Hurricane Season

Early this week, the weather man announced that the first tropical storm of the year had formed off the western coast of Mexico.  It might seem like the start of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Pacific matters very little in the deserts of Tucson, but we are impacted by these storms.  Generally, the temperature shots upwards as these storms push inland and the dreaded 100+ summer temperatures begin to appear.  If we are lucky, some of the storm actually makes it this far inland and we get a good rain storm.  So far we haven't gotten much rain, just some hot weather and a fair amount of wind. 

So with the warmer weather, Joseph and Jodie are forced to stay indoors, which leads to a little boy going stir crazy and the formation of Hurricane Joseph.  So, for the start of our hurricane season, here's our report:

Hurricane Joseph formed earlier this week as Tropical Storm Aletta weakened moving through the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California and temperatures across Tucson rose above 100 degrees for the first time this year.  Fortunately, when Hurricane Joseph hit the Brems' home, he was only a category 3 storm, causing only minor damage to three parts of our house. 

Hurricane Joseph first plummeted head strong into the living room, scattering toys and newspaper adds across the floor.

As Joseph headed further inland into the kitchen, the storm weakened slightly.  Damage was concentrated mainly around the pantry and the trash and consisted mostly of Dixie Cups being scattered across the floor.  Fortunately, the Tupperware cupboard was completely spared during the storm.

As Hurricane Joseph continued his path into the Brems' home, he turned westward to the bathroom and completely emptied the current roll of toilet paper onto the floor.  Fortunately, nearby residents were alerted to Hurricane Joseph's activity in the bathroom by an unusual silence broken with intermittent giggles and were able to stave off any further damage.

Over the course of the week, we've be working on ways to help cool off Hurricane Joseph's afternoon storm.  The most effective appears to be a trip to the pool.

As soon as he gets into the water, he starts doing a modified breaststroke kick as hard as he can and is all smiles.

We even tried to blow some bubbles.

And a few laps of backstroke.

What do you think of our little fish?

Earlier, we also got a little floaty toy for Joseph.

It was pretty nice when you were tired.

But the verdict is still out on just how much we like it.

 A new aspect of Hurricane Joseph is the ability to go vertical.  Somehow he manages to find footholds on anything and he will climb as high as he possibly can.

 And he absolutely loves climbing, much to our dismay.

In closing, here are a few random pictures of Joseph and some fun new things.  Over the past few months, Joseph has been extremely interested in eating whatever we are eating.  For a few weeks now, this has led to some rather interesting dinners and Joseph trying a host of different foods.  One of our newest favorites, now that we have two teeth, apples.

This morning, Joseph and I had some fun playing with blocks and cars.

And playing peak-a-boo in Spanish.  It's really cute because he'll giggle every time I ask "Donde está Joseph?"

For a couple months, we've been trying to get this next picture.  Rather frequently, you can find Joseph "reading" a book aloud after his nap.  It's a very difficult to capture because once he sees or hears you, this scene very quickly turns into...

this.