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When your mom works at the farmer's market--carefully remove your shoes, find a blanket and a makeshift pillow, and curl up in the car.
Unfortunately, a fewminutes after I took this picture, Theo arrived to play with her and she didn't actually nap, but the scene was just so sweet.
The first year after I planted our pomegranate it made amazing flowers but no fruit. Last year lots of flowers again and just two fruit. This year lots of flowers and already at least 4 fruit coming. But inevitably there will still be some flowers that just fall off; I decided to cut one open to see what they look like on the inside. You can see the seeds forming on the inside.
Of course, right after I bought it, I discovered that eating pomegranate hurts my mouth. But last year our first two fruit were ripening I waited impatiently and mailed them off to some friends who were having trouble conceiving. And recently they welcomed a fantastically cute set of twins. Pomegranates are amazing.
I don't love where I live. The neighborhood is fine, but it's not as walkable as I'd like. And it's far away from almost everyone I really like spending time with and everything I like to do. We have talked about moving but one big thing holds me back--I have fallen in love with my back yard. It's nice and big, my flower bed is finally established, and a friend gave me the cutest Japanese maple. Oh, and it gives me fruit every so often.
We also love to eat dinner out there (and I often drink my coffee there). It was lovely to have my mother over for a delicious dinner and then pick blueberries for dinner (we also had cherries from the farmer's market, which you can see in the background).
These were all picked yesterday evening.
So beautiful and delicious.
Nina and I had a date for lunch this afternoon with some friends who live at the beach. We had a nice, leisurely lunch of quesadillas and salad, then it was beach time!
What I love about taking Nina to the beach is that she just plays in the sand contentedly. Little did I know that having Theo along would mean that they would run down to the water together to fill up buckets and play so well together. We're talking about Nina here--to her, the water is way too cold and the waves way too scary. Yet with Theo there the waves were fun, something to run away from giggling instead of shrieking in fright. And she got all her clothes wet but never complained of the cold. Score!
I wish I had gotten pics of them running to the water together with buckets, wearing only their droopy underwear and sodden t-shirts. It was soooo precious. I'll have to settle for the memory and the pictures I took after we got them hosed off and dry.
He is a fantastically gorgeous child.
I feel like this pic is so representative of how much these two enjoy each other.
I love the Kookaburra* song--I have been singing it to Nina all her life. So of course I bought her a little stuffed kookaburra in Australia, which is what she's holding while she is singing.
*a kookaburra is an Australian bird that looks and acts quite a bit like a kingfisher, but is a bit larger.
Nina, mom, and I will be driving cross country at the end of June--any must see places between Florida and Southern California? We think we will try to avoid Texas, even though it may take us out of the way. Since we have no set plans, that's not really a problem.
Nina often disappears for long periods of time and when I come looking for her I discover that she's been busy making masterpieces. I never knew why, but I have been saving back copies of National Geographic for years. I finally decided to give them to Nina and tell her she could cut and rip them up for her art.
One day she brought me this--I couldn't believe how great it is. Little pieces of yarn curled up and glued to the paper, two separate images from a magazine, glued thoughtfully onto construction paper and then accented with crayon.
Larry and Nina got me this gorgeous ring for Mother's day. I wanted something with stones all around and no diamonds--very hard to find but they did a fantastic job, I think!
I have been working farmer's markets for a few months now--selling walnuts grown in Northern California. The woman who knows the farmer and acts as a middleperson between the farmer and me has three children, one of whom Nina has formed a wonderful friendship with. The two of them just really love hanging out together. The Tuesday market I do is in the afternoon, so I take Nina with me. Here's a short video of Nina and her friend playing together. They are so cute! Oh, and the Tuesday market is in Coronado, right on the ocean, so the noise you hear is a ship going by.
Nina told me that today is the most special day ever because it's Mother's Day. That would make her the most special person ever. I am so blessed that she made me a mother.
I have had this rayon yarn for years, and have started several projects, first a strappy little tank for me (which I abandoned because I gained some weight and decided it wouldn't look good on me. Then I started a dress for Nina but had to modify the pattern and didn't write down what I had done and forgot after putting it down for a while. Then as soon as I started this pattern, I worked on it nearly nonstop until it was done.
She put it on immediately and has worn it several times since. Good thing because it's super frustrating when you make something for a kid and they won't wear it!
