Summer garden update

We have finally cleared the vegetable bed of its winter hangers-on and planted most of the summer vegies. So far these are: tomatoes (cherry and roma), pumpkin (feral, sprouted from vegetable scraps), zucchini, watermelon, capsicum, corn, parsley, basil and chives. The passionfruit we planted last autumn is taking off with the warm weather. I also have a few savoy cabbage to add when I get a moment. I had not thought of these as a summer vegetable (a friend who had too many seedlings gave us her leftovers) but apparently they will grow year-round in Perth - we shall see!

D, with the help of our two Dads on respective weekends have now, we hope, solved the reticulation problem. (One of the lawn sprinkler cycles was not coming on, and unfortunately the wires for it ran through the vegetable bed.) With the digging-up of wires and pipes complete I was able to finish the last of the mulching. To help our crummy sandy soil, I dug in vegetable scraps as I removed the last of each of the winter plants. Then, as we planted the summer ones, I added cow manure and soil improver. We had laid a thin layer of bark mulch a month or so ago but we have now largely dug that in as we were told that straw based mulches are the best for Perth soils. The last of the mulching involved spreading a thick layer of sugar cane mulch on top of everything.

The last thing I will do before sitting back and waiting for it all to grow is to plant some cucumber seedlings. We bought some a few weekends ago but I then held off planting them because of all the digging I knew was going to occur. Whilst I was waiting for that to happen they died. Oops.

I am thinking of joining Diggers so that I can order a bigger variety of vegetables, and experiment with growing them from seed. So far everything has been from seedlings, aside from the feral pumpkins, broad beans, dwarf beans and a few lettuces. Now that the lattice is up, the vegetable bed cleared of all non-vegetable plants and the soil improved enough that we can just keep adding to it each year, I feel as though we will have more time to be adventurous.

But as for the great broad bean crop of 2010, the least said the better...

Trials and tribulations of travelling

We bought a portacot yesterday, beacuse D's work is sending him to Bunbury for a week at the end of the month and Little E and I are going with him. I thought it would be a good idea to get E used to sleeping in said cot before we go. Yesterday afternoon I set it up and stuck her in it with a bunch of toys to play with and she thought it was great. (I also thought it was great as I set it up next to the piano, which meant I got to play the piano for a bit without an excited baby on my lap alternately struggling to thump the keys randomly and with all her strength play too, pull the lid closed on both our hands, and pull pages out of the folder of sheet music).

Today I moved the cot into the spare room, waited until Little E seemed tired, put her in her sleeping bag, handed over Pooh bear and walked out. She screamed. And screamed. And screamed. At.the.top.of.her.lungs. As though someone was torturing her. She normally manages a bit of grizzling and fussing at nap time, but this was quite impressive. I sat in the lounge room alternately calling myself a mean and nasty parent and thinking that I was glad I tried it at home, during the day, rather than in a hotel at night. I sat on the couch staring at the clock. She screamed for 12 minutes (the magic figure that Save Our Sleep claims babies of this age should scream for before you go in to comfort them or they fall asleep). There was then abrupt silence. After another minute I very cautiously stuck my head around the door. She was fast asleep, looking completely angelic and peaceful.

I still can't decide if it's mean and nasty parenting or a necessary stop on the sleep road.

Ooooooh moments

Little E has a particularly endearing noise which she uses when especially excited by or interested in something. It is a quite high pitched "ooooooh" accompanied by a round mouth, round eyes and furiously waving arms. So far the following things have been oooooh-worthy:

1. The ceiling fan in her bedroom (usually whilst I am trying to persuade her to have some milk so this one is as annoying as it is amusing!);

2. Belle the cat (whose good life is close to being over as E gets more and more mobile);

3. Lochie, Mum & Dad's neurotic poodle;

4. Any ball being bounced or thrown; and

5. Most recently, bubbles coming out of a plastic cup with a hole in it being held under water in the bath.

We had played plenty of games in the bath that involved pouring water out of the cups but I only thought of holding it under a few days ago. It's the wonder at bubbles in the bath that make you realise how new and exciting the whole world is for a baby.

Beach expedition

Little E had her first expedition to the beach yesterday and it was not a great success. Her brand new swim nappy leaked (probably partly due to the over-enthusiastic amounts of dried fruit administered by Mummy in the previous few days). The swim nappy may be going back to the shop as its packaging claims it is specifically designed to avoid "embarrassing accidents."

