Harvest

I harvested four heads of lettuce right before I left for Chicago.  Normally I wouldn't have picked so much lettuce, but Ryan wanted to partake from the first fruits of our garden and I didn't want to leave them behind.  I wasn't sure what I would return to, knowing that the weather was hot and dry back in Kansas, but, thankfully, our house sitter watered our vegetable garden.

It is definitely looking big and healthy.  We have zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes and peppers appearing on our plants.

The third bed looks like it's finally starting to take root and is working hard to catch up to the other beds.

Last night I picked two yellow squash and might have some more that will be ready in time for this weekend.  Ryan and I are thinking of using these two to make some shish kabobs this Father's Day weekend.

Unfortunately the watering of our plants didn't get much farther than our vegetable garden.  I have some sad looking plants in the front garden, a dried up fruit tree in the front yard and my Mother's Day hydrangeas are barely hanging on.  Hopefully with a little time, a lot of water and some patience they will return to their former glory.  It was nice to have my hibiscus, another Mother's Day gift, produce it's first blooms of the season upon our return.

Chicago

Ryan went on a business trip to Chicago recently and the kids and I decided to tag along for a mini vacation. Here are some highlights of our trip:

-After I arrived with the kids we went looking for a park nearby our hotel for the kids to play at.  We found one a short distance away and practically empty.  I spent many days at the park with the kids right after breakfast taking advantage of the cool mornings.

-Swimming.  Aric is a fish.  We brought his shark floatie contraption and he feels so independant "swimming" around the pool on his own.  We haven't found anything that works quite as well for Kellyn, which means I held her the majority of the time.  If I wasn't holding her then I was hanging out near the steps to fish her out of the water anytime she overestimated the depth of the water and her balance.  Speaking of fish, the hotel had a large stash of water noodles at the pool.  When Aric was not swimming he was frequently sitting on the edge of the pool, splashing his feet in the water and "fishing for gooey fish" with a noodle.

-When we were bored with the pool I took the kids to a nearby aquatic park.  We were able to get a cheap daily admission rate and the kids took advantage of a splash park outdoors and an indoor kiddie pool that was a foot deep.  Aric loved the splash park.  He was the brave kid who ran straight through all of the water jets and fountains.  Kellyn loved the kiddie pool.  She sat in the water, which came to mouth level on her, and played with the water and her ears.  I'm sure she's a candidate for developing swimmer's ear.

-"Wannahockawoogie" was what Aric named Ryan's rental car, a white Ford Escape.  I'm not sure why he named the vehicle that, but we do know it originates from "Mount Wannahockaloogie" from Finding Nemo.  Aric was pretty consistent in referring to the vehicle as "Wannahockawoogie".

-A not so memorable moment of our trip was our car (not the rental, but our actual vehicle) wouldn't start one day.  After trying to jump it, buying a new battery, arranging to have it towed to the mechanic and subsequently having it fixed by the mechanic we now have a new starter.  A pricey new starter- Chicago is sure proud of their vehicle parts.

-We visited the most white trash, redneck Wal-Mart we have ever had the opportunity to visit.  It was the kind of Wal-Mart that is frequented by the "stars" of People of Wal-Mart.  Of course, we ended up fitting right in when Aric decided he had to go potty "right now" in the toy aisle.  I whisked him off to the bathroom nearby, but unfortunately the damage was already done.  He protested when I had to put on his wet shorts and I tried my best to explain why it was not appropriate to walk through the store with no shorts on.  I felt bad because he was clearly upset and embarrassed.  We made it through the store with me carrying him and his wet underwear in my purse, out to Wannahockawoogie to grab his spare shorts and pull-up out of the diaper bag.  As soon as he was quickly changed, life was good and back to normal.

-We did take in some of the sites while we were in Chicago.  We went to the Field Museum (I have always wanted to go there) and the Shedd Aquarium.  Ryan and I would've loved to have been able to linger in the Field Museum, but we realized that we needed to hit the highlights and the fun kid stuff.  The Field Museum was pretty empty when we visited and the kids were able to roam a bit more freely than normal.  We had one memorable moment in the reptile exhibit of Kellyn hopping around on the floor and "ribbiting" like a frog after we pointed out the frogs in the exhibit.

After visiting the Field Museum we had a picnic lunch outside and let the kids burn off some energy.  We had some visitors during lunch in the form of seagulls looking for food. It was Kellyn's first experience with hungry birds and she ate her lunch while sitting in the safety of my lap.

The Shedd Aquarium was neat, but more crowded and not as pleasurable to walk through as the Museum was.  Kellyn spent the majority of the time sleeping in her stroller and only woke up near the end.

-We finished off our Chicago trip with a trip to the Brookfield Zoo on Aric's birthday.  Ryan and I thought it was one of the nicer zoos that we have seen.  We took the kids to the dolphin show, the carousel and to sting ray bay to pet sting rays.  Sadly, neither one actually wanted to pet a sting ray when we had them there.

We took Aric out to eat for his favorite meal of macaroni and cheese and french fries.  Then the waitstaff brought him a birthday ice cream and serenaded him.  He is still young enough to enjoy that much attention and smiled the whole time.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel room for some presents and cake.

I am so thankful we decided to tag along and spend the time with Ryan in Chicago.  It was definitely a fun trip and we would love to go back someday and see more of Chicago.

