My Life

I write a lot about Makili and the garden, but amazingly there are a few other things that go on in my life that I feel like talking about today.

1. I got a new job that I'm really excited about and is paying me pretty well. I place exchange students and make sure that they have a great experience here. And the company is sending me to California next month for training. My mom is coming to help out with Makili, and I'm going to get to see my sister, and Makili will get to see all his big cousins in California. Pretty good deal as far as I'm concerned.

2. I've been running. Anyone that has known me for any amount of time is surely laughing out loud at this point, and justifiably, but it's true. I'm up to running 2.5 to 3 miles a day (at least three times a week), which is a HUGE accomplishment for me and something I'm very proud of. It is making me dream a little too. I told Raph last night, "I already could run a 5k. I bet if I keep going I could run a 10k or even a half marathon!" I don't want to get too excited, but I am proud of the progress I've made. You see, running is extremely mental for me. I have finally learned to ignore that voice that yells "STOP THIS RIGHT NOW YOU CRAZY BITCH" the entire time I'm running. When I started last January, I was running less than 1/2 mile, so I've made a lot of improvement.

3. Raph has been begging me to read Harry Potter for a long time. The truth of the matter is that it just hasn't interested me. Sure, I like the movies, but it just isn't my genre of book. I have so little time to read as it is (and usually I'm reading Pat the Bunny, or Mr. Wishy-Washy) that I would rather read "good" stuff like historical fiction, or non-fiction for that matter. BUT, after years of nagging, I agreed to give it a try. I just finished the first book, and I have to say, it was pretty entertaining. I honestly enjoyed it. So I have book group this week, and we'll get a new book which I have to read next, but then I will probably move onto book #2.

4. We are refinancing our home loan. We still owed a little money on one of our lots in Hawaii, so we decided to look into refinancing as way to pay that off. We ended up getting one of these Federal Housing Authority loans, and honestly I'm so glad that we did. The state of the world is pretty frightening to me, with banks crumbling left and right. I really do think things are only going to get worse. I'm glad I live in a SMALL house that is cheap to heat. We even used some savings to buy a wood stove to heat our house with. Raph also bought a cheap motorcycle that he can use to save gas (if it ever stops raining!) We also bought an awesome glass greenhouse of of craigslist, though our town won't let us erect it. (We're appealing that at the moment.) We have several other projects in the works. 1. THe walkway so that shoveling in the winter isn't impossible. 2. solar hot water 3. solar water pump Actually, the list goes on and on, but these are at least priorities.

Makili just climbed on the couch for the first time. Uh-oh.

What Rain?

I won't pretend that the past three days of solid rain haven't been making me crazy. But we did have a little fun in the water yesterday, when the rain slowed for a few hours. Makili didn't last in the clothes, soaking them almost immediately. But he had a lot of fun doing it. Which I guess is what is important!

Parenting Zen

I don't actually know what zen or feng shui or any of that eastern stuff is, but I will say I've been trying to live in the parenting moment.

My friend Evan, who I once described as the most nostalgic person I know, told me once that her mother was even more nostalgic. Her mom, Meryl, a lady close to my heart who recently rescued Raph, Makili, and I from the sleeping in a mosquito cloud, would mourn for the 18 month Evan that grew up, the 2-year old, the 3 year old and so on. She would miss every age of her children. I've been trying to live more like that. To enjoy the age that we're in and not spend my time looking forward to when he'll talk, nap better, communicate, potty train, play soccer, etc.

I actually am in love with the smile he gives Raph when he sees him for the first time on a given day.

So in my effort to live in the now, let me start by saying I really do love this age. Makili is soaking up words and signs and trying so hard to communicate. He signs more, all done, eat (which looks like "make me puke"), hot, cold, up, help, fan, and probably more that I can't think of. He has some utterances that he uses for words, such as apple, watermelon, outside, daddy, berry, broom, etc. He'll tell you that a dog goes "woof, woof" (thanks to Charlie), a cat says "meow" (though his sounds more like a screech), and a horse says "neigh," and he'll do the "choo choo" while pretending to pull the whistle on the train. He will no longer say that cow says "moo." Apparently, he's moved on from that trick. If you ask him to dance, he will shuffle his little feet. If you tell him to get the mosquito, he will do a wide purposeful clap. He does all the signs for wheels on the bus, patty-cake, etc. He loves singing and any time I sing and stop he will vigorously sign "more." I've got quite a little trained seal. It's very cute.

And I actually am in love with the fact that he insisted on eating his snack while wearing Sam's helmet today.

