Tampa

Since Andy has been traveling a ton lately, and this time he's going somewhere warm and wonderful instead of to a random secluded military base, we decided that Calvin and I would tag along.

Today we arrived in Tampa after a four hour flight. The airport wasn't bad. We had one melt down in the security line when the boy saw his blanket in my backpack and I wouldn't give it to him because the camera was wrapped in it. After that we gave him some breakfast and let him run around looking at planes through the windows. We have a little Eric Carle book with a picture of an airplane in it, and he'll just sit and stare at it without turning the pages for long intervals. Yesterday as he was looking at the book and at the real thing, he started saying "uh-ohplane." I think it's the closest he can come up with at this point. It's adorable.

He was so great on the plane. Besides trying to steal the grapes from the lady sitting next to us, he was a model flyer and the stewardesses loved him once again. The plane landed early, we got our luggage, picked up our rental, and we found ourselves in the middle of a gorgeous Florida afternoon.

Andy's parents will be pleased to know that our rental was a Prius.

The first thing we noticed were the heat and the humidity as 84 degrees hit us, dressed in our long jeans and long sleeved shirts. Don't believe me? Look at the car display temperature. Yeah, in MARCH!

We found our hotel, grabbed a few things to stock up our fridge, and let Calvin run around and around the halls of the hotel. He loves that they make a large loop, and could entertain himself for hours.

Goodbye Sweet Curls

People in public have said "what a cute little girl" one too many times lately, which doesn't concern me as much as the fact that he's started to look like a raggedy little orphan. So for better or worse it was time to move to Andy's way of thinking, and we decided that we should do it before going on our trip,

Today I put the boy in the sink, let him play in the water, and took it all off. I know it's stupid to be sentimental about hair, but as his darling wispy curls fell off onto the floor I felt so sad. I wish I hadn't taken off as much as I did, but I know it will always grow back. He was a champ and didn't wiggle at all. He looks like an entirely different kid.

(please pardon the dirty mirror. I wash it all the time, but he continuously puts his little fingerprints all over it.)

I need to take a bit more off of his bangs, but in general I like it more than I thought I would. You just can't go wrong with that face.

This and That

Last night I was up until 4am reading this:


It was shocking because I had a really hard time getting into it (it took me a month to read the first 200 pages. Ouch!), but then last night I couldn't put it down. Which is unfortunate, as tonight I will be up late watching this (while working of course):


When my sister-in-law Rebekah suggested that Gaskell might be just as good as Austen, I was saddened by her betrayal, but then when she went so far as to put North and South on the same level as BBC's Pride&Prejudice, I secretly loathed her for her heresy. But now I don't know. Maybe she was onto something....

And since some people don't care about my reading habits and just want this to be a shrine to the boy, here's your daily dose of Calvin:

Yesterday we went to the library to get him some fresh books and he takes them with him everywhere. This was at breakfast - he wouldn't put them down. I had to jam oatmeal into his mouth around the pages. Also, he threw his first very public, very embarrassing temper tantrum yesterday. He arched his back and screamed and kicked, and when I wouldn't let him down (because he kept running outside via the automatic doors), he took a big swipe and knocked everything off the librarians desk. His temper is very present this week. Ugh. I hate that he's hitting the bratty stage early. But then he'll giggle like crazy when I tickle him, or hug my neck as tight as he can while kissing my cheek, and all is forgiven.

How I know I'm getting Old

Andy and I have been taking a gardening class every Saturday. It's a 6 week course that started with PH levels of soil and how to manipulate the minerals and chemicals to make growth most effective, then we talked about watering and fertilizing, and now we're discussing specific fruits and vegetables in home gardens. There are very very few of us young uns' in there. Mostly it's retired couples who actually have time to garden. It's an awesome class though. Somehow it manages to be incredibly fascinating and mind-numbingly boring all at the same time. Although giving up half of every Saturday isn't great, I'm glad to learn what's being taught and we've already started implementing a lot of what we've learned.

• Saturday we fertilized all of our fruit trees and perennials. We learned that if you spread the fertilizer (a very specific mix) OVER the snow, it will melt into the ground with the snow and you don't have to worry about trying to water it in evenly.
• Today I planted Swiss Chard. I've never eaten it before, but the teacher swears it's the most delicious green he's ever tasted. It's like spinach, only with a sweet lettucey taste. We're experimenting.
• This weekend we're going to turn over our garden plot and get ready to plant our early crops next week.

So the reason I know I'm getting old? These days all I can think about is gardening. I dream about it. All day long I gaze out at the snow covered garden and imagine what will soon be growing. It's lame I know, but I am beyond excited that this year we're going to have all of our own fresh produce and herbs. I can't even wait.

Oh yeah, and next week we'll be in Florida. I think about THAT a lot too.

What else do old people think about besides gardening and Florida?

Water Time

We went back to the children's museum again tonight to get out of the house for a bit. Calvin didn't love the 45 minute drive to and from SLC, but once we were there he had a lot of fun. We also found a great new restaurant. It was a good night. I've attached a high quality film of C coughing on the other kids, a lady cutting in front of the camera, and water flying everywhere. In the second one he steals a little girl's teacup and gets yelled at. I'm sure you'll enjoy them immensely.