Ten months and counting

Annalise turned 10 months on Sunday. She's over 19 pounds, crawling like a crazy baby, has two bottom teeth poking though and has a definite preference for her mother. he he he She's only two short months from turning one and I can't believe it. She still nurses well, she loves her food but can sometimes be moody about what she eats. She doesn't dislike anything, but will sometimes refuse things she's not in the mood for (like her pasta bites yesterday - not interested). She has a very loud screech that she occassionaly belts out, just to see if anyone is listening. She still gets up once per night (sometimes more). She pulls up on things and stands but is not interested in walking. She did discover the art of climbing the stairs but only seems interested if *I* am up there and she wants to try to re-cement her body to me. Did I mention that she loves me a lot? Did you know that an otherwise perfectly happy baby can be turned into a Tazmanian Devil if she can see her mother but is not being held by her mother. It is an interesting trait that Madeline never experienced. I don't mind at all though! :) I just eat up her attention.

Maddie is also doing well. She had a little bit of gratuity overload between her birthday/party and Chicago so we're trying to reverse the ill effects that we caused.

Anna, Maddie and Ryan all had a bout with the stomach flu. The jury is still out on whether or not Madeline actually had the stomach flu or suffered only from flu-envy. She did not have any expectorating like the other two, which leads me to believe she was only having sympathy symptoms. Everyone is now cured.

The garden is doing well. The eggplant are now being harvested and should continue to produce throughout the summer and fall. We harvested 106 onions and some 50 beets. We planted a new batch of beets and beans (and something else I can't remember). The blackberries are done but the raspberries are looking good and should be ready in a couple of weeks. There are many pumpkins, muskmelons and butternut squash developing. The cucumber keeps having something happen just when the cukes are starting to get big. The plant thrives but everytime one string looks good the whole string dies back. There's a few cukes on there now just waiting to grow. We'll see what happens. And the tomatoes are going crazy. I am going to can some salsa in a couple of weeks. The peppers are doing well too. The yellow squash died but the zuchini still produces well. There's the long and the short of it!