I never anticipated gardening would be so exhilarating. I was beginning to lose hope in all the seeds I planted recently. Then, all of a sudden, pop! I have tons of sprouts that just pushed their little heads through the soil. As of this morning, I now have 12 sunflowers, 9 green beans, 7 nasturtiums, 2 zucchini, and 2 spaghetti squash sprouts. I just keep peeking at them and smiling. My new favorite word of Quinn's if flower, pronounced "flowf". She likes to walk around with empty seed packets and her watering can.

My sister came up for a visit this weekend. It was so good to be with her and watch her play with Quinn.

Also this weekend we got a free rustic old handmade wooden table and benches off of Craigslist. Once we get it tidied up, I'm anticipating a lot of dining al fresco in the months ahead.

Picks of the Week 4.26.13

The Power of a Parent's Words - Desiring God
Solvitur Ambulando: It Is Solved By Walking - The Art of Manliness (shared by Jonathan)

Tree of the week

Ponytail of the week

Birthday party tunnel of the week

Sleepyhead of the week

Well, since my last post we've had some playdates, some visitors, moms group, more spinach salads, and lots of time outdoors in our yard and at parks. 

My husband is so nice to me. I seem to get ideas in my head that I just have to do. And Jonathan is so sweet for helping me complete these wild projects. For example, there is a stretch of land, maybe 10' by 50', that is technically not our property, but it affects our yard a lot. It was full of years worth of old giant branches, blackberry bushes, and the most giant dandelions I have ever seen in my entire life. If there was such a thing as a dandelion museum, these would be the main exhibit. We're talking two foot diameter. Well, I got it into my head that if we could clear up the debris and dig up the blackberries, maybe we could use our friend's rototiller to get it into good shape. I was hoping to fill it with native wildflowers that Quinn and her buddies could enjoy in the future. I started gathering the branches bit by bit during naptime. I think Jonathan could see by my dedication that I wasn't going to give up on this dream. This past Saturday, he agreed to do a 15 minute yardwork "sprint" with me to finish clearing the branches. Well, two hours later, we'd cleared over half of the land! We were shocked at how different it looked. We were kicking ourselves for not getting before pictures. And it turns out giant dandelions are a bit easier to pull than normal ones. On Sunday, we finished digging everything out during Quinn's nap again. We filled our bin and two of our neighbors' bins with debris. Then I planted tons of wildflower seeds. I'm hoping they'll start sprouting quickly.

Our first harvest!

And it made quite a tasty salad.
Quinn likes picking all the "grapes" off of the grape hyacinths. And she helped me sow some sunflower seeds.

I added some new seeds to our garden today. I planted green beans, zucchini, spaghetti squash, and nasturtiums (to keep the pests away). It feels like such an exercise in hope to sow seeds. And our lilac gave me some sweet smelling blooms for our living room.
I just want to take this opportunity to brag about my awesome hubs. He's so multitalented. He's been running the 6+ miles home from work a couple times a week. He's editing the video for his 10th annual youth group buddies ski trip. Last night he fixed our leaking shower. And he helped babysit some kids tonight so some friends could have a date night. All that on top of being an awesome dad and husband!

Look out world, my little bobbaloo is walking now.

Quinn has been doing the hold-one-finger walk move for quite a while now.

She can walk this way for a long time over all sorts of terrain. And she would often say, "walk!" and want to walk wherever we were going. But she was never interested in taking it to the next level of going solo more than a couple steps. All her friends are walkers, but peer pressure didn't seem to phase her. She would practice by herself occasionally, but it had to be her idea. She would do her bobcat impression if we tried to get her to practice. Just like with crawling, she was too busy being interested in other things and had to do it at her own pace, in her own way. Note to self: remember this when she is a teenager!

We have neighbors that are physical therapists that see her all the time. They have told me all along that she is strong and capable and to just keep waiting. But I wasn't sure if I was going to get scolded by the doctor. Of course, two days before her 18 month check up she started walking on her own. She had her panda in one hand, and a snack cup full of apples in the other. There was no way she was going to put either down and it's quite difficult to crawl with your hands full. So she just started walking like it was no big deal. Totally confident. It was like she'd been able to walk all this time but didn't see a reason why before. 

Sweet girl, we love that you are uniquely you and hope that you always stay true to yourself. I've enjoyed all these extra months of carrying you on my hip throughout the day. Watching your pointy finger and hearing your question squeak as you attentively want to know about everything I'm doing. Stay curious little one.

Picks of the Week 4.5.13

The Amazing Calling of Being "Mom" - Desiring God
The Sacred Messiness - Simple Mom
Montessori Teaches Gentleness - how we montessori
Montessori in the home - really! - how we montessori
8 Simple Tickle Games to Play with your Kids - Simple Kids

I haven't shared a Picks of the Week in a long time, but I read so much good stuff this week!

If I had to pick a video of the week, it would be Quinn's 15-18 month highlight video that I just made.

We met Jonathan for lunch downtown today. Quinn was having fun chasing pigeons.

He is Risen! Easter was very pleasant this year. We hosted a potluck brunch at our house again with family and friends. There were enough kids this year to justify an egg hunt too. I filled the eggs with Christian Easter stickers, a little candy, and some items that help tell the Easter story (a wooden cross, silver coins, a stone, an empty egg, etc.) It couldn't have been a more beautiful day. We all sat on the lawn under a tree to eat and play. What a mercy to celebrate Christ's resurrection with such great people.

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4   

He's alive! He conquered death!

My sweet 18 month old. She has so much joy and passion. She loves her friends and family and talks about them all the time. She likes to be silly and dance and sing. She has an amazing memory and picks up on routines and patterns. She's adventurous but also cautious. She's very gentle and trustworthy (especially for a toddler). 

There are many funny memories, but a few stand out the most. She usually flails when I am changing her diaper on the floor when we are out of the house. One time she patiently laid still and after I was done changing her, I said, "Quinn, did you see how quick that went because you waited patiently and didn't flail around? Maybe you can try that next time." And she replied, "Yeah!" 

There are two parks close to our house one has a fun slide and the other has swings. We were talking about going for a walk and I said, "Quinn, do you want to go to the slide?" And she responded shaking her head, "Nope, weeeee!" (which means swing).

She started wanting to knock on doors but she would slap them with an open hand saying "Knock, knock. Come in." I told her if she makes a fist like in the "Open and Shut Them" song from library it would make a knocking sound. Then we got distracted with something else, but when she went back to the door later she knocked with a fist! I feel like she really tries to listen and understand. 

She has her doctor check up next week. She's always been in the 40th percentile for height and weight, but we'll see this time. I feel like her legs grew two inches last week. Her latest interesting food is chicken liver. I gave her a little taste out of curiosity and she said, "more" until it was all gone. I was shocked. My two new favorite words of hers are "Amen" and "happy". Whenever we start heading to the table to eat, she says, "Amen" over and over while clasping her hands. And she'll declare, "happy" at random moments throughout the day. We love you so much, Quinnie!

Here are her progress photos.

Here are the first 11 months, one year, and 15 months.