Garden 2012

My garden this year is much like last year.  I still have a few things I want to plant but for the most part got most of it planted last week.  This year I have: spinach, green onions, peas, lettuce (all dead or got eaten), pumpkin, corn, green beans, bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, tomatoes, egg plant, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, acorn squash, and butternut squash.

Most of the seeds I planted are just seeds I had left over from last year.  This year we also invested in a drip irrigation system that I put together.  We found a really affordable kit at Harbor Freight.  I was able to get a few pieces from Home Depot that made it work perfect for us.  It was a lot easier then I thought it was going to be. In the end I think it will pay for itself in just the first year with the water it will save.  I also hear it is a better for the plants.

I tried to start the watermelon, bell peppers, tomatoes, egg plant, cantaloupe, and broccoli from seed inside a few months before I wanted to plant, but they didn't grow very well so I ended up buying tomatoes, and egg plants from a nursery.

I can't wait for it to start producing.

My starts I planted inside in March

Spinach (surrounded by marigolds)

Green Onions (again surrounded by marigolds)

This is where I planted the lettuce, but at this point only one plant was still there.  Right now all of them are now gone.  I'm not sure if they were eaten or just didn't get watered enough.

Our garden (before I put the drip system in)

Garden from the other side

I plan on doing a 1st of the month update for reference during future years.

Max is ONE!

Max is a really sweet boy.  He loves to cuddle.  He is also quiet the chatter box.  I love listening to his jabbering.

He loves to eat peanut butter sandwiches, mac and cheese, bananas, mangoes, pineapple, peas, and carrots

He isn't walking yet, but he can stand for a few seconds.

On his birthday he surprised us by showing us he can now safely go down the stairs.

I didn't really want to stop nursing him, but I have an overnight race coming up so I decided I better wean him before that or else we would both be hating life.  He reluctantly drinks whole milk.

He LOVES to crawl with a car in one hand.

He likes to draw/scribble

He has 7 teeth (4 top, 3 bottom)

He is on the small side (I mean he is REALLY small) - at his 1 year check up these were the stats

• Height - 2'3.25" (0.00%)
• Weight - 18lb 4oz (8.87%)
• Head Circumference - 47.8 (88.49%)

The doctor isn't concerned about him, and just told me to not to plan on a successful basketball career for him. She said he looked good, and was developing well.

For Max's birthday we had cake and ice cream.

Class of 2012

DONE!

It is OFFICIAL I now have my BS in Biology.   I finished my last class on Thursday the 3rd of May, and then walked for graduation on the 4th.  I didn't know if I had actually gotten a good enough grade in my class, but I sure hoped I did for a few reasons.

1-  I really wanted to be done
2-  I didn't want to pay any more money for school
3-  I didn't want to find out I had sat through the graduation ceremonies for nothing.

I finally got my grades the following Monday and found out I had gotten a good enough grade WAHOO.  That feeling was AWESOME!!

I went to both Commencement and Convocation.

Commencement was interesting. They had Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, speak. He had some great things to say a few of them were: don't be afraid to fail, when there are no disagreements there is no innovation, and chance has a lot to do with success (I see God as he sees chance).  I don't really remember a whole lot from the program.  I had a hard time hearing.  We ended getting there a lot later then we were expecting so instead of sitting with the graduates I sat with my parents, Troy, and the kids.

The Convocation made me NEVER want to go to a science one again.  If I could go back and do it over I would have found out when the fine arts college was doing theirs and gone to theirs.  I'm sure it was at least a little entertaining.  I guess chemists, biologist, and mathematicians are entertained in a rather boring way.  It was dreadful, and felt bad for my supports who had to sit through it especially my two kids.

These guys were so good to sit through such a boring ceremony

Max just wanted Mommy!

Max now has Mommy and his thumb.

My parents were so good to come and support me.

Afterwords we went over to the science building for a little mix and mingle thing. I have to say I felt really proud parading my kids around.  I was never a wonderful student while at the U, but I'm really happy that even with kids I finished.

Parkers Update

It is all fun and games until you get a 3 year old!!! (at least in our house)

Parker is rather difficult to deal with lately.

He has a hard time making his mind up.  I try and give him choices like:  do you want mommy or daddy to help, do you want to go potty up stairs or down, do you want a pink bowl or a green one.  Most of the time it ends in him screaming at me because he keeps changing his mind and I usually just go with the one he said second (in other words I allow him one change of mind).

He is also asks for help with everything.  Much of this is my fault.  I've encouraged him to ask for help, but then it got to a point where he wouldn't even try or would try very little and then ask for help.  In the end I would just do it for him. Up until recently I was fully dressing him, and helping him with everything when he went potty.  The other day he dressed himself and this is what we got

I couldn't have been more proud since he dressed himself.

One thing I know he can do is put on socks, but he often refuses to do it, and he hates to wear his sandals so if he doesn't do it himself I either just put on his sandals or he goes out without shoes which can be seer torture for him if I go for a run and then don't let him get out to play at the park.

One thing I'm not proud of with him is his TV time.  I feel like I've let him watch way too much so I'm now on a quest to cut back.  The first thing he asks for in the morning is a movie, and he will pick a movie over any other activity.  I've spent way too much time and money looking for quality games, toys and puzzles at the thrift store to let them go to waist so my new goal with him is 1 movie a day.  I'm hoping it will help with some of his behavior issues. I will be forced to be more involved with him and maybe these outburst are his way of telling me he wants more interaction.

Parker is REALLY mean to Max at times, but I think it is because he doesn't know how to play with him, so my next goal with him is showing him how to play with Max. I'm sure it is confusing for Parker to see Mommy and Daddy throwing Max in the air and then not being able to do that with him too.

Parker is REALLY AWESOME with shapes. I haven't figures out if it is fluke or not, but he usually correctly identifies octagons, pentagons, and hexagons along with the other more common shapes.  I'm sure that was something I didn't figure out until much later in life.  He is still struggling with numbers and letters, but I've seen a lot of progress with numbers in the last few days he even tries to count it usually goes 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 6 (who needs 4 & 5 right?). We sing the alphabet song every time he washes his hands, but it hasn't show to be helping yet (however I'm hoping it is).  His colors are coming along. I think he can identify them such that if I say get the red block he can do it, but he struggles more if I say what color is this?

Parker is MOSTLY potty trained during the day.  I still has a few #2 accidents, but he has been doing really good, and after many tears he will now do most of it by himself.  He still like me to come in with him, but now he can do most everything by himself. I figured tackling night training would go better if I first got him going by himself during the day.  I'm determined not to buy any more diapers for him, and we still have enough for one a day for the next 3-4 months so at that time we'll him the night time training hard.

It will be interesting  to me over the next few months to see how things with him change.