I am happy right now...

You and me both, Shirley Manson. You and me both.

So it's been like a trillion degrees here for what seems like forever. And while we are totally lucky to have an awesome friend with a backyard pool (which makes it SO much less like Chinese-lack-of-water-torture), I was still thrilled to hear those first drops of rain that signaled a break in the choking heat and (FINALLY!) some water for our lawn, etc.

I love the rain. Seriously. I mean, I loathe overcast days that are just cloudy and dreary and lacking in vitamin-d, but when it's actually RAINING? That I love. I swear that noise is like the best natural sedative in the world for me.

Not so great when I have deadlines out the watoosie, mind you, like I do today, but I am still happy to hear it.

Frankly, I'm sick of having house-bound kids who are crawling the walls. Edison isn't so bad, really -- he's happy to work on his computer or other indoor projects all day (and night) -- but Violet...man, she is not built to be inside all the time.
And when we weren't over at my friend Becky's pool, it was too hot to do ANYTHING outside. I mean, all day. It was like 90-something in the morning and 90-something in the evening (and 100+-something during most of the day).

When I was a kid, I was happy to go outside and stomp around in the rain, but Violet...not a fan. Which is SO weird because she usually takes any opportunity to make a mess. So while Edison is at a computer programming camp this week (I know, upside of living in a totally geek-friendly city), Vi and I have gone through some of his older toys he doesn't really play with anymore. She's loving his HexBugs (and of course, after he got home and saw her playing with them, they were interesting again -- at least this led to cooperative play rather than conflict), we've been working on different art activities (she's fixated on drawing composed still-lives right now) and of course, we've been using the iPad2.

Thanks to this post from The Maker Mom's Facebook page, I was inspired to go treasure hunt for some great new apps yesterday, and I was pretty excited about some of the stuff I found. Right now Vi's favorite is Bobo Explores Light. I know lots of people don't like to pay for iPad apps, but I'm not among that group. Now I love a good free app as much as the next person, and some of them are FANTASTIC. (We'll get to those in another post soon.) But if you refuse to buy apps, you're missing out. I know there's a school of thought that says, "well I paid X amount for this device, so I don't want to pay more for the apps." I mean, okay, if you're committed to that, but my feeling is that yeah, you paid a lot for the device...now USE it. Because trust me, apps like Bobo Explores Light are part of what make having the iPad so fantastic.

It's basically a science explorer app for kids, but it has fantastic graphics, wonderful content and a really easy-to-use interface. I'm telling you, Vi loves it. She's been playing on constantly (well, as much as we'll let her) since we downloaded it. Yeah, at $4.99 it's one of the pricier apps I've bought for the kids, but I do not regret it. So far today she's come in to explain to me why Hawaii has more photosynthesis than the Sahara Desert and shown me a crazy-cool video from the app that shows you how the world looks through different animals' eyes. (Snakes have infrared vision! Who knew? Not this girl.)

Now, Vi is homeschooled, so admittedly, these apps may be more valuable to me than someone whose kids don't learn primarily at home. But even if your kids DO go to school, if they love science, they'll really enjoy this. I'm thinking the right ages are maybe science-advanced Pre-K to even 3rd or 4th grade. I mean, I guess I can get Edison to check out the app later and see how long it holds his interest and update you. :)

So anyway, I'm happy right now...it's raining, I have two snuggly dogs curled up on me, and Vi is sitting across from me on the couch enjoying her new iPad apps. And I'm going to appreciate it while it lasts.