Toddler in the Air

If you've ever met Matson, you know that he is a busy little 14 month old. Busy busy busy. If he ever sits still, it's usually because he has a hammer or stick in his hand that he wants to whack with (ie, hammer for his ball run), or dirt he wants to play in. He much prefers grand scale exploration to sitting and attending to a small task. Thus, the idea of flying with him to Phoenix this last weekend to visit Scott's parents was intimidating. (The idea of flying with him by myself in a few weeks to help my parents pack up their house is even more intimidating!) But, we survived! And I'm so thankful for my sweet husband who did most of the baby wrangling while I fished snacks and toys out of the bag.

My tips for those of you flying with a walker who doesn't like to sit still:

• Take a car seat! Our flight to Phoenix wasn't full, so they let us take it on ... amazing. That flight was over naptime, and he slept almost the whole way.
• Lots of finger food snacks. Blueberries, peas, grapes, and animal crackers were all big hits.
• Bring a fun new food. We picked up a bag of freeze dried mango at Target (no sugar added, but it's super sweet and has an easy puffy texture since it's freeze dried) that Matson loved.
• For the week before the trip, anytime Mats would pick up a toy at home and bring it to me to play with him, I'd set it aside for the plane. Things your toddler likes to sit and poke are perfect - for us, the best were a mesh squishy ball (like http://amzn.to/KZtuo5), a touch and feel book (http://amzn.to/Ksfea9), and a clean bulb syringe because he likes to feel the air rush on his face when you squeeze it.
• Go walking in the aisles when you can, even if your kid seems happy in your lap at that point! The seatbelts sign will come on soon enough - save the snacks and toys for then.
• We let him splash in a little water cup, which was messy and it kind of looked like I'd wet my pants, but it made him happy for a good 5 minutes.
• We tried a video, but he's never been into them at home, and within the first 30 seconds it became clear that he thought my phone was a better chewtoy than entertainment device.
• Dress baby as simply as possible. The little shorts rompers were great for plane/airport diaper changing - no extra layers to contend with.
• Resign yourself to the fact that your kid will probably have a public meltdown at some point. They turned off the air on our descent back to Denver, so between being past bedtime with no afternoon nap, a hot plane, and ear pressure, Mats had a frantic and very loud 15 minutes refusing all consolation. He was fine as soon as we got off of the plane, but I did have basically everyone on the plane staring at me. It happens, and we survived.

We'll see what I come up with after flying solo with the little man next month!

 

How We Play

One of the things that most intimidated me prior to being with Mats full time was wondering what on earth we'd do together all day. How would I entertain him? One of my favorite things about Mats being 13 months old and walking all over the place (and really, this applied even when he was 9 months old and crawling all over the place), is that he is so good at entertaining himself. His capacity for playing by himself is really pretty remarkable.

His current favorite independent play activities:

• Being outside!
• Splashing in the watering can (a water table is on my garage sale list ... I really like the fact that with a watering can, he can get wet and enjoy the water, but I don't have to worry about him drowning or give him close supervision - there's absolutely no way he could get his face near the water)
• Finding sticks
• Sitting behind the air conditioner playing with mulch
• Drumming on the canoe
• Riding his toy truck in the yard - it doesn't go anywhere on our bumpy grass, but that doesn't seem to bother him!
• Sifting through dirt
• Wandering around the yard
• "Shoveling" the front driveway (obviously only when I'm outside with him)
• When I leave the back door open for him so he can go back and forth between playing inside and outside.
• Looking out the front window - he spent 10 minutes yesterday on his tippy toes, parting the blinds with his fingers so that he could watch some landscape guys spreading fertilizer on our neighbor's lawn
• Climbing on his toy box (also conveniently located under the front window)
• Dragging my broom around the living room
• Sending toys and shoes down stairs
• Dancing to the radio
• Hammering on his ball run
• Putting stacking blocks together (this is new!)
• Taking the mini broom and dustpan on walks around the house
• Sitting and bouncing on the bottom stair
• Riding wheely-cow around the living room
• Wadding up a knotted bundle of yarn
• Draping belts and strings around his shoulders like a scarf
• Making music with his xylophone
• Wrapping himself up in the curtains
• Exploring the pantry
• Paint stirrer sticks ... not really sure what's so amazing about these, but he loves taking them for walks

He also loves bringing me books to read to him, playing peekaboo, having dance parties with mom, inspecting my cooking, tussling with dad (which is what Scott calls their nightly wrestling/tickling matches on the bed during which Mats is usually almost hysterical with glee), tackling anyone who happens to be sitting/crouching/laying on the floor, singing songs together, and mommy's hair.

One year olds seem to have an endless capacity for being fascinated by the most minute things!

SFG

I once have the vegetable garden bug. I had a little veggie garden I think two years ago, but got maybe 6 cherry tomatoes and a single miniature, deformed bell pepper out of the experiment. Colorado dirt just doesn't have anything on rich Midwestern soil for growing things. Perhaps why people ranch instead of farm out here. Hmm.
Anyway, I knew I'd have to do things differently this year. For starters, water the darn thing. In my defense, I got pregnant mid-summer two years ago and was reeeeeally tired/sick feeling for the last part of July, all of August, and most of September. Like I would get home from work at 5:45, take a nap til 6:30 or 7, eat a little something that didn't contain meat, then back to bed at 9:30. This year, I don't anticipate that being a problem.

