A few of our favorite things

1. Summertime! Bruce and Phoebe have one more week of school left and are counting down the days until vacation. We get a zillion holidays during the school-year, so that combined with the other zillion snow days we had and we have a very late summer vacation.

2. Hampers. Oliver's new favorite trick is to overturn the hamper, throw out all the laundry piece by piece, and then climb in. And just hang out. He doesn't really do much once he's in there. He just sits.

3. Our garden! I am happy to be able to do a little more in the garden this year. Our little plot yields a few tiny ripe strawberries per day, plus a good-sized salad. We have strawberries, herbs, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, a million tomatoes, and a tiny blueberry bush.

4. Running. I recently switched running clubs from the Greater Boston Track Club to the Boston Athletic Association. GBTC practices were across town and increasingly difficult to get to, while the BAA practices are a half-mile from my house. I am getting to practice more reliably and I'm hoping this translates to better fitness at some point. I still feel postpartum lumpiness, but I managed to run a 19:56 in a hilly 5K last weekend (first race since the marathon!). This weekend I'm running a trail 5K that I am really excited about.

5. Minecraft. Every day after school, Bruce speeds through his chores so he can get his 30-minute fix of Minecraft. He builds villages, trades diamonds for cookies (makes sense, right?), battles zombies and dragons, and blows stuff up with TNT. Afterward he tells me all about it. I just nod my head.

6. Everything related to firetrucks. Phoebe is still crushing on firefighters, particularly the ones at the station closest to us. She knows a half-dozen of them by name and regularly tells stories about their firefighting exploits.

7. Scott! We celebrated Father's Day with a manly breakfast, new headlamps, church, and dinner with a radiology friend. Speaking of church and Scott, he got called as the second counselor in the bishopric two months ago. So far it means that he is stressed out a bit more, emails a lot more, disappears on Sundays, and doesn't sit with us in church. Looking on the bright side, he pays more attention in church (since he has to sit up front!), and gets to counsel people and make a difference in their lives.

Blog Backlog

Because I haven't updated for more than a week, this post is going to be random bullet points of things we've been up to lately:

• planted the above peas in our awesome garden plot
• took the kids biking/running along the Charles River
• hosted an Easter egg hunt, had Easter brunch with a few friends, found Easter baskets
  
• discovered Bruce's poetic side during parent-teacher conference (I will try to convince him to put one of his poems on his blog)
• planned some pre- and post-graduation celebrations/vacations
• upgraded our phones (we kept getting letters from our carrier saying our phones were too old to be supported: "...you may or may not be able to make and receive phone calls...")
• tapered my mileage and rested my legs for Marathon Monday

Our awesome garden

Remember that plot of dirt that I was so excited about? Here it is today. There are tomatoes and red leaf lettuce on the back row, strawberries in the far left row, parsley and basil in the next, carrots in the next, broccoli in the next, and collard greens and beets on the right. In the back corner is a young blueberry bush that we just planted yesterday. We lined our plot with marigolds and put peas by the fence (not pictured). So far, we've just eaten herbs, broccoli greens, lettuce, and strawberries. I can't wait to eat some tomatoes!

Baby J

The past few weeks have been very busy. I've reached that point where I only reply to life-or-death emails, make meals that take less than 15 minutes, and miss playgroups and events because of napping schedules. Sounds like I just had a baby, right? Sort of. I've inherited one during the day; I started nannying Baby J full-time about a month ago. She is four months old and still spends a good chunk of time eating and sleeping. She loves watching Phoebe and Bruce, and laughs when they make silly faces and noises at her.
I expected Phoebe to be jealous of the baby, but so far so good. Phoebe thinks Baby J is just a big baby doll. She likes to rub her hair gently and say "saw" (translation: "soft" - making lots of progress on communicating). She brings her blankets and toys. The only time she shows a tinge of jealousy is when I feed Baby J a bottle. Phoebe has been bottle-free for almost two weeks, but would still take a bottle if given the chance.
A few days ago, Scott was working a night shift and I didn't feel like making dinner. Bruce's favorite restaurant is Qdoba, so for $9 we had a nice date. It was totally worth it: the kids ate like they hadn't eaten in months. It was amazing.

Here's another one of our methods of coping with the crazy schedule: baking chocolate chip cookies. Bruce loves doing this - it's his thing. Phoebe is happy to sample the chocolate chips too.
Bruce likes to say, "The best exercise is to move every day." I think it's something he learned in gym class. We follow that advice and not only walk to and from school, but often stop at the park on the way home. Baby J is happy to get out for a walk, and Bruce and Phoebe are happy to be out of the house.
18-1/2 months. Have I mentioned that I just love this age? Phoebe learns so much every day and is absolutely adorable.
Bruce is still learning a ton too. We have had to institute a "no math at the table" rule. Last weekend we went to the Cambridge Science Festival and he built a robot that propels itself around and draws circles on paper.
Here is Bruce on the track at 7 a.m. Scott was working all night at the hospital and I didn't have time to run that evening, so I took Bruce and Phoebe to the track and ran circles around them before school. Mileage ended when Phoebe discovered the steeplechase pit, which was being filled for a meet later that day.
For Mother's Day, Scott made breakfast in bed for me. Phoebe sat next to me and stole my toast, leaving crumbs all over the bed. Bruce decided that breakfast in bed was super-cool and requested it for his birthday. That evening, we had a picnic with friends at the Arnold Arboretum's "Lilac Sunday." Bruce was in a much more pleasant mood on Sunday; the night before, I told him to put his PJs on and he told me I was the "meanest mom ever." I'm harsh, I know.
And finally, here is a picture of my dirt. I'm excited to eat some broccoli and tomatoes out of here!

Dirt to call my own

For the next three years, anyway. And not really my very own since I'm sharing it.

I signed up for a community garden plot as soon as I moved to the city. I'm actually still on the waiting list, but one of my neighbors hit the jackpot and decided to share with me. We're splitting a 10 x 10-foot plot and have big plans to make it the awesomest, most productive plot in the garden.

Peas, tomatoes, basil, and salad greens are all on the list.

I'll post pictures soon. So far, it just looks like a pile of dirt.