While I wait for the rest of my garden to grow, here is a picture of lemon thyme. I used this in a pot of barley last night. It was sooooo good!.

Fluff the magic kitten

My poor old lady has not been feeling well. I noticed her drinking a LOT more water and in fact, she insisted on drinking from my water glass to the point, I had to start hiding it. I changed her water constantly, but that wasn't good enough. So I set up a watering station outside for her and opened the door to let her in and out at least twenty times a day. Then she got more and more sick and was going to the bathroom all over the place. I looked up her symptoms and it appeared to be Renal Failure. I know she's older, but I'm not ready to part with her yet. Eleven is not that old really. And for those who don't know, I LOVE this cat. I found her when she was about 2 weeks old, nursed her back to life. She's slept on a pillow next to me almost every night of her life. I even called her when I went to Paris on my honeymoon. When she was a kitten, her eyes didn't open for a long time. She'd try to follow me, fall off the bed and then run into the walls until she found the door opening and crawl out to where I was. Honestly, I don't know which one of us loves each other more. I took her to the vet on Monday and they weren't sure what was wrong. But today we found out that it's just a UTI. I am so relieved! I thought that might be it after I saw blood in her urine, but it's nice to have her blood tested and know it's not more serious. Now, if she would stop peeing all over the place, that would be great!

Piggy

For breakfast this morning, my son ate two dollar pancakes (whole wheat with blueberries), half a banana, 1/3 cup of fruit and a smallish bowl of multi-grain hot cereal WITH more fruit mixed in. And nursed three times before 10 am.

I honestly don't know how I am going to feed him when he is a teenager!

Dogwood Blossoms

Now that I finally know what a dogwood is...

Here is a little something I made for Aunt Nancy. I found both the fern and the moss in the backyard. I'm hoping it will make it through the winter inside. The front room tends to be a little dark and cold until the afternoon sun peeks in, but ferns and moss like that.

We are starting the slow process of stopping breastfeeding. I know I shouldn't have, but I've used it to get him to sleep. He's like me. He fights it. Ten minute naps after an hour of fuss. Things of that sort. But it has to happen at some point. I finally got him down to one night feeding and now I am trying to get him to nap without nursing first. My mom said I wouldn't nap after a year and I am sensing my son won't either. I would stay in there and play but not sleep and Parker is headed for the same. I can lay him down for bed and come back half an hour later to find him sitting up, playing with his blankets.

I planted mine. Have you?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-pollan/a-food-revolution-in-the_b_190089.html

Even if you live in an apartment, you can plant something in a pot and set it in your window or in front of your door. Herbs are great for this. Rosemary seems to be the hardiest and can last through a cold snowy winter. Spider plants are easy too and any plant helps keep indoor air clean. I think it's so important if you have children to teach them to tend a garden. Give them one plant that's their own and help them water it. I can't wait for Parker to get big enough so we can do this. For now, he helps me by sticking everything he can find in his mouth. However, he actually sits still for a LONG time. I was able to set him on the grass and dig and plant and muck around him. It was lovely.

Poison Ivy

As soon as I saw Aunt N's backyard, I started to itch. I just knew there was poison ivy lurking out there. She insisted there wasn't. I tried to convince her that I just need to look at it in order to break out. She stared back at me blankly. I already had a few minor spots from the cats, but over the weekend, I managed to find some actual vines. The thing is, I can't find it out there! There is Virginia creeper all over and that looks a lot like it. It might have been on the logs I was carrying around. I don't know. This looks like a direct hit to me.

Infant's First Foods

I thought I posted this link, but apparently, I have not- http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20051010/ai_n15708713/

I found this article to be quite interesting. I tried as hard as I could to give Parker different foods and to make as much of his as I could. And I introduced spices fairly early on. One he loved was a sweet curry mixture. I add that to his squash and rice. He loves rosemary to the point of picking bits off my plant and chewing on them. And I've put chipotle in his black beans. Another one of his favorites is panch phoran in lentils. I confess to starting Parker out on Gerber white rice cereal at 4 months. It was a struggle for him to swallow at first. He was breastfeeding constantly (every two, three hours) and I just felt he needed more. However, it took him a long time to move on to chunkier foods and even now, he prefers the pureed. I tried grinding up brown rice and boiling it, but he wouldn't eat it at 5 months. He is just now eating rice without a puree added to it. But we are moving right along with finger foods. I give him some while I get the rest of his meal ready and then sit down and help him finish. He's much better at getting them into his mouth than when we first started. But he loves to squish them in his hand and smear all over the tray. The clean freak in me does NOT love that!

