How hot was it today? It was so hot, that just being in the swimming pool wasn’t enough, Annalie needed the sprinkler on too.

Yes, you’re reading that correctly. That temperature reading is 112F. Now, this is a cheap thermometer we bought on clearance at Target, so I tend to take whatever it’s telling me with a grain of salt. But when I checked online it said the temp in our town was 105F, and that’s not counting the horrid humidity. No wonder my brain seems to have melted a bit.

Troy and I got into the pool with Annalie for a little while, but we were cramping her style. She wanted to splash and we wanted to not be splashed, so we dried ourselves off and baked on the deck for a while, armed with large glasses of iced lemon-limeade.

Eventually Annalie got out too. As she dried herself off, she draped her towel around herself toga-style and said, “Look, Mommy! I’m a Greek person!”

Today was one of those mishmash Saturdays where we did a little of this and a little of that. In addition to hanging out in the pool, we did some cleaning and straightening up around the house and yard. I made Brenda’s stir-fry for lunch and for once got the sauce exactly right. Annalie and Troy hung out in the basement for a while, watching 80s movies and eating snacks while I had a nice long chat with my mom on the phone.

And we hacked a pink girly foo-foo ceiling fan for Annalie out of a boring white one!

When we moved into this house, none of the bedrooms had ceiling fans. That wasn’t a problem in the spring, but as summer heated up the bedrooms tended to get stuffy, especially at night, because our air-conditioner is weird. It keeps the living room and the whole basement cool, but the kitchen floor gets icy-cold, and the bedrooms stay several degrees warmer than is comfortable. Troy and I got a ceiling fan for our bedroom a few weeks ago, and had planned to get one for Annalie’s room when we got back from our trip to Omaha.

Of course when we took Annalie to Home Depot to look at fans, she fell in love with a pink one, decorated with ornate white hearts, that cost $100. If she didn’t get that pink fan, she was gonna be so very sad, you guys. We explained that the price was a bit too high, and although she bravely said she understood, her lip started to quiver. I pointed out a less-expensive cute fan with rainbow-colored blades and tried to talk her into that one, but she had her heart set on pink.

Then Troy came up with a brilliant idea. We picked up a plain white fan for half the price of the fancy pink one, plus a $3 can of pink spray paint. Later we picked up two dollars’ worth of sparkly white flower and butterfly stickers from Michaels. Troy painted the blades with two coats of the spray paint, and once the paint was dry Annalie and I arranged the stickers on them. Troy installed the fan, and voila! That’s how you hack a girly pink ceiling fan for half the price of the one at the store, and make your kid happy at the same time.

Just a quick bit o’ blog business: I’ve decided to start moderating comments from first-time commenters. The number of “smart” spam comments I get per day is increasing and it’s really annoying me. I’ve been putting off doing this because the last time I changed this setting, something went haywire and I stopped getting comments emailed to me. I’m hoping and praying that the same thing doesn’t happen this time. As a little test, could you please leave a quick comment for me, just to see if I’m getting them emailed to me? You can just say “test” or “hello” or—ooh, I know! Tell me your favorite song lyric. Merci!

UPDATE: Comments seem to be getting emailed to me just fine. Thanks, everyone! I’m closing comments on this post now.

Because I’m of “advanced maternal age” now (I’m 35), there have been a few more blood tests and things with this pregnancy than with Annalie. One of those tests was a 20-week ultrasound today. Annalie and Troy both were there too, which was a relief. Troy wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get an hour or two off work as they were in the middle of prepping for a last-minute presentation to some Navy bigwigs. At the last minute he called and said he was leaving work and he would meet us at the clinic. Whew! I’d have hated for him to miss it, since he probably won’t get to be at any other doctor’s appointments for this baby. We’ll be lucky if he makes it to the birth, with how busy this job is keeping him.

Anyway, we were all there to find out that this baby is a GIRL!

The other things that were checked with this ultrasound—the baby’s size, brain, stomach, heart, amniotic fluid, etc.—were all fine. Or as the cheerful doctor told us with his Italian accent, “Norrr-MAL, norrr-MAL, everything looks perfectly norrr-MAL. Good, good, good. What a good little baby she is!” He said everything looked so normal that I might not even need a 32-week ultrasound. And while it would be fun to see the baby again before she’s born, I can’t say I would mind losing one doctor’s appointment in those last couple of months. There will already be plenty of them to deal with.

Annalie has been petitioning us for a baby sister for years now. She was thrilled to hear that she’s finally getting one. She had several name suggestions ready—Daisy, Daffodil, Rose—which is three more names than Troy and I have thought of.

Annalie also pointed out to us that her baby sister would be able to wear her old clothes, but she was a little worried that she would have to share her toys. Once I assured her that she and the baby will be far enough apart in age that they probably won’t be much interested in the same toys at the same time, she was fully enthusiastic about a girl baby. “But still…” she mused, “maybe we can put a baby gate in front of my bedroom so my little sister can’t get in my room and break my stuff.”

So I guess we’ll continue to have lots of pink in our lives! Although really, Annalie’s favorite color until quite recently was blue. Now she goes back and forth between blue, purple, and pink. And although I have nothing against pink, Annalie was far more likely to be dressed in a variety of primary colors when she was a baby. Hmm. Maybe those early fashion choices I made for her are behind her love of crazy combinations of pattern and color today.

Maybe I should just dress this kid in head-to-toe pink!