Ben's day at the farm

Yesterday was my nephews Jack and Ben's birthday party and as usual their mom went all out for the celebration. I don't want to go into detail too much, I'm sure she will blog about it soon and you can see pictures of the party over at her blog, but it included a one mile walk through a park with the 15 or so kids and their parents. Despite the well groomed trails I somehow managed to lose my footing and fall down. Unfortunately I was carrying Tony in the baby bjorn when I fell, fortunately I able to fall in a way that avoided a single scratch on him and he was unfazed by my fall. I felt pretty lucky because my foot didn't really hurt that bad, but by evening that changed and I was having quite a bit more pain. Minimal swelling though, so I was pretty sure it was nothing more than a bruise, but it still hurt pretty bad to walk on. I had to go into work at 3am for a short 4 hour shift so I decided I'd just get an X-Ray while I was there (one of the off the record perks of working in an ER) just to be sure everything was okay. Sure enough, my foot is fine, and surprisingly it didn't hurt as bad once I knew it was fine. Funny how that works.

The party was yesterday, but today is Ben's actual birthday, he turned 4 today. He is very fascinated with anything farm or tractor related, so today I picked him up after lunch and brought him back to our house so he could spend the afternoon on the tractor with his Uncle Todd. He hasn't been over to spend the day on the farm since last year, but on the drive over he asked me what that thing was called that Todd pulls behind the tractor when he plows the field. I told him I didn't know, he'd have to ask Todd. He thought about it and then said, I think it's some kind of special discs. Actually after he mentioned that, I think he was right. What a smart little 4 year old. I guess those All about John Deere for kids movies have taught him a thing or two. (BTW Todd has already bought the set for Tony and started watching it with him.) Todd said the 2 and a half hours they were in the tractor Ben talked non stop asking lots of questions. He also said that he was impressed how much Ben already knew.

After Uncle Todd and Ben were done working in the field I took him out there to take a few pictures. He climbed in and out of that big tractor all by himself.

Before I took him home I told him I would take him to Target to pick out a birthday present. Then as we were on our way I had a better idea, so I gave him a choice, go to Target and get a toy or go to the Farm store and get a toy. Obviously he chose the farm store, and he was like a kid in a candy store there. After he browsed the two toy aisles for a good 15 minutes he finally decided on a John Deere Skid Steer Loader.

As we were getting into the car I said "Happy Birthday, I hope you like your birthday present from Uncle Todd and me". He said "No, this is just a toy from the Farm store, now we can go get my birthday present." It took a little explaining before he finally accepted that that was his birthday present. He tried to talk me into wrapping it up for him with paper, but I managed to convince him that wasn't necessary since he already knew what it was.

As I was taking him home I asked him if he had fun on the tractor and he said, "of course I did, What? Do I have to tell you a hundred times?"

So I guess he had fun. If Tony likes tractors half as much as Ben does I think it will be enough.

Happy Birthday Ben. I can't believe your already 4 years old.

Role Reversal

Yesterday I had to work 7a to 7p. It was a long busy day, I had the back hall assignment which is the worst room assignment in the ER, we call it the arm pit of the ER because it sucks so bad. There are 10 rooms on that side of the ER, so 2 nurses get 3 rooms each and 1 nurse gets 4. The nurse with the 4 rooms is usually the busiest. You wouldn't think one extra room would make that much difference, but it really does. We all have to take our turn in the back hall and yesterday was mine. I've had busier days there, but yesterday was pretty steady with patients all 12 hours. While I was at work Todd got to take care of Tony all day. He had his moms help for the first half of the day, and then he was on his own for the rest of the day until I got home.

I stopped by a friends house on the way home from work for a baby shower that was going on. I couldn't stay, but I wanted to say hi and drop off my gift before heading home to help Todd get Tony to bed. I finally got home at 8:30. Mind you Todd was calling me every 15 minutes while I was at the baby shower asking me when I was coming home, and saying things like, your not going to get to see him before he goes to bed if you don't hurry up. (I do the same thing to him, once I suspect he's done working, and I think he's just hanging out in the barn talking about work.)

