an impatient gardener

I am what my husband likes to call an impatient gardener. JUST BECAUSE I picked this semi-red tomato this afternoon. I'm new at this gardening thing, remember? I'm sorry, but after weeks and weeks of looking at green tomatoes, I got a little excited at the first tint of red. And today, this is all there was to harvest. And yes, I check daily. One green bell pepper and one unripe roma tomato. 

Sarah

Allie's First Haircut

Allie, almost 19 months old, got her first haircut today. I held out as long as I could, not wanting to give her bangs in fear it would look choppy or I don't know.....stupid in a few months. But, since the girl would pull out whatever bow, barrette or rubber-band you put in her hair, she was nearly blinded by her own hair. Enough was enough.

She did awesome. She sat on the little booster by herself, didn't cry and only reached for me once or twice. Sara, my stylist cut her hair and we agreed to leave the cute little curls in the back alone. She cut conservative bangs and Audrey held the envelope where Sara placed  Allie's first hair cutting. Five to ten minutes later she was done. Allie even let her use the hair dryer a little bit.

Audrey got her hair cut today too. Just a trim, as she's growing it out like Rapunzel. (of course). She shaped it a little around her face and cut off the dead ends. Audrey sat there like such a big girl, not crying or being shy. She loves getting her hair cut and asked me as soon as we left if she could get her hair cut again! A ring pop was her prize for being so good.

before

after

after

Allie's first haircut

Audrey's getting so grown up

Audrey after. only an inch or so was cut off

after

Sarah

When I grow up

Today on the way to gymnastics, I mention to Audrey I can't believe she'll go to preschool in the fall. And I can't, or don't want to. I'm not sure why it's so hard for me/us to decide where she'll spend 2-3 days and roughly 8 hours a week. Regardless, this is how our conversation went:

me: Audrey, Mommy is kinda sad you'll start preschool in the fall, you're getting so big!

Audrey: But Mom, I'll come back

me: Well, you better! What do you think you'll learn at preschool?

Audrey: Um, how to write my name.

me: what else?

Audrey: play, write my name, play on those swings they have...

(and then somehow we got to talking about how old her other friends are and what grade they will be in)

Audrey: What's my number Mom?

me: You're in preschool honey. You don't have a number until you get to first grade.

Audrey: and then what happens after first grade.

me: second grade, then third grade, etc... until you graduate high school, and then you go to college.

Audrey: I'm not gonna go to college.

me: No? Why not

Audrey: Just cause I'm not.

me: Well college is where you learn what you're gonna do for a job, Auds. Do you know what you'd like to do when you grow up?

Audrey: Write my name.

Here's hoping preschool teaches her how to write her name, or else she's gonna be pretty disappointed! (I will say that we've been working on letters and writing them for awhile. She does pretty good with the letters in her name, so just doesn't put them in the right order yet)

More so than learning her letters, I'd rather her just play with other kids and learn how to interact on a daily basis with kids other than her sister. I think she'll learn a lot about herself and that will help her form relationships in life. And we'll continue to work on her letters at home.

4th of July

Every year my husband mopes because we don't have big plans for the 4th of July. And every year I remind him you have to make big plans for a major holiday more than 2 days in advance.

Growing up my family always went to my Uncle's pond for a family reunion on the 4th. And at night, we rarely went anywhere to see fireworks outside the banks of our farm yard where we'd sit in our lawn chairs and watch the local displays from a distance. Jeremy had traditions too that included joining others for a festival and fireworks.

There is no festival here and my reunion no longer exists. So it seems we need a new 4th of July tradition. Last year we went to Indy on the 4th and after the zoo and a nice meal were too tired to watch fireworks and headed home.

This year, I found a few local things to do, including a parade and fireworks. I figured with naps in between and grilling out for supper, we could call ourselves American. Especially if we ate apple pie.

We went to a local parade, caught lots of candy, got burnt, saw 150 antique tractors and came home. Audrey then went to play at Avery's house in the sprinkler. Grandmother and Grandpa came by to tell us about their bicycling vacation and we visited on the new pergola-patio. Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs and Brats, Watermelon and Brownies is how we celebrated before heading to the fireworks. (2 kids under 4= no apple pie)

Again, a local firework show in which we didn't have to fight lines of traffic for hours was perfect.  After all, it was only a 50/50 chance that Audrey would even last 5 minutes. She hates loud noises. And all afternoon she was too scared to come outside while the neighbors were shooting off ground fireworks. We were pleasantly surprised that by the time we got to he park, spread out our blanket and got out our kettle corn she was excited to see the fireworks and not bothered at all by the noise. She even clapped. It was nice. Just the four of us.

waiting for the parade to start

Auds and Allie

Audrey and Daddy at the fireworks show

our happy Allie

feeding Daddy popcorn

and yes, I'm really mad I didn't get a picture of all four of us at any point this weekend. my goal for the fall...

