Summer's Here!

Well, it's certainly been hot here for the past week, and I mean hot as in triple digits for the past 3-4 days. Hard to believe it's still June - whatever happened to those days of June gloom we always used to complain about?

Last weekend, Norm's friend Chris and his girlfriend Wendy were visiting from New York, and stopped by Chez Katz for some bbq. Lauren has a HUGE crush on Chris, and glued herself next to him the entire afternoon/evening until it was time for her to go to bed.




There has been lots of outside play this week (in the shade of course), much of it in our front and backyard. Lauren loves to explore the ants, bees, and other critters scurrying about, taking time to personally greet and have conversations with each of them. Her favorite new question she asks of any man, woman, child, or creature she encounters is "What's your name?". She will repeat the question incessantly, often getting up in people's faces, until she gets a satisfactory answer. She is also reveling in naming all of her toys and stuffed animals. The latest are a windup dinosaur and butterfly her Nanni and Pop-Pop Paul sent her. She named them "Timba" and "Roomba". Here's a few shots of her enjoying the fresh air this week:





Last night around 6 p.m., it was still 95 degrees outside, so we all went in the pool, which was a refreshing 83 degrees. Lauren loves the water, but very much is in the stage where she wants to do things by herself. Of course swimming is one of those activities, although she doesn't quite get why mommy and daddy can't just let her go swim by herself. So she has resigned herself to jumping off the step into our arms and having us "help" her go from one end of the pool to the other. She's still not a big fan of going under the water, so we're looking into some more swim lessons this summer. She'll be doing butterfly across the pool before we know it!



This afternoon we headed to the beach. Well, we tried to go to the beach, along with 10 million other Orange Countians trying to escape the heat wave on the first weekend of summer. Parking was nonexistent so instead we headed to a nearby park in Huntington Beach, where we spread our beach towel, had a picnic and let Lauren play with her shovel and bucket in the playground sand. It was a mild 80 degrees with a nice breeze and she seemed tickled pink, so we made do. Of course she stayed in her bathing suit the entire time. When she asked where we were, we appropriate told her we were at the "Beach Park." She advised me tonight that she wants to return to the Beach Park very soon.





Before bed tonight, Norm asked Lauren to tell him a joke. She asked, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Norm said "Why?" Lauren paused for effect, then matter of factly said, "He clucked!" Now Norm has been working on her answer to that joke for a couple of weeks (don't worry, I don't think it's particularly funny either), but he's never asked her to tell it. The fact that she delivered it so convincingly and with great timing tells us we might have a future comedienne on our hands. Uh oh.

Who Needs Clothes?

Ahh, the glorious warm days of summer. It has been beautiful here lately, and now that the work in our backyard is almost done, we can enjoy our new outdoor room and pool. Lauren absolutely loves to be outside, whether it be blowing massive bubbles (and dripping bubble juice all over the place, including herself), splashing in her new water table, or running through the "rain" (aka Daddy spraying the hose).

This afternoon, Norm and I found a water sprayer at the market that we thought she would absolutely love. You hook it up to the garden hose and it sprays water while wiggling its arms around. We told Lauren we had a surprise for her, and she immediately covered her eyes (the second she hears the word "surprise" or "present" she covers her eyes and waits to be told to look, although there's always lots of peeking going on). We got her good and nakey, with only a hat and water shoes in anticipation of the fun she'd have running through the sprayer. Well, as soon as we turned it on, she hated the spraying and ran away, screaming for us to turn it off. Guess it was a little too scary. A few minutes later, we disconnected the robot sprayer thingy from the hose and it became her new best friend. She carried it around with her outside for over 30 minutes, even insisting we bring a sippy cup for the "robot." She still managed to get plenty wet by running through the hose as Norm was watering the outdoor potted plants. Here are some pics of our angel with her new best friend:









She put her "robot" to bed on the outdoor ottoman, then grudgingly dragged her (wet) feet into the house for a bath before bed. I'm sure we'll be back out there tomorrow, and the next day, and the next . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lauren Attends the Firm Retreat

We took Lauren to my firm retreat in Rancho Mirage last weekend. Her favorite parts were seeing the hundreds of windmills on the way down to the desert, and playing in the resort's pool. Her least favorite part - napping. As in, she didn't. She maintained a happy attitude until about 7:15 p.m. at dinner, when the overtiredness crept in. After a full day in the pool and sun, it was time for bed. Just not in the hotel room. We didn't want to risk it (yes, we were chicken!), so packed up and drove home that same night. Darn it if the little angel didn't keep herself awake in the car for a full hour until she saw every last windmill in the waning twilight. She said goodnight to all the windmills, blew them kisses, then for only the second time in her life, fell asleep in the car. All in all, it was a good day.

Here she is with Daddy in the lazy river at the resort:


And with Mommy in a boat she "borrowed" from another family:


She had a blast with the kids of some of the other partners at a pre-dinner cocktail party. Of course they encouraged her newfound passion of making funny faces:


A smile for the camera accompanied by a super big hug:



Her favorite view of the resort, on Daddy's shoulders: