September 19th, 2011 by Busy Mommy
Here’s a few things we’ve been harvesting from the garden this summer- Cucumbers, Corn,Tomatoes, Broccoli, Green Beans, Kale, Lettuce, Carrots, and I have cauliflower that it almost ready!
I picked 14 lbs of Tomatoes yesterday and decided to can some tomato sauce- it made 4 pints of sauce- not much but hey it still gives me that feeling that I have some farmgirl in me.
And my very favorite garden experience this summer is PURPLE GREEN BEANS! Yes! I didn’t realize that this wouldn’t be extremely exciting and stimulating to everyone until I brought over the first fruits to my parents house and I pointed out to my mom that they were purple and she was like “oh yeah…that’s nice”. Later I kept talking about them and how amazing they were and she was like “you are such a farmgirl….I mean I don’t excited about green beans even if they’re purple.” Music is food for my mom’s soul, and things like purple green beans are food for my soul. Just look at that rich purple!! My only wish is that they stayed that color once cooked.
One thing that has been a delightful surprise in our garden is the abundance of blackberries we are starting to get now- we have the Doyle’s thornless blackberries type and have literally produced quarts and quarts of berries this year- I wish I’d kept track of some real numbers. I’ve been leary of berries ever since we tried growing blueberries with no success. But they are big, delicious and profuse and they totally live up to their end of the bargain for the space they take up- especially with a little half and half thrown on them.
But they are just as good eaten straight from the garden- I love that Nolan has been able to have a little taste of the “farm life” wandering around his home picking berries and munching on them while playing in the dirt.
No, Nolan is not wearing leg warmers- we told him to go get his socks and he came back with Daddy’s socks- we obliged him and put them on.
September 19th, 2011 by Busy Mommy
Nolan will be 23 months in just a few days. His eyes are just as blue-grey-green as they’ve been since the day he was born, just more clear. Here those eyes are at 19 days old, almost 2 years ago.
 Everyone always comments on how striking those eyes are.
He talks so much now that I lost count of words and phrases a long time ago- right after I made a list when he was 18 months old of the words he knew which I think was around 150 words, his knowledge exploded out of control and became uncountable. His ability to enunciate has really gotten good and he is now able to string some phrases of three words together.
He loves to RUN everywhere. It is the cutest thing to see. Just running, and smiling, and laughing, everywhere. He’s just become this little ball of energy and joy that totally lights up our life in every way. A few years ago we had no intention on having children in this system. A year and half a go I was still recommending to others that they skip children, as much as we loved Nolan, simply because it was SO HARD. Ben and I both have health problems, Nolan was extremely needy (normal for a baby) , and we had such a hard time functioning each day and were very sad. He’s become so endeared to us and lights up our life so much now though that I actually find myself thinking “everyone should have one of these!” We have both learned so much and had so much entertainment and joy from watching Nolan grow this past 2 years, and especially this last year has been particularly enjoyable. It just feels like it has rounded us both out as individuals and as a family and has helped us to understand what other families go through in life too which has made us even more understanding of people.
He loves to say bye-bye to everything, whether it’s shoes, toys, or people. And he actually plays with toys now! I got him these cute little trucks and cars from the thriftstore and he loves playing with them.
He has just started throwing more obvious tantrums- and so far this has been in response to a frustration on his part when he can’t get something to move or work the way he wants- ie. trying to push the tricycle we got him on the garden path and it keeps getting stuck. He starts crying this frustrated mad cry and stamps his feet and shakes his little fists in the air. I feel a little bad for him because he’s just frustrated trying to do things a little too advanced for his level. Ben told me that he remembers having the same frustrated crying when he was little and couldn’t put the big boy tiny lego pieces together because his fingers didn’t have the dexterity yet.
Please pretend you don’t see a pile of clean laundry and a dirty kitchen floor……