From Aric's View Point

For his birthday, Aric received a camera from his Papa and Nana.  They wanted to know what he would do with the camera and what he would take photos of.  He's only had it a few days, but he's taken plenty of photos.  Here is a sampling of the 127 photos I downloaded this morning:

Bree

When did my baby boy turn "bree" (as he pronounces it)?  When did we go from being two people hoping and dreaming for a child to parents of a preschooler?  Where did babyhood go?  Where did toddlerhood go?

I brought this sweet boy home from the hospital:

The first night was rather difficult.  First we realized that the diapers I had stocked and waiting were a tad too big for Aric.  We loaded Aric up into the car and headed back into town to Target.  We stood in the hot sun trying to get the stroller out of the car, unfolded, and Aric safely nestled inside.  After our trip to the store to buy new diapers and checking on him a million times to make sure he was still breathing we headed home. 

Later that night we had difficulty soothing him back to sleep.  He was fed, changed and I held him against me, crying with him because I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  Ryan tenderly took him and swaddled him back up.  I felt like a failure as a mother.  Ryan reminded me that "there were a lot worse parents out there who managed to raise their kids to 18 and if they could do it then so could we".  I felt victory the next morning when we all awoke alive and well.

On Aric's first birthday we took the day off together and took him to the zoo:

He seemed so big and grown up toddling around looking at the animals.  It's amazing how quickly children change in the first year of life.  Aric was so completely dependant on us and by the end of the year he was still dependant, but so much more independent.

On his second birthday we went back to the zoo:

It really struck me how big he looked and how we could see him turning into a boy and moving away from toddlerhood.  He was rough, full of energy and talking.

Now he's "bree" and I sit here wondering how quickly time has flown by over the last three years.  Sure there are days when I'd like to pull my hair out, when I'm not the most patient or tender mom and days I wish time would fast forward.  Truthfully, though, I don't want time to fast forward by.  It already feels like it has.  I want to cherish the moments and remember everything.

Happy Birthday, Aric!  We love you.

Photo Failure

Whenever we go anywhere out of the ordinary I have grandiose plans to document our time with photos.  I think of the cute photos that we can get of our family together and the kids enjoying our adventure.  It looks wonderful in my head.

When I do remember to bring the camera and if I remember to use it, the photos almost never turn out how I envisioned them in my head.  It is a rarity to have everyone looking at the camera at the same time, much less actually smiling and looking like they are having fun.  The ones that actually might have been pretty cute are usually out of focus or too dark to do anything with.

I guess our photos show how life truly is right now.  With two young kids going in different directions and two tired parents, we have to be happy with the moments we do capture. 

Holiday Projects

Last week on Memorial Day, Ryan worked hard on projects around the house.  He started the day by taking apart Kellyn's crib.  Reversing Kellyn's crib to prevent her from climbing out only worked for a couple of months before she figured out how to climb out again.  She was climbing out every time we put her down and climbing out half awake.  Even though I wasn't quite ready to deal with Kellyn in a big bed, I was less ready to deal with an injury caused by her climbing out.  Thankfully we didn't have to buy her a new bed since we bought a bunk bed earlier this year.  Ryan took the bunk beds apart and moved the new bed into Kellyn's room.

We rearranged Aric's bedroom and Ryan relocated the ceiling fan from our kitchen into Aric's bedroom. Aric's room is always hot and for some reason Aric dislikes portable fans. The fan in the room makes a huge difference.  Without the both of the beds in the room, Aric's room feels much bigger and more open.

Kellyn certainly enjoys her new bed.  She has new bedding,  which she doesn't really use.  Kellyn still sleeps all over the bed.  Now she has more room to move around all night long.

The first night was a nightmare.  The kids woke up six different times through the night.  Kellyn was sick and probably getting used to the new bed.  We realized that Aric's bed was positioned as to allow all of the light from the living room and bathroom night light to shine directly into his face.  The next morning we rearranged his room and it seems to be much better.  We also added some "artwork" to Aric's room.  He's pretty proud of his new picture.  I have some more ideas for decorating the kid's rooms but I'm in no hurry to get them done.

In addition to relocating the kitchen fan, Ryan hung a new fan in the kitchen and another fan in our living room.  Our living room was pretty warm with the vaulted ceilings.  We decided that a fan was much more of a necessity than a pretty light fixture.  Ryan picked out our new fan and I think he did a pretty good job.

The last project of the day was to hang my star.  That was tricky since it was over the stairs.  Hanging it involved both of us and some acrobatics.  I'm glad it is now on the wall and no longer in our garage, but really don't wish to hang something like that ever again.

I didn't expect him to do all that he did and I'm pretty certain he felt the same.  I certainly felt blessed by all that he did and thankful for such a hardworking husband.

First Harvest

This is our first year to plant a vegetable garden.  I always had a million reasons why I never planted one previously.  Most of the reasons boiled down to me not having the time to put into vegetable gardening.  Now that we've started a vegetable garden, I can honestly say that excuse does not hold much validity anymore.

So far I have spent a relatively small amount of time pulling weeds, and an even smaller amount of time watering the garden since God has taken on that responsibility recently.  I also didn't spend time working the ground since we're testing out the Square Foot Gardening technique.  My nice husband built the boxes, lugged the soil and manure and prepped everything for me.  I bought plants.

In the early stages (a month ago) we planted two small gardens and hoped for the best.

A few weeks ago, Ryan added another box for me because I had too many seedlings sprouting and needed to thin them out.

Tonight, after all of the rain we've had lately the plants are looking lush.  I see signs of flowers on tomato and pepper plants, small squash forming, and broccoli sprouting.

It was also fun to cut and wash our first (and maybe only) batch of lettuce.  I'm already looking forward to using it.