Is It The End of September Already?

Boy it’s been a busy month! It’s already the end of September, and I haven’t written any updates.

School started for both Fi and me at the end of August. Fi was in two different classes and that didn’t work out, so now she is in one class, and loving it. My classes are going really well and I love my students (again). It’s so nice and relaxing having all honors classes. Almost everyone does their homework, there are no discipline issues, and they remember stuff from previous years. I can get used to this (but I won’t because it will probably never happen again).

Between work commitments and meetings, birthday parties for Fi’s friends, and other miscellaneous things, we’ve barely had a chance to catch our breaths. I think this is the first weekend we’ve had with no commitments and no grading for me! And that’s only because the community service project I was supposed to do with students was canceled at the last minute. I guess everything happens for a reason.

Our garden is still going strong. We still have more beans and tomatoes than we can eat, including yellow tomatoes that are dwarfing some of our roses, enough zucchini to feed a small army (I just made delicious zucchini muffins from some of it), a little bit of corn, some squashes, and this baby:

Do not be fooled by the lack of scale in that photo, that baby weighed almost 27 pounds. Basically, it was another Fiona.

Here she is sitting on it:

 

We put it in the BOB before putting it on the scale:

It was a very tasty watermelon that we are still eating.

There are a few more in the garden and we even gave one away. We took out the cantaloupe finally, and gave away our last eggplant. But, the cucumbers are still growing, we just cut some butternut squash, and there are a couple rogue tomatoes that are starting to produce. These are tomatoes that we did not plant, but grew from seeds of older plants.

In other news, both Fi and John were sick, first John, then Fi. She missed school for a week. I think I may have a cold now too, and I am hoping it doesn’t get any worse. No one was sleeping for at least a week around here.

Speaking of sleeping, Fi is doing it in a new bed:

We went to Ikea and Fi let Fi pick out a bed (from a small selection) as well as her own bedding. I wanted something much cutesier, but she insisted on the owls. Fi loves and it has come in handy when I’m cuddling her through a fever (and half sleeping in bed with her). There is no way I could have held her in her old bed and she really dislikes sleeping in our bed, so it was sort of a coup that we got the bed when we did.

The transition has been very smooth and she still takes nice long naps in it. It is very close to the ground, so we did not put up any sort of barrier. She doesn’t use the pillow at all, and I think she sleeps either diagonally or across the bed most of the time, but she sleeps none-the-less, and that is all I care about.

Other than losing sleep and Fi losing weight due to not eating during illness, nothing much exciting has happened around here. Fi is honing her humor skills:

Takes her “babies” to swim lessons:

 

Plays “airplane”:

Let me explain. The stones are seats in an airplane. I sit in front of her and Cece (one of her imaginary friends who is sometimes a dog) flies the plane. But this time, Fi was not feeling well and told me her seat was uncomfortable. So she got her chair and put a pillow on it, then later, brought me a pillow too. Then she put everything away by herself, without being asked, while I was making dinner.

We’ve been taking walks with Fi in the stroller because she doesn’t have a lot of energy:

This summer, we were attacked by ants. They seem to be mostly gone now, but for a month or more, if we even thought about food, ants swarmed the counters. Nothing worked but to store everything in airtight containers and wait.

Fi’s school lunchbox:

I think she has a thing for owls, even though she says her favorite animal is a lion. She doesn’t need the lunchbox anymore because she doesn’t stay at school late enough to eat lunch there anymore, but it was nice to use while she needed it.

Here is a before and after, about a month apart:

The little bud turned into a big melon. I don’t know how much it weighs, but I’d guess maybe 10 pounds.

That’s all for now. I’m hoping Fi is fully recovered by Monday so she can go to school again and I hope I don’t get any worse than the stuffy nose I have right now. On the development front, Fi is definitely into 3 year old sizes now, in all clothing brands, she is becoming quite the conversationalist, makes up songs and stories, and corrects John whenever he misspeaks. And everything that happens to her or in her life also happens to her “babies”. But really, you need to be here to understand and to see it.

I probably won’t write again for another month because October promises to be as hectic as September. At least the weather has been really nice, although I think I am ready for a little bit of rain soon.

Have a great weekend!

Fiona and John in the Pool (and Fi Helps Cook)

John joined us for Fiona’s last swimming lesson, allowing me to sit out and take pictures:

 

 

Today Fi and several of her little friends got to do rings in the deep end of the pool. Janette the instructor dove down with them because the pool is eight feet deep at this end.

Fi had no problems (none of the kids did) and is great at holding her breath.

Here is Fi, inching along the wall:

 

Fi likes to jump into the pool:

 

  

I got her some new bathing suits because her old one is getting really stretched out. Her new favorite is the striped one, that we forgot at Janette’s and will pick up on Monday:

At this point, I would say that Fi is definitely a water baby. I signed her up for another two weeks, in the afternoons this time because she starts preschool again next week. She’s made such amazing progress in the just a short time and I don’t want to lose that momentum. Plus, she seems to really love swimming and she has been so happy and well behaved lately, I can’t help but think that swimming has something to do with it.

