Ten Years in the Making

It took ten years, but my set of plates is finally complete. I made the first plate ten years ago, when Tom and I moved in together. At the time I had only planned it as a one-time gift, but as the years went by, and different milestones in our life together and our family passed, it made sense to add another one.

I was dreading putting Scarlett's hand and footprint on the back of the newest plate, because Lacey FREAKED OUT when I did hers, But as we are already seeing, Lacey and Scarlett have very different personalities, and Scarlett was game for getting a little dirty. She took it all in stride.

It could be a long time until there is a new addition. So for now, we'll call the set complete. 💗

Garden Progress

If there's something satisfying about watching your garden seedlings grow, I don't know how to describe the satisfaction of watching vegetables take form!

Our garden has been growing away the last few weeks, and Tom and I have already learned some lessons that we'll have to work around next year.

First of all... Buy carrot seeds as seed tapes, rather than randomly sprinkling seeds. Our garden is so overrun with carrots, we had to pull some so that they didn't crowd each other out! And when I say "we" had to pull some, I mean my dad pulled them for me!

Some sort of flock of birds keeps eating our peas! I think we'll have to develop some sort of net system to keep them out next year. We only got peas for a couple weeks before the birds ransacked the vines clean!

Cucumbers are super prickly! I don't even know how you can eat these things... I haven't tried to pick them yet, because the spines are so sharp!

Pretty much everything develops spines! Even the shafts on our lettuce has developed spines! They aren't as sharp as the cucumber prickles, but equally surprising! We have so much lettuce... Last week, Tom picked enough lettuce for six of us to have salads for dinner, and you couldn't even tell that he'd cut anything out of the lettuce patch! The lettuce is also very tasty-- I think we'll grow it again next year!

The animals in our neighbourhood are relentless. For the first few weeks of August, we were reveling in a huge abundance of the most delicious and tomatoey tomatoes I have ever tasted... And then... The squirrels discovered they are delicious, and the magpies discovered they are delicious. Now there are half-eaten tomatoes all over our fence, and I find myself banging on our glass patio door, trying to scare animals away on a regular basis. And one particularly cheeky squirrel is totally unfazed by the banging. He darts off for a few minutes, and then comes right back!

Our zucchini plants keep falling ill with some sort of mold or mildew. Little white patches have been growing on all the leaves. So far, we've only gotten to eat one zucchini, and SOMETHING (PROBABLY THAT DAMN SQUIRREL) took a bite out of the other one that is growing in the garden!

Green beans grow from the loveliest little purple flowers. And green beans, unlike the yellow wax beans we grew last year, do not grow upwards in vines. The plants stay relatively small, compared to what we've previously seen!

And finally, sometimes letting your toddler randomly pick seed packages works out really well. Lacey latched on to a package of mixed flowers when we were at Lowe's, and she insisted that we buy it for the garden. After she wildly sprinkled the seeds into the garden, I had a really tough time telling what were flowers, and what were weeds when they started to grow. It seems like I did a pretty good job of leaving the flowers in place! We have quite a nice collection of purple, blue, white, yellow and orange flowers now!

I'm hoping that I can pickle some carrots or beans this year-- I really enjoyed them last year!

Welcome, Scarlett!

Scarlett arrived very early, and in a hurry, on June 22 at 6:27am. Although the days seem long to two sleep deprived parents, the first five weeks with our little one have flown by.

Tom's version of my second labour experience, which I've copied below, is succinct, and I can (now) laugh at it... So, enjoy!

"Amanda's water broke at 2:30am and we were at the hospital by 3. They sent us back home around 4:30 telling us to come back when her contractions became longer and more intense - which the doctor thought would be in about 12 hours. By 5:45 things had changed dramatically and the longer and more intense contractions hit Amanda like a freight train and I'm sure the whole neighborhood heard her screaming via the open window in our bedroom. I sped to the Rockyview, threw Amanda in a wheel chair and raced to the maternity ward. After twenty mins of pushing, Scarlett was born."

To quote the doctor who sent us home, "Oh... I see things have progressed VERY quickly."

Things have seemed a lot easier this time around. Scarlett doesn't seem as fussy--or maybe we just know what we're doing this time. I've physically healed a lot faster, which allowed us to get out and about more. During our time off we were able to go to the zoo twice, for a walk in Griffith Woods, for a picnic on Prince's Island, for a walk on St. Patrick Island and to the Riley Park Splash Park. I won't claim these outings were smooth. It was hectic, and no easy feat getting both kids out the door, but with team work, we managed!

Scarlett is thriving, and Lacey is figuring out how to share the attention that was once solely focused on her. She's very affectionate with her baby sister, and rushes into the house after a day at daycare to say hello to her and give her a kiss. But she also acts out when we can't immediately focus our attention on her. Overall, I'd say everything about her transition into big sisterhood has been pretty typical for a two year old.

There have been a few bumps-- we all had a cold the first week home from the hospital, and I managed to get mastitis this last weekend (which was the devil). But our little village of family and friends have pulled together to offer us support, and we have gladly accepted.

Life is sweet, and so are our little girls!