Baking today. More zucchini bread. I'm fairly certain I could bake a loaf for every family in Butler County and still have more zucchini than I could possibly eat in a life time. We absolutely will not need to plant any next year. After this loaf is done I need to come up with something to take with me to the dance tonight to share. I considered a veggie tray, but then realized it would consist of nothing but cucumbers, zucchini and carrots. Steve eats all the cherry tomatoes before I even see them and our bell peppers aren't ripe yet. So I guess I'll be scouring through my cookbooks in search of something uncomplicated but tasty.

Finn has been amazing us all lately. He's been doing this astounding thing called "sleeping through the night", which I've heard about but never experienced before. And he's been going to bed without a fuss again, like he was before he came down with roseola and threw us all into a sleep-deprived loop. It's been heaven to say the least.

And a funny Finn incident that I forgot to post earlier. He and I were at Target a few weeks ago and I was perusing the lingerie department for some new undies. Finn spots the bras and yells at the top of his little lungs "BOOBIES!!!!! BOOBIES!!! MOMMY! BOOBIES! BOOOOO-BEEEEEES!" Just when I think my face can't get any redder, he then makes a near successful attempt at pulling my dress down to grab my boobs. For a boy that likes boobs so much, you'd think he would have nursed longer. Sigh.


Okay, loaf is done. Time to invent something for tonight!


Edit:
I tweaked a recipe for apricot spice bars using fresh Chambersburgh peaches from our local co-op. Oh. My. God. I do NOT want to share them. A second batch is going to have to be made because I'm sure I could wolf down this entire tray right now.

Deery me

So we knew we were having a deer visitor to our garden. Tops of pepper plants nipped off, trampled lettuce and a lovely pile of poo in our backyard. However we assumed it was the doe and fawn that keeps getting sighted across the street. Imagine my shock when I got up at 4 to tend to Finn and, looking out the bathroom window, saw the BIGGEST buck I've ever seen in my life. I whisper shouted a few obscenities, which I swear the stupid thing heard all the way across the lawn, because he turned towards me with this "Oh, are these your peppers? So sorry." look on his face and sauntered off into the woods. I then, stupidly, prodded Steve awake to tell him . He sprang out of bed and proceeded to make every loud noise possible (as he usually does). Thus waking Finn back up. Sigh. Last night though, we got our first night of uninterrupted sleep in quite awhile. I think I'd forgotten what it was like to sleep for a solid 8 hours. Crazy. I'm not going to get my hopes up that we'll have a repeat performance tonight, but you never know. He might surprise us.

Bits and pieces

So, after 4 months we finally have a computer. And then after a few more weeks of waiting, the cable company actually ran lines in our neck of the woods. Our little town is moving up in the world for sure.

This is our lovely little abode when we first moved in. I assure you it's much prettier and greener these days.

A month or so ago we took Finn to his first post-natal concert (he danced gleefully in my tummy when we saw Jimmy Eat World when I was 5 months preggo). The Boiler Maker Jazz Band is amazing. And they're all very sweet. Especially since they put up with our toddler running amok during the entire set. Finn wasn't content to just shake his booty in one spot. He had to run from one end of the auditorium to the other, showing his moves to the entire crowd. Oy vay.

We've had a few visitors since we moved in. First our friend Liz came with her gorgeous girl Melia. She and I took the kidlings to the Children's Museum for some fun. Below they're playing in a huge bird nest exhibit. Which was adorable until they both started chucking the eggs at other kids.

And then over Memorial Day weekend our friends Jess and Daryl came to stay with the adorable Jonah in tow. Finn didn't quite know what to make of a kid younger than him. First he was wary, then a little jealous and finally settled on quiet plotting. In between though we managed to take a group trip to the zoo. The was that the boys would nap on the way there and be refreshed and bright-eyed for the animals. And of course they did not. Hence we dealt with a bit of crankiness during the trip, but then they passed out simultaneously on the ride home. And really, who could hold a grudge against ones that look so damn cute when they sleep? Having them here was awesome. It's not often we get to hang out with families that have the same parenting views that we do, so it was super refreshing. In a dream world they would live right next door to us.

And then the following weekend Papa Bill (Steve's dad) cam to visit for the day and took us to the zoo. Again. And again there was no napping on the way there. Sigh. But I did manage to get a shot of all three generations together, so I guess it wasn't a horrible trip.

