a good garden day

Natalie and I have spent a few afternoons this week getting our garden plots ready for planting. This has included pulling out old plants, (and carrots) and lots and lots of weeds! We made the mistake of adding lemon balm to our compost two falls ago, and are still paying for it with the invasive little bugger popping up just about everywhere in the yard. At least it smells good.

Anyway, this morning we laid down some fresh dirt and finally got planting. We're a bit late on our lettuce and spinach, but right on schedule for many other things. DH had to tighten up our boxes a bit before we could really get going.

And Natalie needed a lunch break partway through.

We moved her meal where she could see better, and she also got a power tool lesson from dad. It's never too early to learn these things.

And then we finally got around to the planting. Now in the ground are peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce, potatoes, and onions. More to come around Mothers' Day.
And the rain that had been threatening us all morning held off 'till the last seed was going in! A perfect day in the garden, (followed by a perfect nap!)

playing catch up

Okay - so I couldn't get all the worthwhile pictures storied out this week, so here are the rest. We should be getting back from Texas today with a whole new crop of photos to share!

Peaches have been great! Natalie eats them whole. She's such a fresh peach and tomato fiend. I have to keep a close eye on her with the produce now. I handed her an avocado in the grocery store yesterday and she had a bite out of it while I was picking out my peppers! Not everything is as tasty as fresh peaches though.

Painting in the basement with dad.

And our crop from the garden! Natalie was very busy with a tomato, and then a carrot I'd wiped off. But then she saw me picking the grapes, and she dropped her carrot right back in the dirt and came running over! That poor white shirt! After the peaches, and the painting, the veggies were the last straw!

Early morning for members at the zoo! What a great day! I've never seen the animals so animated. We're watching the male lion here hanging out with his girls. I've only ever seen the lions limp, but they weren't that morning. It was nice and cool, and everyone was out to play.

Natalie was all monkeyed up that day. She even brought her little monkey toy. And in this shot she's looking at the monkeys! Very cool. When asked, she says that monkeys say "ah ah!". We tell her "ooh ooh, aah aah", but two syllables is still a stretch for her, so we're happy with that.

A few days later and it's story time again! DH came along with. And since I'm only half-brained these days, we accidentally showed up an hour early, (just in time for the baby story time session!) But it was a perfect day for kite flying, and I just happened to have my $3 grocery store special kite stashed in the car just in case the wind was right! And it sure was! What a perfect day for kite flying. You have to be prepared in Colorado, because the wind is usually either non-existent, or way too strong.
This shot was taken right before Natalie let go of the string, and the kite flew into a small tree in the library parking lot. Note to self - don't let babies hold kites alone.

Natalie was so happy to see Nupur and Aanya when they showed up! I love that she's got a little friend already!

And this story time went much smoother! Check out all those kids gathered for stories!

And at the end, the all "line up" to get a sticker! That trick still needs a bit of work.

Back to Baby

Okay, so I know I have some catching up to do. I promise I'll take care of it this coming week, and I'll even go into next week if that's what it takes to get you up to speed on cute Natalie pictures!

So here are some pictures I took when we were hanging out in the front yard. It was perfect. Pretty flowers. Pretty outfit. Pretty girl. But Natalie didn't really feel like cooperating.

She was playing with a flower from the Butterfly bush. So cute. So I told her to smell it. Here's her "smelling face".

She kept smelling it.

Then tried to eat it.

Then got bored with it.

And subsequently, got bored with me as well.

Oh well. Maybe next time.

So anyway, stay tuned for some more pictures from the last couple weeks. I'll post a new post every weekday at noon.

A Feast for the Senses

Natalie and I spent the morning in the garden.  Our poor neglected garden is full of volunteers, (either seeds from our compost or remnants from last year) and weeds!  My plan was to make a salad from all the volunteer lettuce and arugula we have in the beds and the path.  Natalie has a ball in the garden  

She loves to play in the beds when the drip line is on and always manages to get soaked.  She also likes to move the rocks from the path to the beds and back... and pull the leaves off of stuff!!  

She's always right at my feet playing, and I'm able to keep her from putting too much dirt into her mouth!! (I don't know what's so appealing about wet soil, but I'm almost tempted to try it one of these days.)  

Well, this morning she was working on something, and I asked her to spit it out.  Out popped a strawberry!  I let her have it back, and eventually she spit out the stem and leaves... then I watched her for a minute and this is what I saw:

She quickly learned a lesson in colors when the green strawberry was yucky and hard, but the red one was delicious.  

I don't think there's a red or partially red berry left in the patch!  The birds finally have some decent competition for the fruit which I'd given up to them and the weeds!  

Once the berries were caput, we moved onto greener fare.  Natalie tried lettuce, arugula, mustard greens, nasturtium, cilantro, and chives.  

Since she still has no chomping teeth, the greens are a bit tough for her to take, but she worked on everything (except the cilantro) until it was mush and then spit it out.  

After our salad was made, we worked our way back to the house with a pit stop at the patio garden... Natalie explored the pig, (in desperate need of a paint job) and some flowers.  

