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!

thinking about weaning

mats turns one (1!) in less than three weeks ... i truly cannot believe how this year has flown by! there are so many changes that come with having a one-year old toddler rather than an "infant".

• we bought a bike seat for the little man for his birthday - the yepp mini front bike seat at rei, paid for in part with the rei giftcard that i won from the frugal girl's giveaway last year!
• we're looking at convertible car seats since mats is reaching the height limit on his infant seat (bummer, since that one will stay in the car, meaning that when he falls asleep in it, he has to wake up when we get home.)
• since he can walk, he gets to actually play at playgrounds
• we have to find real soled shoes to put him to protect his feet walking around in public since the little leather booties he's currently in won't do much for him if he steps on something sharp
• i get to start thinking about weaning

(if you're a boy and don't want to think about nursing, go ahead and stop reading now.)

i was admittedly pretty excited about the weaning idea a few months ago, particularly just before christmas when he was teething awfully and biting up a storm. then, i was practically counting down the days. but now? i'm a bit more reticent. his nursing time is such a sweet time for us - he knows just what to do, he lets me snuggle him, i get to feel all warm and fuzzy and motherly and have set aside time to pray for him and his future, and it's a nice little break from the day. in the evenings when we're doing his bedtime routine, i'll sit in the glider in his room and read a bible story while he plays on the floor with scott, and when he's ready to have his milk and go to bed, he'll walk over to me at the chair, lift his arms to be picked up, then immediately lay down in my arms while smacking his lips and opening his mouth like a little baby bird! pretty precious.

on the one hand, i'm eager to be past this stage so that we have more freedom during the day to not have to hide out somewhere to nurse, but on the other hand, i feel like it's one of the few baby-ish things my kid does anymore. i'm not in a rush to move us past this. (although i say this and in the same thought also really hope that we're done by this summer sometime so that we can go hiking and camping and biking without a nursing cover. and so that scott and i can get a night away.)

allegedly, pediatricians ask at the twelve month appointment about your plan for weaning and i'm really not sure what i'm going to say. do i have a plan? i plan to start offering him milk in a sippy cup once he hits a year and it's "allowed" ... but i don't really plan to push the end of this. maybe my plan is to let it end naturally, as he transitions himself to milk more and me less? i guess i assume that'll happen in a timely fashion on its own. if it doesn't, then i'll start my planning.

fun with photoshop

i realized recently that because of scott's student status, we can get education-related discounts of software ... specificially adobe cs5.5 design standard, home of indesign, illustrator, acrobat pro, and photoshop.  i acquired that little bundle for myself for $229 (around $1300 without the student discount) as an early birthday present and have been having a delightful time with it.  i'm working on a project in indesign (more on that at a later date), am utterly confused by illustrator ... but photoshop.  oh, photoshop.

my first stop was to download the pioneer woman's action sets (here for the photoshop cs versions, or here if you're an elements user like my dad), look through some of her action set tutorial posts, and start playing.  for some of the actions, you just press a button and it's done, for others you get to play with settings.  i have yet to do anything other than using actions in photoshop yet, but it's an easy first step in learning how the program works since it can be super intimidating opening up photoshop for the first time.

one of my favorite pictures thus far, entitled "swinging in sunshine":
before:

and after:

i'm kind of captivated by it!  i'm sadly not sure what all steps i took - i saved it in jpg format (which deletes layer information, ie the things that tell you what you did to the picture) rather than photoshop's format (psd) so that i could post it on facebook.  clearly next time i need to save it in psd AND jpg just for good measure.  i think i used pioneer woman's boost, seventies, bring on the eyes, and sunshine ... maybe more, maybe less.