Maren's Growing Ways

Maren is 10.5 months now and her personality is showing more and more.  She has become more clear about her likes and dislikes at meal time, for instance.  She used to be my eat-anything-and-everything girl, but her tongue is much more discerning now.  She prefers table food cut in baby bites, and when she gets tired of it, she flings it off the tray.  We have had a lot of flinging and not so much happy eating lately.  Her two favorite menu items are: cooked, scrambled egg yolk and semi-frozen blueberries and blackberries.  Aside from those two standbys, she also likes pureed green beans.  Unlike Ezra, she still allows me to spoon-feed her for part of the meal.

Maren isn't very verbal yet.  She has two words: da-da (which means daddy), and Eh-da (which means Ezra).  Big brother is at the center of her world and she calls to him constantly.  The funny thing is, Maren has already picked up on intonation of words, and Eh-da can be spoken sweetly, or screamed in frustration, such as when big brother grabs her toy for the fifth time.  Poor girl, she has been poked, pushed, sat on, mashed, hit, rolled over, and squished by Ezra since the day we brought her home from the hospital.  Their relationship is iffy most days.  So, for better or for worse, little Miss Maren already knows how to express her displeasure, and can turn on a dime from pleased to perturbed.  I would say that she is feisty, and perhaps a little short-tempered.

She is now crawling in the traditional hand-arm/bent knee fashion, but if she gets excited or needs to get somewhere fast, she reverts to her body flop.  She pulls herself up to anything and anyone that will hold still long enough.  She loves standing at the bottom of stairs, but hasn't yet figured out how to climb.  She loves playing the piano.  She loves balls, and has a strange habit of holding small balls with both hands up against her chest.  We have discovered that it is very comforting to her, and will often calm her cries, especially when she rides in the car.  Perhaps it is some sort of tactile/sensory connection?  It works, so we keep a lot of little balls around the house.

Maren loves being outside.  She is fascinated by rabbits and birds.  She adores riding in the baby backpack carrier.  She is perfectly still and content in the backpack on walks, but will often thrash, cry, and get frustrated when buckled into the stroller.  The phrase "go swing?" always brings a little excited smile to her face; she and Ezra both could swing for 30 minutes or more and never want a change.   

Maren is super wiggly and sitting for books and pictures is not her preference.  She has no real attachment to any doll, toy, or activity.  She is a very snugly, and giggles when we nuzzle noses.  We are learning body parts and gets a kick out of stuffing numerous fingers in my nose and mouth.  She plays peek-a-boo and "so big!" with me.  She loves the "dump it out" concept and can make quick work of pencil boxes, laundry baskets, and toy buckets.

Her hair is long and curly and her eyes are still a gorgeous clear blue.  She has been sad, restless, and uncomfortable lately and may be teething, have an ear infection, or tummy problems--or maybe a little of all three.  She wakes up in the middle of the night often for no apparent reason, and she and I spend the wee-small hours of the morning walking the house.  I am hoping my giggly girl returns soon!  She has such a great smile!

Long Time Coming

Our backyard is still a work-in-progress, but one corner of the yard has had a major makeover since we moved in last summer.  It is always encouraging to "see how far you've come", so these pictures are as much about a beautiful new garden as they are positive motivation for the work yet to do.

Our backyard at move-in had dead grass and happy weeds, several overgrown shrubs, a large cottonwood tree, rocks, rocks, rocks, and an old raised garden box full of weeds and old rabbit warrens.  (Apparently I never took a picture of the backyard looking to the right, but you get the idea). 

I decided to put the vegetable garden in the upper right hand corner of the yard.  Clearing the area was a long process of hauling rock, cutting down trees and shrubs, removing roots, and tearing apart the old garden box.

After months of removal with shovel, hoe, and pick-axe, we started to see some serious progress when it was time to till!

New garden beds looking like ancient burial mounds, with the pathways excavated.

We added compost to the garden beds, and built a fence around the perimeter.  In theory, the fence is to keep the rabbits out and help Ezra not to trample small plants accidentally. 

We built a cedar gate, and set the gate posts in concrete.  We mulched the pathways, added a small pave-stone pad at the gate entrance, and planted the spring vegetables from seed.  Summer vegetables were added in late May as transplants.  We also planted lavender, sage, chives, mint, lemon thyme, and rosemary in two little pots, and some long-blooming perennials to attract pollinators in a big pot.  

Spring vegetables were planted in the back half of both beds, summer vegetables in the front half of both beds.  From back to front, here is the spinach, cilantro, romaine lettuce, kale, and Swiss chard looking awesome.

This pea variety called Snowbird matured in 58 days and is shown here covered with pods.  I think we picked at least 3 cups all at once.

The garden has transitioned now to the summer vegetables, and spring crops are starting to wilt a little in the hot sun.  The cilantro and spinach have all gone to seed and are essentially done for the season.  As of last weekend the zucchini and squash plants were in a holding pattern, and hardly growing.  In the last few days, they have jumped in size and are flowering and starting to produce fruit.  The tomato plants are very happy too. 

Let's Try Again

This morning Ezra asked me an interesting question, "Why do you make mistakes mommy?" 

After a surprised chuckle at his astuteness, we had a nice talk about how people are imperfect and mistakes are normal.  And, then we had a beautiful discussion about how Jesus Christ is the only perfect person, and He shows us by example how to live.  I bore my testimony to him that because of Jesus mistakes don't have to be endings, but opportunities to keep trying. 

He seemed satisfied with my answer, and then repeated to me a statement we use often in our home, "Mommy, we can always try again."  What a glorious truth!  I probably say it every day: "Let's try again!"  How sweet the blessing of repentance!  How sweet the blessing of a merciful Savior who offered His life as a sacrifice for each of us!  Because of Him, we can try again.  We can always try again. 

Curb Appeal

We have lived in our lovely first home for almost a year now (!!), and have made some awesome improvements.  Here is a little picture history of how our front yard has improved:

When we moved in last summer, we had the ugliest yard in the neighborhood.  We inherited a completely dead lawn, happy weeds, overgrown shrubs, root-suckering wild roses, dying aspens, and more rocks than sense.

Job # 1 was to remove the clump of dying aspens and a small misshapen, storm-damaged honeylocust.

Job # 2 remove the overgrown shrubs, web of aspen roots, and rocks, and rocks, and more rocks.  We also hired a contractor to build a railing along our front porch. 

Next, we hired a landscape contracting company to install a sprinkler system and build a small stacked-stone planter bed in front of the porch.  To save money, we installed the plants ourselves.  We chose one small ornamental tree (weeping red Japanese Maple), one semi-evergreen shrub good for fragrant early spring flowers, and three partial-sun tolerant perennials.  We also applied fescue/bluegrass seed blend to the soil.

 

Finally, we installed drip/spray emitter heads for the plants in the raised bed, added a dozen more perennials for additional color and interest, and mulched it all.  In early May, our roof was damaged in a hail storm, and required a complete roof replacement.  Two days ago, we had a new 30-year roof installed.  The plants are happy, the grass is starting to come up, the irrigation system works, and we have some serious curb appeal now.