This and that

I spent a much needed hour and a half in my garden this morning. It's been sorely neglected of late. The tomatoes hadn't been staked and were about 2 feet tall (when stretched. Since they weren't staked, they were sprawling on the ground). The broccoli needed to be pulled out, the basil was about to bolt, the chard was dead, the lettuce has been eaten alive by snails. It was a sad state. So I got my hands dirty and cleaned the place up. I set up the tomato trellis. I cleaned out the dead and dying stuff. I harvested the carrots. I actually have normal size carrots this year! I am so excited. My carrots have failed the last 4 years. But look:


Aren't they awesome. Of course, I also need to admit something. I hate to thin plants. I feel like I can't tell who will make the best plant, so who am I to say who lives and dies. Well, this is what happens when you don't thin your carrots:

Yes, they grew all around each other and most of them are the saddest looking bunch of carrots I have ever seen. Tasty, but ugly. So take this as a word of warning: thin your plants! They will grow better that way.

In other news, we have some auspicious omens of things to come with Claire:

She has started doing push ups and standing on her toes. I think I heard someone call it bear walking or something like that. Her little butt is in the air and she is standing on hands and feet. She didn't go anywhere, but she tries.


She is also getting really good at holding the bottle on her own. She can hold the plastic and the glass ones up. She usually gets so excited that she ends up pulling the bottle as close to her as possible, which makes it difficult to eat, but she is trying.


Look at her little pigtail!! She has this one little curl. Usually when it is more humid, but I wonder if it will turn into anything.

See how it sticks out, ain't it cute?

"Hey Mama, what are you doing? Quit taking pictures of the back of my head!"

She also kind of sounds like she says mama when she is really upset. It's probably mostly my imagination, but it is still cute. She sits up on her own really well now too.