Back to my point, though, I knew I'd need to revamp my gardening plan this time around, actually work the soil with some nutrient rich stuff, etc. And pick a spot that gets good sunlight, which my initial area didn't. Looking around my yard, the spot that was standing out was our side yard ... 300 square feet of river rock, weeds that get waist high in the summer, and 40 year old weed barrier below a few inches of rock and dirt. Super. That side yard has irked us since we moved in, but we always had more pressing issues to deal with. Now that we have a walker, though, who passionately loves rocks (to eat) and was fascinated by the thorny thistles, we decided to go ahead and have it cleared - and that it would give me a garden spot was just icing on the cake!

I got that done for a fair price via Craigslist (and so glad I didn't try it on my own - it took two big guys two full days to get it cleared!), and then realized that the dirt under all of that was still pretty rocky. Some Googling, some plotting and planning ... and I discovered Square Foot Gardening. Basically, the premise is that you build a raised bed - no more than 4' wide, so that you can reach the inside of the bed for harvesting while standing outside (you don't want to step on the soil to compact it), fill it with a super rich mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss, and create a grid on top so that you have a defined zone for each vegetable. You can allegedly grow a lot more plants closer quarters that they would be able to in the ground. As in, what was going to take probably 75 square feet on the ground because of rows and all that will be contained in 16 square feet. Not entirely sure why - maybe it's the rich soil? Creative pruning? But it seems to work, according to the book and a lot of blogs and forums.

So, I borrowed Scott's truck for a few days to get fill dirt (for the low spots), weed barrier, and mulch, put all of that in myself (so glad we bought a wheelbarrow last year!). Looked up a lot of plans and pictures of raised beds, went to Home Depot and bought some wood, and broke out the saw and drill and got it built! Installation was a little less than fun since I had to dig 6" holes to plant my bed supports into, but it went a lot more smoothly once I remembered that water + dirt = mud = easy digging. Thanks, Kindergarten!

This last weekend I got my compost mixture in place, and yesterday I created my square foot grid with nails and string. Today, Mats and I will hit up a garden center for some tomato and pepper plants (since I waited too long to get those started inside), and start planting! I'm so looking forward to a summer of garden fresh vegetables.

One down side: a 12" raised box is pretty much perfect height for my baby, who loves dirt. So far, he loves running his fingers through the soil (and trying to dump it outside the box, of course), and twice tried to climb into the box. Somehow, I think Mats is going to be my biggest garden pest this year.

Compostable Future

Clearly I haven't been as diligent about tracking food waste (or blogging in general) as I had hoped. However, I have an excuse in the form of a 30-inch tall man who really likes attention! And lots of it. Also, smacking mommy's keyboard while she's typing, leading to interesting results. (The craziest was when we apparently hit ctrl+alt+up all at the same time, turning my display upside down. That took a bit of neck craning and Googling to figure out.)

It's now spring, though. Oh, spring, how I delight in you! Open windows, fresh air, and making all things fresh and new. After getting a bit stinky (the fridge, not us), we purged the fridge last week (it was due in part to baby not yet being a fan of whole milk and me not being on top of it enough to do something with the milk before chunks - yes, chunks - formed). No pictures, but a fresh start at least.

And even though we did toss a fair bit of food, I do have a few victories to report: chocolate pudding made with precisely two cups of souring skim milk, potatoes au gratin made with four cups of skim milk before the souring began (note to self, don't forget to buy Lactaid!) ... and a compost heap!

I discovered a 3'x3' chicken wired area behind our shed when we first moved in, half-filled in with dead grass and with weeds growing out of it. Clearly a compost heap, but I had a) no idea what to do with it, b) no idea what to do with compost, and c) way too many other projects to care. But, I really like the idea of things not going to landfill, and the compost heap has been niggling at the back of my brain for the almost four years we've lived here now. This spring, as I was putting together my very first legit, planned-out garden (another post for another day), I decided to go for the gold and start using my compost heap.

First step: obtaining a pitchfork (listed as a "garden fork") via Craigslist for $10 - way better than the $35 the big box stores wanted. Second step: strapping on my garden gloves, pulling the weeds out of the heap, and poking the fork in while being ready to run if anything skittered out. No critters, surpringly enough/thank goodness. Whew! I initially thought I might have to clear all of the old stuff out to make way for a fresh heap ... but then I figured, isn't the point of a compost heap to biodegrade old waste? So I just mixed it up and started putting in my food scraps.

Composting lessons learned via Google thus far: no cooked foods or dairy or meat or fats, toss the heap weekly, cover fresh food scraps with grass/leaves to keep smell down, keep the mix balanced between food and (mostly) yard waste. I thought briefly about buying a special little compost bucket to keep in my kitchen to throw scraps into, but why? $20+ for something that's really just supposed to be airtight, small, and provide a receptacle between counter and heap? I grabbed a yogurt container from the recycle bin, and so far so good.

Anyway, all that to say - I think it's awesome that I no longer have to throw away/garbage disposal things like kiwi skins or the blocky base of a head of lettuce. I think it'll be at least marginally helpful with food waste. And we're getting a fresh start here, people! That, and it'll be really nice if I can save money on compost for my veggie garden next year. My compost heap cost thus far has been $10, which is maybe 2.5 bags of compost. Come on heap, get to work!