Garden of Eating....

Now is the blissful time of year when we gardeners are rewarded in spades for our efforts earlier in the seasons. When our children gobble round red tomatoes as if they were Halloween candy hordes... and really, aren't they nearly as sweet? A few weeks ago, I had to cajole Carter to get him to come to the garden with me. Now, once out the door, he makes a beeline for our planting space, singing out "strawberries" and "tomatoes". He can identify "garlic" "onions" and "peppers". Should he ever have to grow his own food, I'm giving him a great early education.

... and if Carter could only grow Jelly Toast, we'd be all set. Actually "Toast... Cream Cheese... Jelly" is the official order of the day. After breakfast, we head straight to the bathroom for a good scrubbing. He loves to watch in the mirror as I scrub a dub his face to remove all the sticky residue. I smush his cheeks into funny shapes and he just smiles away.

Arden, you are so lucky to have Carter as an older brother. He's all kindness and kisses. We've seen some kids at the playground who don't get along so well with their siblings.

Arden looking happy and alert. Happy is not what she's been with her napping today... because she just learned to roll over from her belly to her back. She's been going to sleep on her belly, waking up when she rolls over and howling with frustration when she can't figure out how to get back to where she began.

But in general she's still a pretty happy sort. Lots of smiles for belly raspberries and daddy tickles. I've even got a few giggles.

What a respectable young gentleman.

Come here! I'm going to lick you in the face!

I went in to get Carter up from a nap the other day and he came over to me while I was sitting on the floor getting a diaper ready. I thought he was going to kiss me on the cheek, but instead he stuck out his tounge and licked my cheek very deliberately. "Carter! Did you just lick me?" I chortled. So, of course, he did it again.

Greg and Deann, proud grandparents (aka Papa and Mimi) stopped by this weekend to participate in the bounty and to visit us and the lil' ones. Okay, mostly the lil' ones and a little bit us.

They're into thoroughbred horse racing (they have quite a few horses now) and it was different having the laptops tapping into racetrack feeds all day Sunday. One of Deann's horses is named Ready's Rocket and it has the modern-day record for number of races one at Churchill Downs.... I got to watch him extend his record live, it was quite a thrill and I didn't even have any skin in the game.
My in-laws have never been quite so happy with me as they were this weekend at the dinner table. It was as if I was on Iron Chef and the secret ingredient was tomatoes. Well, okay, I took a half day to do it instead of just an hour. Fried Green Tomatoes, a platter of sliced tomatoes with fresh basil, balsamic and homemade mozzarella cheese, and Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce and homemade Meatballs.

The harvest continues at breakneck pace. I have 4 trays of tomatoes ripening on top of my freezer, and I just pulled up a wheelbarrow full of onions this evening, with more needing to come out in the next couple of days. Whew!