January Updates

This weekend we had some gorgeous weather. While most of the East coast mired under snow, it was 83 at our house. At the same time, the leaves on our apple trees have finally decided to fall off, so it is winter, I suppose. (We also trimmed our bare cherry and plum trees and planted a low-chill-hour peach tree.)

Tiny is already 19 months old and loves his brother and the cat. He probably spent a good half hour following Diego around the yard Saturday, putting little stones on his back, petting him and laughing. He says "Ja" (German for yes) so joyously. I like to ask him things I know he will say yes to just to hear him shout, "JA!" and throw his little hands over his head.
Ask him to say please and he will say, "por favor," which is just too cute. He babbles on and on in his baby language and occasionally a word or two pops out. Occasionally he can put several words together - like "oh, oh, poo-poo, kitty" the other day - the cat had thrown up on the floor and he went to get a napkin to clean it up.
He loves ice and likes to have his drinks cold. (Don't tell the Austrians!)

When my mom was here visiting, she helped me work on the cover for the morris chair. I picked up some 'as is' cushion covers at I*kea for 2 dollars each with the idea in mind to tailor them to fit our cushions. After a slight sewing incident in which the wrong piece was sewed into an envelope, my mom was able to finish them up - almost - and I cheated and basted the leftover section which you can't see anyways. I think they turned out really well.

JT is nearly 6. Tomorrow it will be one week and 6 days till his birthday, he let me know today. He also read an entire book in one sitting (A Dragon Slayers' Academy book) the other day, which was exciting (because I LOVE to read and have hoped that he will become a voracious reader). He does love to read, but this was the first time he was so excited and interested that he barreled through the whole book. Come to think of it, he also read one of his Geronimo Stilton books all in one, too. He has also moved up to the top bunk so Tiny can take over the lower bunk and the crib will be gone. And in other amazing news, he went to the dentist and had an x-ray and a cleaning and a fluoride treatment without whining, crying or falling apart AT ALL. It was as if an alien had inhabited his body. (The last visit a year prior he got too upset, bit his tongue and bled all over me.) He does have a grey front tooth, but the dentist says it can just fall out by itself. (He bumped it for the third time and now the tooth is just waiting to come out.) He still loves his Legos and comes up with all sorts of creations. (This was a laser driller I think.)

Our sugar snap peas are tasty, but I can't get either boy to try them. The sweet peas I planted to bloom for Christmas still haven't bloomed. The rest of the garden, um, is not so impressive. We still have a swiss chard monster, way too many jalapeños (left on the bush they turn red and lose a bit of heat), some large arugula plants which are much too bitter and one holey broccoli. Perhaps next season will be better.

And since this post is completely disjuncted, I will go ahead and mention that I just finished reading A Primate's Memoirs by Robert Sapolsky - a great read, even if you aren't teaching a class on human evolution. I never once in my life considered going to study baboons in Africa, but if I had, I would have wanted to accompany this guy.