growing boys
It's been less than a week since Zion started saying "Mama" purposefully as in, "I want Mama." It's lovely to open a new chapter in our relationship where we actually communicate verbally, although now it's more like a tiny window that's opened. He says cracker but not because he WANTS a cracker, only because he wants you to KNOW it's a cracker. It's similarly frustrating when he grabs at something like carrots or broccoli which I have to steam, and then ten minutes later reveals he never wanted to eat them at all. Clear communication it isn't, but maybe only because he doesn't really like food that much.
In terms of his vocabulary, one wonders why in addition to cuck cuck (for the chickens) duck and cat, he has both doggie AND puppy. Why two words for the same thing when "ca" goes for all cars trucks and trains??? We can't ask him, so it will forever remain a mystery. No word for "Harvey" yet, not even "brother," but we know from the bible that it's hard to give names to the God you worship.
Ha! That joke is hilarious, though the witnesses would have my head for it.
I know Dan wrote about all this the other day... I just feel like I should comment in my own way to prove I'm paying attention to my younger child's development. Harvey continues to impress me with his genius level language and mental processing, although I don't know what the benchmarks are for three year olds so maybe it's just impressive to me that children continue to get smarter. Today at Drumlin farm he dug up from memory that Owls are nocturnal, and then asked if that's why the picture of the owl is on the same sign as the picture of the fox. He would have netted more praise for that had I not been busy addressing his definition of "sharing" which included "taking all of Zion's food and eating it." Another growth spurt, perhaps.
weeding and feeding
a weed...
Fingers crossed, weeds are pretty well under control in the garden so far this year. Sure, they're a bit out of control in the bed where I planted the root crops, but those were so devastated by rabbits that I was forced, for my sanity, to ignore them for several weeks. Now that bed is kind of an experimental zone with the surviving carrots and onions (and one parsnip!) sharing space with volunteer tomatoes and squashes and, yes, some weeds. Elsewhere, though, the on-purpose plants got a good start when it was still wet and now the dry heat means that the weeds are weak and easily removed with the hoe.
... and a salad green
Besides removal there's another way to deal with weeds: reclassification! Where there was space I made sure to give the purslane a little time to grow and thrive; today I pulled some and served it up in a salad. It turns out that, while it'll grow just about everywhere, it also has all kinds of vitamins and omega-3s and who-knows-what, and is also pretty tasty, especially with tomatoes and garlic scapes and a little salt. Just the thing alongside pasta with the first home-grown pesto of the season. Summer is good eating.