Sunday Brunch

I made a frittata this morning for the first time and it's...surprisingly easy. I used the last of the Easter ham and some of the extra grilled veggies from last night's HUGE grilling event. Aunt N. got an indoor/outdoor Foreman grill so I tried it out. It was a bit of a pain to go outside because of my cat and son wanting to dash outside every time the door was open, but other than that, very easy to use and it cleaned up well. I made grilled eggplant, corn, portabella mushrooms, red bell peppers and two kinds of squash along with chicken. Lots of left-overs to pop into a quinoa salad and a veggie lasagna as well as maybe some chicken burritos with roasted corn and black bean salsa. I'm looking forward to dinner this week!

Pansies

I forgot to post pictures of the pansies! Aren't they lovely? The first picture includes a shot of Miss Fluff's water dish. She insists on going outside to drink even though I fill it from the tap. Gotta love her! By the way, her water dish is a California Indian acorn grinding mortar. My mom found it along with the pestle. You can just see that behind the green pot.

The Blanket Monster!

Kevin used to complain about the number of blankets I made for Parker. I only made 5! (and am giving him one for his birthday, one for Christmas, one for his second birthday...). However, let this video be proof that my son LOVES his blankets. He has one special one that he sleeps with every night. He waits until I put it down over him, grabs it with both hands and rolls over. It's very cute, but then again, so is my son!

Wolf Spider

OMG. I heard this thing crawling. HEARD it! Nancy says they get in the house too! I checked and their venom isn't considered poisonous to humans. I can't imagine it would be good for Parker though. I just hope he doesn't consider it a new toy and chase it around the house.

Carnage in the Spinach Planter

Something got into my spinach last night! Luckily nothing had sprouted yet (Where exactly is spring this year?). I repaired and reseeded and now we can all wait for spring. (It is supposed to warm up and be 76 on Saturday. Maybe THEN I will till up the plot and plant seeds!)

Finger Food

On Parker's 11th month birthday, I decided the time had come to brave self-feeding and start letting him make a mess feed himself. Last night I gave him hamburger and he LOVED it. He gobbled it down and it took me a little bit to realize he wasn't swallowing it. Heh. I had to fish most of it out of his mouth, whereupon he stuffed more back in and so on. It's been really fun being able to feed him more and more that I am cooking for myself. I braved wheat in the form of tabouli over the weekend. Now we can try cream of wheat and some wacky pasta. He loves pasta. I think it's because he can get his fingers around it and still have enough sticking out to get into his mouth. Although he has NO problem getting teeny tiny bits of cat food in his mouth...

Easter

Here is a picture of little Parker Roo "hunting" for eggs outside. It was windy and chilly, but at least the sun was out!

Alone

Today was the first holiday without K and it was harder than I thought it was going to be. I almost cried this morning after reading Parker's card to him by myself. I just feel so alone. And his dad didn't call to wish him a happy Easter. AND he most likely isn't coming for his birthday after making a huge fuss about wanting to be here. He got into a car accident and doesn't want to visit if he has a cast on. I feel so much more empathy for my mom. She had her sister, but she was still raising me alone. It's not easy. I'll post more about Easter later when I am up to it. It was a nice day actually despite the tone of this post.

Garden

I am so glad I didn't plant when I wanted to! We've had some cold cold nights. I would have lost a lot. As it is, it's going to get down to 30 tomorrow night. Some plastic and I have a hot date in hopes of saving the two tomato plants I put into the ground.

(This picture is of the red budded tree in the front yard.)

Four Teeth!

Mister Man is sporting a toothy grin!

Links

Here are a couple pictures of the cute little Pier One things we got two weekends ago.

Ps- I figured out how to make the links linked. Heh. Sorry for not doing that earlier!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Yesterday we made the jaunt into DC to see the blossoms. I have to say first off that it was very windy, so the pictures I took are not the greatest. We went down along Hains Point rather than the Tidal Basin, mainly because I didn't know where to go. There were a lot less people there and it was a nice walk along the water. I packed us lunch and we enjoyed the sun while we ate. Parker had a great time! However trying to leave we got stuck in the traffic by the Mall. Looking at the crowds just trying to walk made me appreciate the peacefulness of where we lunched. I can't wait to go back and explore DC. The rest of the pictures are here- http://dazismazimaryland.shutterfly.com/23

Book Club

Last weekend, we went into Largo to the Capitol Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boulevard_at_the_Capital_Centre) to meet with my book club. And I was the only one who showed up! I really didn't like the book and I was going to have to sit there quietly and try not to say that. I am sort of annoyed because I have very little free time and I had to spend it reading a book I didn't like. It wasn't even well-written. There is another book club and they are reading The Life Of Pi which I have already read. They don't meet until May to discuss that book though.
We did go into Pier One and picked up the cutest little things and then I found a purse for 5 dollars! I love it! It was a nice day despite the rain. We walked around outside. It's a rather small mall/centre, but nice and clean.