Lastly, Finn with the positively crazy lilies that sprouted along the garage. The don't even look real. And this is the first picture where you can see Finn's teeth. He finally has some. Holy cow! Of course said teeth have lead to a crazy sleep regression (he still has more coming in) and general crankiness on just about every one's part.

Peppers, at last.

Hooray!!!
The hot peppers were apparently just taking their sweet time sprouting. Now the only thing now growing in our spare bedroom/greenhouse is the mix of sweet peppers. I've given up on them though. I'll just buy the seedlings from the nursery in a few weeks. However, Steve is FINALLY getting to till today. Which means onions will be going in post-haste. We planted a few strawberries by the patio the other day and already they seem bigger. I'll be transplanting the sunflowers soon too. They, along with the overabundance of zucchini, are taking over the table in the bedroom. We've actually started giving away the zucchini seedlings because they are so plentiful and MASSIVE. Apparently they will grow anywhere. Geesh. Steve has a few barrels of topsoil dug for me to make the zucchini hills (far away from the main garden.) So if you plan on visiting this summer, plan on leaving with an armful of squash. Our tomatoes are doing quite well despite being told by numerous people "Uggggh. I never have any luck with tomatoes! Just buy them at the farmer's market." But our 50 roma and 50 big boy plants are doing just fine so far. I can't wait to have a crack at my great-grandma's spaghetti sauce recipe, as well as my mom's tomato soup (which is the most amazing soup in the world. )

Finn has started organizing things, putting stuff back where it came from (except for Steve's cds, which he rips off the shelf with wild abandon and then just plain abandons them for someone else to pick up). The other day he was playing in the spare room while I was transplanting some of the squash into larger pots. I turned my back for a split second and BAM! He had overturned a pot filled with soil. While I scooped the soil back into the container, he grabbed another empty pot and picked little fingerful of soil off the carpet and placed them inside. So helpful. He also helped out Steve with our new fire pit. While Dad was hard at work, digging dirt out of the ground, Finn stood by and fistful by fistful, put the dirt back in the hole. Hahaha. He's too funny.

Oh! And we just found out that our friends Daryl and Jess and their handsome little guy Jonah will be staying with us over Memorial Day weekend. We've never met Jonah and they've never met Finn, so it should be fun. If anyone else on this planet has a dancing baby like Finn, it would be Daryl and Jess. Maybe it'll be a baby dance party. Steve and I have finally tossed aside our dancing differences (he does Lindy and I, gasp, do a "boring" triple-step). After Finn fell alseep, and after the Pens kicked some Washington ass, we threw on some music and faked something halfway between the two styles. I think he might even finally be willing to teach me Lindy. It's only taken three years for him to get over his annoyance with my ballroom training, but he's gotten there. Haha.

Time sure flies.

We've been in our new place for a month now. Finn is growing and learning like crazy. He has 45, that's right, 45 words. We keep a running list on our fridge. My personal favorites are "pickle", "baby" and "belly button". Just now he came in and informed me that he saw a bug. He's such a smart little guy. And he dances. Oh, how he dances. He grooves to any music, even random noises set him off into a fit of bum shaking. This past week we had our friend Liz and her 18 month old daughter Melia visiting us. They had such fun. On Friday we took them to the Children's Museum. And even though they were both beyond tired, they had a blast playing with each other and the other wee ones. Worst point of their visit (and it wasn't terrible) was Melia getting into the bath last night and we discovered a tick stuck to her thigh. It was easily removed, but we definitely need to get our backyard treated now. Finn went for a walk with us a few weeks ago and came back with a tick on his neck, but we assumed that it had come from the deep, dark woods. Not from our sunny, warm, wide open back yard. Yuck.

The garden has yet to get tilled up. We've been waiting,and waiting, and waiting for our landlady's tiller to come back from getting fixed since she had said we could borrow it. She finally called us today and reported that it would be back any day now, though this is what she said two weeks ago. I suppose we shouldn't panic though since our seeds just started sprouting last week. They've moved from our cellar shelves to a nice sunny table in the spar room. All our sprouts are doing nicely except for our peppers. Both our sweet and hot peppers will NOT sprout. Very mysterious. I may give them another try, but we'll most likely end up buying seedlings from a nursery. If anyone has any tips for starting these little buggers from seeds, it would be greatly appreciated.

Off the grid

Our move to our little country house was successful. And went quicker and smoother than expected. There's still a few boxes of random junk to go though in the basement and I haven't yet set up my sewing studio, but mostly we're settled. Let the guests come!

