New Digs

Claire made an early transition from her crib to a bed. She was only 20 months old, but we were getting ready to move into a new house and I wanted to keep "new" things to one thing at a time, so I moved her out of her crib about 6 weeks before we moved out of our house. With Claire it really wasn't a big deal - at 18 months she could walk down the stairs, retrieve her sippy of milk and a yogurt out of the fridge, get a spoon, climb in her booster seat and have breakfast while Jason and I were still sleeping. While it was nice, it was also a little scary. But she was always very independent and really still is. Chloe is a different story. At 26 months old, she is just now climbing onto the couch by her self. She doesn't get stuff from the pantry, and asks for help with about everything. I was afraid that she'd form an attachment to her crib if I left her in there for a long time, so I decided to boot her out.

I ordered her new furniture and bedding a few weeks ago, and a week before it all came in I listed her crib furniture on Craigslist. Within hours, we had several calls and 2 days after publishing the ad, the stuff was sold. The family wanted to come pick it up pretty quickly - about 4 days before Chloe's new bed would be delivered. Thankfully, we called and were able to shorten the wait to just 2 days. That still left 2 days of Chloe having no bed to sleep in, so I gave in to Claire's begging to let Chloe sleep with her in Claire's bed. Jason thought I was nuts.

Night one: We get them to bed late, around 8:20 after shoving Claire's bed up against the wall so Chloe couldn't fall out. 8:30 - potty trip. Chloe tags along with Claire to observe. 8:40 - Claire is caught red handed in the bonus room, getting Chloe's Baby for her. 9:00 - Claire starts wailing that Chloe punched her in the nose. Chloe looks very guilty and says "sorry, Taire." I threaten them that one more sound and they will be separated. 9:01 - not another sound until morning.

Night two: Again, they get to bed late, around 8:15. 8:16 - not another sound! I was very impressed!

Once Chloe's bed was setup and it was now bedtime on Night 3, she protested having to sleep alone in her room and asked to go back into Claire's room. Thankfully she didn't really have her heart set on that, and settled down to sleep in her new bed. Each night since then (and every nap,) she has gone to bed without a sound and called for us to come get her in the morning. Much different then Claire coming down to make breakfast for the family!

So, the transition to the big girl bed was super easy and painless. We (Jason) worked this weekend on moving wall hangings, filling holes in the wall and spot painting. Everything is coming together, although she has much more furniture storage to fill up!

It Ain't Easy Being a Tomato

at least around here. Jason and I have had a long standing battle for years around the cultivation of fresh vegetables.

Him: Don't dig up my grass
Her: Fresh veggies taste way better then grocery store ones
Him: Don't dig up my grass


In our old house after 4 years of badgering, I finally won the right to a very small patch of grass that became my vegetable garden. I grew some tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and okra which were all very good, except the okra yielded enough to make one serving of fried okra. One. From 5 plants. The next year, Jason veto'ed the mini-garden and I planted a lone soldier tomato plant in an exisiting flower bed. I put a little fence around the lone plant to protect it from vultures (aka, Sable and Cujo) but Sable managed to squeeze her way into the fence and help her self to many a green tomato. Poor Cujo could do nothing but beg Sable to pass out some loot to him outside the fence - and you can only guess how many times she was willing to share. So that garden year was also a bust.


Once we moved into our new house, Jason was clear that not a single blade of grass was going to be sacrified for any tomato plant. Nor would he allow for an "ugly" tomato plant to be planted on the front yard side of our fence. Finally, at Lowes I saw my perfect solution - a container planter with a built in support cage - tomatos meant to grow on a deck! I bought one while Jason was out of town (hehehe.) After a week or two, it was pretty clear that this Big Boy was going to out grow the small support cage and we needed a better option. I went to Lowes (again, while Jason was out of town) and bought a larger pot and a metal tomato cage that I could just stab into the pot soil, and then transplanted my masterpiece into the new pot. Unfortunately the old too-small cage was entangled in the branches already, and I literally had to rip off several branches to get the poor thing out. Broken branches aside, Big Boy was ready to go in his new digs, and I watered him into bliss.


A few more weeks pass, and the monsoons of Greenville start. That limited the times I had to go out and water the plant since it was getting a little soaking nearly every day. After Memorial weekend gave it 4 inches of rain, I noticed, through the window and the downpours, that it had a lake of water in the pot. Once the rain finally stopped, I dumped the water and realized that the stupid pot did not have a drainage hole! I see that the plant has sprouted roots out of the lower part of the stem and the leaves are turning yellow. I've drowned my poor, hard earned tomato plant. :*(






Jason shows some sympathy and comes outside with a giant drill bit ... and WHOOSH ... I could hear a sigh of relief while the poor thing drains out a gallon of excess water.

Today we are on the road to recovery. My little fighter has new growth amongst the yellow leaves.



And I am proud to announce the budding of....





Our first tomato. *sniff*