You've Got to Move It

We're growing a vegetable garden this year.  Well, more accurately: we haven't killed our vegetable plants.  Yet.

We started some seeds in pink Solo cups on our kitchen windowsill.  Corn and red sunflowers (those should be interesting, if they make it).  Both are doing well so far.  The sunflowers are growing long and spindly, and are constantly bending to the light from the window.  I try to rotate the cups so they can straighten out again, and was frustrated on Sunday to discover them pressed against the window shortly after I'd twisted them the other direction.

I decided it would be cool to catch them in the act.  I found a free program that manages time-lapse photographs, and hooked up a cheap webcam to the computer.  I put the webcam on one of the cups at the end of the windowsill, rotated all the plants to face into the kitchen, and configured the program to take a picture every thirty seconds from eight in the morning to noon.

I watched the first few pictures as they were taken, and was amazed to see that there was visible movement even in just thirty seconds.

I showed the results to Lilie when we got home.  She gasped:

"Are they magical???"

We added some music, and here's the result.

 

Watch it, Daddy!

This morning Liliana was standing in front of Jason who was holding a cup.  I think the cup must have dripped some water onto Lilie's arm because she wiped her sleeve with her hand then said, "Hey! Watch it, Daddy!"  I probably would've followed this up with a reminder to be respectful but I ended up being too tickled at the short exchange that happened next:

"Hey, watch it, Daddy!"

"Watch it with what?"  says Jason, unaware of what had happened.

"With your eyes."

It took a couple of seconds for me to process then Hahahahahaha!

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We've noticed that the maternal instincts are quite strong in our little one.  She loves to take care of her baby dolls, rock them, read to them, feed them, etc.  She is going to rock out parenthood someday and not just when she has infants; this girl is apparently already well-equipped for teenagers.  Just a few minutes ago, Liliana was in the living room playing with her Barbie dolls and I heard her scolding one of them, "Oh no, you're not going out like THAT!"

Hoodie cutie

Liliana was chilled by our unseasonably cool temperatures yesterday at breakfast.

The nearest warmest thing was one of my old hoodies, so I wrapped her inside it.  She looked so snuggly that I had to take some pics, and she willingly hammed it up for me.

Easter Morning

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Sacrificing my pride in the name of documenting precious childhood moments  (please ignore my bed-head and PJs)

Easter Loot

Winery trip

Katie and I received a coupon for a wine tasting from her friend Marci's parents (thanks Debbie and Alan!).  The winery is located in Augusta, near where we were married just 11 short months ago.  We finally made the trip last weekend, and it was a really wonderful experience.

The spring weather helped to make for a beautiful drive.  We took the back roads to get there, and cruised past picture-perfect spring scenery: green hues everywhere, farms waking up from winter, and horses all around.  Traffic was minimal on our road, so I drove as slow as I could as we took it all in.

We were amazed to find the day was pretty warm - unheard of in March around here.  We spent some time exploring around the winery with Lilie before we started our wine tasting.  She chased a few butterflies - even though she seemed scared of them when they came close to her - and found some flowers for mommy...

The winery grew a bit crowded, especially around the tasting area.  It turns out they want you to stay at the circular bar while you taste all your selections, even when there are tables nearby.  Folks were packed pretty tight around the bar, and we quickly realized this wasn't going to end well for Lilie.  We weren't at a standard 'bar'; imagine a barn-like area, open at both ends, with a circular wooden countertop in the center.

We ended up breezing through the tasting (including chocolates, of which Katie and I had remarkably few), grabbing a complimentary bottle of wine and our two free glasses, and heading back home.  It was a bit much to expect a three-year-old to handle being limited to a crowded bar area, surrounded by pretty glass things she couldn't touch.  Still, we had a great time, as you can see by our pictures:

Studying butterflies...

Snowy trees

We have a couple of dwarf crab apple trees in the front yard.  They were attacked by some kind of bug a few years ago - caterpillars that stripped almost all the leaves from the trees.  I remember applying a 12-month fertilizer/protector that resolved the problem, but forgot all about it last year.  The result: no blossoms, no leaves and no crab apples for the year.

The trees blossomed this year, and turned out so beautifully that I rushed to buy the chemical again.  Hopefully we'll be able to enjoy the trees all year long.  Here's to a good start:

She gets those eyes from her mommy...

Heartbreaker