Quick photo Saturday

Planning her great escape while Daddy builds the inescapable big-girl crib.

A new arrival! and the joys of caffeination

Announcement announcement! We're expecting a playmate for Heidi sometime in the beginning of February! Hurrah!

And as of this morning, to all the naysayers who say that caffeine is bad for you during pregnancy, I say blergh. 

When I found out I was pregnant, I ceased my morning coffee, and coincidentally absolutely ceased to be productive during the day. At all. After feeding Ryan breakfast, packing him lunch, making him coffee and sending him off to work at 6:15 am, I would go back to bed. Wake up when Baby woke up, nurse her in bed while dozing for, oh, an hour. Trudge out to the kitchen, make breakfast for us. Eat at leisure. Put on boots and go garden, lament that it was only going to be shady for 30 more minutes. Get one row weeded, trudge back inside. Put baby to nap, sleep. Wake up when she woke up, trudge into the kitchen to eat some lunch. Finally, at about 1:30, think about the fact that I should clean a little, or maybe work on the book. Simultaneously realize that I haven't made bread or thought about what's for dinner. Make bread, spend 30 minutes thinking about what's for dinner. Decide to make spaghetti and therefore not to worry about it for 4 more hours. Put baby down for afternoon nap; fail at self-discipline and lay down anyway. Have finally swept the floor by the time Ryan comes home. Have to admit to him that in 10 hours I've only weeded one row and swept the floor because I'M JUST SO DARN TIRED.

So last night I admitted to him that I just can't do this healthy thing anymore. Unless, that is, he's happy to have a wife who sleeps all day. He said, "well, then drink coffee!" (This is the same man who tried to forbid me any caffeine whatsoever when I was pregnant with Heidi. Tried. For our own good, of course.) And this morning, I had two cups of blessed blessed coffee.

Which means I weeded almost all of the watermelons AND the radishes AND the turnips.  And trellised the peas. And weeded the one canteloupe plant that I had forgotten to put straw around. And picked all the dangerously fungus-y looking leaves off the raspberries. And ate three blueberries and one absolutely perfect strawberry.

I was going to bring it up to the house to take a picture of it, because it was perfect. And then I smelled it. I couldn't help myself. It was deep bright red and shiny, small and round and just ripe enough to have the seeds fall off in little squishy patches when you squeezed it. And it was SWEET AND DELICIOUS.

All before baby's naptime. She played on a big fuzzy blanket out in the shady part of the garden, and then got bored, whined a bit and fell asleep. To be quite honest, I wouldn't have done so much out in the garden if she hadn't fallen asleep, but once she was asleep I thought it a shame to wake her up to bring her inside. She also learned that weeds are itchy when you crawl off your blanket onto them, and that dew is chilly. She has some little red bumps and lines on her skin from the grass. And you know what? I'm ok with that. I'm working so very hard at overcoming my hyperprotective instincts.

I might join Heidi for nap #2 this afternoon. In fact, I hope to. I'm gestating; I'm entitled. But oh my goodness, my life is so much happier this morning for being caffeinated. If anybody knows how to be coffee-energetic on only water, I'm willing to listen. In the meantime, though, natural health and responsibility are far less important to me than feeling human.

Radish harvest!

Our first harvest! I know it's late in the season. We planted late. I still think they're lovely. Now to figure out what to do with them.

Montessori at home - how does this work??

Sorry for the week of silence. It was a busy weekend, and a busy week making up for it. Ren Faire, party, shopping, unpacking, and the garden going crazy. Blogging, not so much.

I <3 Ren Faires.

I was researching this morning how to make my baby's environment more discovery-friendly. I knew Montessori had programs for infants. What I found was mostly what I already knew - play mat, lots of floor time, simple toys made out of real things (not plastic). I had already tried to incorporate as much of this as I could into our life, but it's always been difficult. My baby hated tummy time for months. Now she doesn't mind it so much because she's getting a bit mobile, but she gets frustrated at being at the level of our feet. She would much rather sit in her high chair while I bake bread, playing with a toy and munching on pieces of dough. She wants to be up on my level and involved in my activities. And it's not like I can let her crawl around on the table while I sweep the floor. Dailymontessori.com says not to use swings or baby seats, because it hinders development and encourages passive observation of the world. I can't function without one, unless I want to listen to my baby scream from the floor. Clearly, the thing to do is to get down on the floor and play with her (and I do), but I don't have all day to do that! I have too much work to do to confine it all to naptime. Have any other moms found how to make this work - give maximum freedom and encourage mobility while still getting your work done and keeping the house in order? Or is my baby the only baby in the world who feels abandoned when I leave her to play on a mat on the floor while I get housework done?

Right after reading the article about crawling time for babies, I took her outside to garden. The carrots finally appeared, and I needed to weed them. I chuckled to myself as I carried the Bumbo outside to put her in. Maybe she could learn more if I let her crawl around and pick all my seedlings. But until she's old enough to understand instructions not to pick the plants, I'm not going to let her. Take that, idealistic educational theorists. At least I brought her outside.

and she taste-tested the grass and dirt for me

Current plant count (as of the plants I bothered to count last night and today)
266 corn stalks
21 watermelons
15 squashes
5 canteloupes
8 cucumbers
12 tomatoes
2 raspberry bushes
2 blackberry bushes
6 strawberries
2 blueberries
and I haven't counted the carrots, radishes, turnups and peas.

and one raspberry!!

strawberry flower. so excited.