Garden of Words

The Baby Factory: Belated Birthday

Thea turned a year old last Saturday, so we gathered together with family at my mom's house to celebrate.

I'm one! I'm going to eat my socks!

Thea snuggles her Papa Price.

Thea's cousin Baker is two months older than she is -- and expecting a sibling in the fall.

Call me Dora!

Thea and her Omie.

Cousin Baker with his mom, surrounded by assorted grands.

Thea plays with the oldest of my mom's grandchildren, 17-year-old Christopher.

The birthday girl with her pops.

The birthday girl and her mamma admire the birthday hat her Omie made for her.

Nikole, Thea and her cousin Olivia.

My mom is crafty. She made an awesome growth chart to hang on Thea's wall to track her height.

Wait until next year! Thea gingerly nibbles her dairy/egg/soy-free birthday cupcake, lovingly made by her mom.

Thea's cousin Lauren made an incredible cake for the rest of us to devour.

One year. Unbelievable.

The Garden, She Is Done

We finished the spring vegetable planting this weekend. The garden now boasts broccoli, brussels sprouts, peas, scarlet runner beans, bush beans, carrots, radishes, beets, chard, spinach, lettuce, melons, cucumbers and eight different heirloom tomatoes.

All we have to do now is wait for the heat, the squirrels, the rabbits and the dog to ravage our beautiful garden. Then we're off to the farmer's markets!

Spring Flowers

You wouldn't know it from the heat, but it is still April and our beds of flowers are just starting to pull themselves out of the dirt with the color and vigor we love to see.

The Baby Factory: Azalea Gardens and Swings

We took Thea and Rilo to Bryan Park last week to check out the Azalea Gardens, which used to be magnificent and are now just reasonably impressive. They've actually been really cleaned up and pulled together in recent years by the Friends of Bryan Park, but we arrived just before peak bloom time.

We also strolled past the busy soccer fields and gave Thea her second-ever solo bucket swing ride on the playground at the park.

The Baby Factory: On A Pony She Called Wildfire

This image is a visual shout out to my Twitter friend Tristana, who does not find the song "Wildfire" strange in the least. But she's from the Badlands, which means she gets to decide what's strange in her life without my assistance.

Thea may not be able to walk yet, but she knows how to ride.

The Baby Factory: Riding in My Car

Imagine my disappointment when I realized that while I could put a bottle of beer in the beverage holder in Thea's brand new red wagon, she would simply grab it and either angrily dash it to the sidewalk or guzzle it.

But enough about me. Thea is in love with her new ride.

She didn't get a lot of "stuff" for her birthday -- those extraneous gifts that leave mom and dad wondering what on Earth to do with them -- but she did score a molded plastic (Thanks, Prince Saud!), all-terrain Radio Flyer wagon. If she was never put in a stroller again, I think she'd be a happy camper.

The Baby Factory: Blueberry Girl

 

Thea's biggest challenge since showing up on our doorstep just over a year ago has been dietary. She has a list of food allergies as long as an aisle at Wal-Mart, which has made eating a bit of a challenge.

Dairy -- milk and cheese and yogurt -- is out. Soy is out. Eggs are out. Recently, apples went on the banned substances list. All of these foods triggered crazy rashes and blisters on her bum.

On Monday, during her one-year appointment with Dr. Smith, we were given a green light to test the waters. Unfortunately, dairy remains a big fail for us. But she loves chicken, turkey and blueberries.

Especially the blueberries.

Which is great since I bought her a copy of Neil Gaiman's Blueberry Girl for her birthday.

The Baby Factory: A Basket Full of Baby

Thea engaged in her first Easter egg hunt today, which essentially involved her Aunt Anne carrying her around and filling a bag with plastic eggs while Thea drooled all over them. Since she was the center of attention (the other cousins are nine to 17), she was pretty content to do whatever was asked of her -- including sitting patiently in a large basket filled with eggs while I took photos.

Keeping on Springing

The early garden is going strong with carrots, radishes, beets, lettuces, peas, broccoli, brussels sprouts, chard and spinach out of the ground. The rest of the yard could use some major weeding and edging and other basic maintenance, but fortunately most of our perennials don't really seem to care what we do -- they're just doing what they do.

The Baby Factory: First Easter

A hastily thrown-together Easter basket won't pass the muster once she becomes more cognizant that holidays in her home country equal loot.

We celebrated Easter this morning with a short walk in the brisk morning air and the unveiling of the Easter basket beneath the small Easter Tree Nikole's mom gave Thea. Thea likes to grab for the cookie-like ornaments and lick her lips.

Then it was off to bed for a short nap, and off to my mom's for Easter chaos with the extended family.