She was happy to sit on the grass and have a look around and thought that the playing in the sand part was ok. But when a wave got on her she cried and cried.

She calmed down momentarily and then she saw a wave get on D and she cried some more. Obviously, at least so far, water must be warm and contained for her to enjoy it. An hour or so later she was perfectly happy in her bath.

We might try the swimming pool next.

Lessons learnt the hard and the (unfunny) runny way

1. Do not get adventurous about your child's ability to eat solids and feed her (albeit very expensive, organic) brown rice three days in a row.

2. In an attempt to compensate, do not then feed her large amounts of (albeit very expensive, organic) prunes.

Just don't. That's all I'm saying.

The best birthday present

D turned 31 last Sunday. A few weekends ago we acquired an orange tree, which was his main present from Eli and I. It came from a lovely nursery not far from D's parents' house called Wandilla Plants. It is a good thing we don't live closer to it as I can see us spending a lot of money there! We liked the idea that in our first year in this house we planted an apricot tree for my birthday and an orange tree for D's. We also like the idea of eating oranges and drinking orange juice and making orange juice icy poles for E and her little friends in years to come.

Continuing the garden theme, D's parents gave him a wheelbarrow and a ladder. I tease him that you know you are old and domesticated when for one birthday you get a lawn mower and the next one a wheelbarrow and ladder, but they are very useful gifts and he is very pleased with them.

E and I also gave him a copy of Bill Bryson's latest, At Home. We had this out from the library a while ago but it is on the high demand list and so couldn't be renewed, and given the enormous reduction in our free time since a certain someone arrived, a month was never going to be long enough to finish a book of that length!

My parents and Grandma thought that D needed a few personal gifts amongst all the garden/household items, and they found him two ties, new socks (which Mum, having hung out our washing a few times over the last 6 months, knew he badly needed!) and a new shirt. He was very pleased with these as he has to wear a tie and business shirt almost every day to work and gets bored with the same ones over and over again.

We had a lunch time party for D on the day of his actual birthday. Just when I think I have learned my lesson about Little E being happiest with routine, and quiet gatherings, I agree to have 40 people over! And I decide it would be fun to make lunch for them all! D enjoyed it, which was the main aim, but it might be a while before I agree to cater for that many people again!

All of the above aside, D thinks his best present was the one he received at about 4am on the day of his birthday. E had had a restless night and at 4am I knew she did not need food as the little greedy guts had eaten two or three times already since we went to bed at about 9pm. So I decided it was D's turn to go in and attend to her. She greeted him with "eeeee! Da da da! Da da da!"

She has not stopped since.

The best birthday present

D turned 31 last Sunday. A few weekends ago we acquired an orange tree, which was his main present from Little E and I. It came from a lovely nursery not far from D 's parents' house called Wandilla Plants. It is a good thing we don't live closer to it as I can see us spending a lot of money there! We liked the idea that in our first year in this house we planted an apricot tree for my birthday and an orange tree for D's. We also like the idea of eating oranges and drinking orange juice and making orange juice icy poles for E and her little friends in years to come.

 

Continuing the garden theme, D's parents gave him a wheelbarrow and a ladder. I tease him that you know you are old and domesticated when for one birthday you get a lawn mower and the next one a wheelbarrow and ladder, but they are very useful gifts and he is very pleased with them.

E and I also gave him a copy of Bill Bryson's latest, At Home. We had this out from the library a while ago but it is on the high demand list and so couldn't be renewed, and given the enormous reduction in our free time since a certain someone arrived, a month was never going to be long enough to finish a book of that length!

My parents and Grandma thought that D needed a few personal gifts amongst all the garden/household items, and they found him two ties, new socks (which Mum, having hung out our washing a few times over the last 6 months, knew he badly needed!) and a new shirt. He was very pleased with these as he has to wear a tie and business shirt almost every day to work and gets bored with the same ones over and over again. 

We had a lunch time party for D on the day of his actual birthday. Just when I think I have learned my lesson about Little E being happiest with routine, and quiet gatherings, I agree to have 40 people over! And I decide it would be fun to make lunch for them all! D enjoyed it, which was the main aim, but it might be a while before I agree to cater for that many people again!

All of the above aside, D thinks his best present was the one he received at about 4am on the day of his birthday. E had had a restless night and at 4am I knew she did not need food as the little greedy guts had eaten two or three times already since we went to bed at about 9pm. So I decided it was D's turn to go in and attend to her. She greeted him with "eeeee! Da da da! Da da da!" She has not stopped since.