One is the Loneliest Number

Here is my first edible zucchini harvested from my container zucchini plant!Unfortunately, I discovered tonight that it will also be my ONLY zucchini harvested from my zucchini plant. This is because it was completely eaten by squash vine borer, the scourge of squash farmers everywhere. I had read about this nasty little white grub, but I didn't know how to recognize the symptoms of an infestation. I had seen the leaves wilting, and I just thought they needed better nutrients, so I was fertilizing. But tonight I discovered the borers - there were a million of them in there! So I was trying to get them out, when the whole stem actually completely broke because it was so weak after being eaten through! I'm so mad! So unless it can magically grow an entire new plant from the broken stump, it looks like this will be my only squash this year. :(

And I got 18 mosquito bites while I was out messing with it this evening. :( Some master gardener I'm turning out to be!

Hitting the Skies

Justin is going on a business/mission trip to Turkey in a few weeks, and I had planned on staying home with Elias while he was gone. However, my parents generously offered to buy us a plane ticket to come spend the week with them while he's gone! So I booked it this week and we're going! I am SOOOO excited about this sudden opportunity to spend time with my family - I can't wait for them to see how much Elias has grown and developed since they saw him last a couple months ago.

However, this means that I will be taking Elias on his first flights... Alone. I'm not terrified at the prospect because Elias is a good boy and generally easy to manage, but I am a little nervous just because I don't know what to expect. So I'm pleading for help from anyone who has any experience flying with toddlers! (Elias will be 14 months when we go.) I want to be as prepared as possible. I've thought up some specific questions, but if you have any advice that I didn't think of asking about, ANY of it would be greatly appreciated!

1. Air pressure - I know you're supposed to take a bottle or sippy for them to suck on when the plane is taking off and landing to help their ears adjust. When exactly do I give it to him? I'm just imagining giving him the sippy too early, and by the time he needs it for his ears, he's already drunk as much as he wants and he won't drink anymore... Would a pacifier work the same way?

2. DIRT! - I'm expecting I may just have to get over this, but I'm sure there is no way I can expect Elias to consent to being held or sitting in his stroller for the entire trip. So I'm going to have to let him crawl around and explore at some point. (He's not walking yet.) But on the floor in airplanes and airports? NASTY! I'm envisioning that I'll just have to find a corner in the airport and let him crawl around, then clean him up with Sani-Kids wipes, but I wondered if anybody else had any thoughts about this.

3. Stroller - I was very relieved to discover that the airline will let me bring a stroller on the flight at no extra charge. There's no way I could've handled him for 1-2 hours in an airport for a layover without having something safe to put him in. However, I'm trying to ponder which stroller to bring. The obvious choice would be the tiny umbrella stroller for compactness and ease of travel. However, I think it would be a lot more comfortable for Elias if we could bring his larger collapsible stroller. (See photo at right. We obviously wouldn't be bringing along the infant carrier.) I think he'd be more willing to spend more time in it at the airport, and it's a possibility he might even nap in it - we'll be in the Chicago airport during his afternoon naptime. (There is zero chance he'll sleep on the flight, and also zero chance he would sleep in his umbrella stroller.) Plus, it has convenient features like a reclining back, a pocket underneath for the diaper bag, and a detachable tray that he could eat on. But I'm worried that the larger stroller might be too big for them to allow me to bring it... Has anybody traveled with a larger stroller, and did you have any problems getting it on the plane?

4. Noisy Toys - I'm wondering about what kind of toys to bring on the flights with us. Elias' favorites that keep him occupied the longest are ones that have buttons he can push and make noise. I'm worried about bringing those just because I don't want to disturb everybody on the flight with the noise. I mean, I think they would certainly prefer music and sound effects over him screaming his head off, but I don't think it would be impossible to keep him entertained with quiet toys too. Any thoughts on that?

Um, that's all I can think of at the moment. I'll post more questions if I think of them, and feel free to give me ANY advice if you have it! THANKS!!

Messy Face

Price of ingredients for bean recipe: $2 or $3
Time to make beans: 20 minutes
Other costs: Stains on bib and washcloth, time to clean face and tray
This picture: PRICELESS!

Firstfruits

I just wanted to post a quick garden update. All of my plants are growing things that look like they may be edible in the near future! I have two baby zucchini, two baby tomatoes, and more baby peppers than I can count. Yay for container gardening!

I waited a bit too long to start fertilizing, so my zucchini's leaves started to turn yellow. But they seem to be doing fine once I started feeding them. I'm thankful for the internet that tells me what to do!

