How does my garden grow?

Well, I'll show you! Here are some of the latest pictures from our urban backyard food supply.

Nasturtiums, not so much for eating (although we do sometimes sprinkle the flower petals in our salads) but just because they are a joy to have in the garden.

Our overflowing herbs (foreground) and trellis-breaking tomatoes (middle plot).

Eggplants, winner of the Most Persistent Plant award for this year. They began the season riddled with flea beetles, but now they are producing small but gorgeous purple-and-white striped fruits. This may be my last year for eggplants since my husband has decided that they make him ill. Oh well.

Peppers and swiss chard, 2 of the most disease and pest resistent plants in my garden.

A black and yellow argiope, gorgeous and brave to build a web in the middle of my garden, letting us get very close to it without moving a muscle (if spiders have muscles). This fellow (or lady) is the inspiration for Callan's halloween costume this year.
Ah, the harvest! Callan's favorite pastime is to grab the "harvest basket" and head out to the backyard, returning with purple beans, cherry tomatoes and other lovelies.

Pics, pics, pics

I'm making good on my promise for more recent pictures of my family:

Here's Callan on a recent trip to a playground. We are spending more and more time at playgrounds lately since the weather is lovely, and Thatcher is much more able to enjoy the equipment.



Since Thatcher's not walking yet, he still gets frustrated with slides because he wants so badly to go up and down them under his own power, but he just can't yet. Here's one of his happier moments, at the top.

Recently, we attended a fundraiser for the Junior League called "Touch a Truck." Basically, it's a 3-year-old's truck Nirvana. There were around 30 different trucks (backhoes, UPS truck, car carrier, recycle truck, you name it) just open and available for kids to explore and climb on. Needless to say, Callan loved it.


He also loved the jumpy castle and air slide, much to our complete and utter shock. Unfamiliar kids + lots of squealing + separation from mom and dad + physical challenges = a good time for my sensitive child????? Who would have thought? It just shows that you can NEVER fully predict your own child. This look of glee on his face says it all...

Thatcher is...well, you'd just have to meet him. The whitest kid you will ever meet, with ice blue eyes. Super intense personality, but takes physical knocks totally in stride. A huge streak of goofy, zany silliness. And a vocabulary that blows me over for a 14-month-old kid.
Here's Callan and my dad on a recent trip to the zoo.

And my mom and the boys and I on a snack-break during a hike on Belle Isle, an island in the James River running right through Richmond.

I'm a bad girl

Yes, here it is October, and I'm posting. This blog has been one of those things that hangs over your head and you say, "Oh, yeah, I've got to do that, but it's been so long...what will I say? Maybe tomorrow..."
But, right now I'm just going to face this blank canvas and post, for Pete's sake! I'm not going to try to catch you up on what has happened in the past 2 and 1/2 months, I'll just start right into the present.

Callan is in preschool for the first time, and he has a friend. A very sweet friend named John Mosby (said all together as a first name, according to Southern tradition like Mary Kate or Billy Bob). We had our first play date last week and Callan keeps talking about John Mosby. I love that he has friends, and he is starting to say "hi" to our next door neighbors and ask direct questions of our friends. His social repertoire is just blooming!
And simultaneously, his need for motherly nurture is at its peak. He pretends to be a baby, talk like a baby and have needs like a baby. He also often refuses to hold his grandparents' or daddy's hands if mine is available, and indicates his clear preference for Mommy in other things. One day last week he sat at the kitchen table and pleaded, "Please, don't leave me, Mommy! Please, don't leave me!" So, I can tell that this social blooming is taking it's toll on him. He's just not ready to grow up all at once.

Thatcher is talking like he gets paid a dollar for every new word. My favorite word lately: "hug," which he says and then comes over to get one from me. Could he get any cuter? Of course, he's also learned the word "yuck" (which I use when he mouths something disgusting), and he used it quite appropriately, but not politely, at the dinner table tonight when he refused to eat his pasta and veggies.
Thatcher is also quite the personality, with an infectious laugh and an impish gleam in his eye when he requests something he knows is off-limits. Example:
T: "ni-ee" ("knife")
Me: Yes, that's a knife.
T: "oh-ee!" ("hold") [insert impish gleam here]
Me: No, Thatcher, you can't hold the knife.

Matt is teaching biochemistry, writing grants, supervising his lab, and lots of other things that more than fill his time at work. We just bought a new/used car (2007 Kia Rondo) and are getting our old one (1992 Volvo 940) ready to sell. I also just painted my kitchen Blackberry Wine (deep eggplant-y purple) and our dining room has been Paradise Valley, a lovely shade of pear/lime/honeydew. I love how it has turned out.

Okay, I'm going to stop for now, but will try to be more faithful, especially with pictures, since I know some of you care about those. Thanks for your patience!