When I came home I was pleasantly surprised to find the house was straightened up, stuff I had left laying around was all put away. I decided it was in my best interest to pretend not to notice. I guess I just didn't want to hear him say something along the lines of "If I can do it you can do it." I actually suspected he did it while his mom was watching Tony and he was home alone. I started asking him about his day, he said he got to take a nap over at his mom's while Tony was napping and how great it was, he couldn't remember the last time he had a nap. (Blah, blah blah, stop rubbing it in) Then he brought up the house, and asked if I had noticed he cleaned. Yes, I did, so then I said when did you do that? He said when Tony was taking his late afternoon nap. (Okay, time to chance the subject.)

After I put Tony to bed, I decided I was tired and just wanted to go to bed early after being up since 5:30 and working all day. Normally it's Todd who wants to go to bed early and I want to stay up and watch a little TV. Todd didn't seem all that tired. He pointed out that being home with Anthony all day, and getting to take a nap and all left him feeling pretty good, and he didn't feel the need to go to bed early. Wow, I should have never gone to work, he thinks I have it so easy being home all day. Now I'm never going to get any slack.

And then he said, "what's for dinner?"

So much for role reversal.

The weeks happenings

UPDATE: Just to clear up any confusion.
My house is not dirty, just a little messy. There is a difference. It has a lived in appearance, but it does get cleaned really good at least every 2 weeks. I promise we don't live like slobs here.
I don't nap all day.
People are always welcome to stop by. I really don't mind.

(Apparently my husband seems to think I gave a different impression in this post.)

Oh where to start, it's been a whole 5 days since I blogged. This week I decided to not blog and just relax and do other things with my free time. So you'd think the laundry is caught up and the house is clean right? Wrong, but I did manage to clean my closet and sort out all the clothes that Tony has outgrown. I have decided to just accept that my house will always be just a little bit (or even sometimes a lot) messy. So any unexpected guests consider yourself warned, if I don't know your coming and you just pop in (which your welcome to do) don't be shocked if it's a bit messy. So since I haven't used my free time to blog, or to clean house, your probably wondering what I have been doing. What I have mostly been doing is taking naps. I did it one day and I was hooked. Now I can't wait for nap time around here. They are so addicting. Now I have to work a 12 hour day shift tomorrow and there wont be any nap, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it through the day. (That's Jake (Todd's uncle) in the picture with Todd and Tony, he just stopped by the other day to say hello, he just got back from Florida for the winter. He got to see our house in a lived in condition, but I don't think he minded.)

Today I got a pedicure. I have been wanting one for a while, but how do you do it with a baby? Do you get a sitter? While I'm sure Grandma down the street wouldn't mind, she already watches him a lot so I try to manage on my own when I'm not working as much as possible. I figured I'd take him with me and hold him on my lap. Surprisingly it worked just fine. I brought a few toys to entertain him, and the chair had a massager in it that made the whole chair vibrate at times, he seemed to really like that.

Tony is getting cuter and cuter every day, so I have been taking lots of pictures of him. (My favorites are scattered throughout this post.) I got an email fw the other day that was a bunch of pictures of really cute kids, so I have been trying to duplicate the poses with my own baby. It's not working so well for me, Tony doesn't always smile or stay in the positions I put him in. But thanks to digital cameras, I can just keep trying.

I put the farm book on hold this week, not because there isn't much going on on the farm, but I decided at the pace I was going it was going to be too long a book, I have decided to wait a bit before adding more. I've been working on my baby book at http://www.blurb.com/ instead and it's turning out really good so far.

I've started the Angel Dust in Brewster's food, so far I don't see much change, but they say it takes 2 months, so I guess I'll wait and see. He doesn't love it, like the website says he would, but I stir it around in his food and if he wants to eat, he has to eat the Angel Dust too.

And finally I started a post earlier in the week about something good to blog about but then took it off. In case you saw it and are wondering, it was about work, one of the ER's I work at had some pretty interesting things happen and even if I stay vague about it to avoid breaking any HIPPA laws, I decided I better not.