Happy Independence Day

I hadn't planned on doing an Independence Day post, although I am very thankful that God saw fit to make me an American, which gives me so much freedom to know and serve Him. But then when reading blogs this morning, I found that somebody had posted this video and I just HAD to pass it on. So without further ado, enjoy the Muppets celebrating our independence. (I laughed til I cried.) You need to watch it several times to fully appreciate all it contains: Beaker's rendering of the piccolo part, the Swedish chef, the chickens, the bass-singing bear, the penguin in the powdered wig, the slow-mo background video. Love it!

Crib Update (a.k.a. Much Calmer Now)

I talked to the manager at WalMart, who told me they would be happy to take our crib back and give us a refund. However, that's not as easy as it sounds. Our crib came in a Nursery-in-a-Box set, which means that in order to take back the crib, we'd also have to take back the changing table and dresser. So not only does that mean losing Elias' whole room, but there's NOTHING out there we could get for the same price (which is why we got this set in the first place). Sooooo, we decided to just keep the crib and try to reinforce it ourselves. We never use the drop side, so we'll rig it somehow so we know it can't fall off. This crib is actually convertible, so it will convert into a toddler bed (by removing the drop side in question), and Elias should be ready for that in 6-9 months. So now that we've had some time to think rationally about this, that makes the most sense. However, I'm very thankful to have gotten the recall notice, so now we can take action to prevent any mishaps that might have happened.

Crib Recalled (a.k.a. Freaking Out!)

I wrote a post several months ago about how I subscribe to the Consumer Product Safety Commission emails letting me know when products have been recalled. If my post then didn't convince you to check them out, then maybe this will. In today's email, I learned that Elias' crib has been recalled! Ack! Apparently the bottom of the drop side can detach and the baby can get trapped in it. Like this:(The pictures are from the CPSC notice.) I am totally freaking out about this. Elias is asleep in it right now! I keep checking on him... As if right now he's any less safe than he was before I knew about the recall. *rolling eyes* But he spends a lot of time in his crib, both asleep and awake, and he grabs that drop side and shakes the heck out of it. I am so thankful nothing has happened to him!

What makes me really mad about this is that this exact product was recalled in 2007 for the exact same reason. So when we were buying it in 2008, I felt safe because it had been redesigned and supposedly was now safe. Ummmm, not?! So I'm making phone calls to try to find out what to do - I'll let you know what happens.

But in the meantime, please PLEASE keep yourself informed of product recalls - especially if you have children in your home. These email updates are an easy way to do it.

Notables

There are a few new developments in Elias' world that I thought I'd share all in one post.

Talking
Elias isn't talking yet, but he's starting to become a little more intelligible in his babbling. He'll say "bye bye" and "dada." (Of course he says dada first! He'll say the syllables mama, but he doesn't know it's me yet, I don't think.) He even says "Bye bye, Dada!" He'll say "Ah da," which means all done. He'll say his version of his name, which is "Issssss." (CUTE!) He'll say ball ("ba"). And he says "ba ba" which means about a zillion different things, but usually it means "big boy."

Edited to add: I knew there was no way I was remembering all the things Elias says, so with Justin's help I've come up with a few more. Some other things he consistently says "ba ba" for are Bible and bottle. I was actually very impressed this morning when Elias finished his breakfast, and Justin took him over to play. Justin asked him if he wanted to read a story, and Elias said "ba ba!" He knew they usually read his Bible then! He also loves to mimic the "sh" sound, so he'll repeat any word that ends in "ish" like fish, dish, or wish. He loves to draw out the shhhhhhhh. And lastly, he can do several animal sounds when asked what that animal says - "woof," "baa," "raa" (lion), "moo," and he even said something resembling "quack" the other day!

Napping
He's still taking two naps a day, and it will still be several months before he's down to one in the afternoon. However, I'm concerned about this transition because right now his strong nap is in the morning, and his afternoon nap is hit-and-miss. So I'm trying to be proactive in planning for this by limiting his morning nap so that he's tired in time for the afternoon. It's working pretty well so far! In the morning, I try to wake him up after he's been asleep about an hour. (If I let him be, he'd sleep 2 or 2.5.) So then by the time his afternoon nap rolls around, he's tired again and ready to nap, and we get another 2 or 2.5 out of him. Sweet! I'm so thankful for such a good sleeper. (Thank you again and again, Babywise!)

Teething
He FINALLY has his sixth tooth (top left)! And his seventh, eighth, and ninth, are all making bumps in there! For a kid who's doing so much teething, it doesn't seem to bother him at all, for which I am truly thankful. It seems like his top left molar is on its way in, so we'll see how that goes.

So those are the big developments for us these days. Stay tuned!