Garden Days

We have been having great weather since we got back from California - a great week to be off work (ok, what week isn't?). So far I have been spending most of my time in the garden and Tuesday Megan spent most of the day outside with me, too. She had a great time, but I really wish she'd start walking more than crawling!

We got lots done: pretty much everything is planted in the herb/perennial garden, we added a few more things to the hillside garden, the pond got a few additions, and we made lots of progress in the vegetable garden.

Mac did lots of tilling for me despite the still-too-wet-to-really-till dirt. In addition to these beds, there are three more at the upper end of the field - for the veggies. Unfortunately, they still need a bit more work before they are ready to plant. This lower part is mostly the berry patch. There are six blueberries (6 different varieties) along the fence, a row of cane berries will be along the upper fence, strawberries and bulbs, in the middle triangle, and roses where Mac is planting. The last long strip is for annual flowers - I hope... there were lots of bluejays out this morning, maybe eating my flower seeds.

I admit I have been somewhat impatient with the veggie garden. Really we should be cultivating and amending the soil this season and forego planting, but where's the fun in that?

Multi-generational

While in Californaia we got an opportunity for many multi-generation photos:

Four generations from my mom's side. (Can you guess which family members live in Oregon??).

Five(!) generations on Mac's mom's side - That's Megan's great-great grandma at 97 in the front!

Four generations on Mac's dad's side.

Hopefully Megan inherited some of those longevity genes (and us, too, for that matter!).

No Foolin'

We traveled to California this weekend to surprise my Grandpa for his 90th birthday.

May we all be so fortunate!!

Favorite Game

Meg loves to put her hands inside my shoes and crawl around. I have no idea why anyone would want to put any thing inside my shoes other than my feet, but she loves it. Here's a couple of videos. I won't make you download them this time, you have to click on them!
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And in case you all miss Pam, here she is at Omsi!

She walks!

Megan finally put that odd step here and there together for a string of eight consecutive steps - in other words, Megan can walk!

Megan had been very resistent to "parental pressure." She would fall to her knees if we tried to hold her hands and make her walk. And she'd throw a minor tantrum if you stood a few feet from her when she was standing up and said,"Come here. Walk to Mommy/Daddy." But peer pressure proved to be too strong a force. Mac and I were admiring the coordination of a friend's 17 month old, when Megan up and decided it was time for her to get a little attention too, so she picked up a toy and walked across the room. We're just thankful that the 17 month old didn't offer Megan a cigarrette!

***addendum*** (for Mozilla users)
I got rid of the auto loading video...it's too annoying. link (~2 MB)

For my Dad

He doesn't believe we have any deer in Salem. This one was practically coming in the left-open gate from the pasture.

The Vocabulary of a 14 month old

It is amazing how all those little cogs in Megan's head are so desperately trying to figure out language.

Megan's words at 14 months are "hi", "daddy", "kitty", "doggie", and "duck," and she is getting pretty good at "mom" and "teeth (pronounced "tttth" - for some reason Megan really likes teeth).

Megan also has a pretty good sign vocabulary, including "more", "I love you" (adjusted by us to suit her uncoordinated hands), "food", "all done", and her favorite "hat". She tries a few other signs (shoes, socks, get out, milk, thank you), but they are mostly just flailing hand motions at this point - like babbling with her hands.

We didn't start out with the intention to do a lot of signing and we certainly had our good laugh at "Meet the Fochers," but it has seemed to help Megan communicate and watching her sign "more" after you toss her in the air is just so darn cute! The only problem is that now she has started using "more" with no antecedent - I know it means she wants something, but what??

Megan loves games that involve hats- her favorite sign (two taps on the head, or in Megan's case, sometimes a very enthusiastic five or six hard whacks on the head).