Laughing Over Spilled Milk

Nick is becoming a very high maintenance baby. All this week, I came home to work to find that he would not stay in the baby cage without screaming and dissolving in pitiful tears. He seems fine in there when Greg is getting ready in the morning; I'm not sure what the aversion is for him.

It seems like Nicholas just wants to explore. So I've been rather creative. Today I had to plant a raspberry bush that my mom gave me. It took me a few minutes to figure out a strategy for getting this done while still supervising Nick, especially since he refuses to play in the baby cage. I brought a blanket, a toy, and an old magazine (for him to rip up and destroy) outside and placed it near where I needed to work.

The only issue is that Nick now crawls. He did not stay on the blanket for long, and he kept coming over to the area with dirt, sod clumps, garden implements, and plants with pokey things on them. Do you have any idea how hard it is to dig a 16" hole through sod while keeping track of how much grass a baby is ingesting? I now know. Nick ripped some leaves off of one of my zucchini plants, and was pinched a bit by the stem. Then he tried to eat a Japanese beetle. I didn't feel bad for the beetle, but I wasn't sure that it would be a healthy dinner choice for Nick, so I grabbed it and smooshed it instead.

He did love being outside, though, and the grass was an interesting feature for him. He isn't used to crawling on it yet. Nick kept touching it and pulling on it and trying to eat it. He almost looked confused. As I filled the bird feeders, Nicholas used one of my bird feeder poles to try to stand up. One good thing about grass is that it is soft when you land on your bottom.

I will finish with a video of Nick drinking his formula out of a cup with no lid. Yes, we were crazy.



Nick loves to drink out of cups, but he doesn't like the sippy part. He'd rather drink out of a regular cup. He can do it, too, to some extent. Until he can't. That's when the mess starts.

No Wonder I Never Got Raspberries. . .

I have been waiting for raspberries since my first spring in this house, back in 2007. That year, I bought two super-expensive, already big raspberry bushes guaranteed by the gardening center to create beautiful, plump berries. I planted both of them exactly according to the instructions. Then, I watered them and waited.

The last two years I never had any berries. That first year I guessed I had planted them too late. The second year I didn't take care of them very well; I was pregnant and didn't feel like messing with weeding or watering. Frankly, those raspberry bushes could've sprouted $100 bills and I wouldn't have noticed. I was too busy being pregnant and eating goat cheese and water crackers.

But this year I really paid attention to these plants. They were pampered and watered and mulched and fertilized. For mother's day, my husband went to the same nursery and bought me a third raspberry plant. Strangely, this raspberry plant looked different from the other two. I finally figured out why. I have blackberry plants. Either that, or my raspberry plants are having an identity crisis. Because I have the most gorgeous blackberries out there. Look at the picture. Are those not blackberries? Sigh.

I guess it isn't all bad. At least I have gorgeous looking blackberries. No raspberries, though. However, the tomato plant I got halfway through the summer for $0.75 (see link) is now absolutely huge and sprouting about ten green tomatoes.

I also filled my classroom with 15 indoor plants. I was very excited to do this; I actually went to Lowe's twice to fill up my cart. I'm still looking for some cool pots to replant some of them in and a cool looking watering can. I had a few students in my room today for testing, and they were commenting on my succulents and ivy. Kids are so funny. One little girl asked me if the ivy plant liked hanging up by the ceiling. I told her I'd never thought about it before. She said that she thought it did because it was like being on the monkey bars. Moments like this are why I went into teaching. Maybe I'll look for a few more haniging baskets.

Nick helped me pick out some of the plants, and it was a struggle getting him to not eat them. I ended up with small ferns, ivy, palm, succulents, bromeliads, african violets, and a bunch of other plants. I'll have to take pictures of them one of these days. If I don't kill them first, anyway.

I think I'm getting a lot more exercise just chasing Nick around. He is going from one end of the living room to the other, and destroying things in his wake. He dumped a bottle of formula onto the floor already, and tried to take the vent out of the floor. We have these long lacy curtains on the two windows flanking our front door, and he pulled down one set already. I believe he may have eaten a spider, as well, but it's hard to be sure.

But he is filled with joy as he discovers new places he didn't even know existed. Today he crawled into our downstairs powder room, and acted as though it were DisneyWorld. For him, I guess it was.

