Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Last year when I decided to plant a garden for the first time I asked my mom for any suggestions or advise that she may have for me. She always grew a great vegetable garden while I was growing up which is no small task in Park City. She spent countless hours doing the typical things gardeners have to do such as weeding, tilling, planting and watering along with things most gardeners don't have to do like covering up the vegetables every night with a tarp and uncovering them every morning. Her tomatoes had to be very babied with their walls of water and the amount of time she spent taking care of the corn that only grew about 5 inches long would have produced lovely corn anywhere else. I figured she would have great advice for me but all she told me was "a garden is a learning process and you are just going to have to learn as you go." Well learn from my mistakes...make sure you get every last rotten tomato out of your garden at the end of the season. Never till them into your dirt and figure that it will provide nutrients for next years plants. That is what we did. We had a really early frost last year while we were out of town so we came home to three huge tomato plants dead with at least 100 ruined tomatoes on them. We just left them the way they were all winter and then Brad tilled them into the dirt. This is what that created:

About 500 tomato plants sprouting up everywhere!!! The ones on the side of the box are from the plants hunching over the box onto the pea gravel. All those plants you see are after we have gone through and weeded them out multiple times. I guess we gave up and this is what happened. It is hard for me to tell what I even planted in that box. I know there is some squash, peppers and eggplant but I think I may have picked the eggplant starts one of the times I weeded because I can't find them anymore. I decided I might as well leave the ones on the side of the box (although I may need to thin them out) because they are really healthy plants and they look like they have a lot of buds on them. I wonder how big they would have been if we didn't pick the first ones growing. The plants I bought this year on the other hand... are not looking so great. There is some fruit on them already but they are pretty scraggly and yellow.

My mother in law has also always had a wonderful garden and when she came to visit after Laela was born and learned that we tilled all the tomatoes into the dirt she warned us that this may happen. I wish we talked to her before we did it. I asked my mom if she knew this could happen and she had no clue. Probably because the winters are so harsh in Park City the seeds would get ruined plus I don't think we ever let a single tomato go to waste since they took so much work to produce. Oh well, I am still learning.

Some other unrelated news, thanks to my friend Kim, the girls watched some of E.T at her house and now they are terrified of "monsters" as Alex calls them. Ayden always corrects her and tells her that it is aliens she is afraid of. Anyway, getting them to go to bed hasn't been easy. It took about three hours of putting them back in there room reassuring them that there were no such thing as aliens let alone any in their room they finally fell asleep. But when I went in to check on them before I went to bed this is how I found them:

Ayden told me that they were too afraid of Aliens and had to cuddle so they could fall asleep. Thanks Kim!!! hehe

Just Stuff

Ayden and Laela had their doctor well visits today. Alex had hers about a month ago. I figured I would record their stats:

Ayden-
Age-5
Weight- 36 lbs (25%)
Height-40.5 in. (20%)

Alex-
Age-3
Weight- 31 lbs (55%)
Height- 36 in. (25%)

Laela-
Age- 2 months
Weight- 11 lb 14 oz (75%)
Height- 21.5 in. (25%)

See the trend? I think it is funny that all my girls are short (20-25%) but that with each kid they have gradually gotten bigger. Ayden has always been 25th percentile and Alex is always 50th percentile so it will be interesting to see if Laela stays 75th. I guess my milk just gets creamier and creamier. Some people question my choice as a vegetarian and if I get enough to support a nursing baby but I guess this is proof. She is doing just fine and possibly a little too well.

Ayden is a great 5 year old. While she still has some behaviors that make me want to scream (oh wait, I do scream) she is generally a really great girl. I can tell that 5 is already better then 4 was so I hope things just get easier. Ayden is so smart. She understands things extremely well. I love teaching her things because you can tell she really enjoys it and it is also nice because it sticks. She remembers everything. As a silly example, she doesn't even have to be paying attention to me nursing but when I ask her what side I started on last time she can tell me in a second and then when I think about it she is always right. She loves reading the scriptures. She understands the Book of Mormon better then I do and loves the stories. She will tell you that Jacob is her favorite person in the Book of Mormon because he preached to the people and was a good missionary. She is starting to read and really loves writing words sounding them out and asking how everything is spelled. Ayden is a great big sister. She handles Alex well (which can be a very hard task) and is so sweet to Laela. Ayden is also a great little athlete. She is a fast runner. Infact as our pediatrition was examining her today she asked me if she could run fast and she said that she could just tell my looking at her. I love watching Ayden grow and I am excited to see all that she becomes.

Alex is my difficult child at the moment. I know it is because she is the one that is 3 but she also has some other things that can sure try my patience. She is very defiant and stubborn. Everything she does or doesn't do has to be because she wants to do them or not to do them. She can't feel like she is ever giving in but can really be sweet when she know she will get something out of it. Oh boy, I sound awful talking about her like that. But hey, it is true. I am sure these personality traits of hers are more difficult since she is three and hopefully as she gets older I can channel them in the right direction. I am not saying she is difficult all the time. She is still my best cuddler and hearing her say macaroni penguin is the cutest thing on earth. She is really good at playing by herself and keeping herself entertained. I think one of her biggest strengths is her imagination. She loves going to speach therapy and doing things that make her feel big. I know that she will love preschool in the fall and it will be a good thing for her. I would have to say that her favorite things on earth are her grandmas and grandpas and playing at other peoples houses.

Laela is a great little, I mean, big baby. She is such a joy. I love having her to cuddle all night and I am really enjoying the time I get to spend nursing her and smiling at her. Her smiles and coos are the sweetest thing ever and I am so happy that the reflux medicine has made her pains go away so she can show us her sweet self. She is sleeping well and most nights goes to bed around 10 and sleeps in until 8. Some nights she will wake up around 4 but since she is sleeping with me I don't really even wake up. We will see how the transition into a crib goes but for now I am enjoying co-sleeping with her (brad may have a different opinion on that however). She had to get three shots today and I heard her cry a cry I have never heard before, so sad. It is a good thing I really believe in immunizations. The biggest problem I have regarding them is with the people who are not immunizing their kids because they are putting my kids at risk making the immunizations not work as well as they could. Hey, I keep my mouth shut most of the time regarding this but this is my blog, right? I should be able to say what I feel . Anyway... Laela is great and while I have certainly felt like I am stretched thin and it has been a little hard not getting to participate in all the fun activities the rest of my family has been doing (boating and such) I am so grateful for her and that we have been blessed with another wonderful, healthy baby.