Shake, rattle and ROLL (baby style)

Okay, I stole the title from my sisters post today also called Shake, Rattle, and Roll. But she was talking about the earthquake we had yesterday morning. I am talking about Tony. Yes folks he finally rolled over. I have been expecting him to do it any day now. For the past week he has been enjoying tummy time, and is able to push up on his arms quit a bit. Every time I put him on his tummy lately I think to myself, you better get you video camera or your going to miss it. Well today I decided to put him on his tummy and this time I actually took the video camera with me instead of just thinking about doing it. Unfortunately I was on the phone as all this was happening, so I just sat him down on his blanket on his tummy and he rolled over real fast and I was still on the phone, so I missed the very first roll on video, but I got the second one. And it only took him 4 1/2 months to do it.

On the farm part II

After my last post about the farm my sister recommended this really great website http://www.blurb.com/ for making my farm book. The website is awesome, I have already started the book and it is turning out so cute. It is going to be a rather big book I think by the time it's all done. I may have to edit it down when I'm all done. I also plan on making a baby book for Anthony on it. The books are pretty reasonable priced too, and you can order as many as you like. When you think about how much scrapbooking costs these days, it really is a bargain, and I think I like the look of these books better than a scrapbook. So now I have to divide my spare time (Anthony's nap times) between blogging and working on my farm book. My two hobbies of the moment. Although, once the farming thing gets into full swing, Todd will be working late hours and I will be able to work on it more in the evenings after I put Tony* to bed.

Going back to the beginning. The seeds are planted in the first trays with this machine (which I don't know the name of). The seeds are coated with something to deter bugs and mice from eating them, they are blue to help you see them, otherwise they are the same color as the dirt. Those little green prongs you see pick up the seeds with a vacuum seal and drop them into the dirt. Two cucumber seeds go in each tray and as they grow they form a vine.
After the seeds are planted the tray is topped off with more soil. Here is the big picture of the process. Remember the picture of the empty greenhouse where they were transplanting? It's not anymore. It is now all full with eggplants.Now for a little info on what's going on in the fields. At the end of each farm season, after the fields are all cleaned up, they plant Rye for ground cover. When it gets warm in the spring the Rye starts to grow. The first thing they do in the fields is mark Rye strips with the tractor. In between these 2 lines is a Rye strip, which will later be a driveway for the field. First they do this.Then they to this. That little strip of grass between the two dirt paths is the driveway, not the dirt path, and everything in between will be plowed and planted. Here is a picture of Todd and Tony in the tractor. It was Tony's first tractor ride.
There has been a lot of rain this spring, making the fields wet, so marking the Rye strips is just now getting done. Last year they started much earlier, so Todd is a bit stressed out about being behind. But I'm glad he made time to take Tony and I out on the tractor for some pictures.
I got to go on my first tractor ride of the summer too.

*I am starting to call Anthony Tony now, just so he gets used to both names.

P.S. Did anyone else locally feel the earthquake at 5:40am? I had just put Tony back to bed and was trying to fall asleep myself when I heard the house start to creak and then the bed started shaking. It took me a little bit to figure out what was happening, then I woke up Todd to tell him I thought we were having an earthquake and to verify that I wasn't crazy, that the bed was shaking. We checked to make sure it wasn't just really windy, and no wind outside. Then today on the radio I heard there actually was an earthquake.

P.S.S. I didn't have Todd proof this, so I may be wrong on one or more things, if so I'm sure he will tell me about it and then I can correct it.

The life of a SAHM

Okay so I'm not really a SAHM (stay at home mom) but it sort of feels like it. I only work 2-3 days a week and some of those days are on weekends, so I am home with Anthony for several days out of the week. I have been trying so hard in the past month to get Anthony on a schedule, so that I can have some sort of an idea of how my day will go. Now that he is 4 months old, I think we finally have routine that repeats enough that we can now call it a schedule.

