Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been a very long and busy one.  Alice has had lots and lots of fun, and has learned the wonderful world party.  Monday was Memorial Day and was the third barb-queue we had that weekend.  We had it at our house.  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, pie, ice cream, brownies, and fruit salad.  Alice was in heaven, also because she got to hang out with her friends.  The weather was not that great. it rained much of the day, and was cold.  We were able to cook the food on the grill, but we all stayed inside while we played games and talked.

 

Wednesday we went to the zoo in St. Louis, A friend of mine from high school was moving to West Virginia and we met up to go to the zoo while they were staying with relatives near by.  We all had a very good time, but it made for a very long day. Friday night my friend and his family stayed with us, so did one of Susan's friends from College. We had 9 people in our little house.  It was great to see them all again.  Susan and her friend went to a dance Saturday night.  It was actually a ball.  I didn't go so I will let Susan explain about it all on the blog.

 

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[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/PettingPigs.flv[/flv]

On a side note Alice has been on something the entire time.  She has been very very talkative, and when getting ready for the parties and jut before them she would dance and sing and run all over the place.  If you have ever met Alice she is usually a very quite child, especially around strangers, but this week she has just been crazy/silly.

[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/SingingSongs.flv[/flv]

 

[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/CrazyAlice.flv[/flv]

 

[flv]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2009/CrazyAlice2.flv[/flv]

 

A quick note on the videos.  Some times at least with our computer they did not play properly at the beginning, just audio.  If I clicked on the progress bar to rewind the video then it started working just fine.

Alive!

They did it! The red wigglers actually survived my steaming compost 'welcome' and found a veritable worm feast awaiting them. They are fat and healthy and having a delightful time in the rainy morning cool (whew!)

Bobby's Sunday Summary (on Monday, a.k.a a crazy weekend)

This week was the first week that has been warm enough for swimming in the back yard.  Susan got the pool out this week for Alice.  She can probably tell the story better then I can.  She told me that at first Alice treated it like a bath, and would pick out all of the grass that she tracked in, and follow all of the bath rules, like no jumping.  After a little while she soon learned it was not a bath tub, but a pool and started having a lot more fun.  Sadly the pool has some cracks in it.  I guess that is what happens when the pool sits outside exposed to the elements all winter.  It is still fun, it just leaks a little unless you position it just right.

This week end has been very busy.  We have had two BBQs so far and there is one more on the way.  It has been a lot of fun, but somewhat exhausting.  I don't think I am going to want to eat another hamburger for a while after this.

CSA Share---May 20th

Another wet spring means late planting for this CSA. They apologized for the slim share this week, but rejoiced that the greenhouses were not flooded by all that rain recently.

• 6 eggs


• large sack baby salad mix and Asian greens (mixed)


• 50 worms

Yup, you read it right. Worms! Small red crawlers, to be exact. The kind you can use to compost kitchen scraps in record time. This CSA is so cool! I already have 2 compost bins sitting unused in the backyard and a 55-gallon rotating compost bin that gets occasional use so I figure "Why not try worm composting (i.e. vermicomposting) as well?" ;) And this is what happens...

I am far too lazy to assemble yet another special compost bin for the worms, so I decide that the 55-gallon rotating bin will have to do. First, I move the bin to the east side of the house where it won't get as much sun. I still have some of last year's compost in there, so it isn't an easy move :( Second, I dump in a tub of recent kitchen scraps and two tubs of water before dropping in the worms and closing it up. Finally, I mix, mix, mix, open the lid, and VIOLA! I see steam. STEAM?!

Oh no.

Our recent warm weather coupled with the bin's near-constant placement in the sun has led to a significant amount of heat being stored in that old compost. Even at 9 AM, the soil is hot enough to create steam. Good for killing weed seeds, but not so good for 50 small red crawlers. Erk.

Sunburned

I am currently sporting my first official sunburn of the year. It's not something I'm super proud of, but I'm quite pleased with the activities that led to such pain. Sunny outdoor work and play! Especially today's work and play. A friend of mine took me out to her parents' farm in Piatt County where they have grown almost 100% of their vegetable needs for the last few years. I'd like to have a larger, diversified "farmette" of my own someday, so I begged them last year to let me help them this year. Today was my orientation! What a treat!

Alice was leery of their enthusiastic golden retriever appropriately named "Moose", and uncomfortable in the constant wind (the prairie is windy almost ALL the time), but otherwise cooperative. We picked radishes, deer tongue lettuce (a variety of Bibb, I believe), and spinach. I picked up a few neat ideas for hoop houses and improving early crop vigor, and shared a couple thoughts on my experience with asparagus. I'm soooooo excited to be a part of this! Yipee!

Now if I could get a working camera back into my life, I'd post picts!

WWJD?

