So cute lately.

Makili has been big into games - like tag, and "I'm going to get you." He is also into tickling. If he touches my toe or belly button I laugh, and he loves it.

You may recognize the hula girl in the foreground of the picture.
Pensive about dirt
So Tired
Can't keep him tied down or his feet on the ground. Hard to keep up sometimes.

Bananas are OUT, Dancing is IN

Changing so fast I can't keep up. Makili no longer pines for bananas, but instead peaches, watermelon, blueberries, and pears. He rocks out to his little leap-frog toy Aunt Amanda and Uncle Blair bought him that plays "She'll be coming round the mountain." And right now he is rocking out to Paul Simon. Thattta boy! His little wiggling bottom is about the cutest goddamn thing I've ever seen!


In other news, swiss chard, squash are UP!

Post 300 packs in the Summertime!

Summer started on Saturday. At Ryan and Jess's pool. Heated to a comfortable 83 degrees - perfect for Makili who amazingly escaped the house without a pool picture. SO nice and followed with dinner and a trip to the ice-cream parlor. So summer time.Followed by our first official beach outing. With Mark, Lauren and Kayden. I couldn't take enough pictures. Kayden loved through sand into the ocean and shrieking when the water touched her. Makili would crawl into the water until a wave touched him then he would hightail it out of there and do it all over again. We got some sun (Raph a bit too much). It was absolutely delightful.




Clothes were shed along the way.
And Kayden didn't reall know what to think of Makili nursing. So she decided to give it a try.



We wrapped the weekend up with a trip to Fort McClary to jump into the ocean. A new spot for us and it reminded us both of a lake. SO beautiful and refreshing after our first day above 90 degrees. Hot enough to almost stop garden work, but not really. I was still out there shoveling dirt at 8:00 tonight and Raph put Makili to bed.

I told Raph, "When I was kid, this is the kind of place I'd get to go on a special occasion, or on vacation. Now I can come here EVERY day! " And it's true. I'm loving our location lately. A LOT! (Did I mention the affordable house for sale around the corner!)
I should point out that we topped off the great weekend with a salad from our garden. Oh yeah.

Whew.

Before leaving Pittsburgh, I was finally able to put the binding on two quilts I finished earlier this year that just came back from the quilter. I was quite happy with both and am now pumped up to put the binding on the other two. I have to hurry up and have another productive period like that before too many people announce babies and weddings. I can't keep up.
My stay in Pittsburgh was great and I was sad to go. I was sadder still on Wednesday night after having spent 13 hours in transit with a baby. Yeah you read that right. 13 hours. When I got to the airport all seemed well. No delays reported. We boarded the plane, they took my carryon because there was no room in the overhead. I figured the couple of diapers I had in my purse would last me the three hours to NH. Then 45 minutes later, we were getting off the plane again and not expected to leave for at least another 2 hours. So I re-routed. First through Laguardia, which as soon as I sat down at that gate, was delayed indefinitely, and then direct through Boston at 6:00 (my original flight was 1:30.) So I had time to kill so my mom came out and had dinner with me at the airport and entertained Makili a bit. Then that flight was delayed until 8:00. Finally we made it to Boston, and of course my luggage didn't make it. But I couldn't file the claim until all the baggage from the flight was on the carousel, which took an hour and then I had a bitchy woman do my claim, who gave me the impression that I was wasting her time. Isn't that her job? At midnight we got home. And this morning while I was at work, my luggage was left on the front porch in the rain (luckily Ann was there to find it!)

But I made it. And though you'd think I'd post a picture of my cute husband to document my return, instead I ran to document my garden. We ate salad straight from the garden last night! YES! Oh the arugula! It just keeps coming! And look at that absolutely adorable radish. It is all I can do not to pull them out of the ground to admire them!


This is the new corn bed by the way, which will also host beans and squash.
The lettuce

The radish


The beds
Sprouted beans, peas and cucumbers!
The first corn stalk, a little blurry!

