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?