Garden Starts
I took these pictures a couple weeks ago, when I first planted our tomatoes. There’s been a lot of growth since then – I’ll have to make a point of getting out there with the camera again soon. Tomorrow I will be out there long enough to harvest more pea pods, as the temperature will be into the 90′s early on. My blood is still much too thick to tolerate that kind of heat for too long.
We have two raised plots. Not a ton of room, but then again, we don’t have an enormous yard.
Strawberry blossoms are such a happy sight.
Cherokee Purple tomato plant.
Epazote plant, nestled into my toad habitat. We have one resident toad that we know about, although he usually makes himself pretty scarce. He either hides out in the pots, or underneath a stone in the other plot.
ZZ recreating while I garden…
…and Jazz chillin’ in the shade.
Before
As they were in my flower garden; now they are sitting in a vase next to my computer. The scent will be fleeting, but it’s heavenly at this moment.
Good Morning.
A frost advisory this morning notwithstanding, life is starting to wake up around here. And finally, this year, my young lilac plants will sport some blooms. This was a nice surprise this morning.
April Reflected
Easter Afternoon in Wisconsin, 2011
1095 Days Ago…
…I could not stop staring at this picture:
3 years ago today, we received ZZ’s adoption file. 2 pictures, pages of very accurate descriptions, miniscule insights into his history. 3 years, and a lifetime ago.
Lately, he seems to have gotten so big. You know how growth creeps up on you with your own kids, whereas with other kids that you see infrequently, the changes are vast and stunning? But all of a sudden, ZZ seems shockingly tall. Shockingly gangly when held by his dad. There’s been a big growth spurt in the last month, and the pants that were too long a couple of months ago are now too short. Still, this spurt seems bigger than the others.
Where has my wee little guy gone?
Wherein I Begin to Wonder if the Dogs Know More Than I Give Them Credit For
Years past, we would have a big birthday party for my step-daughter around this time of year. I remember always being exasperated that the dogs would be in the midst of their spring sheds. Dog hair would be all over the place 8 minutes after I finished sweeping. Both of the dogs are Labs, and they shed a ton of hair in the spring and fall.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been wondering when they would start – but have been very happy that they haven’t; keeping the house clean is much easier without all that dog hair. By now I’ve usually swept up great piles of hair every day for days upon days. But then yesterday it dawned on me the reason they might not have started yet.
This is just this morning, as it snows outside.
Aside from a couple of days where it hit 70, and one rogue 85 degree day, it’s been pretty cold this whole year. Clearly, snow is still not out of the question. Maybe they know it’s not–weather-wise– time to shed yet?
Ack. So much for having a spring this year.
Project Ni Hao goes to Washington
Fresh on the heals of coming back from China, we took a short trip to Washington DC. Mr. T had a trade show in town; the trip gave us the chance to check out the city and catch up with some friends that live in the area.
The first day, Mr. T attended to business and ZZ and I went off to explore. Since ZZ is all about spies right now, we stopped for a photo-op in front of the Spy Museum:
Note that he is checking out his spy watch.
Next we walked over to the White House. We had a tour of the White House scheduled for the next morning, but since cameras are not allowed, I wanted to get a few pictures in before the tour:
Magnolias blooming in the White House lawn.
Mr. Grumpy McGrumpypants on the other side of the White House. Actually, he wasn’t too grumpy – just tired of having his picture taken.
That night we found a fancy-shmancy dim sum chain restaurant out of the UK for dinner. It was pretty pricey for dim sum, but the dumplings were the best I’d had since leaving China. The restaurant is just outside the Chinatown area, which incidentally has very few actual Chinese restaurants and way too many Hooters & La Tasca type places.
The next day, we took the tour of the White House, which was short but very cool. Next, we headed over to the Air & Space museum and took in an IMAX movie, followed by a late lunch at the Museum of the American Indian. (Lunch at Air & Space = McDon@lds, lunch at the American Indian = homemade tamales. ‘Nuf said). We then had a tour of the Capitol lined up for late afternoon with a staffer from our Senator’s office.
Don’t know why the boy is checking his watch again; perhaps he really is spying.
And that was pretty much it for DC. It’s too bad that the weather was pretty cold and rainy. The National Mall looks like it would be nice in the warmer months, but in a wet & chilly cold spell in mid March, everything felt kind of gloomy.
Over the weekend, we had a fantastic visit with friends formerly from Chicago. ZZ and his buddy spent a couple of days acting silly and having fun. It was wonderful to catch up with them in their beautiful new home.
We spent the last night in Baltimore; on the way into the city, we stopped for a brief visit with one of the families I traveled with in China. Baby time again! ZZ made a new friend with their oldest daughter, and it was great to see how much the baby had grown in just a couple short weeks. It was wonderful to see the whole family again.
On our last day, we went to the National Aquarium, hung out around the inner harbor,
and went aboard the USS Constellation. ZZ couldn’t resist ringing the bell on the ship, but wasn’t prepared for how loud it would be:
That picture will keep me laughing for a while.
Final slide show of pictures from my trip to China. The first bunch of photos were taken in Chongqing, and the second half is from Guangzhou. Click through on the slideshow to go directly to Flickr – I have descriptions of some of the photos on that site.
I continue to miss China something awful. I miss my travel companions and their sweet babies – especially little L and her mama. And, holy jeebus, I miss the food. Yesterday, ZZ and I shopped at H-Mart for a few essentials, and we stopped in the food court to eat lunch. The bibimbap at the Korean stand is decent, though not as good as the last meal of bibimbap we had at the airport in Beijing. ZZ was also eyeing up a picture of pot stickers at the Chinese stand, so we ordered those. They came out deep fried – grossly brown, grossly crusty, and grossly greasy. Gah. Neither one of us could eat them. A fresh batch of homemade jiaozi is badly needed…
On Coming Home
There is a point in that flight home from China – I remember it well from 2 1/2 years ago – where it seems almost impossible that we will ever get off that plane. It’s right around the time where there’s 4 more hours to go. By that time, I’ve slept a few times for about 15 minutes at a time, I’ve attempted to eat and then have promptly discarded the “mid-flight snack” that is for some reason always awful, and the end is in sight and yet so, so far away.
We went through immigration and customs in Newark, and here I have to applaud again a very kind immigration officers who fast-tracked the three of us through. Both D and I had connecting flights to catch, and since we arrived in Newark at quarter to return-from-vacation-time, the regular line was long and we were quite stressed about being able to get through. We did, though, and then said a tearful goodbye as D & her daughter headed towards their flight and I towards mine. I must have looked a tired, red-eyed wreck as I waited to board my plane home.
I saw ZZ and Mr. T at the airport before they saw me, and in my tired, emotional state tears were streaming down my face as I walked up to them. For a few minutes, ZZ was shy – he doesn’t like tears. It wasn’t long, however, until he grasped my hand tightly, and aside from sleeping and him being away at school yesterday, he has barely left my side. We have a busy week ahead, but no real plans for this weekend. I plan on having some good, quiet cuddle time with my boy.
It’s good to be home.
Sometimes a SAHM, sometimes a business partner with my husband, and always juggling the responsibilities of both. This space is a welcome diversion from balance sheets and Lego's.
The joys of my life are my husband, our son, and our two dogs. Coincidentally, they are the subjects of most of my pictures. Welcome to my little corner of the internets.
