Garden Time

Watch out hydroponic Bob! Jessica and I decided to grow a real live garden this year.... the kind that uses 100% genuine sunlight and dirt.

A small 8x15' space at the side of the house was the perfect spot (except for my small oversight that it only get a couple hours of full sun per day---oops!)

We were fortunate enough to have Aeva's advice expert farming techniques. We ended up planting several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and even several blackberry bushes that came from a berry farm in South Carolina.

Of course we had to throw in a few herbs like cilantro and basil, for good measure.

I think this will be a fun project. Hopefully one that will bear fruit, literally.

Either way, Aeva has been enjoying helping with the daily watering, weeding, and sampling the soil quality of our little farm.

Mobility Madness!

The hamster ball... the baby walker. You can't help but note the erie similarities between these two scenarios. Both knock around the house, get stuck, need rescuing, and in general make their captor believe that they are enjoying themselves and the exercise! In all seriousness though, Aeva has finally learned the joy of ambulation, and she is loving it! Overnight, she has learned how to take off in her walker. For example, when her Papa comes home after work, Aeva lets out a delightful squeal and rolls across the floor at lightning speed to see her Daddy, holding her little fists in the air and shaking her arms . True, she often gets stuck when goes to explore the back hall or the bathroom, but she isn't shy about making her needs known. Also Aeva has starting doing a modified army crawl across the carpet if you set some food or her bottle just out of reach. Looks like it won't be any time at all before her Mom and Dad are going to have to start baby-proofing the house.

Fun with Aeva

This week Aeva had a couple of new life experiences.   Number one was her first trip on a bicycle, via our new iBite Bicycle Seat.   So far, of the three rides we've taken together she's never made if past the 15 minutes mark before having a complete meltdown.  Perhaps she's just not ready, but her Mama and Papa would like to think she is and will likely continue to project their own enthusiasm onto their infant daughter. 

 Number two, we took Aeva back to the zoo and bought her a ride on the carousel.  Talk about excitement.  Not only was bright, colorful, and loud, but best of all she got to ride the cheetah!  

Lastly, Aeva also paid a visit to the Lorakeets sanctuary.  These little critters are apparently quite forthright when they perceive potential food sources, as evidenced by my experience with this rather aggressive one in the photo above.  A zookeeper had to shew this one away .

Spring Chores

Now that the weather is finally starting to improve around here and old man winter is beginning to retreat, its time to start doing all those chores that have been put off all winter. For example, rotating tires on the cars, washing the cars (yikes! doesn't happen too often), mowing the lawn, etc. The above picture shows my very pleasant task of rotating Jessica's tires last Sunday.

Hawaii !

Many thanks to all of you out there that have heard my pleas for quarters and are diligently searching through your spare change. This week my brother Eric mailed me a surprise envelope with a shiny Hawaii quarter inside! That means there are only four left to go: Arizona, Alaska, Wyoming, and Utah (although I did hear a malicious rumor floating about that Puerto Rico now also has a quarter, even though technically its only a territory.)

PLEASE KEEP LOOKING. MANY THANKS!

Island Baby

We have found Aeva's new passion--Mango! Check out the damage she did to this one at a single sitting.

Latrodectus mactans

Found one of these ugly pests outside my front door. The infamous Black Widow. Just a friendly reminder that spring time is knocking on the door. This little fellow just happens to be the most poisonous spider in North America. If you really make him mad he'll inject a potent neurotoxin into your blood stream that causes all sorts of unpleasant symptoms such as severe abdominal crams, nausea, profuse sweating, tremors, labored breathing, restlessness, fever, etc. Not to worry, it probably won't kill you or do any lasting harm, and you should feel back to 100% in just a few days after a bite. Anyone got bug spray?