Catch Up (Part II)

Okay, so here's part 2...

On July 25, my little girl turned 2. What a hoot she is! She talks up a storm - really, we asked the pediatrician about it, and she said just based on listening to Azx4, she probably has the vocab of at least a 3-yr-old. It's amazing to listen to her - to see how her world looks through her eyes, how her little brain processes things, and how much she tries to be like us, especially her mama. She had a good birthday too - Elmo her friend was her theme, and she got lots of goodies. Highlights: a first little jewelry box and charm bracelet, a beautiful sterling silver brush and comb set, Mrs. Potato Head, and the hit of the night was Bubba's gift of Cinderella legos. Fortunately, we did have the video camera rolling, so we were able to capture her cuteness: upon opening a gift of clothes, she promptly held the shirt up to her shoulders and proclaimed,"How cute!" I am so proud of her, and while I can remember our family before her, I cannot imagine it without her.

Update on my garden: we came back from vacation to find it had exploded! Or just hit the point of summer where it was really growing...finally. We've enjoyed one batch of pickles from our cucumbers, before they succumbed to a mold problem. (That's what 3 inches of rain in one weekend will do to your plants!) The pumpkin is really growing a long vine with lots of leaves and blooms, but no pumpkins yet. Tomatoes are surviving, but no blooms yet. The watermelons have taken off - 3 that are about softball size as of this writing, but I'm honestly not sure when to pick them. Will wait and see. I'm not terribly disappointed that my garden didn't just flourish this year - it's my first ever attempt, and frankly I think I've done pretty darn good. Plus, it's a container garden, and the lady at the home improvement store warned me that they are much harder to maintain and grow much smaller fruit - both in quantity and size. What I have learned is that definitely next year I'm going to dedicate a corner of our backyard and have a decent one. I love the idea of growing things for my family to eat, of being able to can a little bit and have stuff to eat later on, and I'm already planning out what to grow. (a salsa corner, a pickle corner with my own dill, blackeyed peas, yum!!)

Again, I apologize for not getting this up to date sooner. It's really hitting me hard that my oldest, my son will start Kindergarten in less than a week at this point. I'm trying to really dedicate our time left until then as just family time. In fact, he and Azx4 and I just got back from Grammy & Papa's house. It was a great break for everyone - Grammy & Papa got to see him one more time before he starts school, Azx4 went and learned she can go without Mama and Daddy there, and Daddy and I had some really nice quality time to ourselves. Honestly, I hadn't been away from my kiddos (at the same time) for more than one night since before Azx4 was born. I did some laundry and cleaning/organizing, but basically scrapped while they were gone and watched movies - loved it!! I know they had a blast while they were gone too - but now we're home and I'm exhausted. PHew!