7:30 -8 Wake up, eat and play

9:30 Naptime

11:30 Wake up, eat and play

1:30 Naptime

3:30 Wake up, eat and play

5:00 Naptime

6:30 Wake up, eat, and play

9:00 Eat, and in bed by 9:30

These times are always subject to vary by 30-60 minutes, but for the most part, this is our day.

During the night he eats again usually twice at 2am and 5am. On a good night only once.

So my dilemma now is that I am stuck at home, unless I want to mess up his naptimes. Because as you see, my longest stretch of his awake time is 2 hours, so if I want to do something involving leaving the house, its a big rush to feed him, get him in the car and go where ever it is we're going and get back before he falls asleep in the car. So unless I have something very important or very fast to do, we just stay home.

Staying home all day is not all bad. Often times one or both of us end up staying in our jammies all day. I figure if your not leaving the house, why get all dressed up. So make-up and fixing hair obviously get skipped often as well. But we play all day, and it's surprisingly really fun. I say surprisingly because I never thought playing with a baby all day would be fun, but when it's your own, it actually is. Other babies are fun too, but not all day.

Anthony is at the age where he is alert enough to want to play with things but not really able to do it by himself. So I have to help him. Which means, when he is awake, I am pretty much dedicated to entertaining him. Yes, sometimes I can read a book or get online while he's watching a video, but it's for such short amounts of time, I really can't do anything productive. So if I want to be productive and clean the kitchen or do laundry, or take a shower and actually get dressed in something other than jammies, I have to do it when he's napping. The problem is, when he is napping, I want to nap too. Sometimes I let him lay in my bed with me for one of his afternoon naps and we nap together. I love doing that, I'd do it for all of his naps if I could, but then I'd really never get anything done.

Sometimes I get a little stir crazy being in the house all day. So yesterday just to get out of the house, I decided to go get an estimate on some new tires for my car. I felt kind of bad because it was taking an unusually long time for the guy to find the right tires for my car. I started to notice a pretty long line of people all dressed up in their work clothes waiting to be waited on. I felt kind of guilty because here I was holding up the line, when I was just killing time to get out of the house. Sort of, I really do need new tires, I just wasn't in any hurry, other than the fact that Anthony's 5 o'clock naptime was approaching. Anyway, turned out to be a waste of my time, because the "discount tire" store estimate ended up being $40 more per tire than the dealership wanted.

I feel really lucky to be home with Anthony as much as I am, he is so fun to watch grow. Everyday he seems to be able to do something new. He talks all the time now. His favorite words are eh, gah, and uh. He can play peek-a-boo with his blanket which is adorable. He smiles with his whole face and you can't help but smile when you see it. I think I kiss him and tell him I love him and how cute he is about a hundred times a day. I'm making up for it, because I'm sure when he's older he wont let me do that.

And guess what else?? He is starting to like tummy time, and he is so close to being able to roll over. Here are a few pictures I took of him last night.

Here my little Superman has all arms and legs and head off the ground.

A day at the farm Part I

This whole writing a book about farming is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Last week I went over to the farm to take a few pictures of the early planting. I got a ton of pictures and it's only the beginning of the long farming season. So I think for now I will just take the pictures, write about them and then at the end of the season I can review all of them and pick and choose the best pictures to make a book for Anthony. Sorry but blogging about it seems the easiest way for me to keep track of it all, so if you like the TV show Unwrapped, you will find this interesting.

These are the trays where seeds are first planted. They call it a 512 tray because it has 512 cells for seeds in each tray. (The seeds are planted in these trays by a machine, I missed that process, but if they do it again I will try to get a picture of it, it's pretty cool the way it works.)It takes 3 to 4 weeks in the greenhouse (depending on the type of plant) before the plant is ready to be transplanted into a bigger tray.Here is a close up of Eggplant that is ready to be transplanted.Daddy showing Anthony the greenhouse.

In this greenhouse they are transplanting over in the corner.

