I took a bunch of photos at the end of July but I never updated here so I’ll show where the garden was then and then show how it’s grown SO MUCH in the last month.  It wasn’t really growing much into the beginning of July, but then I went on vacation for 2 weeks, came back and it had grown exponentially.  I guess maybe that means I really don’t have a green thumb…since it grew so much while I was gone..  Anyway, here’s how the garden looked on July 30th.  The cherry tomato plant is on the left, the larger tomato plant is next to it, there’s pumpkin and strawberry plants behind those.  The tall thing in the back right corner is supposedly a raspberry plant, but I’m not too sure…and then in front of that are two squash plants.

Here’s how the garden looks today (with much better lighting), almost a month later:

See how much it’s grown?  Crazy.  The big one in the middle is the large tomato plant (can’t remember the name of those tomatoes..  “Big 100″ or something??).  To the left of that is the cherry tomatoes.  The squash plants on the right are huge.  My raspberry plant is crazy.  It grew straight up taller than the 6′ fence and then it started bending over.  I think if I straightened it out it would be about 9′ tall.  I couldn’t get a full picture of it, but my pumpkin plant is INSANE.  You can see one end of it sticking out in front of the squash plant.  I planted it right behind the cherry tomato plant.  It is now going in 4 different directions and is in the shape of an X.  Each of the 4 directions is about 10-15′ long.  It’s taking over my garden.  I may have to trim it back.  A lot.

I didn’t really get any of the full tomato or squash plants today but here’s some of the produce from those.

This is our first squash that we picked!  I’m going to cook it up tonight and see how it tastes.

A couple more of baby squash (click for larger image):

Tomatoes from the big tomato plant (click for bigger):

Cherry Tomatoes (click for bigger):

A few strawberries we picked.  They are SO YUMMY.

Here’s part of the pumpkin plant.  Hopefully we’ll get a pumpkin before Halloween..

Last but not least…the crazy raspberry plant.  My dad thinks it’s not a raspberry plant.  I’m thinking maybe not either.  I believe he has one and it’s more like a bush.  This one just keeps growing up and up and UP.  Here it was on July 30th:

…and here it is today.  Unfortunately I just took a pic of the top of it, but you can see that it started sprouting things from the side and is bent over at the top.

So there you go.  Our garden is growing!  It’s so exciting to be able to pick the produce and eat it.  I think we’ll do a lot more next year now that I know we can actually grow stuff.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io6O4ZaQYg8

She was getting to where she could ride for pretty long distances without putting her feet on the ground so I thought we’d give the no training wheels thing another try.

Yesterday, I took her to a big, empty parking lot since it was a gorgeous day out. She practiced for a bit on the “no pedal” bike and then we got her bike out. I got a really good workout running along beside her the first few times. Initially I gave her a big push and put my hands on her just enough to keep her balanced. Once she realized that she could stay balanced as long as she kept her speed up, I just ran along side her, just in case, and then helped her stop at the end of the long straightaway that we were going down.  After maybe 5 or 6 long straight rides, she finally figured out how to brake using her hand brake.  I ran with her a couple more times (See?  A GREAT workout!) until I was confident that she could stop on her own.  I still had to help her get started as neither of us could really figure out how to get her going by herself, but once started she could ride around for a long time.  By the end of our hour or so in the parking lot she was able to ride all around everywhere, in circles, around curves and she was stopping really well too.  Here’s a video in the parking lot.  It’s a little “bumpy” because I apparently can’t walk and video at the same time…..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Gg4RprCks

Later, after we got back home from her gymnastics class she wanted to go back out on her bike.  She kept telling me how much she loves riding her bike, that it’s so much fun!  We went up to an almost empty street with a cul-de-sac and she rode around there for a good 45 minutes or so.  She didn’t like riding on the sidewalks to get to that street because they’re too narrow, but she’ll get used to them eventually.  By the end of our trip to the cul-de-sac she was even able to get going all by herself too!  Here’s another video.  There’s a shot of her getting started by herself towards the end of the video.  And this one is MUCH better than the last one since I was able to stand still to video..

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQl6pRuCvD4

Pretty awesome, huh?  I certainly think so.  Today we went out again this morning and she rode around that cul-de-sac again and we went down a couple of other empty streets as well (so that she could stay riding on the street since she isn’t as crazy about sidewalks).  She’s pretty confident on the bike already and has gotten pretty consistent at getting started by herself.

The one thing I’m sad about is that Dan wasn’t here to watch her ride the bike without training wheels for the first time.  I took her out not really expecting that she was going to get it so quickly.  Dan was out camping with a friend, but he got back tonight and Anna was SO excited for him to watch her ride her big girl bike.  He was so proud of her and I can tell he’s excited to turn her into his little mountain biking buddy.  Towards the end of the evening when she was riding outside she was even starting to stand up and pedal a little.  I think she’ll be riding the trails with Daddy in no time.

Here are a few more photos from yesterday.  Click on all of the photos in this post for larger versions.