Weird, Freaky-Looking Bugs are Fornicating in My Strawberry Plants!

When I went out to check my garden today, this is what I saw. A bug orgy. Note both couples of icky shiny insects. I am disturbed and disappointed. They are eating all of my strawberry plants, and I don't know what to do. This is what many of the strawberry plant leaves now look like.

I am ashamed to say I threw a miniature hissy fit. I said some not very nice words to these bugs, and then I flicked them off of my plants (none too gently, either) and stomped into the house.

I came out again later for some better news. I do have raspberries. Six, to be exact. All of them on the middle plant. They are hard as a rock, however. Are raspberries supposed to be that hard? When do I know it's time to pick them?

I am a frustrated gardener right now. But I found a cool book about plants. It's called "Wicked Plants," by Amy Stewart, and I ordered it through interlibrary loan from Bettendorf. I don't even know where Bettendorf is; I've certainly never heard of it. Great book, though. This is a botanical guide to dangerous plants.

Why, you ask, am I reading a botanical guide for fun? No, I'm certainly not interested in poisoning anyone. . . unless it is those freaky-looking bugs. This book talks about the history behind these dangerous plants. For example, did you know that deadly nightshade is also called belladonna, which means beautiful woman? They think it has this nickname because Italian women (in the middle ages) used to drop a mild mixture of belladonna into their eyes so that they would dialate. I guess they thought it made them more attractive.

I'd recommend the book, even if you're not into plants. The background stories are fascinating. In Africa, when someone was accused of a crime, they would make them swallow an "ordeal bean." If they vomited up the bean, they were innocent, but if they died, they were guilty. I guess they thought the bean didn't lie.

I have been trying for the last two days to get a picture of Nick's new tooth. Do you know how difficult it is to get a baby to hold his mouth open for the camera? I think I finally got it, or at least you can kind of see a smear of white in the picture.

He has been getting a lot of use out of those new teeth. Today he was eating ritz crackers again and scraping them against his tooth. It must feel good. So far today he has bitten: me, crackers, a book, my flip flop, the carpet, Mollycat, my mail, and his stuffed turtle.

We're in trouble when he gets more of those little white smears in his mouth.

Blooms and Some Splashing

Wow, has my garden grown! I went out today to check on it after the big rain last night, and I was amazed. One zucchini plant has a flower, the catnip are in full bloom, and the herbs are still alive, somehow. I wonder if I'll get more strawberries this year. I know I bought ever bearing, and I think that means I get two batches per year. I'm actually hoping for some zucchini, because I can make so many things with it. I remember a few years back I made this chocolate zucchini bread that was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

I'm rather proud of myself for remembering to water regularly. I have the perfect excuse to skip it. You see, our back faucet is broken and won't work with the hose. So I've been using a watering can and hand watering the garden and the raspberries at least every other day for a month now. It's quite a workout.

Not only did I manage to keep the plant my friend gave me alive, it is actually thriving. The plants (I guess there are several) have doubled in size and now fill up two whole squares in the garden. The nasturiums even have these little flowers on them. They have yellow petals with little red dots. There's also a red flower on one of them, but it hasn't opened yet. I will have to taste them at some point. I wasn't brave enough to do that today. I need to look up recipes for cooking flowers and see what I can find.

Next year I think I want to grow spinach. I love fresh spinach salads, and they're best when the spinach is fresh. I'll have to research that and see what kinds of spinach are the easiest to grow.

So far I'm planning on spinach, peppers, zucchini, several kinds of squash, tomatoes, carrots, peas, strawberries, raspberries, and perhaps a pumpkin. I think I'm going to need a bigger garden. I like how easy a raised bed is to take care of, so I am thinking I'll have Greg help me make mine twice as big.

As for the raspberries, they're doing pretty well. I only have berries on the one in the center, but they definitely look like raspberries. That is a positive sign, I guess. The other plants are, well, alive. My mom was suggesting to me the other day that we take a piece of her raspberry plant and put it in the empty space between mine. She has a different variety of raspberries, and they are excellent producers. Perhaps in a few years I'd even have enough raspberries to have in one bowl of cereal.

