The Yard

Well, it took two weeks, but I finally have all of our plants in the ground. In the front yard, we re-landscaped the two large beds (as in, yanked out all of the hedges we hated) and have planted a colorful array. Hopefully it will all grow up beautifully by midsummer -- but it's so hard to be patient!

In the back, I planted my vegetables and herbs. We've got four tomato plants, a few pepper plants, parsley, cilantro, basil, chives, cucumbers, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini. That is, if everything decides to grow. We also of course have the rogue sunflowers growing under the birdfeeder -- those will have to be thinned out soon.

The deal is, I have never liked working in the yard. Never, never, no not ever. Until now! I am certain that I will be singing a different song come July. I'm still overwhelmed by the "big projects" (for example, our side bed has been completely ignored), but I can handle digging a hole here and pulling a weed there. In fact, I've really, really enjoyed being outside, having the quiet (when I'm by myself) and literally seeing fruit from my labor.

The fun part is, Phoebe LOVES to be outside. Even moreso, she loves to be in the dirt. She helped me pull weeds a few weeks ago, and now she's hooked. She also loves to help water the plants with Daddy -- which I think is particularly delightful. These pictures were too cute not to share...

The hose is way fun. We wised up and put her in a swimsuit for this watering adventure.

"Daddy, can I help?" So sweet!

In other yard-related Phoebe news, we had our first somewhat major outside injury yesterday. Phoebe was wobbly-walking to see Jake through the storm door, and she completely face planted into the pillar on our front porch. She wound up with a little bit of a fat lip; fortunately, she loves to chew on ice "popsicles". You can hardly tell there was an injury today, thank the Lord!