All posts in Kids

Garden Project: Phase II – Planting Day

We have been preparing for our garden for some time now and Planting Day finally arrived. We always plant on the Saturday after Good Friday, which puts us a little later in the season this year, but no worries. We had to clean out the winter growth from garden bed. Our good friends Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo made a generous donation to our venture this year – a truck load of rich organic mushroom mulch! I snapped a few shots over the past couple of weeks and then set up an interval timer series with my Nikon D200 on a tripod while we were actually planting the garden.

This year, we are just planting basic, staple vegetables – zucchini squash, yellow straight neck squash, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, sweet red peppers and cantaloupe. We may try some smaller raised box beds on another part of our yard that gets full sun nearly all day. Our sycamore trees have gotten tall and are shading our garden bed more than I like, but they still get 5-6 hours of full sun. We’ll post updates as things grow…

Logan’s Day at the Children’s Museum

Recently, the girls had an opportunity to attend a friend’s birthday party at the Charleston Museum. Penny went with them and Logan and I went around the corner to the Children’s Museum were we also have a membership (go Groupon!). He and I don’t get to spend one-on-one time as often as we’d like and we had a great time. Nowhere to be. Nothing else to do. No one else to pay attention to. We just did whatever Logan wanted to do. No limitations in the craft room. No rushing through the little grocery store. Played pirates to our hearts’ content. It was a great day!

Valentine’s Day Sabotage

Sabotaged by a 4-year old. I doesn’t make me feel any less outsmarted to think of him as “almost five.” Here’s his latest…

I got Penny a card for Valentine’s Day and wrote a nice, long heart-felt love note to her inside. We’re not huge Valentine’s Day folks, but this year, I thought I’d take it up a notch…you know, from nothing. I was so pleased with my note and placed it at the perfect angle next to her toothbrush in the bathroom, where she was sure to see it when she awoke.

However, I went to bed late and the girls got up early to make Mommy breakfast, so Penny got up before I did. More importantly, Logan got up before I did. Big mistake. Penny comes in and gently asked if I had gotten her a card with a yellow envelope. I smiled and said I had and asked if she liked it. She smiled right back and said that she did – when she finally found the card underneath the kitchen table and the envelope next to the bathtub on the floor!

Logan! Seriously, dude? He said that he liked the card too and thought it was for him. Anyway, good laughs for the day…until our next holiday. What is that, St. Patrick’s Day?

Perceived vs. Actual…

So, I had a brief dialogue with Logan earlier today about the hierarchy of leadership in our home. I had this little talk with him after he decided to not accept my decision on when he could have a piece of gum – after I finished lunch vs. now. I had him come stand in front of me and we had this calm little chat that went like this:

“Logan, who is the Daddy?”

“You are.”

“And who is the son?”

“Me.”

“And who is the boss?”

“Mmm… Mommy.”

“Ah…hmm…I see. Well go ask Mommy when you can have a piece of gum…”

And…backfire! I guess I’ll do some research and write another post on the authority of the father in the home. In the meantime, cancel your plans for tonight and go see Courageous (http://www NULL.courageousthemovie NULL.com/) at a movie theater near you. Excellent, impactful movie!

Erin’s Wipeout

Today, Erin had her first major Big Wheel wipeout, which produced a vibrant quarter-sized scrape on her knee, but not a daunted spirit. She got a gauze pad and an extra large Band Aid. Logan was a great in trying to console her, even at his young age of 20 months. This photo shows him standing by to comfort her and love her… and probably take a sip of her tea when she’s not looking.

Erin’s Find….

So, Penny is helping Erin get out of the back seat of our van this past week and I hear this brief conversation:

Penny:  ”Erin, what is that on your finger?”

Erin:  ”It’s a booger…out of my ear.”

Penny:  ”Mmm. Nice… Let’s go eat lunch now…”

Erin is ready to go swimming!

Erin loves her goggles when she goes swimming. They make her look a little like Catwoman in a wind tunnel, but… she likes them.

Harley and the girls

Merritt got a new dog on September 16, 2007. We found a cute little 4-month old MaltiPoo (Maltese / Poodle mix) at a breeder in Columbia. She makes a great addition to our family and Inky loves her too…even lets her eat out of her bowl…most of the time.

She looks a little like Jabba The Hut’s pet…thing in this photo, but she’d had a long day and cleans up really nice.

Logan’s favorite hangout — the bouncy seat

Logan is about four and a half months old now and is truly growing into a little boy.