Soon this whole greenhouse will be full of plants. Here are the 512 trays that are ready for transplanting.In another barn this machine, called the flat filler, is filling up the bigger trays with soil.Each plant is transplanted by hand.The new soil filled trays move down this conveyor belt as each plant is replanted.We let Anthony have a close up look at the process.
He didn't get too excited about getting his hands dirty.

I'm sure that will change soon.

After the trays are planted they are lined up in the greenhouse. This is where they will stay until they are planted in the field.
Anthony with his Dad and Auntie Lisa. Auntie Lisa is in charge of the transplanting process.
This greenhouse is full of Eggplant transplanted into trays with 24 cells.
And that's what Anthony and I learned on the first day. Now I need to let Todd proof this to make sure I got it all right.

Turned out to be a good thing I had him proof it, I had a few things wrong.

D.E.A.R. Friends,

April 12 is DEAR Day, (drop everything and read day). I did not know this until I heard it on the radio yesterday, so I figure many others don't as well.

I found this poem a coworker had shown me, and I wrote it in the cover of my date book to remind me to always make time to read with Anthony. I don't know who wrote it, but I liked it and since today is DEAR day, it seems appropriate to share with you.

You may have tangible wealth untold,

caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you will never be ~

I had a mother that read to me.

I have started reading books to Anthony already and he has a very short attention span at the moment, but sometimes he really does seem to be listening to me and looking at the pictures. We haven't made reading a bedtime ritual just yet, but I try to read to him everyday at least a couple books. Every time I go to Target I pick up a couple more books for him. Our collection has outgrown his book bin. We will need to invest in a bookcase soon. Or maybe just get a library card and start checking them out instead of buying them. I wonder if libraries have little baby books too? I don't know, I haven't been to a library in years. I have a bad habit of forgetting to return the books, so it's just easier to buy them.

No more tears

I just went out on a limb and bought the most expensive medicine for my dog. He has terrible tear stains, as do most Maltese dogs. I have tried lots of eye washes, but they don't work, at least not within 3 days which is about the longest I've been able to do it. I get lazy and give up when I don't see dramatic results.
So this stuff was recommended by my groomer and I was shocked to find out that it was going to cost me $200 for the full treatment. If it works it will be worth it, if it doesn't I will be very ticked off. It sounds pretty easy to do too, you just put a teaspoon on his food every day, and supposedly it tastes good so there wont be a fight to get it down.
I tried to find a good before picture to show you just how bad his eyes get, but since I don't take his picture when he looks bad, I don't really have a good before picture. This was the only one I could find and his eyes look pretty good. I must have just given him a bath. He went to the groomers this week so they look good now too, but I am sure they will look awful in a few days and I can get a good before picture so you can all see just how good, or not good this stuff works.

Anthony is 4 months now - Can you believe it?

Today we had Anthony's 4 month check up and the pediatrician confirmed what I have suspected all along. He is perfect. His words not mine. He now weighs 15 pounds 2 ounces and is 26 inches long. Following the growth curve nicely. I got the go ahead to start food whenever I want, but I don't think he is quite ready yet, so we will wait a little bit longer. I think he is content with just milk for now. I'd like him to be able to sit up a little bit more before we start with food.

Remember way back when Anthony was first born and I was saying how I can't ever get anything done around the house because he is so time consuming? Everyone told me not to worry about it, just rest and enjoy my baby, the house can wait. Well he is still very time consuming, and now that I am back to work, I have even less time to get things done. The laundry, the dishes the piles of mail and all the stuff that clutters my house is starting to drive me crazy. How long can I use the excuse of a new baby for my messy house? Is 18 years too long?

Tonight was challenging getting Anthony to bed, I wonder if it is because he missed his afternoon nap due to his doctors appointment or if it's from getting 3 shots in his legs. Either way it was a rough night. I finally got him to fall asleep in my arms after I swaddled him and rocked him standing up. Every time I tried to sit down he would wake up and cry, eventually I was able to sit down with him and watch American Idol.