Things We Do At Grammy's House Part II

Makili's first birthday celebration happened - a surprise for Makili and Grammy and I.  The Giarratani's invited us over under the pretense of a coffee, but instead they had a birthday cake and gifts.  A main reason for the brithday extravaganza is that Makili and Frank are birthday buddies, that is they share the same birthday.  In reality, he couldn't share a birthday with a nicer guy.

Cathy was VERY excited about this super-cute horse that she gave to Makili.  For his part, Makili was also interested for a little while, but I'm sure his interest will grow as he does.

We've spent a lot of time eating at Grammy's this week.  New foods include watermelon, peaches, blueberries.  Yummy stuff.  Makili really likes watermelon and I'm convinced it's because it runs ALL OVER HIM.
And Makili got his first piano lessons.  No complaints there either.  Aside from playing in the dirt, climbing the carpeted stairs, cruising the room with the neighbors walker, the piano is right up there at the top of the list for his preferred activities.  What a luck kiddo.  (And what a lucky mom who got to be a lazy mom all week!)

What we do at Grammy's House - Part I

At Grammy's house, there are a lot of people to hold Makili, so he'll dive out of arms to get to the person who looks like they might bring him somewhere interesting.  Here Uncle Blair stood still too long, and Mom happened to walk by.  Don't be fooled though, he'll dive out of my arms as quick as can be if a better boat sails by.

Grammy lets him crawl anywhere he wants.

Through the flowers
He can turn the furniture upside down.  (Look at his mini farmer's tan!)
The neighbor's lent us this walker.  Makili adeptly pushes it to one corner of the house, screams for someone to come and turn it around, then pushes it to the opposite corner and starts screaming again.  OVer and over.
Lots of buttons!  Remotes!  Phones!  OoOoh!
Grammy takes him on nature walks.  Here they are checking out the tadpoles.

MOst importantly, Makili is learning to play cards.  Somewhat ironic that Aunt Amanda is teaching him the card-playing skills, since the Beals are a little too game-obsessed for her, but he'll take the lessons where he can get them.  This is the equivalent of learning to love food at the Mattys, ice-skating with Dad, sewing with me.  This is important stuff!

Up Up and Away

Frequent Flier

Makili gets around.  Seriously.  This kid has been places.  We made our way to Pittsburgh on Wednesday.  Makili was awesome, sleeping on both flights and being generally amicable all around.  We had to leave the house at 4:00am to catch the flight and I think he actually liked being woken up because he smiled at me the whole drive there - a drunk happy smile, like "I don't know why I'm happy, but I am."

Makili thought the airport was great.  All the people and the long cruising opportunities.  He wasn't worried about laying all over the dirty floor or trying to grab other people's trash.  That was me.

Once arriving at Grammy's house, he had to check everything out and see how it worked.  He quickly latched onto Grammy who he realized would carry him around and show him stuff.  

He even helped her make coffee.
He has also spent some time playing with next door neighbor Elena, who clearly has a mind of her own and decides what to do with her time.  She is not so fond of my dad and quickly decides it is time to leave when he appears.  That whole waving the arms making funny noises thing will do it I guess.  

My Kind of Fun

We came back from Larry and Ann's last night so that we'd be able to get some things done today. YARD WORK! My kind of fun. Seriously. I can't get enough. We built two more beds today, planted our first tomatoes and pepper, got our neighbor to bull-doze some stumps, Raph mowed the lawn, and I'm sure there is more. It has been so beautiful here, although not much rain for the garden, and our hose doesn't quite reach the beds so we've been improvising until we get a new one...


Makili had to be moved to a different bed so that he wouldn't tear out the new plants, but he didn't mind so much so long as he could continue to sink his hands in the dirt.

Look at our little lettuce heads just starting out. That there is the front row is Arugula (or Baluga as my Dad calls it.) My favorite! I'm such a proud mama of my little ones.


Have you EVER seen a more beautiful tree than the gorgeous horse chestnut (or Buckeye where I come from) in front of our house!