One day I will write an actual post about the family, but in the meantime, how amazing is this?!? It's a green bean teepee. Now I know what to do with all of my little bean sprouts. :)

For the heavy sleeper in your life...

Garden

Aaron Scott and I planted the first plants in our garden last Monday. We have been planning this for a while. A few months ago, we constructed a wooden frame for the garden, so that we could fill it partway with soil and small plants could be protected from the wind. On Monday we weeded, dumped soil into the garden and planted 8 plants: blueberry, strawberry, banana pepper, 2 tomato, 2 cilantro and a basil plant. They are growing really well - one of the tomato plants is already 2 or 3 inches taller than it was on Monday! There is still room for several more plants, so next Monday we plan to go shopping and pick out a few more plants and/or seeds. Aaron Scott is a great helper in the garden. Like most 7 year old boys, he enjoys the chance to play in the dirt. He managed to be very patient with his little brother too. Landis wants Aaron Scott to pay attention to him all the time, and in typical toddler fashion is very insistent about it. I can't blame Landis - Aaron Scott is a really fun brother!

After we finished gardening, Aaron decided he would like to dig a hole down to the water level. We directed him to a corner of the yard and he dug and dug. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to reach water by dinner time, but he did manage to dig a hole about as deep as he is tall. Pretty impressive! I can't find the cable to connect the camera to the computer, but once I do I will post pictures of the garden and hole.

Already?

It seems that Landis has decided that it is time for potty training. He's been fascinated with the potty for a few months, so I recently bought him a little potty seat that sits on top of the regular seat. He's picked up the sign for "potty" and sometimes asks to go - mostly, I think, so he gets a chance to convince me that it's time for a bath, one of his very favorite things. He sits on his potty chair once or twice a day while we read a book or sing, and occasionally pees or poops while he's sitting there. I had attributed it mostly to coincidence, because he's 15 months old, which is pretty young for potty training. Today, though, he woke up, I changed him, and ate breakfast and he played for about 2 hours. He signed "potty," so I took him into the bathroom and took of his diaper - dry! He sat on the potty and peed, and looked ever so proud of himself. About an hour an a half later, he asked to potty again. He had started to pee in his diaper, but stopped, and finished up on the potty. I am so amazed!

Mealtime

...has recently become much more entertaining. Landis is learning to eat with utensils. He LOVES it! He is doing really well, and it is so cute (and messy!) Forks are his favorite, but he manages to get quite a bit of his morning oatmeal in his mouth with his spoon. He does really well picking up bite sized pieces of chicken, fish or veggies with his fork. He even tried chopsticks one night, stabbing pieces of chicken with the end and bringing it to his mouth. I think sushi eating in his blood - Goat, Aaron Scott and I all love sushi.

The one food that has confounded him is spaghetti. He just cant quite manage to get it to stay on the fork, but it sure is funny to watch him try!

Eclipse

If you live in the eastern half of the US, be sure to check out the total lunar eclipse on Wednesday, Feb. 20. Check out this page from NASA to see when the eclipse will be visible in your area.

My helper.

Landis is getting so big! He wants to be invovled in everything I do, especially baking. Here he is helping me bake some bread.

I've finally gotten back to making my own bread on a regular basis (it only took me until Landis was almost 1) and we are almost out of wheat! Fortunately, my friend Sara and I have been able to join up with a co-op and make an order through Walton Feed. We are looking forward to getting lots of yummy whole grains to bake with over the next few months.

I've been branching out and trying breads other than my usual whole wheat loaf and would love any recipes you guys have. Anyone have a great recipe for rye bread?

Halloween pics

Yes, I know that Thanksgiving was last Thursday, but better late than never...

We had a fun Halloween. Aaron Scott was a Power Ranger, and Landis was a pumpkin.

They were very cute. Our friends Sara and Sean and their daughters, Aerin and Teagan, came over for dinner. It was very confusing having an Aaron, an Aerin and an Erin. After dinner, Goat and Sean took Aaron and Aerin trick or treating while Sara and I distributed candy to the neighborhood kids and tried to keep the babies out of trouble.



Landis decided he was done being a pumpkin. His cruel mother continued to unsympathetically snap pictures, but sweet little Teagan crawled over to comfort him. "It's OK, Landis. I know what you're going through." She's such a good friend.

I finally relented and took off his pumpkin suit, and he and Teagan played for a while before the older kids got back with giant buckets of candy. Somehow we managed to wrench the buckets from them, but only after they had eaten enough sugar to stun a small elephant. Our friends headed home, and we watched Aaron Scott bounce off the walls until the sugar high ended and he crashed into bed, exhausted. We quickly followed suit, tired and thankful that Halloween is only once a year.



One of these days I will put up the pictures from Landis' birthday party.

We're in Trouble Now!

Landis just climbed over the baby gate into the kitchen. He's not supposed to be able to do that! I was moving a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer in the laundry room, which is connected to the kitchen. Landis was fussing at the gate (he's Little Mr. Separation Anxiety recently.) I heard fuss, fuss, whine, fuss, THUD, fuss, fuss, and just as I went to investigate the thud, he showed up in the laundry room. I've never met a baby who loved to climb like he does.

We just got back from a trip to the beach with Paul, who is visiting for a few days. Landis had a GREAT time. He loves the water. He splashed in the waves, tried to eat seashells, and caused a traffic jam along the edge of the water as passersby stopped to "ooh" and "ahh." He was very sad when we had to leave. We'll have to go again soon!

Landis is

adorable!