The Garden - Summer 2008

The garden has done very well this spring and summer.
Tom and my mother have been working very hard getting it all together.
They rebuilt the garden itself by creating a square with four quadrants.
Three for vegetables and one, a la Martha Stewart, as a 'cutting garden' full of flowers.

There are several vegetables in there: beets (red, orange, and striped), carrots, eggplant, radishes (red & white), lettuce (red leaf, arugula, green leaf), basil, cilantro, parsley, onions, chives, shallots, potatoes (white, gold, and purple), jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, lemon cucumbers, corn, green beans, zucchini and LOTS of tomatoes (grape, yellow, heirloom varieties).

Here are some of the photos:

Tom planted a lot of sunflowers so we could have our
own! So amazing to see how HUGE they became. The one
below is a couple of feet over my head.

For some perspective - you can see how huge the sunflowers
became. They are very neat varieties - red, burgundy, yellow etc.

The CLASSIC Blabey look.
They both have their tongues out -
"concentrating..."
(I laughed and laughed seeing both of them doing this. It must be hereditary.)

A beautiful dahlia.

Green figs.

Tom & Cyanne standing in the cutting flower quadrant.
Looking at the various plants: dahlias (several varieties), sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias,
lilies, and two other bulb flowers plants.

Close-ups of the sunflowers.





Eggplant



Corn





Another dahlia variety



We learned quite a bit about what we would and would not plant again (3 years going now...)
We plan to plant several things again - for instance, the potatoes were much better than expected so those will go in again.
The tomatoes did well though they always do...
We'll definitely do the cutting garden - I certainly reaped a lot of benefit from that. Almost nothing beats fresh, beautiful flowers cut and delivered straight from the garden.

Overall, it is quite a fun experiment.

Now they're getting ready for the fall/winter garden!

Happy 11 Months, Cyanne!

Happy 11 months, Cyanne!
It is hard to believe that you're almost a year old. We remember so well what we were doing 11 months ago... about to have you!

Ah, how she has grown.
She is such a joy - she laughs a lot, smiles a lot - and generally is a very, very happy baby. (Not to mention, in my biased opinion, very cute...)

Here are some photos from her day:



Pointing... at Daddy... =)
"Where's Daddy?"



Comparison shots in the rocking chair -
Note the wooden spoon - our future chef... =)




This look on the left is very funny - Tom has taught her to copy him - tilting their chins down and then looking up - it's very funny. We'll try & post a video...



Daddy and Cyanne - chewing her purple bath toy and her mowhawk =)... One of the best way to get her to leave the bath (which she loves) is to take a toy with her.
Ah... tactics...



Tom thought he was being very funny and created the hairstyle while I was emptying the tub... Cyanne does have more hair now, that's for sure!



Said mowhawk and purple toy...
And being tickled by the toothbrush.







Practicing standing... She loves using our dining room chairs to practice her standing skills.

As an aside - this sometimes leads to bad things.
I was sitting at the table working on the laptop when I heard this loud boom...
I turn around and there is poor, prostrate Cyanne lying under a chair which she had pulled over - she'd gone from standing to flat on her back - one part of it laying against her throat. Frankly, she was too stunned to cry at first... but oh... then... it started. But - we quickly (after a few kisses) went outside to see 'puppy' and the wind in the trees and all was well.
We even stopped to play with Whitney's wind chimes and all was even better yet.



One more month to go and then we hit the big 1 year! =)

Words

Cyanne is definitely starting to say some words. Whether they all actually go with what she is saying is another story.

However, this morning, we heard her say "kit-tee" when looking at Max & Sonsie. She is going to say this word very, very soon.
She sees them, starts crawling towards them, and says "kit" followed shortly by "tee."
Then squeals.
It is pretty darn cute. (The cats, however, do not find it so).

She says "ma ma" and at times, says "da da"though not when necessarily looking at us.

She has a whole range of sounds she makes but this was the first time we heard her say a word that meant what she was trying to say.

Pretty exciting -
And I'd like to note, I think it was Lara who said several months ago, "I bet kitty will be her first word." Good predicting, Lara!

While she said "mama" while we were back east in July, it may be that "kitty" is her first real word... =)

Hello...

More crawling practice...

Laundry "helper"

Cyanne decided to help me fold her clothes after we finished doing laundry...

She crawled over to her baskets of clothes, reached up, pulled out a few shirts and then decided that the entire basket would be much more satisfying.

Here is the aftermath:

"What, mama? I'm just helping...."





Mmmm... Drawstrings taste especially good.



She's got a good hold on the basket.



And a photo of Max.
Atop the storage boxes of C's clothes.

Cyanne & the swings

We took Cyanne to Tucker's Grove Park this afternoon to play in the swings.
We'd been searching for baby swings and finally found them there (thanks Lara!).

She really seemed to enjoy herself.

We also are trying to upload a video so you can see her swinging in action. Sorry for our loud voices - you can hear her, though! (Just learning how to work the video...)







Amazing how "old" something becomes... A very 'been here, done that' face =).
Actually - she was entranced by the other kids playing on the playground. She was mesmerized...





Video of Cyanne on the swing:

Crawling!!!

Yes, it is official... we have crawling.
As in both arms and legs working in tandem to move Cyanne from one place to another...
She's picking up speed, as well.

Her favorite destination is the cat's water fountain...



It is all very exciting.

However, we are beginning to realize, very quickly - that nothing is safe or far from eagerly reaching little hands - we won't be able to leave her unattended for any period much longer.

Yeah, Cyanne!
Such a big girl...

Cyanne meets her Aunt Nancy Clare & Eric

Cyanne was thrilled to meet her Aunt Clare and her boyfriend Eric.
The last time Cyanne "met" them was when about 2 weeks before she was born... so this time was much better!

We enjoyed a nice dinner out at the ranch last night.
Here are some photos from the evening:




The group - ready for dinner.
And as Tom wanted to note: the sunflowers are from the garden!



Someone still loves her sippy cup.
But - please note how dirty she is: pants, shirt, hands...
She was rolling around on the deck. It had been covered in ash which Tom had washed down earlier in the day but apparently, there was still a lot on there!
(I am not sure the clothes will ever be the same...)



Cyanne & the last rays of sunlight







Yeah... happy and dirty =)



Cyanne & her aunt Nancy Clare



Cyanne & grandpa



What did you say?