Sarah

Popsicles

What's summertime fun without popsicles?? This day was so hot, that just sitting outside doing nothing I sweat through my shirt. Gross. Hot and hard to breathe muggy. 

Sarah

Garden update

Our tomatoes have taken over our garden. Tons of little green tomatoes that one day will all turn red at the same time and I'll sit and wonder what on earth to do with them. next year, we either plant less, or have an entire garden dedicated to tomatoes.

The cilantro died. The beetles attacked the basil and cilantro pretty heavily and when I tried to organically get rid of the bugs with dish soap, garlic, cayenne pepper and water, it killed the rest of the cilantro plant. So I'm going to have buckets of tomatoes and no cilantro to make salsa. Figures.

Our peppers showed promise early but the tomatoes took over and shaded them, therefore we have one, maybe two pepper plants that are producing. Jeremy's cayenne pepper plant has quite a few on it, but we have no idea what to do with them.

cherry tomato plant

mint

more tomatoes

roma tomatoes (I think)

our lone green pepper plant, that according to Jeremy is supposed to be a yellow pepper plant.....

cayenne peppers

parsley (it grew back after the rabbits initially got it)

basil

our poor cilantro

Sarah

My new favorite summertime treat

I LOVE THESE! They are all natural and gluten free! Really, the gluten free sold me, honestly, but I love that they aren't loaded in high fructose corn syrup or food dyes. So I can eat them and not feel guilty about giving them to my kids! They come in a dozen or more flavors. The girls like Pomegranate, but my latest obsession is Lemonade. Will I still make my own homemade popsicles this summer? It's looking less and less likely. 

No, I will. I bought the molds and all and it's a cheap, fun activity with the kids. But in the meantime, these fruit bars are standing in quite nicely. 

Sarah

Allie's 18 month check-up

Allie at 18 months. Note the little scar on her head from
when she punctured it and had to have it glued back together last month.

STATS:

Length: 32" = 60%

Weight: 29 lbs = 95%

Head: 19" = 90%


Allie went for her 18 month check-up today, even though she's almost 19 months. (oops). The entire time she was only interesting in climbing on the chairs, climbing up on the step ladder for the exam table and running to and from the door to the weight scale. Dr. was not concerned about her BMI by any means, especially since she moved the entire time he was in the office. She got one shot, hepatitis A, one that she'd had before.

We never figured out what caused her hives in June. Dr. still thinks we never will.

They always hand me a dry erase questionnaire about her development and she could do all but two of the 2 year old questions, one was walking backwards by herself. I had never seen her do this. And then a few days later, she copied her sister who was walking backwards down the hall.

She isn't really talking. She says a few "words." "Da" for Dad, Baby and a lot of other things. "Meh" for milk. I told the Dr. I wasn't concerned. She walked when she was 9 months, Audrey was similar, walking early and not talking until she was 2 or over. And now, she talks all the time. I don't have a burning desire for her to start talking, other than it would be nice occasionally to actually understand what she's saying. She does sign a few words: More, All done, please, thank you.

Allie might eat better if her sister did. It seems she's only interested in eating what and when her sister does. If Audrey is done with lunch or dinner and Allie is still eating, Allie will push away her food to be excused from the table too. She still loves milk and does drink skim, although she prefers 1% or 2%. Her favorite foods: blueberries, strawberries, bananas, cheese, goldfish (although I never buy them anymore because of the gluten) and yogurt.

Allie is still rear facing in her car seat and hasn't shown a deep desire to be turned around. Since they now recommend rear facing until age 2, hopefully she'll make it without outgrowing the manufacturers limits.

Allie recently has shown a huge interest in puzzles and babies. I'll find her sitting in the living room putting together a wooden puzzle by herself or putting her baby in her booster seat at the table or our little play high-chair. She's begun to pick up a baby when she's sad and hold it. Audrey ALWAYS had a baby in her hand from age 6 months on.

We moved her out of her crib into a toddler bed and then into a full size bed once her bed-rails arrived from the crib company. She still gets up in the middle of the night. We were hoping to just lay down with her in her bed when she did so, instead of rocking her, and us falling asleep in the glider too. So far it's not working. It seems this child just isn't going to be a good sleeper and Jeremy has kicked her out of our bed (even though she was only there, maybe 4 days) for good. She moves around way too much  and kicks a lot. So this child continues to tire us out. For 18 months (except maybe 4 in there) she has woken up at least once, often more than that needing us to help her get back to sleep. We've tried everything. She's very insistent that she gets rocked. Lesson learned.

I have no desire to toilet train Allie right now, although she has begun to tell me when her diaper is full or when she's pooped. She loves to flush the toilet when we're not looking, but doesn't want to sit there longer than about 20 seconds. That's fine with me. It's easier when she's in diapers.

taken with my phone; climbing over the chairs, getting down and doing it all over again. She did this the whole time the doctor was in the office. 

Sarah