And you know, sometimes you just gotta stop and make a phone call…

Riding off into the sunset…sorta..

I really believe that the key to her learning balance on her bike was riding that “no pedal” bike for a few days.  Granted, she’s always had really good balance, but I do believe that helped her body understand how to lean on the bike to keep it upright.  I think that we will forgo training wheels altogether with our next kid (whenever we make the decision about having one..) and start them off with one of these “no pedal” bikes and then go straight to a two-wheeler when they’re ready.

What a great milestone though.  I’m so proud of Anna and she LOVES riding without her training wheels.

Here’s a photo of the whole area.  The plants from left to right are: 2 strawberry plants, 2 different tomato plants, a raspberry plant…in front of the raspberry plant are 2 squash plants.  In front of the strawberry plants is a little pumpkin plant that I don’t think will survive.  I think something has been eating the leaves.  There was a cucumber plant to the left of the squash plants but it got trampled by little feet…

The strawberry plants:

..and we even have little strawberries sprouting up already!

The tomato plants.  One produces normal size tomatoes and the other produces cherry tomatoes…but I can’t remember which is which.

Raspberry plant:

Squash plants…looks like something may be eating these leaves:

Then we also have a little area against the back of our house that has a bunch of flowers, thanks to the previous owners.  There are two rose bushes and they’re just starting to bloom.  There are also some other flowers that I’m not sure of.

The rose bushes:

A rose and a couple of buds:

Some of the other flowers:

Anna was a big help helping me water:

More garden updates when the fruits/veggies start growing!

Well, in our backyard we have a raised portion that the previous owners used for a garden.  It’s a really big area and would be great for a vegetable garden.  However, it being Spring and all, it is full of weeds.  A lot of weeds.  While Dan was mowing the lawn today I decided it was time to weed that area so that maybe next weekend we can plant some stuff.  I know I’m probably a little late in the season, but we’ll see if we can get some tomatoes and other fruits and veggies going.

Here’s a “before” shot of the garden area (along with a before shot of our un-mowed backyard).  Click for a bigger version.  I had actually weeded a little on the right side of the photo before thinking about grabbing my camera, but you get the idea.

This is the “after” for today (click for bigger version).  I got about a third of it done, and then I was DONE.  Hopefully the weather will continue to be nice and I can finish it up this week.

Anna, of course, was loving digging around in the dirt.  She helped me pull weeds and found lots of worms (and slugs, eww) for her critter cage.  Here are a few pics..

Hopefully I’ll continue to fix up the garden area and actually plant some things.  It would be great to grow some of our own veggies to eat.

Happy New Year everyone!

Anna turned 4!  Can you believe it?  I sure can’t.  Where has time gone?  I think I say this every year, but this is such a fun age.  She’s very independent and loves to play on her own but she’s so smart too.  She picks things up like crazy.  She can consistently count to 40 and has counted as high as 70 with no help.  She can write a bunch of her letters, and has been able to write her own name for a long time now.  She knows the sounds that most of the letters make and constantly asks us what words start with certain letters.  I’ve recently started to try to teach her how to sound out simple words and she’s starting to catch on a little!  There’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll be reading before she starts Kindergarten…especially since she won’t start until the Fall of 2011 when she’ll be turning 6.

Anna also started preschool right after we moved back here in October.  She goes twice a week for two hours each day and LOVES it.  She loves her teacher Ms. Cathy, and has a lot of fun with all of the other kids.  The preschool she goes to is a co-op preschool, which means that each day, three parents stay to help out.  So I’m there about twice a month working in the classroom which Anna just loves.  Every school day she asks if I’m going to be a “teacher” in her class that day.  We’ve gotten to go on two field trips with her school, one to the pumpkin patch in October and then to a Christmas tree farm a couple of weeks ago.  We were supposed to go to a fish hatchery in November but it rained the day we were supposed to go.  (Rain in Seattle?  Shocking, I know.)

We’re in our new house!  Hooray!  We moved in the second week of November and are so happy to finally be settled.  We’re still working on getting furniture…but we’re getting there.  While it was nice knowing that we have GREAT friends here who shared their homes with us when Dan moved back in June, and then all three of us (plus the dogs!) once Anna and I moved out at the beginning of October, it’s great to finally be in our own place.  We have a ton of space to fill and Anna loves all the room to run around…especially our 3rd floor bonus room that she has decided to call her “gymnastics room.”  It’s a great house, and seems like a great neighborhood.  Hopefully when the weather warms up a bit we’ll meet some of our neighbors.

School.  I’m still going for that teaching degree that I’ll hopefully get someday.  This last semester was pretty rough with all the moving around, but I finished up at the end of November and started a new semester December 1st.  I get a lot of teaching courses this semester (Classroom Management, Testing, Diversity & Inclusion..) so those should at least be a bit more interesting than the boring old Econ and World Civilizations I had last term.  If I continue as planned, I should do my student teaching in January 2011 and graduate in June 2011.  I just need to keep on keeping on..

