What we've been up to...

Well, we've been so busy chasing Brendan around the house that we've hardly had time to think about posting! On Monday, for example, Brendan helped us unpack groceries by standing next to one of the Trader Joe's bags and pounding on the contents (fortunately this was not the bag with the produce...). After a few minutes of that, he decided to let go of the bag and boxes and stand by himself!

It seems like we're having those moments at a breakneck pace these days. Brendan is moving everywhere. He's climbing stairs and the kitchen step stool with regularity, and enjoys pushing just about anything (walking toy, chairs, boxes) across as much of the living and dining rooms as he can. He's cruising quite well with something to hang onto, and has even taken some steps when holding on to our fingers. After three months with his bottom two teeth, three top ones emerged at once earlier this week. Fortunately our easygoing fellow hasn't been too fussy! Waving, clapping, peek-a-boo and giggling are more of the many things that keep us smiling at our baby.

We became members of the Zoo in April, and have enjoyed sunny afternoons checking out the animals. Prairie dogs and giraffes are Brendan's current favorites, and he enjoys the tunnel in the arctic habitat.


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In other outdoor news, we've decided this year to try and keep track of the benefits of growing our own food the year. We'll note what we plant, what we eat, and try to track how much it would have cost to buy similar organic produce at the farmers' market or store. We (well, Nick mostly - Brendan and I watched) planted lettuce and spinach at the beginning of April and carrots and beets April 12. We have Jenny Lind melons (an heirloom version of cantaloupe) started in the house, and potatoes should go in later this week. We're hoping to eat our first lettuce and spinach by the middle of next week.

Brought to you by the letter B...

Well, it has certainly been a busy couple of weeks! Earlier this month, we celebrated our niece's first birthday - it seems like just yesterday that we were waiting for her to be born and getting ready for our own baby. It was so fun to watch all of the babies at the party and observe the different personalities. While others dove right in, Brendan was a little tentative at first, hanging with me and watching the other babies move all over the floor. After a few minutes, he apparently decided that everything was ok, and crawled his way over to the activity table. He then participated in one of his current favorite games: take a basket full of things and dump them out.

Brendan is now cruising around on the furniture, and has started to contemplate stairs. He also enjoys splashing around in the bath. He's got some bath toys, but we're still using his small tub inside the big one, so we've been giving him two toys - a rubber cow, and a purple dinosaur (which he picked out at our last swim lesson). I also pulled out one of the foam letters a few weeks ago for him - the letter B (for bath, Brendan...). The letter is his favorite bath thing to grab and chew as he kicks his feet and splashes with his other hand. Nick calls Brendan's bath toys his friends when talking to him about the bath, so we have odd conversations with our almost-10-month-old about his good friend the letter B. Only in our house, I guess.

In sadder news, we were notified this week that our daycare center is going to close at the end of May. We have some ideas about what we are going to do after that point, but it was definitely not news we were expecting to hear! We are lucky that being teachers and off all summer, we're in a better position than some of the other parents, and certainly the wonderful staff that will be laid off in June.

9 months old!

To celebrate turning 9 months old today, Brendan proudly crawled across the living room to the coffee table, used the (now) empty shelves like a ladder and pulled himself up to standing!

Went for a checkup last Friday - 18 lbs, 5 oz (around the 15th percentile), just under 26 inches. His height is still under the curve, but he's growing well and inching ever closer(pun completely intended).

Brendan loves playing new games these days. Peekaboo is a new favorite, and this week's one is a copycat game - he babbles or squawks, then waits for us to repeat the noise back, then comes up with a new sound. And there's always time for another round of "Try to bear hug the cat".

On the move...

It's been another few busy weeks for our family. Other than a couple of colds, we're all healthy, and just enjoying our ever more active baby boy! Brendan is crawling and climbing at every possible opportunity. At daycare, he and his pals enjoy maneuvering themselves over to the toy shelves and pulling things off. He's also trying to pull himself to standing - he enjoys bouncing on his feet a lot. At home, Brendan and Ben have become good pals - they enjoy going eye to eye and hand to paw. Both are being pretty good when we remind them to be gentle.

We started swim lessons for Brendan's Christmas present, and we have been having a blast. Brendan loves kicking his feet in the water and reaching for squirty toys. We love watching him have fun!

And finally...a tooth!

Return from Hiatus...

Well, I'd love to play this off and say that we're like the creators of Lost - taking a long hiatus to create immense hype and buildup for a return to ratings glory when our blog would finally emerge from the abyss, but...

It's been a really busy couple of months. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Holiday Nights, Christmas, New Year, and trying in vain to catch up on grading in between!

