(Picture taken last summer atop Porter Mountain in the Adirondacks.  Just looking at it takes me back there!)

SUMMER!  If asked to choose a favorite season, I’m hard-pressed to decide between summer and fall.  (That’s true for most people, I’d wager.)  While I love many, many things about fall, a really good summer takes on an almost magical quality that can’t be replicated in any other season.  You know what I mean – that deep happiness that comes with long days of sunshine, dips in a cool lake or pool, evenings spent sitting out on the deck watching the fireflies light up the yard like tiny fairy lanterns, epic road trips, songs around a campfire… all the summer essentials.  I live for summer.  I wait for it all year.  And whenever it arrives I resolve to make the most of it.  Some years I do, and some years I don’t.  But I always, always try to come out of summer with a treasure trove of warm, happy memories that I can call upon to sustain me throughout the long, dark winter months ahead.  Summer is my happy place.

Here’s how I hope to make this summer the best yet:

• Keep enjoying my maternity leave and bonding time with Nugget.  I’m lucky that my employer offers a generous maternity leave policy and that I can afford to take advantage of it.  Nugget is our last baby, so I am really cherishing this time with him.
• Take a family vacation to the beach!  It has been almost FOUR YEARS since our last vacation.  We’re way overdue.  And this trip is extra-special: we’re joining my parents and my brother and sister-in-law in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, to celebrate my parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary.  The reason for the trip, in and of itself, is special, and so is the destination – we’re going back to the same beach, even the same rental house, that we visited almost every year when my brother and I were growing up.  We have so many memories of this particular beach, and I know my brother is as excited to show this special place to his wife as I am to see my kids (well, realistically, Peanut) playing in the same sands I played in as a kid.
• Hike to the Eternal Flame.  Closer to home, this is the “quintessential Buffalo hike” and we haven’t done it yet, which seems nuts considering how much we love hiking.  Since part of the hike goes through a stream bed, I think we may leave the kids with the grandparents and make this an adults-only outing.  Maybe for our anniversary?  Speaking of which…
• Celebrate TEN YEARS of marriage!  I can’t believe hubby and I have been married for almost a decade.  We were practically babies when we tied the knot!  He’s my partner and my best friend and I couldn’t have chosen anyone better as my teammate for life.  We’re trying to come up with some extra-special way to celebrate this milestone.  Can’t wait.
• Continue our monthly hiking project and take our summer stroll through Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve.  We are having so much fun with both of these resolutions, and I’m so glad that we made a family priority to get out and explore our natural environment.
• Invest in the East Aurora Cooperative Market.  I’ve had the brochure for member-investors in the planned East Aurora Coop on my desk for who knows how long.  It’s time to take the plunge and help the market get off the ground.
• Do some small home projects.  Our house has potential but it’s very dated.  I’ve been doing little things here and there – replacing outlet and switch plates, painting the fireplace, installing new handles on the family room built-ins, etc. – and I want to keep up that momentum.  Should be easy; the more I do, the more I see that needs to get done.
• Re-read Jane of Lantern Hill.  One of my favorite L.M. Montgomery books, and it’s been ages since I last read it.  Jane’s escape from Toronto and summers of fun and freedom with “Dad” on P.E.I. make for the perfect July and August reading.  Oh, and while we’re on the topic of reading…
• Participate in #BlumeAlong in June and July, and finally join in the Austen in August fun!  I’ve signed on for both reading events – #BlumeAlong, hosted by Kerry of Entomology of a Bookworm, in which we’ll read Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret and Summer Sisters, and Roofbeam Reader’s annual Austen in August.  I’m planning to read Jane’s juvenilia Love and Freindship (how much do you love that Jane misspelled “friendship”?) and either or both of Jane Austen’s England and Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, as well as re-reading one of the main novels, probably Pride and Prejudice.  So much good reading community to look forward to!
• Start our playroom re-do.  After almost a year in this house, I finally have a vision for the playroom, and I’m really excited about bringing it to fruition.  I don’t know if this is our forever house, but we’re here now and I’m psyched to give the kids a really special place in which to play, learn and do art projects.

That looks like a good start on summer!  Hope I get to all of these plans.  I think it’ll be a pretty darn good summer either way… especially that long-overdue vacation.  What are you planning for the summer?

