Happy Gardening Surprises and Too Much Time in the Car

Nick is getting better about eating finger foods. His Grandma bought him this nice bib with a pocket to catch all of the food that he drops. That has made feeding him less messy, although I'm sure waitresses curse us after we leave. It sure wastes less food, because we can just dump the pocket back onto the table when he's done, and there are his seconds. I believe here he was eating mushrooms, carrots, dumplings, hamburger, and french fries. His favorites were the mushrooms and fries.

This is how poor Nick spent most of his weekend; I believe it was something like 16 hours in the car from Friday through to tonight. We were in Gleason, Wisconsin, for Greg's Grandma's 95th Birthday. I'll talk more about my trip later this week. All I can say now is that it feels wonderful to be out of the car! Nick thinks so too. When we got home, he played happily (and gratefully) in the baby cage. I'm afraid he's going to flip out tomorrow when we put him back in the car seat.

I was surprised this week at what my garden actually managed to produce. Despite all of the Japanese beetles and the lack of attention I gave my garden, I still reaped at least a few rewards. I've got baby yellow squashies!

I think they're very cute, and I want to slice them up with olive oil and garlic later this week. I have to make sure I catch them before they get too big. It sure took long enough for them to start producing.

I was also impressed with the size of this monster zucchini. I needed something to use for scale, and, well, my foot was already there.

I am hoping that I can spend more time next year gardening. I want to double the size of my raised bed garden, and keep better track of the weeds.

I killed about twenty Japanese Beetles today; I hate those little suckers. They decimated my raspberry bush. I guess I'll have to add another task to my evening rituals: killing bugs.

Teeny Weeny Zucchini and a Huge Bag of Babyproofing Supplies

Now that Nick is crawling, my life has become one long series of "No honey," "Not in your mouth," and simply "Arghh!" My baby has found freedom, and he is using this freedom to wreak havoc and destroy everything in sight. Yesterday he found our one remaining downstairs bookshelf and decided that the books would be better off on the floor, ripped. Thus the reason that our other bookshelves have been emptied of books and filled with toys. We will have to do the same with this shelf, it seems.




Because of all of the baby movement going on, Greg and I decided to do some additional babyproofing this weekend. Cabinet locks, bi-fold door locks, toilet locks, door handles: we needed everything. Most of all, we needed gates for the top and bottom of our stairs. I was lucky enough to have two of those 20% off on one item coupons for Buy Buy Baby, so off we went.

As our cart started to fill up and my wallet started to empty, Nicholas rejoiced in flirting with every baby girl who passed us in the aisles. The little girls seemed charmed by his wicked grin. Nick's little onesie says "Little Rascal," and he is, especially with that little tuft of hair sticking up.

Well over $200 later, we decided to head up to Yorktown. Greg was looking for some incense, and I was looking for baby clothing deals. I didn't find any deals, but Greg bought a ton of incense. He's really nice about only burning one stick per evening, though, because I'm mildly allergic to it. That or it irritates my asthma. One or the other. But Yorktown has a pretty fountain that Nick thought was awesome.

Nick and his daddy sat by the fountain while I scoured the clearance racks at Gymboree, The Children's Place, and Baby Gap. The clerks there must know that I am one of "those" people, because I walk in and go directly to the back of the store.

Unless I have a really good coupon or a gift card, I only go to one place. I quickly scan the final clearance rack, and if there's nothing good, I leave. I know how much things cost on ebay, so unless a store is going to beat that, I don't even bother.

Well, my squash and zucchini are finally up to something. It is probably too cold and too late in the season to get any nice-sized veggies, but my plant is making a cute little yellow squash. I think these are delicious, so it'll be okay even if it doesn't get too big.

It was in the 60s and cloudy all weekend. I think it's way too early for fall weather, but what I think doesn't matter.

The zucchini is slightly bigger, but we'll see what happens with the 40 degree temperatures that are due tonight. One thing I have to remember next year is to give my zucchini more room. I put too many plants in my little square foot garden. Notice how the strawberry plants were overwhelmed by the zucchini. These are the ever bearing ones that do two fruits in a year, but I'm pretty sure they won't this year; the zucchini are covering them all up. I might make one big bed of strawberries and then do a whole big vegetable garden next to it. Nick can help with the digging.