Garden pictures

Per the request of my sister, here are some photos of our beautiful garden. Everything you see is a result of Papaya Daddy's blood, sweat, and tears. Gardening here is not easy, but it definitely gives you a sense of accomplisment when you succeed in ekeing out anything that's not a weed!

The grass is greener now, after a good rain & some more Papaya Daddy work.

A profusion of poppies!

Our front walkway during a freak hailstorm last week, and in the sunlight.

Happy Birthday, Papaya!

In all the excitement over the Portabella's arrival, I don't want to neglect the Papaya, who is celebrating his fifth birthday today! We had a party for him at church on Sunday, where we enjoyed a chocolate cake with Saturn on it and played a solar system parcel game with rocket balloons in the center. We started off this morning with crepes, and plan to have gyoza (potstickers) for lunch and pizza for dinner (all at the Papaya's request). He received his main present from us this morning (ironically, a medical rescue helicopter, purchased a couple weeks before my little adventure with a real one), and is going to open a super-fun present from his grandmother this afternoon. He and the Banana are helping her make a cake right now. Papaya Daddy has the day off to help celebrate. So it looks like it's going to be a pretty good day for all concerned! We'll have to post a couple more pictures when the festivities are over.

We have really enjoyed watching the Papaya grow and develop over the past year - it's been so exciting! He's learned to read (basic words and sentences), write, make up fun stories, and do math at a 1st grade level. His personality has become even more his own, and he shows a special capacity for generosity, compassion, appreciation of natural beauty, impulsivity, and thinking outside the box. We are proud of him and love him so much!

Putting a candle in a birthday crepe this morning. The Papaya chose his own outfit - notice the pointsettia in his pocket! Very dapper!

Helping to water our thirsty lawn a few days ago.

Welcome to the Portabella!

I'm back again! The last two weeks and two days have been anything but boring! Hopefully I'll have a little more time later to post the Portabella's birth story (unexpectedly exciting). But for now, here are some recent pictures to satisfy eager family members!

By the way, her first check-in yesterday, at 2 weeks old, revealed that the Portabella has passed the 6-pound mark! At 6 pounds, 1 ounce, she's gained 10 ounces since her birth on May 13 (when she weighed 5 pounds, 7 ounces ). It's nice to know all my nursing over the past two weeks has done more than help me fit back into size 8 clothes.

More later!

Yes, she's scrawny, all right (but gaining weight fast)!

She already has plenty of personality!

The Banana suddenly looks huge next to her little sister!

Not much happening...

How's that for an exciting blog post title? Really makes you want to read it, huh?

But it's true. We haven't been stuck in any washes lately. I haven't gone into early labor. Papaya Daddy just keeps on working. I keep on mothering the kids, housewifing the house, & homeschooling the Papaya. The wind just keeps on howling. The dust just keeps on filtering through every crack in the house. We keep on getting stuck in the house all day because of the duststorms outside. And my belly just keeps on growing.

I'm ready for some excitement. Like, say, a new baby arriving soon. This month, in fact! Life feels a little tedious right now.

That's about it. Our major excitement of the week will be attending our neighbor's bar mitzvah in Flagstaff tomorrow (and we are looking forward to it).

I'm 37 weeks pregnant on Tuesday - full term! I'll make sure to take & post some pictures.

To increase the interest level of this otherwise dreadfully boring post, I'll close with a story the Papaya composed & dictated to me yesterday. He was using a "story starter" picture that came with the Language Arts kindergarten curriculum we've been doing together. This small picture showed two boys together in the woods, examining a tree that was missing the middle part of its trunk (i.e. there was a stump, then a blank space, then the rest of the tree continuing up through the top of the picture). Here's the Papaya's story, in his own words:

Two Boys Took a Walk

Once upon a time, there was a tree in the forest. The middle of the tree was gone, but it was still standing up.

There were two boys. Their names were Cottontail and Peter. The first boy said, “Hmm, it’s nice outside. Let’s take a walk in the forest.” The boys found the tree. The older boy used the flashlight to figure out why the middle of the tree was gone. He discovered that the tree was still growing, even though the middle was gone. Aliens were growing an upside-down tree in their magnet thing. The magnet thing was up there in the sky. It’s yellow, and it has some silver on it, and you can stick the two silvers together and make something. You don’t live in it, but you just grow trees out of it.

The aliens were in their rocketship. They didn’t see the boys, because it was dark in outer space. The boys saw the aliens. When they saw them, they said, “I won’t take a rocketship. I will take a car.” Then they went home and took a car to the restaurant. They ate there.

The aliens watered their tree. Then they flew to the moon and took the tree with them. Their rocketship landed on the moon. They watered the tree some more and they planted it on the moon. It grew well there.

The End