Brendan's been a busy baby in these past couple of months. Some of the highlights:
-Sitting up well, and trying really hard to crawl. He gets up on all fours, and scoots backwards, so it's just a matter of time. He already rolls around the dining room, bypassing whatever toys we have out to go for table legs or wall molding.
-Eating solids. Brendan's been sampling fare from our garden with gusto. He loves squash (good, because we grew lots...) and applesauce (also good, since we canned a lot of it from apple picking in the fall). Peas or mangoes get you a pretty funny wrinkled skeptical face from our little eater.
-Enjoying the holidays. Brendan was fascinated by the lights, Christmas trees, and generally looked at all things bemusedly. When we visited Santa, he gave a nice eyebrow raise, as if to say, "What are you people doing to me now?"
-Growing! Our little guy is definitely more and more interested in everything these days!

Good Eats...

These posts are a bit overdue, but I figured I'd get this one in while Brendan takes an evening nap.

We expanded garden space again this year, both in our backyard plot and our larger space at the cottage in Canada. Granted, Nick has most of the know-how and does most of the work, but I'm a very willing taste-tester. One of our goals for the summer was to continue to try to eat more local and organic food. We've noticed we feel better physically eating food with less preservatives, and there's less of an environmental impact than getting fruit and veggies from an unknown farm a continent away.

One of the major ways we've done that is to make regular use of our farmers' market. Beginning in the spring, and continuing until fall, there's plenty of fresh produce at affordable prices.

This is also the second year that we've purchased beef in bulk from the market. We order in late winter/early spring, then put in an order for cuts a couple of months later, just before the steer goes to processing. We pay for 250 lbs at one time, but the price per pound is cheaper for better cuts than we could get at the regular grocery store. Plus, the animals are grass-fed, and don't get growth hormones, or any other antibiotics corn-fed cattle need to tolerate an unnatural diet. And to top it all off, we know the farmers who are raising these animals, so we know where our money is going, and that their animals are treated humanely. We also buy chicken and eggs from other farmers at the market.

We really made use of our garden, too. Nick began in spring with lettuce (two kinds), carrots, beans, beets and potatoes. Summer gave way to squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and more beans. He got in a fall lettuce planting as well. We use primarily heirloom seeds - varieties that are open pollenated, many of which have been grown for many, many years. There's more chance for disease or weird looking crops (like this single carrot we got), but the taste is so much better. We were able to get so much from our soil by giving it regular doses of compost. We got a closed bin at Costco a couple of years ago, and save leftover non-meat food scraps (apple peels and cores, eggshells, coffee grounds). Those go into the bin, the material gets aerated every once in a while, and the worms do their work, creating wonderfully nutritious fertilizer for our garden.

And we'll continue eating our produce well into the fall and winter. The tomatoes we canned last year took us into spring, and our pumpkins and squash will be Brendan food this winter! One of our favorite meals this fall was a potato boxty with carrot, pepper and pesto. The flour, olive oil and pine nuts for the pesto came from the store, but everything else was from our backyard - talk about eating local!

So... if you're interested:
The Maitland Family Farm (Charlie and Sarah are our souce for beef.)
Otto's Chicken - from Middleville, MI, they come to several farmers' markets, including ours on Saturdays.
Heirloom Seeds - our source for seeds

The New Normal

Well, it's been a giant whirlwind of a few weeks since Brendan's baptism. We've both started back to school, and are slowly but surely settling into our new workweek routine, but had some time for relaxing a bit before.

Brendan and I took a few days to go down to Tennessee to visit Adam. Pigeon Forge is an interesting mix of beautiful mountains and As Seen on TV shops. We got to see Smokies Park, where Adam's been working this season, and even got a personal tour of the facility (sadly, the team was out of town, so Brendan didn't get to see the players we've read about in his Smokies Kids' Club newsletter...). Adam also got us tickets to the aquarium in Gatlinburg. This one was pretty fun - much of the lower level is tunnels with a moving sidewalk underneath their largest tank, so it appears that you're surrounded by water and fish. It was really fun to watch Brendan here - I had him in his sling, and he was so interested - just looking and looking at the different fish. We spent an afternoon in the national park as well. I did the hike up to the top of Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the Smokies, and even did a little hiking on the Appalachian Trail before heading back.

We celebrated Labor Day by heading to Canada for the weekend. We took Brendan to the Harrow Fair - the 155th fair in a little Ontario town. We saw the 4H kids show their cows, saw some of the parade, and looked at all of the prize-winning produce and quilts. Brendan liked the vegetable displays best.

The highlight of our Labor Day weekend was Saturday evening. Before Brendan was born, we thought of planting something that could grow as Brendan grew - we'd be able to take pictures regularly and mark progress of both Brendan and plant. Brendan's early arrival put those ideas on the back burner, but in August, we picked them up again. We decided to plant a tree in Canada (I hated the thought of leaving it behind if we were ever to move from this house!), and this was the weekend for it! So, Brendan's peach tree is now just outside the cottage!

And now, we're back at school. Brendan is doing well in daycare so far, and his mom is making the adjustment too! The days at work are very busy, but Brendan's big smiles when I pick him up give me an energy boost. He's growing every day - he's 3 1/2 months old, and those 3 mos clothes are getting snug - bring on the 3-6 and 6 mos sizes!

Pictures later.