Growth

Shira's language continues to grow in leaps and bounds. She now speaks in complex sentences, frequently with completely correct syntax and grammar. Her fine and gross motor skills have been developing similarly. She can truly run, as well as gallop, jump and hop. She loves to paint and draw and use all sorts of utensils. And can I talk about pottying, or will I jinx it? Her bladder seems to have grown recently, as well as her bladder control. I have many days where she doesn't need a change of clothes at all (and I don't have to race her to the bathroom every 22 minutes - or is that seconds?). I have dreams of being done with all manner of diapers within the next year, but that is probably fantasy. Since naptime seems to becoming old hat, I do have my hopes that we will be down to just night time diapers in the near future.

Have I mentioned that we have been reading a lot about kindergarten readiness for Samuel? That was the topic of our most recent preschool "class meeting". And as these things go, all signs point to Shira being ready for kindergarten. No joke, not a typo. Which might give you a sense on where I have landed in terms of the "redshirting" in kindergarten issue. For all my concern about whether we should send Samuel to kindergarten or not, it's becoming absurdly clear that that is just noise. He's ready for kindergarten, no question, and I'm a little embarrassed about getting sucked into this "it's much better if they're older" nonsense. That's not to say that some kids don't benefit from a little more maturity. I just have realized that it's silly to think of waiting just so my kid is older than everybody else.

Samuel has been making some big advances himself. Just last week he began to express an interest in sounding out words, and our spelling adventure has begun. Grandma Susan should be acquiring us some flash cards to work on letter and sound recognition. Samuel is super excited (as are Steve and myself). Reading has brought us so much pleasure in our lives, we wait expectantly as that world begins to open up for Samuel.

The garden continues to grow as well. After a recent rainstorm our tomatoes stopped producing for a couple of days, and I didn't realize how accustomed I had become to freshly picked tomatoes on demand. Winter will be hard to get used to, but since it was 80 degrees again today, it looks like we'll have tomatoes again for a little longer. I just hope they hold on until next week so Grandma Susan and Grandpa Tom have the opportunity to enjoy them.

Our lettuce has not been faring so well. The red leaf became bitter and bolted almost immediately, and though the romaine is slightly better, between the lettuce and the broccoli, our garden has begun to attract snails. I might give up on the lettuce all together, or try again when it gets cooler. Definitely would plant more than 4 broccoli plants next year, but they take up a significant amount of space. Our radishes, carrots and onions are coming right along, I keep telling Steve and the kids they should do another planting, but we never seem to be able to take the time. The pumpkin, watermelon and cantaloupe plants have shockingly all decided to put out new flowers, I can't wait to see if they actually produce something - the pumpkins have already set 2 new gourds. And the raspberries are producing a few berries a day; next year promises to be prolific. Cauliflower hasn't shown up yet, we'll see if those go anywhere. The apple tree had most of its leaves turn brown and drop off the tree. Not a good sign. I might go back to the nursery and ask for a replacement (although I doubt they still have one).

Our new camera should arrive tomorrow or the next day, at which point I imagine the blog posts will pick up again.