Sad News About My Pumpkin

My poor pumpkin plant recently became infected with something called powdery mildew. I have to be honest here and say that I noticed it a while ago but didn't think much of it. Since I know NOTHING about gardening, I made a mental note to look it up but then repeatedly forgot to do so. In recent days it got so bad that entire leaves turned white.

H finally took it upon himself to look it up and the news wasn't good. Any leaves affected must be removed immediately. It's very damaging to the plant and was most likely caused by all of the rain we've been having. Once he sent me this information, I took to the garden with my shears and a bucket to trim off the affected leaves. Unfortunately, by this point, ALL of the leaves had at least some white on them. So they all had to go. I was hoping to save the pumpkin but I'm not sure if I did. 

I have said all along that this is a learning experience for me. If something actually grows, I'll be excited. If nothing grows (as I was expecting), then at least I'll have learned a few things. But, honestly, I'm a little bummed about the pumpkin. I was getting excited for it. It's my fault for not taking care of it sooner. When I put things into perspective though, and think about all of the farmers this year that have lost their entire crop to drought, I snap back to reality. I've learned a lot and next year I'll be more careful about things like this.

A little more trimmings than my one bucket could handle.

Jackson, looking just as sad as me that I had to cut all the leaves.

My pumpkin, all by itself now. Not sure if it will survive.

A completely covered leaf.

What the leaves looked like when I first noticed the white spots. Should've done something then.

The squash got it also, though not as bad. I did have to trim that entire plant as well.

A baby squash growing that I had to remove. How sad.

What's left of my squash plants.

I stuffed four garbage bags full of infected leaves.

 
On the bright side, my peppers are really starting to thrive. Each plant has lots of little peppers now. Let's hope nothing damages them. I'd love to harvest, and share, peppers this year.

That's just one pepper plant!

Sleep Study Part II - Eli's Turn

This morning after breakfast, Tali decided that it was Eli's turn to go through a sleep study. First she put a barrette in his hair (not sure why) then she got out some mini sticky notes and went to work. Eli wasn't too fond of this idea, but he eventually went along with it.

She told me that she was putting stickers on his head because she wanted to see how he sleeps. She explained that he needed to leave them on for his nap just like she left them on all night. Poor Eli, already being "dressed up" by his big sister. It was giving me flashbacks to my childhood and our friend "Brianna."

Pumped Up Kicks

Eli's first pair of shoes.

 Eli got his first pair of shoes (or "kicks" as the kids call it these days) last week and he LOVES them! We went shoe shopping for both kids at a general clothing store in town but Tali didn't find any shoes that she liked. So only Eli got a pair.

At first, he was petrified. I had to hold a shaking baby on my lap while they measured his feet. You could tell he wanted to cry but was trying to hold it in. Once that was over, we were given two pairs of shoes to try on. As he's only a size four (tiny little feet!), these were the only two pairs they had. The ones pictured above fit perfectly and he didn't want me to take them off. He crawled (yes, crawled - these shoes are magical!) around the store with them while we looked for Tali.

At home in his new kicks.

Since he's really only taking a few steps at a time, I just put them on when we're out of the house so he can get comfortable in them. But because he idolizes his big sister (more on that another day), he loves wearing shoes just like she does. And Tali was very excited for him. She has taken to calling his shoes "kicks."

Sleep Study Survivor

Tali's hospital bracelet. I did not take a picture of her with all the wires.

Last night, Tali had to do a sleep study. There's a possibility that she has sleep apnea so the doctor wanted her to be observed for a night to find out. I started preparing her for this the day before by telling her that she was going to sleep in a special place with just Mommy and they were going to put stickers all over her body. She got excited and was looking forward to it.

When we got to the hospital (or "special place"), she was great. She greeted everyone and was very sweet. Everything was going well until her nurse, Grace, began putting on the "stickers." The stickers are actually small dots with wires attached to them. They were mostly placed on her head, though a few were on her legs. H and I did our best to encourage her and distract her. Tali was good for a while, but then it got to be too much and she got upset. She began crying and saying "I don't want to be like this." We eventually calmed her and got her into bed (with me!).

