Aug. 09 - Roasting Heat, Rain & Reservoirs

Wow, what a shocker coming home last month. The temperatures soared while we were gone to ~ 110 degree highs consistently. The monsoon rains did arrive though and we made the most of it when they did. Iris says "rain" while pointing to the door and doing a half dance - half tantrum march in place to get our attention to take her out to play in the water. Since these rains are the reward for living in the desert in the summer how can we deny her. The temperatures can plummet 20 degrees or more in less than a half hour. Here she is enjoying one such event:



















































Here's one of our backyard residents - a spadefoot toad. They have little spades on their hind feet that allow them to burrow down into soil where they hibernate for most of the year, only coming above ground during the monsoon rains. They have a croaky song that sounds somewhat like a sick duck. We normally hear the toads serenading us while they swim in the wash behind our house but it has been a below average monsoon year, so sadly not much of a concert:(


















Iris has been busy testing out her climbing skills and gotten her share of bumps and bruises. Needless to say, we have made our living room into a veritable baby prison with gates and fences aplenty. Here I am trying to cheer her up with some cartoons on the couch after a big owee.
















A mellow morning outside:

















Here is our cistern that we finally got hooked up (my birthday present actually). We have since collected ~ 600 gallons of water for use on our adjacent veggie garden. It's kind of an ugly duckling now but we have plans to paint it and grow vines on a trellis around it. You can't really make it out in this picture but Iris is wearing a shirt that says "I get my water from the sky" a gift from my old employer who installs rainwater harvesting systems.























Jeff had his longest trip away since Iris was born, a five day conference in San Diego. Definitely harder for us than Iris. She was nonchalant upon his return and more interested in exploring the airport. She is the same way when I am gone as well. In fact, her new thing when asked for a hug is to say "no" albeit rather cutely, while running away. She is also quite fonding of saying "I know" all the time although not in any context yet. Here we are playing peek-a-boo at the zoo:


















Iris has had an insatiable appetite lately, and she's getting pretty good at handling a spoon.


















Fun with yogurt cup towers: