Busy Summer

I think anything involving a toddler can be categorized as busy, but I think I've been going non-stop since the spring thaw. Spike is in love with being outside. We go out and play in the shade of the yard everyday. This year we planted a garden for the first time.

It went from this:



to this:


in no time.

Likewise, my little baby is now nearly 15 months old. Like I said, he is busy. Last week he learned to scale the couch up to the side of the staircase behind the couch. He likes to be up high like the cats. Speaking of the cats, he has tried to say kitty since before his birthday but today it was clear and unmistakable for the first time. Kitty. It doesn't seem so long ago that he was just a little squirt (here he is 53 minutes old),



and here he is a few days ago, playing with the gravel at the playground.



He is the best. For the curious, yes he is breastfeeding and we are still using cloth diapers, and I wouldn't change anything.

Although sometimes I feel like it's too hot to craft, I have been making some things. I am quilting the red quilt that I pieced before Spike was born. I finally finished my baby gift for Rhett's Polly - can I get it to the post office while she is still a baby? I've knitted some wash cloths in trade for a ring sling (blue stripe here, barely used). They only have to go about 20 miles but I think it's cheaper to mail them - they can carpool with all the other packages! I'm working on more cloth wipes for a friend. I'm getting into sewing and quilting, largely by the influence of Paul's Aunt Grape, and she is planning to return to the area after living in Florida for the last 25 years so I'll have a sewing buddy. I made Spike a pair of pants with the arms from an old long-sleeved t-shirt. I bought my first jelly roll - a roll of quilting fabric strips - and I can't wait to use it. Spike did unfurl it for me though. Wasn't that nice? The colors are so bright and cheerful though, I don't know how he could resist.



I made strawberry jam for the first time with fresh, local strawberries. I don't know if I can go back to store bought.

I made pickles. They are fabulous, but tumeric does turn things quite yellow! I used this recipe from Allrecipes and my home-grown cucumbers (which Spike calls teds). For my second batch, I halved the tumeric and added a big sliced clove of garlic and red pepper flakes before boiling the liquid for 5 minutes. I got a taste for bread and butter pickles later in life (but before I was pregnant, interestingly enough) but I can't get enough of these.

In fact, I'm going to go eat some pickles right now.