I love the kind of Sundays where you don't go anywhere. I got the chance to take a nap on the couch, read and drink coffee on the screened-in porch, and bake in the kitchen. These are the best kinds of days. I just finished reading "Fresh," a nonfiction history/geopolitical/nutrition book by Susanne Freidberg. It's a kind of a history of how the modern way of eating came about. I think my favorite little story was of the Montreuil growers, in France. They grew the most beautiful peaches, and they even covered them with little paper bags while they were growing. Overall this book was fascinating and pretty in-depth. I'd recommend it to those of you who enjoy that sort of thing.

Greg put up Nick's swimming pool today, and Nick got to splash around in it. I think his favorite part, though, is practicing pulling up. Nicholas has been working on standing, and I think the water makes it easier. He's not that steady on his feet yet, but he's trying. It was all we could do to get him to sit down in the pool. Everytime he'd just try to grab on to the edge and pull up.

I spent a lot of time this weekend on a site called brainmass.com. It's a site where I answer questions and do basic tutoring for college students. They post a question or an essay they need help with, and they give a bid for how much they think it's worth. If the question is of interest to me, and the price is right, I answer it. Sometimes I'll pick questions that I don't exactly know the answers to, just because I want to find out the answers. Then I can research them and write something up. Is it weird that I enjoy that kind of thing? Oh well, I made $49 anyway, for about 2 hours worth of work, spread out over the weekend.

Raspberries, a Birthday Party, and Roller Skating Babies (Not Mine)

Many people would be discouraged that it is raining in July. No sunshine in sight. But I am pleased because I don't have to water today. I've been watering my raspberries all the time, in the hopes that I might actually get some this year. Raspberries, that is. I'm a lover of plants that give you something useful. But I have three raspberry plants and they don't seem to be getting much bigger or spreading.

The first two raspberry plants came from a super expensive nursery during the first summer I lived here (2007?). They were exactly the same size then as they are now. They have made it through drought, an entire summer of no watering, and being stomped on by kids cutting through my backyard. My raspberries did not catch fire from any of the fireworks set off by my various law-breaking neighbors, either. So they are alive, but not yet bearing fruit.

The third one (below) was planted this May--it was a gift from my husband for my first mother's day. This plant looks better than the other two, which is crazy. But it's also a different kind of raspberry. It has to be, because the leaves look different. Great gift on Greg's part, though. I believe he was trying to make up for the $40 apiece blueberry bushes he destroyed a few years back. It wasn't really his fault. He had been trying to cut down our plants for the winter, and he asked me how far to cut. So I went around the front of the house and told him how to deal with each plant. For the rosebushes and peonies, I told him to cut all the way down. I didn't realize he was going to go all around the house and cut everything down. To the dirt. I actually cried when I found out. I've been on the lookout for new blueberry bushes, but it's probably too late for this year. Maybe next year. Onward to the birthday party. Yesterday was my dad's birthday, so we went out to Rosemont. I baked a cake and everything.But Nick was clearly the star attraction. Funny how babies do that. Right now, as I am typing, Nick has scooted backwards towards the couch and is trying to suck on my toes as he yells. Not sure why. I don't think he's upset, just trying out his voice. This first picture is Nick sitting with his Grandpa. Happy Birthday Grandpa Mike! Nick had a fun time playing with Auntie Mandy. She even rocked him to sleep later on when it was bedtime.

"Mr. Firecracker" sitting with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Patty. He has that big grin because he suspects he might get some cake.

Nick seems a little confused by all of the smoke. Grandma Patty bought trick candles! Nick's eyes got really big when he saw the sparkles--I think he liked them. Plus, he did get to try a little frosting from my finger. After the first taste, he opened his mouth wide like a little bird. I'd be surprised if he wasn't a chocolate lover. Greg and I are both connoisseurs of fine chocolate.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. Nick loved the bright colors at Patty's house. She has lots of cool paintings and (as you can see) her couch has a fun floral print. I think Nick enjoyed the colors and all of the things to look at.

Now on the roller skating babies. I'm going to post this link because I thought it was the cutest thing ever. It's an Evian commercial, and while I'm not a proponent of bottled water, I'm all for cute videos of babies on roller skates. Enjoy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1198287/Roller-skating-baby-Evian-advert-proves-internet-sensation-4-million-viewers.html