Vegetable garden

We've finally past the last freeze. It stayed cold a lot longer than usual, but it's finally a good time to get things into the ground.

A. loves to help garden -- watering plants, digging up dirt, pulling weeds -- so we get a lot of time outside to work on the yard. She's constantly asking to go outside. "I garden!"

We've been doing a lot of stuff. I refreshed the herbs around our patio outside the kitchen -- replanting the basil that the freezes had killed, getting the cilantro into the ground, and adding Thai basil. JJ put some low-voltage lights along the front walk.

But my big project has been a vegetable garden. I cleared out an area about 12 x 24 in the back of the back yard. In the back half I planted a couple pumpkin and watermelon plants. In the front half I'm in the process of putting in carrots, onions, potatoes, and peppers.

And we also have strawberry plants to go around the heat pump and blackberry bushes to line the rear of the property. We have areas to plant on the back and two sides of the house. And we have a landscaper coming next week to talk about putting some trees along the driveway and fix up the planting area near the front door.

Wow. Lots to do for people who've never had dirt of their own before!

Been a while

Sorry it's been so long. I've been kinda bummed and unmotivated for the last few weeks -- even Florida isn't enough to prevent shades of S.A.D., I guess. But I'm pulling out of it as the weather gets nicer.

Things have been bit bumpy with A. lately. She appeared to have a reaction to something -- rash, vomiting, loose stools, etc. We suspect a developing soy sensitivity -- she'd had a lot of soy-based foods just before that, and it's not uncommon for kids with a cow's milk sensitivity to develop one to soy or eggs or another food. So we took her off soy in preparation for a challenge that next week.

But before we got to that, it appears she had an exposure to dairy. We haven't been able to track down the source, but since we ate out a lot that week and there's no way to know what really happens back in the kitchen, that's not a surprise. This is the first time she's had a strong reaction since she's been so verbal, and it was so sad. After the first day or two of diarrhea, she started having what appeared to be stomach cramps. She'd grab her stomach, cry and wince, and say, "tummy sad!".

We're finally through that reaction, and we're looking to do a soy challenge next week. That'll tell us our next step.

We had what is hopefully the last of the freezes last night. Three of them this winter, which is just unheard of. They keep happening just as I'm planning to start the garden. But I think I'm going to have to just go for it now, or the plants aren't going to get into the ground soon enough. I've got some pumpkins and carrots sprouted and in pots, some potatoes sprouted and cut up, and packets of seeds for watermelons, onions, and peppers. The rosemary and thyme in my herb garden survived the freezes, but the basil took a hit. I'll probably have to pull them out and re-plant. The cilantro that I never actually got into the ground has rooted down through the pots into the soil, so that'll be an interesting adventure.

Here's the pumpkins:


And here's the carrots:

Language explosion

A. is having a language explosion -- picking up 2 or more words a day, and trying out new words that I suggest (although the ones that stick are the ones she picks on her own). Yesterday it was "Nana" and "Halloween" (seriously -- she skips a syllable, but it's clear what she's saying), today it was "play" and "Pooh".

The other day, her recent love of the word "pie" inspired me to make a (rather mediocre) apple pie. A. loved the pie, and said her first "app-ple" while eating it! While she was in the bath, I tried to record her saying some of her words. She got distracted by the bath toys fairly easily, but you can get an idea, at least.







In other news, I've started an herb garden around the patio that's outside of the kitchen. I have rosemary, thyme, and basil in the ground, cilantro waiting to go in, and room for one more (oregano or parsley). We'll see how they do -- I'm not the best gardener.

Also, I purchased a 10x10 space at our tiny town's sizeable craft fair on November 1st. I've been working every evening and some nap times on crafty toys, and I have 5 crayon rolls, 5 felt crowns, some number of bib clips, and most of 3 felt food picnics. I'll also be selling some balsa gliders and crayon-by-number. I don't expect to make much money, but it'll be neat to see what sells and have an excuse to hang out at the fair all day. :)