Winter Vegetable Garden

Last October NJ built 2 raised vegetable gardens along the side of our backyard, filled them with organic soil and planted these 9 varieties.  Everything was supposedly compatible with Texas winter gardening.





IJ and NJ planted all of the organic seeds.


This was the garden in early December.  The spaghetti squash vines grew beautifully and put out lots of blossoms and then after a few cold snaps they were dead. 


Lettuce:


Spinach:


Kale:


Collard greens:


Beets:


Carrots:


We had very few humorous carrots.  Here's a couple:




Broccoli:


We thought the brussels sprouts were not going to grow.  The plants were huge but there was no sprouts.  Finally, once it warmed up, they appeared but are growing very slowly and it might get too hot for them before they get big enough to eat.  This picture is from the day I noticed them in late March.

IJ and ZJ playing

ZJ's room

ZJ's room is finally near completion.  To the right as you enter the room is a toy chest from my childhood with all of the kids food related toys inside and on top is their toy stove.  ZJ has a twin size floor bed where she currently takes her daily nap.  I painted wooden letters that spell her name in purple and silver.  She has silver and teal curtains.  The seating area with rocking chair, side table and storage foot stool were all things we already owned.  In the center of her room is a lavender rug I had the rocking chair on at the old house.

We had custom artwork made for ZJ's wall.  There's a bird theme throughout the decorations in her room.


The bookshelves in ZJ's room are from our last apartment.  They were originally stained green.  We then painted one orange for IJ's room and they are now together again in ZJ's room after NJ spent hours sanding and painting them grey. 


Between the bookcases are four birdhouses I painted.


Between ZJ's two closets is the dresser from our guest room turned IJ's room at the old house.  Above it is a carved wood mirror we purchased in white and NJ painted a dark purple. 

ZJ is 19 months old!

5.6.13

ZJ has more than doubled her vocabulary this month and now says water, dada, money (doesn't know the meaning but likes to say it), banana, done, no, shoe, blanket (ba-duh), flower, fan, bee, butterfly (bu-duh) and doodoo.  That brings her to 27 words.  She's begun telling me when she poops, most of the time, and then running to the bathroom for a diaper change.  We've been putting her on the toilet for several months and she's peed a couple times but doesn't seem ready to consciously use it yet.  She is good with the shape sorter now and can stack rings/shapes but doesn't have much interest in doing it.  She also now puts puzzle pieces over the correct picture/place but needs work on fitting them in the hole.  She can now climb onto the couch on her own.  We introduced a regular cup for drinking and she's still in the stage where she'll dump the entire thing on herself if you let go.  She STILL throws all of her food all over the floor and it's very frustrating.  She loves drinking water and will go to the fridge and yell "water" until you get her water straw cup out.  She'll then drink and announce when "done."

She still loves books and would rather read than play with any of her toys.  She likes to give kisses to the pictures in her books while we read.  She loves playing with her brother and tries to mimic everything he does.  She's finally getting back at him for all the rough play she's been put through and will regularly knock him on the head with toys or hurt him in other ways.  She also gives him unsolicited hugs and kisses which he seems to appreciate.

Her naps have very consistently been an hour each day.  She is still very hard to put to sleep at night time and it usually takes an hour with her falling asleep at 8.  She wakes between 6 and 7 usually.  She does seem to be sleeping better at night.  Not waking much during the evening and less through the night.  But still way more than the average toddler I believe.

ZJ went 9 weeks without any sicknesses and then had 2 back to back this month.  The first was a mild cold and the second was a fever with some congestion.  Both were short lived and didn't bother her much.

We finally met with ZJ's surgeon this month and now have the surgery scheduled.  He described her congenital heart defects quite a bit differently than her cardiologist had and explained that he will be repairing the mirtal valve and patching holes between that and the tricuspid valve.

April 2013 Pics

IJ had his first dental visit.

 

Homemade vegan ice cream cookie sandwiches for NJ's birthday.








ZJ's natural hair style...the rat tail.
















This is now the only way she'll get into IJ's bed.  Crawling into the open area is just too easy.


IJ spontaneously started peeing standing up while at school.  Apparently this is how they do it.






A very funny phone call.

ZJ @ 18 months

ZJ is 18 months old!

4.6.13

ZJ is finally up to 20 pounds!  She is also 31.5 inches tall.

ZJ has been resistant to identifying the parts of her face and usually just points to her ear for everything so I went on to the rest of her body and she identifies several body parts when asked (head, hair, mouth, belly, bum, hand and foot).  Of these, hand, bum and foot, she will also say.  Foot is actually one of her favorite words and she is obsessed with identifying feet and showing them to everyone she meets.  She likes to raise hers into the air when she says it.  She is also now saying book, bubble, dada and yay.  She’s up to 13 words.  Oddly, some she doesn’t repeat or continue to say, but she has said them.  She’s also making 6 animal sounds and a car sound.  She’s pretending to be on the phone now and will use random objects and say “hi.”  She can stack rings on her own now but it’s still difficult for her. 

She loves to be outside and desperately wants to dig in the dirt or splash in the dog water bowl.  She will now go down the slide at parks on her own and loves to but hates the swing and flails about when put in one.  She was horribly afraid of bubbles and would scream and cry when we blew bubbles but I just kept doing it and a few days ago she was gleefully running around in them.  She loves to take my shoes out and walk around the house in them.  Her favorite climbing spot this month is the trunk behind the couch, but she now climbs up and falls forward over the cushions to get onto the couch seat.  She’s been giving me real kisses but decided she would give them to her brother a few weeks ago and now finally gives daddy kisses too.

This entire month has been a battle at bedtime.  She still usually goes to sleep at nap time while nursing, but she refuses to fall asleep at night time, even when I tried a later time.  It usually takes about an hour of nursing and rocking.  So she’s been going to sleep closer to 8 pm and waking between 6:30 and 7:30 am.  Her nap is usually an hour.

She still throws food on the floor and has to be watched closely because as soon as you turn your back she tosses it.  She’s still finicky about what she likes and changes her mind a lot.  Her favorites are pasta with tomato sauce, most veggies and fruit, breads and cheerios.  She doesn’t consistently eat many protein rich foods but I now add peanut butter to her applesauce at lunch each day.

ZJ has 16 teeth now that her canines are coming in.  She hasn’t been sick all month.