The babe and I finally went to check out the Early American Museum in Mahomet. There's a neat "Discovery Room" downstairs with all sorts of exhibits that kids can really get into. Alice loved the cabin kitchen (no surprise!) with all the foam food and dishes and cooking implements. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves, so we chased eachother with old-fashioned wooden duck toys that flap-flap-flapped as you pushed them along. We sat in a replica of a dugout canoe and Alice exclaimed, "Alice in boat. Like Jesus!"  We took a ride on a pretend horse made from a barrel and Alice giggled, "Alice ride horse. Like Jesus!" We played with trains, blocks, and cars ("mrooom, mrooooooooom"), but mostly we played with foam food and dishes. I love this kid.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was a very good week. It has not been too much out of the ordinary, but still a very good week. Susan was rather busy. She had several activities in the evening and I got to stay home with Alice. Nothing too exciting to report there. On Saturday we went to the Temple. It was a fun trip, but again nothing too different from normal monthly Temple trips. Sorry it is so short, perhaps we will do something really exciting next week, but probably not, we don't have much of anything planned.

A New CSA!

What a joy! After our terrible experience with Bob Brackett's CSA last year (which has since been independently confirmed by another of Bob's former shareholders as the worst CSA experience ever), we have begun the new growing season with a new group called the Prairieland CSA. It's managed by a non-profit organization, not the farmer, so the farmer family does their job and the organization handles all the PR with the kind of administrative know-how that inspires confidence! Yippee! I also love the Moore Family's produce and chicken, so I knew the quality of the products before signing on.

Our first share was this week (2 weeks earlier than Bob's start date):

• 6 eggs, pasture-raised


• 1# whole wheat flour


• 1 medium sack of salad mix and Asian greens (combined)

Now that's the way to start when you don't have anything! As a new member of the CSA, I received a cookbook as well. It's more of a how-to-cook-from-a-CSA-share kind of manual with basic instructions on the types of dishes that do well with a variety of fresh ingredients (quiches, crepes, casseroles, pastas, etc.). An entire chapter is devoted to cooking with fresh herbs. I look forward to that educational experience.

Momentous Occasion

Today I packed all the diapers in a box. Every one. I picked out all the baby toys from Alice's toy box and put them in a storage box in the bottom of her closet. I was happy at the time I did it, but now an unsettling feeling of permanence has creeped in. Like that babyhood is gone for real.

I don't miss Alice's babyhood, but I sure enjoyed it while we were there. Just like I enjoy where we are now. This feeling reminds me a bit of when Alice was just born and I couldn't feel her kicking around inside me anymore. I mourned a bit for the baby I had "lost" before I got to know the baby I had gained.

Mother's Day 2009

I'm not usually one to celebrate holidays with vigor. There's just something about all that hopeful expectation building up to a few moments of less-than-ideal real life that disappoints every time. The more I try to make it perfect, the more disappointed I am at the end. So, I've learned to expect and plan very little around holidays so that I can actually enjoy the less-than-ideal real life. Yeah, yeah, I'm not normal, but I really do enjoy holidays better that way.

Today was sweet. Bobby had his normal pre-church meetings from 8:30 to 11:00, so he quickly made pancakes while Alice and I slept in. He ate breakfast with us and rushed out the door. I had a quiet morning at home with the babe. Since it was Sunday, I didn't have a whole list of "to-do's" on my brain. We played and played and I truly enjoyed it. It's fun to play with Alice when I can let go of responsibilities and just enjoy the game. She's coming up with new scenarios for her babies all the time (i.e. grouping them in families, cuddling them when they cry, taking them on walks to 'Nise's house or Will's house, dressing them in her panties while she teaches them how to use the potty). We got ready for church in record time and arrived early. When Alice saw Bobby sitting on the pew, she squealed and ran to him with her arms outstretched, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"  She hugged and snuggled him a good few minutes before settling in to the regular church routine. I love to see her love her daddy. I love to see them play together. I smile when she asks him in the morning, "Daddy stay home and Mommy go work?" or when she spots him in a crowd with, "My daddy!" It literally helps me love her more when I see she loves him, and love him more when I see he loves her.

After church, we lounged about the house a bit before heading over to Bill and Kristin's for dinner. Kayla slept while Alice and Will played really well together, which gave the adults time to talk and laugh together, too. We ate banana pudding for dessert. Banana pudding is one of my mom's favorite desserts and it therefore became a Mother's Day tradition in my house growing up. I can't seem to break the habit, especially since I discovered the joy of homemade vanilla pudding.

We have no pictures from the last few weeks because our camera of 6 years has gone on the fritz. Many apologies. It's uncertain when we will find a suitable replacement :(  Hopefully soon, though, I think Alice is growing up faster than I can keep track.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been a very long one. Monday seems like a very long time ago. We have been thinking about a second car for a while. For a long time we didn't do anything about it because we could never justify the cost of another car. Well, now with my new church calling I have meetings Sunday mornings that if they get out on time I have just enough time to go home pick up Alice and Susan and then head back. If the meeting finishes late then I just simply cannot do it. So last Saturday I spent some time looking and I found a used 2007 Yaris on line. I called up the dealer, who is 1 hour away, got pre-approved and everything. We could not go look at the car Saturday because we had several things going on that afternoon. On Monday The dealer called our house twice to be sure that we were still interested in the car. After work Susan picked me up and we went out to go have a test drive. About 15 min from the other town we get a call from the dealer saying that he was very sorry but while he was out someone else had sold the car we were looking at. Susan was mad! She was ready to turn around right then and was sure that it was some sort of a bait and switch that they were pulling. Well, there was no turn around until we hit the exit for the car dealer so we decided to at least go look at what else they had. While we were looking at new cars thinking there is no way we are going to pay that much for them the guy's boss tells us that the sell fell through on the original car we were looking at and we could buy it if we wanted. As it turns out we now have a second small car, and Susan is not quite so angry any more.

