Signs

Yesterday I declared that I did not think the boy would ever sign anything to us. Ever. Then tonight he melts my heart by signing "Mommy". Helps make up for the fussiness he is going through right now due to teeth, the poor boy. He continues to be the most darling thing in the world (seriously) and makes us so happy every day. Except when he is shrieking. Then not so much.

Reference

For reference on garden size, these are the pictures from when said garden was first planted. Quite a change from below! (edited to add, the last picture is from June 30)

Garden

The garden started out small and quaint, and is now a beautiful mass of green and yellow, and soon to be red. There are zucchini coming out of our ears, and in addition we have harvested the best cucumbers and a super yummy pepper. The tomatoes will be forthcoming soon, and there is a broccoli fighting for light and food in there too that will give food soon from what we discovered yesterday. So far we have eaten the cucumber mainly in salad, and the zucchini has been prepared just sauteed in olive oil and salt and pepper, in a super yummy bread from the America's Test Kitchen book, and in a thai-ish rice noodle dish I got from our csa group. I recently got a book from the library with a simple-ish recipe for zucchini cake- instead of frosting, tho, you put lime curd on top and between the 2 layers. I am waiting for another huge zucchini to come off the vine for that one and will let you all know how it turns out. I can say with certainty that the zucchini bread is a hit, and is REALLY good toasted and topped with a bit of peanut butter. MMMMmmmmmmm...

The garden as we see it now is quite different than these pictures here. You can no longer see the tomato cages, and the tomatoes are as tall as the fence. Also PJ had to take out the chicken wire on the sides to let the plants spread out a bit. There are tomatoes and zucchini outside of the garden, but the little dogwood tree is sharing it's space nicely, and in return I am lobbying for it to be moved to a spot better for it to grow.

Ava looooves going out to the garden with her daddy and bringing in the latest harvest. Between the garden and the csa, we have drastically cut down on the produce procured at the grocery, and I LOVE that!!!

Chairs

When Pauline passed away, Dick asked me if there were any items from her apartment I might want. Included in the request were 2 chairs, velvet seated, caned backed that I remember from forever ago. I beleive there are pictures of me in said chairs as quite a young lass. So it warmed my heart to see James take such an interest in these chairs. He particularly likes the one backing the front window. It's unclear how much of that is due to his desire to stand up on the chair and see what's going on in the outside world. He spends a good deal of his time in the chair, sometimes sitting quietly, sometimes moving around quite a bit and listening to Mom and Dad remind him sternly several times that he needs to sit on his bottom, or an old fave from when Ava was small, "Sit down or Get down!". Ava occasionally tries to get into the chair with him which is usually met with stern rebuffs and occasional smacking. I suggested one chair could be for her and one for him, but Ava likes a challenge. As long as there are no more falling off and landing on his head like a pogo stick (seriously that ruined his whole day) we are good. He's getting a better knack for getting down by himself, so hopefully there will be more good times to come in my (and James') favorite chairs!

Fred is (still) a super cuddler

Ava put a pillow on the floor last night for Fred, and they cuddled while waiting for Lawrence Welk to begin. It lasted about 30 seconds before the boy clamored over and tried to climb cuddle mountain!

Clavicle

Ava, James and Mom just returned from Bluffton, IN where Ava got a good bill of health, clavicle-wise. She stood VERY still for her new xray (great job!) and got a cool sticker that lost its stick in about 30 seconds after she stuck it to any/every flat surface till she settled on the stroller. The Dr. scanned the xrays into the computer and printed out a copy for us, hence the picture you see. He said she is healing great, has a slight bump which may or may not grow in size, and it's unneccesary to come back to be declared "healed", she's on such a good track. He said we should go another month before any major things, like bike riding and soccer, but to pretty much let her be a normal child and she should be just fine. I thought about the bike thing on the way home, and if I am on foot with her and able to help her over the bumps, then I think we will still put her on, as I end up helping her anyway. It will be good practice, and by the time she is healed she will be ready to fly solo over the big bumps!

Congratulations to our good healer!

There will be more posts later, (precious children! huge zucchini from the garden! new (to us) play equipment for the boy in the backyard!) but for now this is all the time we have. James may be attempting to escape out the second story window as we speak....