He still hasn't rolled over yet, but he will roll onto his side from his back. The nurse told me that big babies take longer to roll over than little babies, but I reckon that excuse isn't going to fly with Rachael since both of her boys were off the charts and rolled over by 6 weeks. So my goal is to give (force) Anthony to have some tummy time everyday, like it or not.

Somehow we have managed to lose all of Anthony's bottles. How this happened I cannot for the life of me understand. We had 5 and now we have none. I think there may be one over at grandma's, but other than that the rest have oddly just disappeared. Today I bought 3 new ones, hopefully I can keep them until he outgrows the 4 oz size. We haven't lost any pacifiers though. We only have 2 and have managed to keep track of both of them.

Check back later, I plan on adding some new pictures to this post tomorrow.

Not so smart, smart clocks.

Stupid end of Daylight Savings got me all screwed up this weekend. Apparently they did it early this year. When we were in Chicago (which is already 1 hour earlier than Michigan) the clock in the bedroom was 1 hour earlier than Chicago time. I didn't know why, but was too tired to change it, so I went to bed knowing it was 2 hours earlier than MI time which was the time I was trying to keep. The clock was one of those self setting smart clocks that sets to the current time and even knows when to move the clocks back for daylight savings and then ahead again when it's over. So during the night the clock moved ahead an hour unbeknown to me.
When Anthony woke up, the clock said 5 am. Which would be 7 MI time, so even though I was still very tired, I got up with him, fed him, then we got dressed and went down the elevators to walk to the Starbucks on the corner. I love city life, I wouldn't want to live there all the time, but I find it very cool to walk outside and have a Starbucks in the building you live in (or in my case, visit in). I thought the city was oddly quiet for downtown Chicago. I got latte's for Todd and I to go and we headed back to the condo. We ate breakfast and watched a little TV and THEN realized that it was only 7:30. I checked the clock in the bedroom and it was now an hour ahead. So basically we got up at 6am on Sunday morning. Not exactly what I would have liked.

When I went to bed Sunday night I hadn't really paid attention to the fact that the clock by my bed was an hour ahead of the current time. I was really tired (since I got up so early in Chicago) so 11pm sounded right to me, even though it was only 10pm. I also have one of those smart clocks that is obviously not that smart after all and thought daylight savings ended this weekend. Or maybe it's me. Hmm. Anyway, I had to work at 7am, so I set my alarm for 5:30, but of course, Anthony woke me up before the alarm clock at 5am, I fed him, put him back to sleep, folded a load of laundry, got ready for work and was just about to head downstairs for breakfast and then out the door for work when I realized it was 5:03am NOT 6:03am. Talk about being annoyed. I went back to bed for an hour but didn't really fall back asleep til 15 minutes before the alarm went off again and then I had to get up for real that time.
Anyway, long story, but after 2 night of getting jipped on sleep I am going to bed early. I put Anthony to bed an hour early too, I figured he needed to make up for some lost sleep too, and thankfully he didn't protest. An 8:30 bedtime for him is pretty nice compared to the usual 9:30.
Anybody know why they changed the weekend for Daylight Savings?

One Last Hoorah!!