Perhaps part of why this week feels so long is because we had a very long Saturday. We had a BBQ planed for the evening. I spent much of the morning smoking a pork roast to make pulled pork. We usually do it the cheater way my Dad taught me cooking the meat in a crock pot until it is falling apart and then adding the sauce but this time I thought I should try it for real. It is tastier, but not enough to justify all of the extra work. Susan, however, did not have much of anything planned, and she got bored, so she decided that she was going to haul a bunch of brush to the landscape recycling center, pick up a load of compost, and get rid of an old not functional rototiller she had picked up another day that she was bored. We worked all morning at that. When it was done we cleaned the entire house, she was very tired and sore, but still bored and could not sit still. It ended up being very fun, but a lot of work.

I also cannot end the post without a Mother's Day note. I am glad that I cannot remember potty training, but now that we are helping Alice with it I have a whole new appreciation for what she must have gone through.  Thanks Mom.

Alice Update

As mentioned previously, Alice has two favorite games: mothering baby dolls and preparing/serving pretend snacks. She's pretty creative with it, too. She'll use any object in either kind of play. Even dirt. Seriously. Baby dirt clods, dirt snacks, the works. This afternoon she turned a tiny string of sandwich meat into a baby who had lost its mom. Then the "mom" meat came leaping out of the bowl to hug and kiss the lost baby before Alice chomped them both with a sinister giggle.

Alice has recently taken to calling herself a baby, too. It's another game. She changes her voice to a higher, softer pitch and simpers around calling "Mommy, Mommy." She keeps her fists closed and her eyes squinty as she shimmies up to me and reaches up her arms to be held. I pick her up and coo at her like I would a baby, and she just whimpers and says "Mommy, Mommy" in that quiet little baby voice, sometimes petting my shoulder with her balled up fists. I guess that's what babies do. Then she tells me "Baby wants..." and we run off to the "store" or the "potty" or the "snacks" according to baby's wishes.

Speaking of the potty, Alice is still making progress. She stays dry overnight and wetting accidents are few and far between. Number two is still tricky. We've only had two messes on-target in the last week. Bummer. It's STILL less mess than diapers, though, and she's still very young, so I'm happy to be patient while she learns this next hurdle. To be honest, I'm just glad she's staying regular and still enjoying the whole training process.

Alice seems to be preparing for a growth spurt. She ate 3 steamed dumplings last night, along with a small scoop of lo mein, a small scoop of rice, a couple pieces of sesame chicken, and 2 fortune cookies. Lunch and dinner today were similar in volume and variety. Wow! She's been a pretty good eater for as long as I can remember, but the volume is starting to make a difference. We have also noticed a significant increase in our household's use of milk and toilet paper and dishes. Hmmmm.

She runs, climbs, and swings on everything. I think it's time to look into acquiring some playground equipment for the backyard. She loves her friends and cousins. She also plays well by herself for long stretches of time every now and then.

She's still quite independent. Most of our disagreements stem from her dawdling pace when she's asked to do something she doesn't want to do. There are things she has come to do for herself (i.e. dispense liquid soap for hand washing, fasten the top buckle in her car seat, choose bed time stories, select clothes, etc.) that will lead to a meltdown if I forget to let her do them herself.

Every day, I am learning more and more that persuading a child to follow you is all about "spin." Rachel was the first one to point this out to me. It's how you sell the idea to them that matters, giving them as much control as you can creatively squeeze in there, but still limiting the choices to something you are happy with either way. "It's time for us to leave our friend's house. Would you like to go straight home, or to the store and THEN home?" Alice almost always chooses the "store", so a sad goodbye and mom's list of errands turns into another adventure of Alice's choosing. It doesn't always end that nicely, of course, but it sure feels good when it does :)

Hm. This blog entry is long enough. I don't have any recent picts to show you, either. The Evanses came over for a little Mother's Day prep party yesterday. We made gifts for grandmas and the kids had fun playing together. Unfortunately for us, only the Evanses were taking pictures :( We'll have to beg copies from them once their computer is up and running.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was a bit stressful, but I believe that the layoffs at least for the people here, are now over and I was not laid off, but I believe that my manager was, I don't know for sure, but he left the company the same day as the Layoffs. So I now have a new manager. On the home front Alice has been growing and learning. Just tonight she sat Susan and I down to give us a lesson. She pulled out a little book and showed us imaginary pictures to look at, something she has done to her a lot for lessons.