What did they do to our baby?

Amelia had her very first professional photo taken at three weeks. It was a promo that came with our cloth diaper service, in hopes that we would be the kind of new parents that would spend $300 or so on portraits. A photographer came and set up a studio in our living room, and then charmed and cajoled Amelia into all sorts of impossible poses. The session was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life! She was already crabby before the photographer arrived, and got so angry during the shoot. Somehow, however, he managed to work miracles in between the shots and coaxed her into some very sweet pictures. The above was the best one which we got for free, but she still looks mildly annoyed in the rest. I still laugh every time I look at this! I told the photographer outright that putting sunglasses, a cheesy bow headband or a plastic lace parasol on her were a complete waste of time.

Happy One Month, Amelia!

My, how time flies... She seems just the same to me, only she can hold her gaze and has enough coordination to bat things (things? I mean parents!) away with her hands. This smile was hunted and captured-- I can't wait for her to smile on purpose!

Early Harvest


It feels strange to have pumpkins in July, but we probably won't eat them for quite a while. These were "volunteers" from our compost pile, from a jack-o-lantern Meg threw away in October! One of the garden plots is almost exclusively from these compost volunteers, including butternut squash and many of our tomato plants. We planted that garden with a technique called "Lasagna Gardening." The best thing about this method is that you get to skip the initial weeding and ground prep process, and you create a raised bed.
A quick How- To:
Pick your plot, and create a border, if it doesn't naturally have one.
Cover the whole surface with cardboard, paper bags or a thick layer of newspaper.
Drench it in water to make it stick to the ground, and fill in any gaps with more paper.
Lay down a layer of undigested compost (yes, just kitchen scraps!)
Cover with a thick layer of good soil-- compost, manure or purchased garden soil.
You can then just leave it and see which volunteers show up, or go ahead and plant your own.
Super easy, and you will hardly have to weed at all, since the paper layer kills the weeds!

Amelia goes in the big bathtub.



I was so happy when her icky little umbilical stump fell off the other day, since I have been anxious to take her in the bath with me. She LOVED it, and was so relaxed in the warm water. It was a really fun event that I had been looking forward to since she was born.


She was NOT happy to come out, inspite of having such a cute towel to welcome her. By the way, she had her 2-week check-up yesterday and her pediatrician announced that she has quite a temper! We've been finding this out in the past few days ourselves. For now, it's kind of funny to watch. For now.

Urban Sprawl


While our gardener (that's me) has been on maternity leave, most of the carefully tended plants have withered and weeds have returned in full force in many beds. It's a little disheartening, but I expected as much. The vegetable garden, however, has been thriving. I will post more pictures soon, but I just love this one of our pumpkin vine scaling the fence, with a pumpkin balanced carefully on the pole, especially juxtaposed against the stucco of our neighboring apartment complex.

What happened to our Easy Baby?


Seems like someone slipped Amelia some Needyness Potion a couple days ago. I guess that's what I get for posting about how easy she's been. The last few nights she has been engaging in feeding frenzies, needing to eat about every 45 minutes or so from midnight to early morning. I feed her every two hours or less in the daytime to avoid this, but it doesn't seem to matter much. Sigh. It's a good thing she's so adorable!

Happy Family

Jeff and I are really enjoying being an actual family. Amelia is a really sweet and easy baby, so far. When she is awake, she just looks around quietly-- sometimes for a couple of hours. Anyone can hold her, and she is especially entertaining in her sleep. She very rarely cries, but squeaks a little to let us know she needs something. We heard her squeaking as soon as she was born and thought it was pretty endearing. Jeff and I keep telling each other, "She's so cute!" all day long. We just can't seem to get over the fact that she's actually ours!