saturday morning

It's 7:03 on Saturday morning, and I am watching Silas rub Rice Krispies into the rug. Somehow, inexplicably, despite the fact that Silas is no longer spitting up very often, the rug Jessica gave us looks more worn in three weeks than it ever did in two years at her house. But Jessica's house seems to have the ability to repel dirt. Mine? Likes it for breakfast. (HA! After I wrote this I started to think, maybe when your child is grinding cereal into the rug, if you stopped him rather than blogging about it, the rug might stay clean. Maybe.)

The weather is glorious, and we have spent most of our week in the backyard. I have a few projects in mind that involve moving bushes. Anyone ever moved bushes before? On a scale of 1-10, 10 being don't-even-try and 1 being you-might-cuss-but-you -can-get-through-it, what is the possibility of me being able to move some bushes with my children around?

Why am I moving bushes? Glad you asked. I read an inspiring blog post a few weeks ago. It was from the mother of five (mostly grown) children, reflecting on the baby years. She commented that it feels as though you can't get anything done, but in reality they were some of her most productive years. She suggested deciding on what you want to do, and rather than trying to find time without children to do it, find a way to incorporate your children into what you love. Such a good idea. I love being outside, but I had not taken on any yard work partly for budgetary reasons but mostly because it seemed impossible to pull off with a crawler and a wanderer in tow. I'm beginning to realize, though, that was just in my head, because the few things I have done so far (weeding, trimming, mowing) have gone exceptionally smoothly with the kids. Really, it is easier to do yard work with them than it is to go to the grocery store. Anyway, all I'm trying to do this year is clean up and maintain. I'm not taking on any complicated tasks, including a vegetable garden, because of time constraints (though I am going to plant some tomatoes and peppers in planters, I think). The next step in cleaning out is to remove some bushes and move some others (then plant roses, I think. And maybe one hydrangea, because they are my favorites). I'm a little intimidated. We'll see how it goes.

Some of you asked earlier how the master bedroom is coming along. It's getting there. We have new bedside tables and a much-improved (gutted, painted, newly shelved) closet. Next in line is buying new lamps and rearranging our clothes so that we can take the old dresser out. In short, we've done a lot, but not a lot that makes for a good picture. I'll show pictures once we have new lamps.

With that I'm off. The dog cleaned up the ground-in Rice Krispies (I swear the only reason he gets to stay is his tolerance for babies and his ability to clean up food messes so effectively) and now it's time to get ready for breakfast. For those of you curious about allergies, once I cut out all oats from Silas's diet his nose stopped running. He has no congestion now at all. He can tolerate rice (and grapes - we added them yesterday) but he really doesn't care for the rice very much. I am also introducing rice milk (not as a formula replacement but just to let him get some extra calories into his day), but so far he's not impressed. I even got the vanilla flavored, and it's really not that bad (not that GOOD, but not that bad), but no dice.

And as a reward for reading about my home improvement nonsense all the way to the end, here is a gratuitous baby picture. Clearly the unpleasantness of rice has not impeded Silas's ability to play with his grandpa.

Happy Saturday all.