What the camera can't capture are the smells and sounds... Natalie's looking around because she hears kids playing in the yard next door... there are always planes going overhead, (and she always points to them), and there's a bird feeder on a post behind the irises so the finches are all over the place!  

And those irises smell like grape candy!  Really!  It's crazy but they do!  Behind them is a big flowering sage bush that when you brush it smells like the prairie.  And in front of all of that is a bunch of thyme, oregano, and savory.  

I really hope Natalie grows up to love being in the garden as much as I do.  Right now I'm satisfied to watch her enjoy digging her hands in the mud, pulling flowers apart, and sticking fresh strawberries in her little mouth!  I think the seeds are planted!

More Dirt

My little helper and I were at it again.  We loaded up her cart with flowers and did some planting around the house.  

She's still not walking, but she stands more and more often without any help.  Especially when she's examining something, trying to get it into her mouth, or, as in this case with a flower, tearing it apart!

She loves it when I turn on the drip line... I'm not sure how many onions we'll get since that's the row she's got her fist buried into...

And on this occasion, she did get a bit of mud into her mouth.  She wasn't too happy with it, so maybe she's learning.  

Baby Birds!

Happy Friday!  

I just wanted to throw a quick post out there with a pic!

I held the camera up and took a few pictures blind.  It looks like maybe one of the eggs didn't hatch, but the rest did.  I think that could be three little baby finches... to give you perspective, I think the eggs were about the size of a peanut M&M, (yum).  Maybe a hair bigger.  Now they're fluffy little babies!  I was worried about them because of the wind last night, but I think they did okay.  I heard them rustling a bit when I moved the basket.  

I just wanted to share!! 

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day.  

Quality Time with Dad

The best thing about last weekend was all the time we got to spend doing fun stuff with my DH.  Usually we've got too much to do around the house, or we're out and about shopping, (which can be fun, but I don't know if it's really quality time).  

Last weekend seemed jam packed with good dad time.  We did the farmer's market, and spent some time outside after that.  And then the next day we went to the park and did some more gardening.  

Maybe I'm just a home body, but I like it when we're all together, having fun close to home the best.  

Natalie liked showing off her mad slide skills to her dad.  She has gotten so good at turning herself around at the top of the slides, and she is always so proud of herself.  She loves the big twisty slides, but this one is just a little one.  

Here she is helping her dad with some seedlings in the garden.  She was trying to make it more challenging by mixing up the labels for us.  

Didn't she do a good job emptying out all those plastic containers? 

And Natalie just loves her dad's drum set!  She uses the sticks and everything.  If she takes up drumming when she's older I'll have to invest in a really good pair of earplugs!!  

The Farmer's Market is back!

We had a nice time this weekend going to the opening day of the Longmont Farmer's Market.  There weren't very many veggies there yet, but there were lots of fun arts and crafts, and many great samples.  

Natalie had a healthy lunch of grilled chicken kabob, fresh (greenhouse grown) tomatoes, bread, and lots of chocolate zucchini bread!  

My favorite purchase of the day: definitely these beautiful hanging flower baskets!  Hopefully we can keep them alive!  

Natalie was actually cheerful during this diaper change, (a rare event these days!)  I think it was the nice flowers keeping her occupied that did it!  

We hung them up when we got  home.  Why did we leave that old dead one up?  

We didn't want to disturb this!! 

Pretty cute huh?  I checked yesterday and three of the eggs have hatched!  Hopefully they'll do okay!  I'll try and get a picture of the babies soon, but I don't want to disturb it too much.  (Not easy when it's right outside the front door!!  

Help in the Garden

Well, last week's daily blog entry was pretty successful, and since the past week and weekend were just as chocked full of great pictures and stories, I think I'm going to attempt it again.  I'm going to publish the posts nightly this time though, as I don't think I'm up for writing them all tonight, (Natalie kept us up quite a bit of the night last night, so I'm looking forward to a nice long rest tonight!)

This week we had some perfect Spring gardening weather.  Sunny, but with cool breezes and air... just too perfect to do anything but be outside.  So I took it upon myself to get a bit done in the yard.  Last year at this time, Natalie wasn't nearly as useful in the yard, and I didn't get out there nearly often enough because of it.  I think this year we'll get out there a few times a week at least.    

First we loaded up her cart with some supplies, (fertilizer, shears, gloves, etc.)

And then I just had to stand back and watch as she took them into the back yard for me!  (I wish I had an after shot of the side path minus all the weeds and old branches!  Much tidier.)  

Natalie did her part clearing the grass from the patio.  I tried to pretty-up her little truck by sticking a flower in the sun roof, but that wasn't part of the plan and was promptly removed and discarded.  Apparently to make room for more grass.  

The fruits of our labor!  (In addition to this pile, there were a couple of smaller ones, and I have a lovely sunburn peeling away on my back - luckily I remembered to coat Natalie in sunblock though I neglected myself - I won't make that mistake again.  But don't quote me on that one!!)  

I think this is how we'll be spending more of our mornings.  Our yard will surely appreciate it!!