Late Saturday afternoon Todd, Anthony and I headed into Chicago for a quick overnight trip. Apparently the farm season has officially started and there wont be anymore time for out of town trips of the sort. We really didn't do too much, it was just some good food (Italian, Thai, Starbucks and Coldstone Creamery) and then this morning we did some shopping on Michigan Avenue. Anthony is not as easy to take to dinner as he used to be. Every time we ate somewhere one of us ate while the other entertained Anthony, and then we'd switch. He wanted to be held and played with the whole time. We also realized that Anthony doesn't like it when I eat spicy food. I had Pad Thai for lunch and Anthony was fussy the rest of the day, didn't want to eat, but acted hungry. As soon as we got home I made him a bottle of frozen milk and he gulped it down. (Note to self made. (again))
We started our morning really early today thanks to Anthony waking up at 6am, so our shopping trip down Michigan Avenue was mostly window shopping, since most of the stores don't open until 11am on Sundays.
By the time the stores started to open we were just about done shopping. We did manage to go into the Disney store, I think Todd really wanted to buy Anthony something there. We passed the store twice and Todd mentioned going in there, so finally I agreed and we walked around the store trying to find something to buy. We finally decided that soon enough we would be drug in there by Anthony against our will and be forced to buy things for him. Until then, we will just enjoy our perfectly content baby who doesn't ask for anything.
Just when we were almost back to the condo empty handed I spotted the new Apple store, so we just popped in for a minute to browse. Then I found the Nike+ ipod. It is an adapter for your ipod (which I already have) and a chip you put in your shoe and the chip tracks your run (distance and pace) and transmits it to your ipod. Sounded really cool and it was only $30. Then I realized you have to have the compatible Nike+ shoes to go with it. Conveniently the Nike store was right next door, so Todd and I both got new running shoes. I'm pretty excited to try it out, new exercise stuff always makes exercise more fun (for a little while anyway). And I'm pretty sure I gained back those few pounds I lost last weekend when I was sick, so I really do need to get out there and run. I'm hoping the weather stays nice and I can start running outside.
Overall Anthony was pretty well behaved considering we didn't stick to his "schedule". And even though we didn't do much it was a nice little getaway. I wish we'd have done it more often this winter.

My New Hobby

Well I guess it's time for a post, I don't want you all to think I am still sick. I actually suffered for another day and a half of sickness since my last post, but since Monday I am feeling pretty good. It's really nice to feel good and be able to eat food and not feel sick. It's also nice to be able to take care of Anthony and not constantly feel like I need to be in bed. Baby's have needs, and apparently they don't care if your sick or not. I am thankful no one else seemed to catch my sickness. Okay, enough about that, here is the real post:

I come from a family of the artsy, crafty type, and I sometimes think I don't really fit in. I don't have much artistic abilities, I can't sew, draw, paint, or crochet like many of my sisters can. Rachael recently started a new hobby of sewing purses and handbags. She even has an Etsy store, Simple Wishes, where she sells them. Natalie paints pictures and has her own pottery kiln and also has an Etsy store, NatiSuzanne, for her pottery. Francie crochets scarfs and blankets, and my mom can do just about anything, and I do nothing. Okay Shannon doesn't have a thing she does either, but she is in school and probably doesn't have time for a hobby right now. I've been thinking I need to take up a hobby for myself, but couldn't think of one. Rachael suggested photography. I pondered this for a while, I would really like to learn to take great pictures, but it seems like a pretty expensive hobby, with classes and fancy cameras. I mentioned it to Todd and he wasn't too impressed with my new hobby idea. He says blogging is my hobby. Well, yes that is true, I do blog enough to call it a hobby, but I still want something more. Then the other morning I suddenly came up with an idea. The farming season is just starting and I thought it would be neat to take pictures of the whole process along the way and put it in a book for Anthony to show him how a tomato is grown, starting from a seed to when it ends up in the grocery store. Or to show him what his daddy does all day at work, take pictures of him on the tractor and doing all the things he does with little explanations beneath the picture, then we could read it like a story book. Then I was watching The Bachelor, (yes I am ashamed to admit I watch it) but anyway, Holly, one of the bachelorettes, is a children's book author and I thought that was really cool. She said she used to be a nanny and then she moved away, missed her little girls she nannied for, and so she wrote a book for them and got it published. Cool right? I don't really think I can write children's books and have them published, or maybe I could, I mean how hard can it be? Have you ever read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? There really isn't that much to it. I think the real talent to writing a children's book is illustrating them, which means I need to have an artist to help me out. Hmm, I wonder who I could get to help me with that. (hint: Natalie) Okay, I think I'm getting way far ahead of myself, for now I am going to start with my original idea, take pictures of the different farm processes and make it into a story book for Anthony. But, making it into a real children's book is still an idea I'm going to ponder for a while.

And completely off the subject, Anthony got a new chair. He is still a little wobbly in it, but he seems to like it. You can buy a food tray for it too, once he starts eating. Pretty cool huh?