He LOVES to eat, though he still does his share of nursing. Number one food is still watermelon, followed by beans, brown rice, cereal (now with soy milk), beets, cooked carrots and broccoli. He will NOT eat tomatoes (though he always sinks his teeth into them so that they rot), and rarely will eat cheese. He also loves to eat an apple. Now that we're in apple season, I can give him a whole apple and I swear eating it will entertain him for an hour. He loves to pick things in the garden, especially green tomatoes and green beans. He does like to chew on the green beans. He still nurses quite a bit - definitely first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but many times in between as well.

He has a mouthful of teeth. I thought we'd hold out at 12, but no they just kept coming and to be honest I have no idea how many teeth he has now...16? We can barely remember to brush them all. We're working on that, but as you may know, I'm not known for the whole bathing/cleanliness thing. I went for years of my life bathing only so as to wash my hair. I'm trying to do better as a parent, but well you know some things get skipped over here and there, like a tooth-brushing now and again. But we're working on the bedtime routine, so we're trying to make it a normal nightly thing.

He still sleeps great at night and has been napping very regularly for two hours in the afternoon. We've started putting him in his crib at bedtime instead of laying with him and falling asleep ourselves at 7:30. This has been going very well and he only cries for a minute or two usually.

And I actually am in love with this little face that he makes when he knows he is being naughty.

He LOVES reading. His favorite books (which I read over and over and over. I know... zen parenting - relax, enjoy it) are PeekaWho, Mr Wishy Washy (still?), Noisy farmyard, MooMoo Brown Cow, Moo, Baa, La la la, Baby Faces (because I act out all the baby emotions too), I Love You Sun, I Love You Moon, and Spots and Dots.

As for favorite activities, riding on the lawn mower is definitely at the top of the list. (Try to avoid the urge to leave comments about the lack of helmets around here. We know, we're irresponsible, but if makes you feel better he wears ear protection.) He also loves to ride around in his free dump vehicles. And to go down the slide. He has also taken to emptying toys out of baskets and then getting himself stuck in them as seen below. Today at the McCalls', he leaned over the kid "pack and play" to reach something, his feet left the floor and he got totally stuck balanced on his waist. He couldn't get in our out so he started screaming until I came and helped him. It was all I could do not to go get the camera first. That is apparently the mom I am, as seen below.

And I am totally head over heals, sickenly, disgustingly, whole-heartedly, blissfully in love with this exuberance, playfulness, silliness, total joy.

Pastel Tomatoes for Evan

Kittery Kousins

My cousin Emily and her boyfriend Chris came to visit this weekend. Part of my plan to convince all of our cousins to move to Kittery. Not Raph's cousins, though I like them and would like to have them live nearby, because they have too many duplicate genes around here. (THat's a long story I'll get into another time.)

Emily LOVES Makili. He took her to the beach.
This is Makili's newest battle wound.
He took us apple-picking and helped himself to a lot of apples.


Necessary apple orchard picture.
Then Chris helped to get Raph's birthday present underway! It has been rototilled and somewhat leveled!
Raph and Chris even got in a bike ride. Chris's dog, Charlie, really wanted to go, but went for a walk with Emily and I instead!

About gifts

I've been meaning to write about this for a while. Since my birthday actually and that was over a month ago. But then again, I've been meaning to do lots of things - send thank you notes, clean my house, work on Christmas gifts, not to mention all the garden/yard things that need to be accomplished. So one task at a time.

Raph built me this awesome solar dehydrator for my birthday. It really is awesome. He built it out of balusters that cost 50 cents and some weird plexi-glass stuff that someone gave us for free. Some of the insulation that was supposed to go in the basement (this is a point of contention I won't get into) was used on the bottom and back. The most amazing part is that the thing really works. I've been dehydrating peaches and tomatoes in there for weeks. It is so great I can't begin to tell you. One weekend when it was cloudy, I tried to dehydrate peaches in the oven. It took all day and they were still sticky and goey. Two days in the solar dehydrator with no fossil fuel energy and I have a bag of snacks for Makili! Raph is awesome.Here you can see some tomatoes that I just put inside.
So Raph's birthday is three weeks after mine. What did I do for him? Honestly, not a whole lot. THere were grand intentions. Building a walkway and outdoor grill. But I only got as far as pulling the stones out of the ground that formed our old crappy walkway.
Raph did use those stones to put under our chiminea.
which has allowed us evenings like this. Which are also awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't do it, but I've promised him I will finish the walkway before winter...

