1st Birthday

A little behind in times, but a few random birthday pictures...

SUMMER

Berries picked with a passenger on my back...

Playing in the sand/dirt at Beaver Park...
A hike up Bradbury Mountain...

Playing with friends...

The weather may be wet, and our life may be stormy, but this is my boy's only first summer, so we're taking advantage of the breaks in the clouds. Sometimes even making our own...

Food is growing

For a while there it seemed like I was letting go of my ambitions to eat local food. Now that veggies are growing here in Maine, it's time to get back on track.

The picture at the top shows my peas at the beginning of the month. That's nothing compared to what they look like now. They're ready for snacking, but I'm hoping if I hold off another couple of days, they'll get bigger and more plentiful.

We've eaten all the radishes I planted, but more of those are coming from the farm and I'm looking forward to make lots of radish recipes this week.

And, although the spinach didn't turn out like I'd hoped, I did have some in a salad last week.

Tomorrow will be our fourth veggie pick up at the farm. Each week we get at least one recipe to go with the featured veggie, and I'm loving trying new greens. I've eaten arugula before, but it was so much tastier fresh. Tatsoi was new and yummy sauteed and in a salad. And, who ever knew you could eat rutabaga greens. They're good, too.

Lucky for us, we got a tour of the farm at a time when the rain actually stopped. It was a fabulous way to get outdoors, and we actually did it as a family.

I also got my first picture in the paper.

It's raining; it's pouring ...

June has been a down right stormy month. This is both a straight-forward statement and a metaphorical one.

Let's see, we started out with some sunny days, but we had a sick boy. The day Bear came down with his fever, we had a playdate scheduled. I was in such desperate need of a day out of the house, that I had myself convince that he wasn't really sick and we went anyway.

Later that day, I realized how very wrong I was. This is what my poor little guy looked like in the midst of a fever and hot weather. It ended up that he had a text book case of Roseola. Well, not quite text book. The description said most don't have get all symptoms. Bear had every symptom described.

The one good thing about Roseola is that it doesn't linger. Once it was over, it was over, and my little boy was back in action again.

I'm saddened to say that with all the rain and unfortunate events that I'll withhold here, the camera hasn't come out much lately. But, here's one cute picture of him riding on his Daddy's back.

I'm certain the camera will be out more in the coming weeks. The big boy's birthday is just around the corner. And, I've got to catch some of the big boy steps on film.

First steps

Yep! That's right. Bear took 2 and a half steps towards his mama this morning. I wish I had a picture to document, but you can't really plan such a thing.

He's still my little baby

It seems I'm constantly thinking about how big Bear is getting. He's doing new things almost daily. Right now, it's standing alone for longer periods of time. And, today he even started to take a step.

But, he's still a little baby. I'm reminded of this when we sit down to nurse. We snuggle together, and I feel his little shoulders and back, and I'm reminded how much more growing he has to do.

I love those times. We've had our challenges nursing - first, he wanted to constantly, then he rarely wanted to at all - but, now it is purely peaceful. It's especially precious to me on my nights off when I get to put him to bed.

At all times, it is the perfect paradox of his growing independence, and his persistent dependence on his mother. His ability to help find his own way to the target is a demonstration of his independence that only I get to see. Yet, his primary source of nourishment is still coming from me, a true testament to his dependence.

So, I look forward to the times when we go into his room and snuggle in the milk chair, or sometimes sit on the couch; Bear gets his favorite drink, and I take a deep breath and relax - what other choice do I have after all? I don't know how many more months we'll have this, so I'll cherish each while we still do.

I don't let it happen to often, but sometimes this snuggling leads to this...

Playing outdoors

Life has been turned upside down, and getting on the computer has been difficult (two unrelated things), but Bear and I have spent some time having fun outdoors...

We met Bear's friends Emma and Chloe (not pictured) at a playground:

We crawled around in the backyard (this is just one day of many):

We spent 2 90-degree days in the park...

...where my happy boy napped both days...


Too bad I wasn't unable to photograph him playing in the pond. We weren't planning on swimming, but it was so hot, I decided we should cool our feet. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was allowing Bear to sit down in the water in his clothes. He had fun. It was worth it. He just didn't wear any clothes for the rest of the time we were there.

We've also done some gardening.

Peas

Radishes

I don't want to talk about what happened to the cucumbers and peppers... well... OK... they all DIED after I transplanted them. But, the peas and radishes are doing great, and the carrots and spinach look like they have a chance. So, I've decided that for any future gardens, I will plants seeds in the ground, or buy seedlings. Until, someday, I have more time, and appropriate indoor space.