July is my second least favorite month in Indiana. It’s a very close second to January, where the biting face-burning stinging cold seems all the more bleak after the warmth and good feelings of the Christmas season. July, on the other end of the temperature extreme, toasts us with day after day of 90 plus degree weather. In July, like in February, we must keep our house closed. No fresh air, only the sedate hum of our central heating/cooling system. In July, the crops in nearby fields grow several feet – a humid jungle of corn surrounding our small town. Indiana corn loves July, but we humans sneeze and sweat and stick in our clothes.

July is not a good month to find yourself at home with a six-month-old. His pollen allergies will keep him up at night. His eyes will water whenever you take him outside – even when it’s just enough time to sit on the porch swing and read the mail. The sun in his eyes will make him fuss. The hat to block the sun makes him overheat. He sweats through his clothing. His feet actually smell (a baby – I would never have imagined). So you take him in the house, but he is bored. The inability to find relief anywhere weighs you down.

Thank God, then, that the breathless, unbearable heat of July has given way to an ambient, crisp late-August. How happy we have been, lately, to spend mornings outside sitting on a blanket on the grass. Loulou has been in a superb mood - smiling more often, and laughing more easily. The better weather seems to have even inspired him – he decided to sit up on his own the first morning I started our outside routine. I’ve felt inspired too – instead of seeing only the ground in front of me, I’ve found again the forgotten, luxurious pleasure of looking up into the trees and the sky.

Bravo ! Il s'asseoit tout seul ! un grand dégourdi ! Sa cousine commence juste à le faire à 10 mois ! (mais c'est qu'il y a de la masse à soulever ;-)))

Psssst, finalement, Loulou, il a bien quelque chose de Charlie Brown, non, dans la coiffure ?

oui, il a une meche un peu folle!

Fed!!!!!!!!