garden box

Even though our "backyard" basically consists of a large balcony, we are making plans for our own garden this year. Chris has taken the past two weekends to build a big garden box and we will also add some large pots for tomatoes. Now we just need to decide and plan which veggies to plant. Yesterday, I asked Maren if she wanted to visit the nursery with me. I obviously hadn't thought through that question. Maren is familiar with one kind of nursery - the one on Sunday with a room full of bawling two-year-olds - and she doesn't much care for it. She replied with a terse, "No, mama."

Anyway, with any luck I will be posting additional photos in the coming months of healthy, green foliage spilling over the tops of our box.

spring

Thanks to some delightful spring weather, we have had a weekend spend out-of-doors. We broke out the bubble supplies and dusted off the bike and trailer (and found a huge, icky spider in the garage). Chris spent most of Saturday building a garden box for our balcony. I'm excited to share more on that later.


Happy Spring!

darn chicken

Maren and I were playing Memory today (our version of Memory). She kept turning over the chicken card and could never find its pair. After about five turns, I said, "Where is that other darn chicken?" Maren finally found the match and exclaimed, "I found the darn chicken!"

It's a wonderful bed

Since the time change, Maren has had some difficulty falling asleep during nap time. Yesterday, I was having an especially frustrating time (I needed a nap, too) so I finally offered, "Do you want to take a nap in mom's bed?"
"Yes."
I carry her into my room and plopped her down on the pillow. Maren says, "It's so wonderful."
"My bed?"
"It's so pretty. It's wonderful."
"Thank you, Maren."

She never took that nap.

helping in the kitchen

Maren is a great little kitchen helper (or as Aunt Cari calls her "a little cooking girl"). She's usually ready to push a chair over to the counter and get her hands sticky with mom. On Sunday, she helped make rolls for dinner.



Playing at the park is a fun way to wait for the dough to rise.

Baltimore Aquarium

On Friday, Aunt Cari and cousins Annie and Taylor took us to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The night before our big adventure, I was listing all the fish we would see at the aquarium. "Sharks, turtles, frogs, Nemo, Dory..." Maren added, "And mermaids." I didn't have the heart to tell her mermaids don't exist, so I just replied, "Maybe." We still had an awesome time and even got to see a diver feed a sea turtle, which was Maren's favorite part. And she never even mentioned the mermaids.






Afterward, we went to lunch and Maren entertained herself by chasing a few unfortunate pigeons.

On top of spaghetti

You know you've made a good dinner when your daughter runs into the kitchen exclaiming, "Hurray, spaghetti!" (Maren's small appetite has become even smaller since getting a cold this week, so I really enjoyed watching her eat a full meal.)