We had a small little Thanksgiving feast with just the three of us, which was nice.  We cooked a full Thanksgiving meal complete with turkey, ham, stuffing and all of the other fixin’s.  Anna actually ate pretty much all the food you see on her plate.  She loved it!  We had a second Thanksgiving with some of our friends on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so needless to say, it was not a very healthy long weekend….but everything sure was yummy!

Anna’s gymnastics is going very well.  We tried three different gymnastics schools before we found one we really like.  She’s in a preschool 3-4 year old class right now and since she started there has only been one other little girl in her class so she’s gotten some great individual attention.  Her instructor told me that they’ll be moving her up to the 5-6 year old class before too long (even though she just turned 4).  She still loves doing her cartwheels and handstands and has gotten really good at them.

Probably the biggest piece of news is that my best friend, Mary, and I decided to start our own photography business.  We’re calling it Giggle & Click Photography and we’ll cater to children and families.  We’ve been working hard getting the business license and all the stuff on the business side of things (Mary’s taking care of all that) and also getting the website going.  We plan to “launch” on January 1st and will start advertising soon.  If you want photos taken of your family or children, let us know!!  We’re very excited about it and I’m super excited to turn my hobby into a business.  I think it’s been a long time coming but it feels great knowing that we’re getting everything going and will be in a business we’ll both enjoy.  Oh, and become a fan on my Facebook Giggle & Click page!  You know you wanna.

So that’s about it with us.  Christmas is coming up fast and though we’re spending it without family and there may not be as many gifts under the tree as in years past, I know we’ll still have a joyful time.  This is my absolute most favorite time of year and I love seeing it all through Anna’s eyes.  She’s so excited for Christmas and keeps eyeing the gifts under the tree.

I’m going to try to be better with the blog (I know I’ve said that before..) but if I don’t post before the holidays, I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(Ok, does this win the award for my longest blog post ever?)

On Monday of last week Anna started looking and feeling really bad. On Tuesday she was pretty lethargic and had a fever as high as 103.7 along with a horrible cough. We managed to keep her temp down with tylenol for the rest of the week but when we left yesterday to drive to NYC she went downhill pretty quickly so we took her to the ER at a hospital near my sister’s apartment. She has croup and was a bit dehydrated. They tried to get an IV line in her but were unsuccessful, which was the worst thing I’ve ever had to experience with her. Anna screamed like I’ve never heard her scream before. It was horrible.

Luckily we were able to get her to drink some while we were there so the docs let us go after a couple of hours with instructions to give her motrin every 6 hrs.

She seems to have perked up a bit today but still looks sick. She’s hardly eaten anything in the last few days but hopefully she will soon. I’m sure she’s lost a couple of pounds this last week.

So anyway it was a fun vacation but would have been a million times better if Anna hadn’t been sick. I haven’t seen her this sick since she was about a month old. :(

“Oh yes! Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning.”

You think she watches Peter Pan a bit too much? LOL..

Anna: Where’s my Grover?
Me: Right here, but this is *my* Grover.
Anna: No it’s not.  We’re going to go to the store tomorrow to buy you a Grover.
Me: Oh we are?  What store are we going to?
Anna: The Galveston Store.
Me: Oh, the Galveston Store (of course!).  Who’s going to go with us to the Galveston Store?
Anna: Grandma, Daddy and Uncle Jimmy.
Me: What else are we going to buy at the Galveston Store?
Anna: Shovels.
Me: Aha.  What do we need shovels for?
Anna: Grandma and Daddy need to dig.
Me: They do?  What will they dig for?
Anna: For the buried treasure.  (Like, duh Mom.)
Me: I see.  What will they find in the buried treasure?
Anna: They’ll get gold coins and seashells…really pretty seashells.
Me: Well that sounds like a fun day….

Oh the things she comes up with…

In other news, I signed Anna up for t-ball today.  I know 3 seems a little young but our community’s recreation league has a 3-4 year old division so I stopped by sign-ups to ask about it and went ahead and signed her up.  And then because I’m me I immediately went out and bought her a cute pink glove that came with a purple and white soft baseball, a pink bat, a tee stand and two extra t-ball balls.  I couldn’t help it.

She and Dan flew back from Kansas City this afternoon (they were there for Dan’s grandmother’s funeral) and I gave her the ball and glove in the car and she fell in love with it instantly.  She kept it on for most of the drive home and was hugging on it in the car.  It was quite amusing..

(Sorry about the quality, I took it with my phone in the car.)

When we got home we let her try to hit the ball off the tee and she did surprisingly well.  I was impressed.  I think she has pretty good hand/eye coordination for a 3 year old.  We’ll try to teach her the basics of the game before it all starts in March.  I think she’ll have fun as long as she doesn’t get too bored standing out in the field or waiting for her turn to bat.  I know at this age the don’t keep score, which is good.  I think the games are fairly short and they make sure that every kid has a turn to bat.  Should be fun….maybe.