I know how to make a long story long, or James Eats Pesto

So tonight I had planned for dinner grilled chicken breasts, couscous, and the greens that were in last weeks csa bag that we had not eaten yet. (We had eaten everything else, including the onion that we sliced and put on our hamburgers last night and the other half of same onion sliced and roasted with the new potatoes on the grill with olive oil, salt and pepper. Mmmm.) Anyhoo, tonight was different because PJ's friend came over to test the paint on/in our house for lead. (With a couple of possible outside exceptions we are negative- Wahoo!!!) And it was our week to pick up from the co-op and deliver the csa bags to our 2 local co-csa-ers. Ava and I left and immediately hit traffic due to the construction on Crescent (they are putting in brick crosswalks and it is super pretty!) and the drive was difficult. But we got there, and delivered our fare and returned home unscathed. When we returned, PJ's friend was gone, and I asked PJ what he would like for dinner. He said he wasn't really hungry (he had the leftover giant cheeseburger for lunch with leftover salad so can't blame him) but he would make me whatever I wanted. I said there's no sense cooking up all that chicken, so I would improvise. I knew that the greens needed to be cooked, as we had new greens this week. I cooked greens last week (from the week before? or maybe we got lots...) with a recipe I found online that turned out pretty good. I didn't remember where I put the recipe, so I decided to wing it. And the fresh basil in this weeks bag inspired me to make some pasta with pesto and parmesan to go with the greens. So I get to cooking. PJ meantime had made the children meat sandwiches, which consists of various combinations of the following: turkey, ham, mayo, mustard, and cheese. He and Ava eventually left for the gym, and James and I visited while he continued to eat his meat sandwich. I remembered when cooking the greens last time that I thought there was too much chicken stock, so I used less than I remember putting in last time. It was about 1/3 cup stock, and in that I put minced garlic, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper. Heated it up, and put in the greens, turned down the heat and let it cook and steam and absorb the chicken stock. Then made the pasta (cooked in more stock) and mixed it with pesto, fresh grated parmesan, and some chopped basil. Soooo gooood. I went into the dining room to sit with James, and he took quite an interest in my plate. I am always willing to share, but tonight I didn't share the greens as I put in a lot of the crushed red pepper and they were way too spicy for him. But I gave him a piece of penne, and he looked at it and continued to holler. Now he has been doing this thing lately that he likes to take his bites off his plate. Mind you, if you put the plate on the tray, he will still dump it onto the floor, but if you hold it for him, he will find the exact right piece for that moment in time. I didn't think he would eat it- I was sure it would end up on the floor and Fred would eat it, but lo and behold, he loved it! So I let him have at as much pasta as he wanted. And he had quite a bit. So now, although Ava only eats like 5 things without complaint (one of which is pancakes which I made this morning) my heart glows to think that one day our son will eat the food that we prepare for him and not be limited to 5 items or less. Aaahhhhhhh....

(edited to add: photo courtesy of wikipedia, and sorry for all the parentheses!)

Out of Control

Our lives are spinning somewhat out of control with the advent of James giving up the morning nap. We are working with this new schedule but it is an adjustment for all of us. I am sorry for not blogging lately, I truly have things to put up, but alas right now it is time for me to work on Julia Child's life in France (I am at the part that she's mostly back in the U.S.) and examine the backs of my eyelids. More work to come, I promise. Bless you all!

She Divines Water By Dancing a Jig

I forgot to mention that in all the hubub at the ground breaking, Ava found time to help City Utilities by diving some water. She is such a good helper!

Ground Breaking

PJ Thuringer, Project Manager for Renaissance Pointe, invited his wife and children to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for said project June 27, 2007. We happily did so. Also in attendence were Chris, the developer from Indianapolis that PJ enjoys working with, Mayor Graham Richard, City Councilmen Glynn Hines and Tim Pape, mayoral candidates Tom Henry (D) and scandal ridden Matt Kelty (R). I'll tell you that story on the phone, not over the 'net folks. It's not pretty and lately is involving a Grand Jury. Yikes. Anyhoo, there were plenty of people from the City of Fort Wayne (employees) and the public. The builders were there and I was fortunate enough to meet The Brothers Lancia and the prodigal son who PJ also enjoys working with. Total salt of the earth. PJ also took photos while a few people said a few words, then the mayor got out his trusty shovel and broke that ground. We were in the back of the crowd, so pardon the pics, as I am not a tall woman, but we were swelling with pride at PJ's accomplishments. There are days that I am not sure how on earth they have gotten this far so fast! James decided to let everyone know his thoughts on the matter much to our chagrin as there were no microphones, and the mayor had to compete with our boy, and you know he has some volume! PJ says the models should be started next week, and I will continue posting about that. A special Renaissance Pointe Section of the blog. The project was mentioned in the city council meeting last night (yes we watched the city council meeting on City TV because we are young and vibrant and that's how we roll) and several people are excited about the possibilites, and I am super impatient to see this thing roll out! For now we will have to take what we can get. Good job Peege!

Our Chickens, Ourselves

I am sorry about the sizing of the pictures, I will try to correct it. I just couldn't wait to get these things up so you can see why we will never lose our children in the crowd!