home grown dinner

Nana, this one's for YOU!

We are Mississippians, you know! We've started farming our own food... in pots on the deck! I hope to get a real vegetable garden set up in the yard soon; but until then, we have eggplant, watermelon, tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers and tons of fresh herbs all growing in pots on the deck. We are having so much fun with it and Grace really loves it!

This picture is from the end of May...

On the left is an eggplant that grows miniature white fruits. On the right, in the green pot, in a seed that Grace found in a watermelon (supposedly "seedless watermelon") that she was eating. She asked to plant it, and although doubtful, we potted it up!

Grace has been a good little gardener and has kept her plants happy!

Notice the purple flower and the budding mini eggplant!

These pictures are from yesterday...

Here is Grace harvesting the fruit of her labor!

Look at how many we have! Anyone want to come over for dinner.... we're having eggplant!

Here's dinner... eggplant parmesan!

Grace loves it!

Here's a sneak preview of a crop still in progress...

A baby watermelon! Grace is so excited! This was grown from the seed she found in the "seedless watermelon" she was eating!

in grace's words... what mommies do...

Last night was a girl's night out. A yummy dinner and a funny movie with my friends while Grace and Marion stayed home with a sitter. This was the conversation Grace and I had before we left...

"Grace, Miss Kennedy is coming over to stay with you while I go to the mommy meeting."

"What's the mommy meeting?"

"It's where all of the mommies go and talk about mommy stuff."

"Oh, like opening the refrigerator?!"

I started laughing and she named a few more mommy duties...

- opening doors
- making waffles

and my favorite...
- making the dining room pretty :)

For those of you who don't know, Jeremy and I just tackled a big home improvement project, our dining room... gone is the blood red ceiling and the red wallpaper with gold roses!

in grace's words...

Love You Forever is one of my favorite books. It chronicles the journey of a mother as she cares for her baby, who turns to a toddler, into a teenager and into a grown man with a baby of his own. At each stage, she rocks him to sleep at night, until the end when he is a father with a baby of his own. By this time, she is too old and too weak, and her "baby" takes her into his arms and rocks his mother.

They always sing this song,

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be."

I asked Grace tonight if she was going to rock me when I was old and sick. She replied that she didn't want me to get old and sick, and then told me confidently that if that happened, I would just have to go to the doctor.

We said our prayers, hugged and kissed, and said goodnight. About twenty minutes later, Grace came down the hall sobbing. I asked her what was wrong. She was sobbing so terribly that she couldn't speak clearly and I must have asked her to repeat herself twenty times. She finally got it out, "I don't want you to get old and sick!" It was way past bedtime and I wanted her back in bed, so I told a quick lie, "I won't get old and sick, Mommy was just teasing. Now go back to bed."

My sweet Grace, one day will surely be old and sick, and I hope we are still as close as ever. You are such a sweet girl!

baby food... yum!

Marion had her first taste of baby food this week. She started eating cereal about a month and a half ago, but how much she's actually gotten down is questionable. She mostly spits it out over and over, as I spoon it back in over and over, until her bib is soaked and I feel like we've gotten some practice. She doesn't cry; she seems to like the ritual, but she just isn't into eating solids!

So since she didn't seem to be catching on all that well, I thought, "hey, maybe she just really hates rice cereal!" So last week at the grocery, I got a small stockpile of yummy baby food... bananas, pears and green peas! Here are photos from her first attempt at baby food!

All bibbed up and ready to try some bananas!

Her first jar of baby food... 2.5 ounces... the smallest jar they had!

Hmmm... this is new!

And she spits it out... over... and over... and over again!

All done!

I don't think she got much down on night 1, but she's had 3 meals since and does seems to be getting a little more down. I'm sure she'll be going through the jars in no time!

beach pictures

We had some professional pictures taken during our beach vacation a few weeks ago. I'd love to share some of my favorites with you...

Family, you are welcome to order any pictures you like for yourself...

just click here
the password is "grace"

swim lessons

This is Grace last Monday, it was her first day of swim lessons...
... the goggles only lasted about 10 minutes, they weren't staying put, so the teacher had her go without!

Honestly, my expectations were low. The entire week before, she was totally anxious and reminded me hourly that she did not want to swim without floaties, nor did she want to go underwater. I expected a holy tantrum, one that would surely convince anyone in ear shot that my poor baby was genuinely petrified of the water and that putting her through swim lessons was just plain cruel. I even signed her up last summer and canceled at the last minute because I was too nervous about putting her through the torture. This year, I decided that she was old enough to suck it up and do it... not that I thought she really would. I signed her up for private lessons, 30 minutes a day for 5 days.
Well guess what... she totally rocked swim school! Day 1, she held her breath and put her face in the water to get plastic rings off of the steps. Day 5, she was jumping off the side of the pool by herself and swimming underwater clear to the other side of the pool; and I'm talking long end to long end!
Mrs.Lauren, her swim teacher, had two suggestions at the end of the week of things Grace needed to work on...
1) forgetting to use her arms: she often forgets to use "big arms," she's still going, just not as fast as she could
2) taking breaths: she was holding her breath the entire length of the pool. Mrs. Lauren got her to pick her head up while she was swimming, but she was just putting it back under without taking a breath. Mrs. Lauren told me that Grace holds her breath longer than any other 3 year old she's seen!

I am so very proud of you Grace! You conquered your fears and did awesome! She loves to swim without floaties now and is even a bit overconfident, I'm afraid.

I would love to show you all a video of my little Micheal Phelps, and we tried, but due to used videos and dead batteries, it didn't happen. We'll get it by the end of summer!

2 princesses

Have you ever tried to get two princesses to smile and look at the camera at the same time? I have, far too many times. I still haven't figured out the trick...

So here is Grace's best photo...
and Marion's...
Aren't they the cutest?? :) Grace calls this "the family swing." Marion's main distraction from smiling for the camera was Lucy and Zola running around. It's been so hot out, she hasn't seen much of them!