Once in bed, she started crying again. And then the real fun began. In addition to all the wires, she needed to have a breathing tube placed into her nostrils so that they could determine her breathing patterns. This did not go over well and took a long time to do. She finally agreed to it, I held her hands, and we turned on the TV in her room as a special treat. H went home and Tali and I began our night by watching the Mets game on TV about 30 minutes after her regular bed time. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep, but she stayed up to watch the game. Around 10:00 p.m., she started talking to me and woke me up. I turned off the TV and she fell asleep quickly.

Throughout the night Grace would come into the room to reattach stickers that had fallen off. This rarely woke Tali, but it woke me. Only on one instance, when Tali took the tube out in her sleep, did Grace wake her. We had a few minutes of screaming before she agreed to put the tube back in. After Grace left the room that time, Tali turned to me and asked if Grace could help her get dressed in the morning. I said yes and she went back to sleep.

In the morning, we were woken up 1 1/2 hours earlier than Tali's normal wake time as that is when the center begins to close for the day. As Grace was taking off the stickers, Tali said "I'm Tali again." Grace helped her get dressed and as we were ready to leave, Tali told me that she wants to come back one day and do it again - stickers, tube, and all!

After Grace helped her get dressed. (Sorry for the terrible lighting - a bulb was out in the room.)

Now we have to wait two weeks for the doctor to interpret the results. I hate waiting for things like this.

The Farmer's Market

We are very lucky to have a farmer's market less than five minutes from our house. It has become a regular Saturday morning activity for me and Tali - something we look forward to. On occasion, we bring Eli or H, but, with the exception of last Saturday, the two of us have been going every week. We've gotten to know some of the vendors and there's always a local band playing that Tali likes to watch.

Tali has become a bit more opinionated about food in the last couple of months and I can't always count on her to be the champion eater she once was. It's not that she doesn't like something, it's simply that now she has an opinion and chooses not to eat it on that day. But when we're at the farmer's market, her true passion and curiosity for food comes shining through. She's impressed so many people with what she wants to sample and likes. For example, here was a conversation she had with the me and the cheese vendor today:

Tali: I want to try some cheese, please.
Cheese vendor: Not this one, it's the yucky part. (She throws it into the garbage.)
Me: Tali, what is that called?
Tali: That's the rind.
Me: Right. And can we eat the rind?
Tali: No, not that one.
Me: Why not?
Tali: It's a hard cheese. You can't eat that one. You can only eat the rind on a soft cheese.
Customer: Wow! I'm impressed.
Me: That's nothing. You should see what she knows.
Tali (as if on que, points to the Camembert): I want some Camembert, please.

Today the jam guy told me that she's going to culinary school when she's older. She's wowed him each week by picking the most "adult" flavored jams they have. At first, he would warn me that she wouldn't like it. He's stopped doing that. 

Eli is also great there. Although he doesn't like cheese, he eats his way through plenty of samples. Most of the vendors don't mind and usually make some comment about how happy they are to see kids eating vegetables. Today Tali was shoving some tomatoes from a local farm into her mouth and very kindly fed one to Eli who was already eating a peach (given to us by another vendor who we now know).  The guys from the farm thought he was so cute that they took out their phones to snap a picture of him, asking me if it was okay to put his picture on their Web site.

Life is good. Tomato in one hand, peach in the other.

The bread woman only had samples of an olive/roasted pepper bread left by the time we got to her. No problem. Both kids loved it and I bought a loaf. She knows me so well now that I was able to special order a bread for next week (yipee!) that is normally only sold to restaurants.

I could go on and on here, but you get the point. I do want to mention that I do buy from these vendors - we don't just get free samples. Then we go home and my favorite lunch: fresh bread, cheese and vegetables. It's delicious.

Flower from a vendor - given specifically to Tali.

More About My Pumpkin (And Peppers And Basil)

Last weekend I did some real gardening in my little vegetable garden. The pumpkin patch had really gotten out of control. It was climbing into three beds and through the fence and down the wall. It was simply taking over. So Tali and I went out to give it a little trim. We brought my pruning shears and some baskets to collect the trimmings. She also took along her shovel, magnifying glass and a pail.

