9 months

Potatoes, beets, peas and cukes

The gardens are behind the tramp, but this shows the two retaining walls Ryan built.

Anna turned 9 months on Friday and she's officially lived as many days outside the womb as she lived inside. She's now signing "more" and I am trying to get her to sign "milk" but she's still working on it. She had her check up and is doing well. She weighs 18 lbs 10 oz, which is in the 50th percentile. I think she's 28 inches tall and her head is in the 75-80th percentile. She now eats two table meals each day and nurses the rest of the time. Last night she slept two 5 hour blocks in a row. She has a little bit of a cold and still NO teeth! She doesn't even seem to be getting close to cutting any teeth. That doesn't stop her from chomping and chewing like a pro.

Maddie is gearing up for her big day. She's having a tea party with a few friends over. Ryan is building her new playset and he's almost finished. She discovered it last Saturday. We were able to keep it from her for a week, which is pretty good. She told us she "was still surprised" when she saw it. So we all went to the back and sang happy birthday and she proceeded to climb all over it. She's been having a blast in it, even though it isn't finished yet. She's already invited the neighbor kids over to play.

Big news: Maddie decided that she wants to attend the public school program this fall. It's hard for me to accept, but that is what she wants. We'll try it and see how it goes. In the meantime she's still on the waiting list for a great montessori school (along with Anna) that goes through elementary school. It's the fallback if public school doesn't go well. I may have a nervous breakdown over the whole thing!

The first session of swimming lessons just ended and Madeline passed into the next level; level two. The swim teachers noted her lack of fear and willingness to try anything. They also said that "if you could bottle Madeline's energy, you could sell it in energy drinks", now THAT'S a big surprise! Ha ha ha. The second session begins next week.

We ordered my parent's monument. It will be very pretty and I look forward to having it set so we can put flowers at the grave.

The garden is growing well. The peas are done and there's a large frozen bag for the rest of the year, the beans are beginning to be ready. We had beets last week. I picked a turnip that I like to call my "triumphant turnip" because it was one of the plants Maddie and Ryan had "thinned" during the winter. Maddie asked to place the plants, they had picked during the thinning process, in water. Ryan said no and stated they would not live in a glass of water. I told them that we should just stick them in water to see what happens and if they die then we learned something and if they lived then Ryan learned something. Lo and behold the plants grew and grew until we transplanted them into dirt literally months later. Thos plants eventually were transplanted into the garden and are now three turnips and one kholrabi. They all look wonderful and I enjoy a chuckle everytime I see them. Maddie is very proud of her plants, even though she isn't interested in eating the turnip.