Clearing out the cobwebs

My brain is full of little bits of this and that, and I'm wondering if the best way to deal with it is just to write it all down so it's cleared out. Be warned, what follows is probably kind of boring and is definitely disjointed.

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We moved Nico's changing table and clothes up to his room last weekend. I'm not sure why, but it made me really sad to see the changing table leave the dining room. Maybe because it seemed to symbolize the full and final end of my time at home with him, perhaps even the end of his true tinyhood? Not sure. I was bummed, though. But once we got his stuff upstairs, it was nice to get his clothes sorted into his dresser instead of the overfull little plastic cart they'd been stuffed into since he was born. I took the time to pack up all his outgrown newborn and 0-3 month clothes (sob!), which filled up an entire plastic storage bin. I thought I'd be able to keep his 0-3 and 3-6 stuff together, but apparently I underestimated the true vastness of his collection of very small onesies.

Speaking of outgrown clothes, Nico's ginormous feet are now too big for the 12-months-size socks someone gave him for Christmas and I'm on the hunt for a package of 18 or 24 month socks next time I go shopping. For my not quite four-month-old. I'm used to his feet, so they don't look that big to me, but here's Nico's foot (on the left) beside Julia's nine month old son's foot:


Her nine-month-old wears size 18 month clothes, so at least I know he'll be able to hold his own against Nico when they start playing together. Brawny corn-fed boys for the win!

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I agreed to brine some steaks and chicken breasts for MB to grill tonight, not really thinking about how that was going to require me to touch giant chunks of meat. I'm pretty certain that if I had to cook my own meaty dinners, I'd become a vegetarian. The cookout ended up being pretty rad. BoMB and MB's friend from work, Mr. Muskrat, came over to eat with us, and we had a ridiculous spread. It was really nice outside, so I took Nico's Exersaucer out to the backyard and set it up in the shade while the guys were minding the grill.

Just this week Nico has started really reaching for toys and trying to get them into his mouth. He hasn't quite mastered the second part with toys (though he's really good at getting blankies in there), so sometimes he'll catch the toy and then look at it like, "Okay, awesome. Now what?" I can see the little wheels turning as he tries to figure out how to get the toy from his hand to his mouth. Pretty soon he's going to ace it and then everything will be in the mouth.







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There was a bit of an uproar recently over ugly gardens, which amused me since my garden is about as ugly as they come. I always start with really good intentions and then by mid-July it's super hot and the mosquitoes are the size of 747s and I'm just over it. Everything gets all overgrown and Life After People-y. Last year was particularly bad because I was pregnant through the entire gardening season and thus less tolerant of heat and busy with other things.

I've decided to embrace my ugly garden yet again, though, and after we cleaned up the dinner dishes I went out and planted four little cucumber sprouts that somebody gave me the other day. Before I could plant them, I had to trim back a bunch of whippy branches from the huge-ass overgrown bushes that are right outside the garden area. Then I had to clean out a half-trashcan worth of dead leaves that had blown in and collected in the cucumber corner over the winter. Once I got the scrawny plants in the ground, I set up the gates I used as a cucumber climbing apparatus last year. Pretty garden aficionados would be horrified, I'm sure.

We're planning to add some tomato plants, peppers, and zucchini, and I guess we should probably get on that soon. Maybe this Sunday? We always seem to wait to plant our garden until Mother's Day weekend, so I guess this is about par for the course for us.

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So, has there ever been a book that people keep telling you to read, and you never seem to get around to it, but then finally you do, and you're like, Aha! NOW I SEE. For several years now my friend Tamsyn has been reminding me that I should read Watership Down. I had always meant to read it, just kept forgetting, etc. But I finally dug out my copy last week and NOW I SEE. It is SO good. So good. I'm probably 2/3 of the way through, and I love it. I've been warned not to read the end at work, though. Okay, tell me...what are your Aha books?