Of growing and laughter

I forgot to post this some time ago and found it in the saved files! Call me pregnant or forgetful or both! Maybe it's 'cause I have too much to say! My friends in high school always wondered how I could possibly have a new story to share every morning when we saw each other. Funny things happen to me is all, or at least I found them interesting!

A couple of weeks ago, I cleaned out Ivan's pool and he wanted to take a dip. It was about 7 pm, the sun was setting and it was already getting cooler, but I put in bubble bath and he couldn't resist. He laughed, splashed, learned to use the slide, slipped all over and laughed at himself then ended up getting to skinny dip, when I realized his diaper weighed about 7 lbs and I didn't want to leave him to get him a swim suit.


Due to the ubsurd weather and my blossoming belly, I regretfully informed Brian that I could not assist with the garden planting this year. What a trooper. He spent an entire day doing it himself. Normally, he tills it. I get cardboard and lay that down while he's hauling wood chips. Then I make the rows and hills and plant the seeds and plants. (We've gotten smart and buy tomato and pepper plants- still have never gotten tomatoes very good, but we keep trying, maybe this year!) Brian helped last year with some of the seeds and some years Shanna has sort of helped, mostly she likes to water it and me! But with Ivan and the pregnancy, I had to sit out this year. Brian did wonderful. The rows are actually straight for once and he's got soaker hoses over the rows. It takes a lot to get the garden in the way we do it, but now that that is done, all we (ahum- HE) has to do is water and pick veggies (no weeding for us). He planted sunflowers on the south and west sides to provide some shade because it just gets too hot for the garden come July and we actually have to fabricate some plant relief. Then he put in okra (does awesome), yellow squash, butternut squash (new for us), radishes, spinach, carrots, bell pepper and tomatoe. I think that's it. Of course, while at the store, we were lurred into buying some flower plants. We used to buy 2 hanging baskets already bloomed out for about $8 each. But they had a sale, and we have leftover baskets, so we got 2 sets of 6 plants, planted them ourselves and saved about $12. We were excited about it. Maybe we'll have birds nest in them, as we did two other years. It was fun to see eggs and know we had birthed wild birds!


In the Ivan files... He's learning to laugh at himself. I put his ballcap on him the other day after realizing it has an adjustable strap (duh), so it won't fall off. He wore it quite a while, maybe 20 minutes. He walked outside with it on, laughing and ran into a table! He couldn't figure out how to see with it on! I guess it takes a special skill. Twice now, I've found him hung up. The first time, he was leaning into the tub to hide something he was not supposed to have. I heard him screaming and caught him with the evidence hanging on the side unable to get back up and not willing to fall in head first. The second time, he was trying to reach something on a desk (again where he shouldn't have been). After crawling up from a chair, he pushed on it to get more leverage and it rolled away from him. When I reached the screaming child, he was hanging about 3 feet from the floor, trying to hold on to the desk by his forward weight alone, since there was nothing to hold on to. Both times when I saw him, I started laughing, then he did, which was even funnier to see him hanging there laughing at his situation. It was purely delightful. I don't think there is anything better than to hear him laugh.

Here Ivan is "hiding" behind part of the fence, which we have rigged as a cheap gate to the alley way.