June...
July!
A melon hanging on a tomato cage.
A couple of weeks a go we had a very violent thunderstorm which left many of my tomato plants looking a little ragged. Even with the help of the cages most of the tomato plants were flattened out a bit and no longer stand up straight. For the most part the tomatoes are still doing really well! The melons on the other hand are struggling a bit. I noticed that they were looking a little over watered so I decided to cut back but then we had 3 nights of lots of rain! The melons that are doing the best are the ones that attached themselves to the tomato cages. I didn't realize that I need to get cages for my melons!Calvin and I are having a busy summer together! We've attended a lot of activities at the library, visited a number of city parks (including a petting zoo), swam at the local outdoor pool (he loves going down the twisty water slide on my lap), looked at fish at the National Mississippi River Museum, and today we went to the Dubuque County Fair. We got to pet cows, a chicken, and lambs. I didn't let Calvin pet the pigs only because there was no one around to ask if we could pet them. Having never been around pigs (not counting cooked bits o' pig) I don't know if they like to be petted. We also saw 5 Bengal tigers, 4 magical poodles (not sure how they were magical and it was too hot to stay to find out), ducks, more chickens, and a nurse that took care of us after Calvin was born. We had a tasty lunch of corn dog, french fries, and water. We bought a bag of tasty, fresh popped popcorn for the ride home.
Calvin is also saying a lot more words now. We can't always understand what he is saying but you can tell by the look on his face and his insistence that he is trying to communicate something to us. He's really taken to signing and is quickly learning the signs for colors. Just yesterday he was standing on a pillow (why I don't know and he wasn't saying) and I asked him to tell me the color of the pillow. He correctly said blue while making the sign! Today we were working on brown and he saw a brown skirt of mine and signed blue but then quickly shook his head and signed brown. He loves going on outings and will make the sign for car with a huge smile on his face! He also signs please, thank you, nap, night night, bird and fish are two of his favorites, and a few others. He's also learning his numbers right now. He recognizes the number one and can say it while holding up one finger. He can say two but has a hard time folding his fingers to show two. His favorite word to say right now is no. Only he says it more than once: no, no, no, no, no. He'll get a toy in throwing position, say no while shaking his head, and then throw the toy. Although he knows most of his body parts I realized last week that I had never taught him elbow! He quickly learned elbow (only needing to be told twice!) and now loves to fold his arm so his hand is on his shoulder with his elbow pointing out and bump "bows" with me. First one and then the other.
We've had a few rough nights in the past few weeks and couldn't figure out why. Rough as in waking up at 4:30 am and not wanting to go back to bed. Nap time comes early on those days. Finally, I was able to see that his 2 year molars are coming in. One has broken through the gums and the others are quickly following suit. It will be nice when teething is over! Next up, potty training!
