I forgot

Anna Kimball's 6 month birthday. It was yesterday. I didn't even get a picture of her. The most recent shot I have downloaded on my computer is one from the Detroit airport taken about two weeks ago and it's not even that great of a picture!

BUT! She is so forgiving! She is almost always smiling. Her eyes light up whenever I walk into the room and, well, unfortunately her shrieking usually coincides with my exiting the room. We love you to pieces, Anna Kimball - happy half-birthday, one day late!

Fun in Michigan

We recently returned from a week in Fenton, MI, where Matt's parents now live fulltime on a lake. I hesitate to call any journey a vacation when it's with an infant who thought she was on a cruise ship and entitled to twice or thrice nightly buffets, and a toddler prone to whining and impeccable at waking for the day at 5:54 on the nose .... BUT there was much about our time that was vacation-like, including a shopping spree for me (thank you, Grammie!), plenty of delicious meals both in and out, too many ice cream cones to count, free babysitting and lots of time in the sun, water and sand.

What? You don't eat waffles with peanut butter at 6:11am with umbrella toothpicks, a sunhat, a giraffe and a monkey? 

You should start, it's really quite fun!

Anna Kimball lasted about seven minutes in her new swimsuit, but in her defense, it really was quite hot. She still managed to look adorable despite the heat - would that I could say the same for myself!

And here she is again, getting in the spirit for the 4th!

Little Miss Anna Kimball isn't quite so little actually, and so we decided to give solids a go a bit before the 6 month mark. She doesn't mind!

And finally, our little swimmer, who is getting so very brave in the water, whether she's in a lake with fishies or a pool with, well, lots of chlorine and rowdy boys.

Thanks for all the fun and memories, Grammie and Grandpa - we will be back!

Quotable Emery

"I want some more dirty bread," in reference to the angel food cake our neighbor shared with us yesterday. Why Emery thinks it is dirty bread is beyond me, but maybe it has something to do with the golden crust on the white cake?

My zucchini might be green

but that doesn't mean my thumb is ... yet. We've taken advantage of the raised bed the previous owners had in the backyard and planted loads of tomatoes, wisely only ONE zucchini plant, some bell peppers, cucumber and butternut squash. And some beets on a whim, but I have zero hope for those.

I can't say I do much more than water the garden each morning and try to pull a few weeds when I notice them. But I'm beginning to think I might have beginners luck, or just a thumb that's getting greener, because everything seems to be sprouting along quite nicely! (though you will notice some diseased leaves on our tomato plants ... suppose I need to address that soon)

Also, just pretend that fence isn't there behind the bed and that's what it would be like if our neighbor's backyard were really ours. :) But what can I say? We prefer a more, oh romantic English style garden, that's all ... otherwise you know we'd be sporting the terraces and manicured shrubs.

As for what to do with the glut of zucchini that will continue to overwhelm our palates, I'm already going the pancake route with these zucchini fritters. The only changes I made were to salt the zucchini after grating and let the water drain out for about 20 minutes and use buttermilk pancake mix (because I already had it and want to use it up) instead of flour. They were delicious and fortunately much crispier on the outside than I anticipated!

And then there's the fig tree we planted this spring.

Just kidding of course. It's been here for eons I am sure. It won't be long before we are up to our ears in figs. Thinking I might need to set up shop at the farmer's market and start selling them for $5 a pint ... with Emery and Anna Kimball in tow and in some straw hats and gingham dresses, don't you think I'd do some good business?

Must I correct her

when she says:

"Bamina" instead of banana

"She fell her toy!" instead of she dropped her toy (the "she" most likely being Anna Kimball)

"A piece of head!" instead of a piece of hair

"Hi Kimball, how are you are?" instead of how are you?

"She's spilling!" instead of she's spitting up (the "she" most likely being Anna Kimball again)

"You like it!" instead of I don't like it

"Hold you" instead of hold me

"She wants to feed her" instead of she wants to eat (the "she" most definitely being Anna Kimball!)

"A caprise" instead of a surprise

I sure hope not, because I'm not about to start harping on Emery's grammar and proper usage of the English language anytime soon. Toddler-speak is way too cute for any corrections to be made!

I'm learning

There's a My Utmost for His Highest entry that talks about how the process is the goal in the spiritual life. Chambers writes, "We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal. He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the goal."

Well, I think I'm learning that this isn't just true for the spiritual life, but also in parenting. Right now it's 12:56 pm, both girls are napping and I'm feeling tempted (if it's even possible to be tempted to scrub toilets) to scurry off to the bathrooms and get them cleaned before my little "helper" wakes up. Cleaning with Emery always takes three times as long, since we must account for a certain amount of sharing of the cleaning apparati, plenty of "no touches!" of the dirty toilet seat, silencing whines that she'd rather me be doing something else or paying attention to her, quick darts into the next room to confirm that Anna Kimball is sufficiently entertained and not too lonely ... and on and on and on.

I'm definitely tempted to whine here, too, because quite honestly this isn't how I'd prefer to spend an afternoon. BUT, it struck me that isn't this the point of parenting? To teach patience, cleanliness, creativity and so forth. Yes, the bathrooms will get clean, eventually, in just the same way they will get dirty again, and quickly! But maybe the greater reward and goal is that we all have learned something along the way.

This all sounds a bit pie-in-the-sky to me in a way, but at the same time, I feel I have no choice but to believe it and continue to keep little fingers off dirty toilet seats in the hopes we're accomplishing more than just a clean bathroom.

Look-alikes

Who's who? I'll never tell!