So I went to work trimming away while I let Tali dig and play in one of the empty beds. Eventually, she got bored digging (half the dirt was on the gravel!) and so I asked if she'd like to learn how to use the pruning shears. She of course said yes and so we pruned together. I should mention that I have NO IDEA what I am doing. What I did last weekend could kill the entire plant, for all I know. But, I decided to learn by experimenting and snipped away. At the end of our session, we'd stuffed two large baskets full of pumpkin stems and collected a number of pumpkin flowers to cook.

(A note about the flowers: I had a few people tell me that cooking pumpkin flowers are a delicacy. So after cutting them, I looked it up. Turns out, they should be picked in the morning while they are still open so that you can ensure no bees were trapped inside. Also, you stuff them with cheese and deep fry. I'll try it next time.)

Happily digging away. Those are two large weeds that I pulled later.

Pumpkin flowers from the stems that we trimmed.

 

Our trimmings.

Fast forward to a week later. The pumpkin is continuing to grow but none of the other "potentials" have turned into anything. All we need is one, though. The peppers have started to grow (more on that later) and the basil looks fantastic, even after a trim for last night's pizza. Still very proud of myself.

The pumpkin today.

Peppers are starting to grow!

Basil after last night's trim.

Nice Evening

Nothing beats an early evening picnic with friends. I made pizza, put out some veggies and there was fruit and mini cupcakes for dessert. I'm happy to say that everything but the cupcakes (barely touched!) and two slices of pizza were gone at the end. The kids had a blast, especially Eli who was covered in dirt by the end.

That's the babysitter (not me) with Tali and Eli.

My Thumb Looks A Little Green

Although my mom, grandfather and uncle all have a nice green thumb, I've always thought mine was a lovely shade of brown. That is, until very recently. H had the brilliant idea to (have our contractor) build me a vegetable garden. I excitedly went along with it, secretly praying I wouldn't regret it. In the early spring I spent countless hours doing seed starters in the house and caring for them. But I was so busy that I didn't tend to them as often as I should have and not everything survived. What did survive, I planted in my new garden. Sadly, most of that died. Almost everything planted way too late in the season. But, a few things have flourished!

To date, I have one pumpkin growing and many more potential ones just waiting to be pollinated, three butternut squash, one bunch of Swiss chard, one basil plant and six pepper bushes. Believe it or not, I still have plenty that died and one bed that's completely empty. But, as I set my expectations very low this year, I am thrilled.

My pumpkin patch - it's gotten so big and this is all from ONE seed!

The one pumpkin growing in that huge patch.

Another view of my lonely little pumpkin.

Some potential pumpkins. These are female flowers - you can tell by the small ball (that's where the pumpkin would grow) directly underneath the flower.

My pepper plants (in the front).

The basil.

Swiss chard.

Butternut squash - bad angle, sorry!

These pictures were all taken last weekend and things have actually progressed nicely since then. The pumpkin has gotten bigger and two peppers are now growing on one plant. I snipped some basil this afternoon for our pizza tonight (it was excellent) and I've cut the chard to eat at some point soon. To be honest, I haven't taken too much care with any of these. With the exception of the occasional organic fertilizer and some weeding, I've pretty much left them alone. But, I'm still going to take credit for them. I can see that green thumb getting brighter and brighter every day.

First Steps!

Wow. It's been a long time. Too long. We've had a very busy summer and I haven't had a moment to sit down and catch up. I'm very sad for that and sorry to any of you who come here occasionally to see if there is some news. I keep saying I'll get back to regular posts soon and then I never do. I hope that will change this time around.

The reason I'm here is to let you know that Eli took his first steps today! He was in physical therapy with Lisa and wanted to get to her bubbles. So he let go of the easel and took two steps to her! He did it again two more times before I put him down for his nap.

We've worked so hard with him to get to this point and I'm thrilled he's there. I've been hoping for real walking (not just a step or two) in September and now I think it might happen.

Congratulations to little Eli! He's becoming a "toddler." =)