Speaking of swimming, I love it and went to the pool today with my dad. While I was there, Fi was at my parents’ house, helping my mom make Matza balls:

My mom gave her an apron and let her stir. Fi told me all about it at home. She also declared that she was “chlorine-y”, which is true. She let me wash her hair again tonight, but only because she was able to wear goggles in the bathtub.

Well, that’s all for today. We went to the farmer's market to get some eggs and I realized that I don’t need to buy any produce other than fruit because I got two more zucchinis today, more green beans, a yellow squash, and we still have pounds and pounds of tomatoes. The lettuce is making a comeback and there are more eggplants. If only it was cold enough to reliably grow broccoli and legal to grow yams, we’d be set.

Have a great weekend!

Fi is an Old Soul

Recently, we went to a birthday party. There was a musician at the party and lots of the kids were on the “stage” dancing to the music. Fi, who was eating an apple at the time, asked John “Why are all the children up there dancing?” John said “Fi, they’re just up there having fun. You can go up there too.” So she handed him the apple and joined the other kids. It occurred to me that Fi might not identify herself as being a child or as having the quality of childhood in common with her little friends. I think she thinks that she is just a short person who will someday be taller. Or something like that. I think she is a pretty typical kid, but maybe she doesn’t think she is a kid. I don’t know.

At any rate, here are some photos of her:

Here is another photo of her after getting rings in the pool. It was taken by a friend of mine whose daughter is also in the class.

Here is our veggie haul for today:

 

The zucchini on the left was regular sized two days ago, small even. The melon is our first cantaloupe. There are many more in the garden, but they are not yet ripe. The tomatoes are a mix of roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and Mr. Stripey tomatoes that are like candy, they are so sweet. I think they are my new favorite tomato since the San Marzano haven’t produced in a couple of years and my cooking is different that it was when we did have a lot of those. I am really loving the garden harvest. There is nothing like the quality of homegrown fruits and vegetables. The produce at the supermarket does not come close to comparing, and even the fruits and veggies at the farmer’s market are not quite as good as straight off the vine. I think every year during the winter I forget how good the garden is. The eggplant we got was great, but the plants are on their way out (some creature is eating them) and even the lettuce was tasty. The garden is one of my favorite things about living here, in this house, in this town.

 

I am not a big fan of cantaloupe (I don’t love it, I don’t hate it, sort of indifferent, will eat it if given to me, but don’t ask for it specially), but oh boy was this one good! So sweet and tender. It was delicious. I think Fi and I ate almost half of it right after I sliced it. And speaking of slicing, the knife went through like butter. I may never be able to eat restaurant or supermarket melon again. I guess the plant’s hostile takeover of our garden was worth it. I’m so excited for the rest of the cantaloupes and for the watermelons to ripen. Lots of those growing in our front yard now.

Here are John and Fi in John’s office today:

 

Fi was typing in a word document and couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t getting web pages or photos of tigers when typing their names. We had lunch and visited John for probably the last time this summer. This is our third visit since summer vacation started. The receptionist at the visitor center recognized us when we walked in. Well, she recognized Fi. No one notices the mommy.

Fi is potty training her dolls. Depending on the day, they either all poop in the potty, or they all need their diapers changed every few minutes. In this photo, they are sitting on the toilet, reading their books:

Eventually she gave them something else but I don’t remember what it was and by that time, I put the camera away.

Here is Fi, having a tea party in the sandbox with a little birdy:

Here she is buried under blankets:

Ever since we cut out watching videos on youtube, she is back to putting together puzzles and reading many books every day, or sometimes the same books over and over. And pretending that there are chickens in Chinchi’s room and cows in her room a mommy, a daddy, and a baby). The cows each had their own water bottle that we had to dump out and rinse (because they were getting moldy). We let the cows out last night so they could graze in the backyard, and today Fi gave me some grass to feed them. I guess they are happy back there because I haven’t heard any complaints from them and Fi hasn’t mentioned them much today (other than feeding them the grass).

I can’t believe that preschool starts again next week. Fi and I have spent every day together for last two months. I feel closer to her than I ever have before and I love our little conversations and all the stories and songs she makes up and the farm animals that are roaming around everywhere (note:  just in case, no real farm animals are here, they are all in Fi’s imagination, but I love playing along). She has been so happy the last few weeks and her behavior has been much better than it was a couple of months ago, when I started to think I didn’t like three year olds very much and wondered how I was going to get through this age without tearing my hair out. I’m going to be sad to see her go, but I officially start back to work the following week (I say “officially” because I have already been working and planning, and have met with coworkers), and so all good things must come to an end. Fi’s last two swim lessons are tomorrow and Thursday.

Here are some photos of her taken on my phone, from the fair and from home:

 

My sweet Fi, I hope even if you don’t always remember this summer, that you remember the feeling of excitement and joy you had. I’m glad I have this blog to help me remember it too.