How YOU doin’?

Another Nugget update already?!  Didn’t I just write his two month update?  I guess not, because it’s been a month, and the time is just flying by.  Nugget is the sweetest, snuggliest little guy I’ve ever met, and getting sweeter and snugglier by the day.  (Well, maybe not snugglier – I’m not sure it’s possible, actually, to get any snugglier than he has been since birth.)

We’ve had a fun month together.  Nugget is getting more and more interactive.  He’s started to coo and he loves to have long conversations that generally go as follows:

Nugget: Ooooooo.

Mommy: Really?

Nugget: Eh.

Mommy: You don’t say!

Nugget: Ahhh!

Mommy: And then what happened?

Nugget: Ooo-eeee.

Mommy: Wow!

And so on, and so forth.

We’ve been on the go again this month, getting out of the house almost every day.  As I mentioned in a previous post, our neighborhood isn’t particularly walkable, so we’ve been driving to East Aurora and strolling down the main street or through the neighborhoods most days.  (And I’m fantasizing about downsizing into one of the village houses there… someday, maybe.)  Nugget is decent about the car seat, just as long as the car is in motion and going at least 35 miles per hour.  We call him Speed Bus Baby.  (Nineties movie reference!)  We’ve also continued to hike most weekends, taking advantage of the gorgeous early summer we’ve been enjoying.  Our last hike, to Sprague Brook Park, was particularly fun for Nugget.  He stayed awake the entire time – a feat for him, since he likes to fall asleep in the Ergo – and gazed around at the trees for over an hour.  Nature boy in the making!

I’ve started calling him “Mr. Personality” because he is charm personified and the biggest flirt ever – especially with me.  As if I wasn’t already madly in love with him.

Nugget at 3 Months:

Weight: 12 pounds, 2 ounces.

Height: 22.5 or so inches cooperative.

Clothing Size: In pants he’s still wearing 0-3 months, but his 3-6 month onesies seem to be fitting him better so I’m rotating him through the few he owns.  I need to get on top of buying his 3-6 month wardrobe – he officially needs it now!  It’s going to include baby bathing suits and rash guards, since we’re headed to the beach this summer, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle that cuteness.

Sleep: Not much has changed since last month’s update.  He’s still on a fairly regular schedule of falling asleep in our arms between 8:00 and 9:00 on the couch, then transitioning to the crib when we head to bed and sleeping until around 2:30.  (Sometimes it’s 1:30, sometimes 3:30, but always in that general vicinity.)  Most nights I’m up with him for about an hour and a half, and then he’ll sleep until around 6:15 or 6:30.  (Of course last night he decided to show me who’s really still in charge and tossed in an extra wakeup… message received, Nugget.  It’s your world, I’m just living in it.)  I’m making it work, but it is starting to wear me down.  He’s nowhere near ready to be night-weaned, though, so we’ve got awhile to go with this schedule.  At least a couple more months.

Likes: Peanut.  Actually, this is more of a LOVE.  Oh, my goodness, does he ever worship her.  Whenever they’re in the same room, his big eyes follow her every movement.  I think he’d be happy to sit and gaze at her for hours.  The feeling is mutual… Peanut continues to be just wild about her little brother, too.  I’m not sure how she’ll feel when he’s mobile and into her stuff, but I’m soaking up the sibling harmony while it lasts.

Dislikes: When Mommy sniffles.  Seriously.  The kid sleeps peacefully through Game of Thrones or his whirling dervish of a sister, but if I sniff my nose he jumps as if he’s been shot.  Since it’s allergy season, this is a big problem.

Favorite Toys: He’s still not into many toys, but he’s starting to get a bit more engaged.  He continues to be a big fan of Peanut’s stuffed panda, and he loves his blue Jellycat dog – in fact, it was the first toy he smiled at!

Milestones: So much new stuff this month!  In addition to the coos, which are constant and adorable, he’s been working hard on his grip.  He loves to hold onto the neckline of my shirt (and often attempts to pull me down with him if I am laying him in his crib or his swing) and he was even able to grasp an O-ball recently.  I expect that next month we’ll see a lot of development in this area.  He’s also beginning to find his hands; I’ve observed him examining them a few times, although mainly he’s just interested in jamming them into his mouth.