Panic

On my way to work this morning I heard on the radio that there was a chance of frost tonight. Already? Are you kidding? The consequences of this small bit of information sent shock waves through my system. So I start with the obvious first step - pick every single tomato with the slightest inkling of color. Great except I didn't get home until 6:45, darkness was already setting in, and Raph was at an open house. Makili was good-natured about it and even helpful for all of about 3 minutes, then he started throwing green tomatoes at me and whining. Then with hands tightly clenching green cherry tomatoes, he fell, forehead first into the ground. This is the third time in two days he's done this, and so now I am likely to be questioned by child protection services for neglect, since my child has scratches, bumps and bruises all over his forehead.

So obviously I stop picking tomatoes (after the crying doesn't subside) and soothe my injured child. He wants to nurse, so I oblige right there (rather than waste the time going inside, etc.) While nursing I realize I need help and telephone good ol' Tim two miles away for some back up. Though he is in the midst of making lobster rizotto, he drops everything and heads over to help me finish picking, cover the heirlooms (who really are just getting going because we put them in late), and then frantically he follows me with bags as I fill them with swiss chard, cucumbers and basil, things I know don't handly frost well. Makili at this point has calmed down a bit, resting on the whining plateau since it is his bedtime.

Tim takes off to see that lovely Tamara, who has been working her tail of, get dinner by 8. I now just need to get everything in the house, which isn't so tough for everything just bagged, but our entire back porch is full of recently picked tomatoes too, which have been sunning for a few days. Makili has lost patience with me and heads inside, then changes his mind and tries to come back out. He opens the door, steps out, only to have the screen door close on his little leg. More crying ensues until I let him help me fill the bag, which more aptly could be described as allowing him to throw perfectly good tomatoes at me and on the ground.

After he went to bed, I stacked the least ripe tomatoes on the window sill, the rest in bowls. And as I'm doing this, it occurs to me that if it will becold enough for my tomatoes, I probably also should bring in my house plants. Those that have survived anyway. There is one big one that only Raph can carry, and so we might lost it, but otherwise, they're safe, at least from the cold. I'm still around to keep them on their toes with infrequent or too frequent water, dark corners, etc.

In this last picture you can see the Leaning Tower of Jam in the background, and this thought brings about a whole new line of thinking. What the hell am I going to do with myself. You have probably noticed that in the last 4 months, there haven't been new quilts posted. No new projects. No new recently read books on the sidebar there. Frost is more than worrying about the tomatoes. It is a new era. It is back to basics away from canning (THANK GOD) over to quilting, crafting, reading, exercising (which has been picking up in earnest! I am up to running over 2.5 miles, in part due to my Aunt Jean's encouragement.), and whatever else I did before I became completely garden obsessed. Obviously this doesn't start tomorrow. There will be squash to pick, sweet potatoes to dig up, beds to put to sleep, new beds to prepare for spring, etc., but things will change rapidly. The goddamn mosquitos will finally die for one thing. Whew.

Oh and according to the computer the low tonight is only supposed to be 41 degrees.

A Trip to the Farm

We went to see my Uncle Terry and Aunt Phillipa this weekend on their llama farm in Jefferson Maine. We took Larry's big truck and trailor with the intention of filling them up with llama poop. We enjoyed our visit a lot. Makili loved watching the tractor fill the trailor.

He loved sitting in the "Gator."
He loved climbing in the creek in his diaper, and chasing their neighbor Josh's dogs, Flo and Nell.

Of course, he loved checking out the llamas.
Until he found the big shovels and piles of dirt, and then that was the center of his interest.
The llamas liked checking him out too.

It was a short but sweet visit. Unfortunately our return trip wasn't quite as short or sweet. We got lost on the way home in the middle of nowhere in rural Maine. Then when we had finally found our way, the trailor started making funny noises. So we pulled over and realized that we were missing a tire. This was at 11:30 at night. We had to leave the trailor, and Raph and Larry had to go up on Sunday to get, which took 8 hours because they had to find someone who would mount a tire on a Sunday. Next time I think we might just visit my aunt and uncle.

Good Luck and Congratulations

Good Luck and Congratulation to my friend Becky and her husband Nick, who leave tomorrow to go to Vietnam to bring home their little girl.  We're thinking of you!

You can take a kid to the beach, but you can't make him like it.

A day at the beach with a tired baby starts off okay...

but then he wants more of something that we can't figure out?...
which pisses him off...

so we put him in the carrier and he continues to scream and sign more though we have no idea as to what he wants more of...

he tries to get me to save him, but all I do is take pictures.
then he has a full-fledged tantrum in the sand.

can't wait till he's two.