Then he laughed more and more with his beautiful little Victor laugh. He looked so amused and so silly laughing with the bottle still in his mouth that I couldn't help laughing with him. I think the fan tickled his toes! So I blew on his face and stomach and he giggled some more, until he finished his bottle and wanted to play. I interrupted him a few times to offer him more water and wipe him down with a wet washcloth.

At one point, Vic only wanted to be held, and after a whole two minutes in my arms, the little guy was asleep! He didn't even wake up when I set him down on the bed. After his half hour nap, he didn't want to be set down. He still seemed really sleepy and felt hot against me. But the whole room felt hot, and I was still hot, and I thought the only reason he felt so warm as he lay on my stomach was that we were both still feeling the effects of our afternoon in the sun. I continued making sure he was hydrated and wiping his body with the damp cloth. After sitting in front of the fan for a half hour, Beth came home, and realized Vic was not just hot from the day -- he had a fever. A high one, at that. She took his temp, gave him medicine, got a new sleeveless outfit on him, and we went to the porch to sit down with some ice cream and cool off. I felt so terrible for not realizing Vic had a fever, and felt even more ridiculous once we were outside and felt the cool evening air. What on earth?! It had been so hot that I was thinking, "Man, we're not going out there again!" And for who-knows-how-long, the porch was actually cooler than the upstairs room we were lounging in. I mentally kicked myself a few more times.

It turned out to be okay, though. We enjoyed the ice cream immensely. Vic's "mmmm" sounds said it all. He played on the steps and with the stroller and the mailbox and Beth's keys, in spite of his fever. He even picked up the keys and for the first time, tried to put them in the lock!! At one point, he actually had the housekey (the correct key on a chain of many keys) partially in the lock. Beth and I were both amazed and she was even able to capture some pictures of Vic's newest achievements. It was awesome!

And today, the little guy is home sick with his mom, which I'm sure has got to be the best thing for him. I mean, who doesn't want their mom when they're sick? I hope they are both doing okay.

So yeah, summer is crazy, and even though I want to like it, even though I feel like hey, it's one of the four seasons, another part of nature that I ought to embrace, I just... can't! I'm not there yet, and I'm not sure when I ever will be. Growing up, summer was a time of danger, a time when I could easily fall victim to heat exhaustion (which happened on more than one occasion). Summer was all about staying inside in air-conditioning at all times. Reading. T.V. Possibly swimming during the morning hours only. Keeping all the animals inside and hydrated. It wasn't about spending all day outside in the sun. Far from it. Every summer in San Antonio, the news reported heat-related deaths. Summer was scary growing up. In a lot of ways, it still is.

But, like I always tell myself, I'm in California now. At least it's not Texas. I have a wonderful air conditioner (did I mention my love for the a/c? I love it! LOVE!), a Brita water filter, a tank top and shorts, and an afternoon to myself. Today is positively not a scary summer day. Today is a good summer day. And when that San Francisco fog starts rolling in again, we can all look forward to even better summer days.