Quirks: Here’s something weird: Nugget is afraid of garages.  Seriously.  You’d think that three months would be too young to have developed a fear like that, but evidently it’s not.  Whenever we walk through our garage from the car to the mudroom door, or Heaven forbid if I take him downtown and park in the parking garage, his eyes get huge and he immediately starts to whimper and doesn’t stop until we’re safely out of the garage.  What kind of kid is afraid of garages?  Basements, yes.  In fact, I’m a little bit afraid of basements.  But garages?!

Happy, happy, happy three months, little buddy!  We love you!

As you may recall, one of my goals for 2015 was to start a vegetable garden with Peanut.  Knowing that her world was about to change in a big way when Nugget arrived and joined our family, I really wanted to come up with a special activity for us to do, just us two.  Of course, I read to Peanut all the time, and I play with her, but I wanted to do something bigger.  I wanted us to take on a project together that would provide opportunities for fun learning experiences and, I hoped, set a foundation for similar experiences throughout her childhood.  I hit upon gardening as an idea that I hoped would work.  It certainly would give me plenty of chances to teach Peanut about the natural world, which is something I’m passionate about, it could be tailored to her age and attention level and my experience level, and I loved the idea of her growing up with a trove of memories of gardening together with her mom.  The only possible hiccup I foresaw was that Peanut is a fairly fastidious child.  You’d never know it to look at the state of her playroom, but she generally doesn’t like to get dirty.  So I hoped that she’d find gardening fun, but I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about the dirt part.

I needn’t have worried.  But anyway, backing up.  I decided that I wanted to start this year with just a very easy garden – a few pots with starter plants on my back patio.  I haven’t gardened in years – I tried a few times in Virginia, but always killed everything – so I knew that starting with four raised beds and thirty varieties of vegetables and herbs was a recipe for frustration and failure.  I also knew that Peanut’s attention span was going to be limited and there was only so much of her time I was going to get this year.  Anything advanced – like starting plants from seed or testing soil – was right out.

My first stop was Lowe’s, where I picked up four bags of potting soil and this set of four gorgeous planters.  It actually took me awhile to find the planters.  Everything I liked was expensive (funny how that works!) and I didn’t want to spend a fortune on a garden that was by no means a sure success.  But the pots that I deemed inexpensive enough seemed dinky, or their looks didn’t appeal to me.  I bypassed the pots above at first because I balked at the $98 price tag – until I realized that $98 bought a set of four pots.  Now that I can stomach.  I loved the beautiful ombre, and the fact that they’re frost resistant (key when you live on the tundra).  Sold.

Then it was off to the garden center.  Hubby and Peanut joined Nugget and me for this part of the adventure, and we all had fun exploring the different greenhouses while I decided what I wanted.

(Sneak peek – Peanut was picking out flowers for a special garden project that we’re also doing together.  More on that next week.)

I came home with sweet 100 tomatoes (a cherry varietal I’m really excited about); red leaf lettuce; mixed leaf lettuce; a strawberry plant; parsley; dill; rosemary; tie-dye basil; and mint (my favorite herb).  Hubby set up the plants on the back patio and we were ready to start playing in the dirt.

We dressed Peanut like a farmer, in overalls and crocs, because obviously.

Peanut received these Melissa and Doug garden tools from the Easter Bunny this year.  They’re excellent quality and she loves using them.  Well, she loves the rake.  She doesn’t care about the shovel or the spade.  We’ll get there.

Peanut helped me prep the soil…

And then I started potting.  And then came our first disagreement of the gardening experiment.

I wanted to actually pot the plants.  Peanut wanted to fling fistfuls of dirt about.  I guess my fears about her not having fun because she doesn’t like to get dirty were misplaced.  Seems she’s outgrown that particular preference, heh.  Anyway, I’m bigger so I eventually got my way and everything was potted.  Now Peanut and I water the plants together most days (they get watered every day, but I sometimes do the job myself, because I don’t want her to burn out on the project).  So far, nothing seems to have died, and I actually enjoyed some of my mint chopped up over a fruit salad – winning!  Stay tuned for updates on how the garden does over the summer.

Do you have a garden?  Fellow WNY gardeners, any tips for me to avoid killing my little baby plants?