End of the Summer Status Report

Garden
The Squash Ghetto is dead. I got three zucchinis and a tiny watermelon out of it before the squash bugs devoured it. I will probably try fewer types of squash and justy hope to get a good crop of zucchini and yellow summer squash next year. I will plant sunflowers again because they were really pretty and really spruced up the Ghetto. Several of my other vegetables didn't make it this year either. But the green beans, beets, purple hull peas, tomatoes, herbs, and snap peas did OK, so I fee reasonably successful. I have a fall planting of snap peas that is already doing well, and I plan to put in a few more root veggies, which may have time to grow before winter. Lucy enjoys coming outside to garden with me, and she doesn't eat everything she can get her hands on now. She especially enjoys cherry tomatoes right off the vine. She also liked eating my green beans and the roasted beet pasta sauce that I made with my beets. I've got a turnip for her to try tomorrow. It feels really good to have my baby enjoy food from my garden. Next year she may be able to help with planting and watering. That will be even more fun.

Back to School
School started on Tuesday. I'm teaching one class, and Matt is teaching five. We teach at different times, so one of us is always able to keep Lucy. Unfortunately, we all have colds. Matt brought one home from GenCon, and Lucy and I caught it last weekend. Fortunately, I'm the only one with a chest cold. Lucy just has a runny nose. We're starting to get better, but it made the first week of school really rough. I wasn't quite in my right mind during my class on Tuesday. I took a new cold medicine that made me light-headed and forgetful. I was miserable. Thursday was better, but I'm looking forward to teaching while not medicated next week. I'm trying out some new things this semester, hoping to get my pass rate above 30%. The department chair thought that 30% might actually be a good pass rate, but I want to do better. I know I have only a little control over the pass rate, but I hope to find the right approach that inspires my students to try and succeed.

Lucy
Lucy is having a ball hanging out in the English department while I teach. She has made some new friends. When she sees students standing around and talking, she crawls or toddles up and babbles with them. Her walking has really improved, and I think it's because she has seen all the big kids doing it. She makes friends everywhere she goes. In fact, I have three new Facebook friends this week just because of Lucy. She's going to need her own account soon!

The marching band practices about a block from our house, so we've taken her to watch them a few times. One time the directors sons were there and played rocks with Lucy. She thought that was the best fun ever. I'm not sure that she has paid attention to individual instruments yet, but she dances sometimes when the band plays.

Lucy has become fascinated by telephones. It started while Matt was in Indianapolis for GenCon for four days. When he would call, I would put him on speakerphone on my cell phone so that Lucy could hear him and talk to him, too. After we talked to him a time or two, she started picking up my phone and saying, "Hey, Da!" at it. She did the same thing with our home phone, her toy phone, and the baby monitor. It was pretty impressive how she made the connection between those items. But the most fun it that today she was holding a rectangle piece of a shape puzzle and started walking around holding it to her hear and talking into it. She was pretending it was a phone!  She may be on the cusp of pretend play. Oh, that will be fun!

Last Friday night, Lucy stayed with a babysitter for the first time since I quit working part-time. Matt and I went to the new faculty reception at the university, and I wasn't sure kids were allowed. Fortunately, the week before, Lucy and I went out to eat with Susie, Shawn, and Alia, a theater student at CU. Lucy loved Alia. She let her carry her to the car after supper. So I called Alia to see if she would watch Lucy while we were at the reception, and she jumped at the chance to hang out with Lucy. We had her meet us at the dining hall and take Lucy in the stroller. When Alia brought her back, she said that Lucy only cried twice: when she put her down on some grass and when she put her in the stroller to bring her back to us. Hurray! It is so great to know Lucy can be OK with a babysitter. Matt and I might be able to go out sometime.

Health
Other than our colds, I think we're doing pretty well. I haven't had any more vomiting. I've had a few episodes of discomfort, but no vomiting. I've lost a bit more weight and am fitting into clothes I haven't worn in a while. We were going to the pool in Lebanon this month because the CU pool was closed. I'm eagerly awaiting the posting of new open swim hours at our pool so that we can swim more regularly.

Such a Big Girl!

Lucy is now 11 months old. She seems to mature a little almost every day.

She is walking a little. She's still a little unsteady, and her record is only 11 consecutive steps; but she has decided that she is a walker rather than a crawler. When she wants to go somewhere, she stands up and walks until she falls and then crawls to her destination. She climbs like a little monkey. She can get onto the couch and Matt's chair without assistance. We have to keep her from climbing on the arms of the chairs because she tends to hurl herself off of things with no understanding of gravity. She dances when she hears music. Sometimes it's just rocking and wiggling her shoulders, but sometimes she jumps and squats and waves her arms and claps until she falls down. Then she seems to break dance until she gets back up to dance some more.

Lucy is also talking a little. She started saying "mama" and "dada" a couple of months ago. The next word was "bubble." She's just starting to try to repeat what we say. She started saying phrases about a month ago, and she uses them at appropriate times: "all done," "I do it," "I got it, and "hi, dad." She will occasionally say "bye bye."

She feeds herself a wide variety of foods. She likes green beans and cherry tomatoes from my garden. She eats watermelon, peaches, pears, mangoes, avocados, strawberries, blueberries, potatoes, pasta, feta cheese blue cheese, and goat cheese. I haven't been trying out spices with her because we're enjoying fresh produce so much right now. This fall and winter, we'll try more spices.

She's still not a good sleeper, but she's a more predictable sleeper. She tends to take two naps that average 1 hour each. She sleeps about three hours at a time at night and nurses back to sleep every time. We're still sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Recently, I've gotten up after feeding her after 8:00 a.m. and have done some gardening while she sleeps for another hour or two. The morning time and two naps are giving me more opportunity to get things done, which is good because I'm teaching a class this semester. We've tried having Matt put her down for her second nap. She cries and cries until she gives up and sleeps. I'm hoping that she will start to associate daddy with sleeping a little.

There's much more to say, but I'll stop for now. I start many posts and publish so few.