We've dug up a nice little herb/flower garden so far, with hopes of getting the main garden tilled up in the next week. I have a tray of various herbs started in our hall closet and they've sprouted nicely. I think this set is bound for a nice big terra cotta pot for the porch so it can be brought in for the winter. The basil I have growing supposedly sprouts lovely blue flowers in the winter, so I'd like to see them. The next batch will be bound for the garden along with a darling pot of tiny mums that my mom got me for my birthday.

Oh yeah. I turned 26 on Monday. Goodness. Where did the time go? Mom scooped up Finn for the night so Steve and I could go out to dinner and relax. As much as I love the little man, oh was it ever nice to sleep straight through the night. Funny how last year when Mom and Dad took Finn over my birthday weekend I cried and cried and cried. I sobbed uncontrollably for hours and couldn't even watch him go with them. This year though, we had him in his shoes and coat a good 30 minutes before she pulled up. Of course this could have been in part to me making the crucial mistake of telling him he was going "byes with Nana" early in the afternoon. From then on he marked every 10 minutes by running to the door yelling ad waving "buh-bye! buh-byes! Nana! Buh-byes!". By then time Nana did show up he was fairly perturbed. And he gave her quite a night too I hear. At 3 AM he woke up and just HAD to dance. He saw the radio in the room and woke Nana up insisting "Nana! Dant! Dant! NANA! Dant! DANT!!!" So she had to turn the radio on and he danced and spun himself around for a half hour before finally passing out again. What. A. Nut.

Finn's vocabulary is astounding. We did a tally after Easter dinner and came up with 25 words. At home we added a few more. So he has 30 words. And even more noises. When someone burps he whispers "Buhp!" He'll drag the hand mixer out of the cabinet and sit on the floor whirring it about like he's making a cake going "wwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrr". And then in the next minute the mixer becomes a race car and he's dragging it along the floor going "rrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmm". At night when he's ready to do his nighttime routine he'll find us and yell "BATH!!!" and run towards the bathroom and wait for us, tapping his little hand impatiently on the tub. He impresses and amazes us every day. Seeing him constantly growing and learning makes me anxious to make another baby. Will our next be so outgoing and adventurous? Or will they be quiet and studious? A mix of the both maybe. Sigh. Our attempts at number two are months away but I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune when I'm puking my guts out every morning and trying to manage a toddler. Haha.

What else...what else.....
Oh! The much coveted retro oven is turning out to be a big pain in the ass. It burns everything to a crisp. Even with reducing the temperature by 75 degrees it burnt my loaves in 10 minutes. Seriously. I made sourdough yesterday and turned the heat down 100 degrees. It still baked the first loaf in 20 minutes (and I had to wrap it in foil after 10 minutes to keep it from over browning on top). The second loaf got over browned on top after 8 minutes (too late for the foil to do much help). I need get a thermometer this week and check what temperature this oven is actually going to. And then call the shop we got it from and get their repair guy out to fix it. Thank god for one year warranties. Luckily my attempts at homemade pasta do not require the aid of an oven and hence turned out beautifully. Yummmm

Fridge of gross and moving out

First, a picture from bedtime s few nights ago. He looks so sweet. Completely unlike the hellion he is when awake.

So today while Finn was napping I took it upon myself to clean out the basement fridge since it will be coming with us to out new house. It's mostly used here for stashing drinks and a surprising amount of condiments (all of which expired 2 years ago). After ridding the fridge of its occupants I set to scrubbing. Not too bad, I thought. A few gross spots, but easily cleaned. Until I pulled out the crisper drawers. Underneath them was a puddle a half inch deep of goopy, coagulated something. I'm still not sure what it was. All I know it when I doused it ith hot water to melt it the stench it released was vomitous. I actually had to make a mad dash to the patio door for air, nearly knocking over the by then awake Finn. So effing gross. But now it's clean and unplugged and ready to move on out. So glad that's over with. Blech.

Tonight we go and sign the paperwork for our lease and hand over more money than we've ever paid for anything before. Tomorrow Finn and I are going to move in small stuff with my car and set up the bathroom (I think it's the only room we have everything for). I have to take window measurements tonight for curtains, and perhaps while Finn naps tomorrow I can whip up the cafe curtain for the kitchen at least. We have drapes for Finn's room and our room as well, so that leaves me to fashion curtains for the living room, dining room and spare bedroom. I think we've bitten off more than we can chew with our hopes of getting the place set up by the end of the weekend. Sigh. We'd so hoped to break ground for the garden next week, but we'll have to wait and see how the next few days go I think.

Okay, enough for now.