First Harvest

We picked our first produce from the garden today (not including herbs). I thought Cameron might actually take a teeny tiny bite of the veggies he helped plant, so I had him do the honors of picking the first produce.

He was so excited to grab these 2 cucumbers. And he wanted to pick the other 3 that are equally as large. In fact, he wanted to  pick the green tomatoes & the whole oregano plant. Anyway, we peeled and sliced these cucumbers together. And he wouldn't take a stinkin' bite of them! His work was done and those green things weren't getting anywhere near his mouth. EVER!

So, maybe we'll try again when the tomatoes ripen. Afterall, we've got lots of veggie options growing in the back yard. 

I forgot to mention that we've watered our garden only with rain water, collected in the 250 and 100 gallon rain barrels.

 Dave hooked up these bad boys to the gutters and cut a hose to length.

 One in the front, and one in the back!

 Check out this little frog that is protecting the garden from insects!

When can we make s'mores?

Since this is as close to roasting marshmallows as we can get, we thought we'd give camping a try...

 ...on the deck. DaddyO made it as comfortable as possible w/ the netting and ThermaRests.

 While the kids were super excited, it was 85 degrees at 8:30p and I wondered how long this would last.

JBird made it 10 minutes, b/c she was roasting. Spanky, or as Cameron calls him 'the boy dog' joined the kids in the tent. Cameron and The Boy Dog are fast asleep. Lucy is kicking the walls and singing to herself. If it doesn't cool down, I'm bringing them all indoors. They can sleep in the tent in the great room. Afterall, my camping days are over.

Dog Days

Today is Happy's 10th birthday. Although I'd feel terrible naming a blog Happy 10th Birthday, Happy! b/c we haven't yet celebrated (or even acknowledged) both Grandad and Dee's 70th birthdays. I swear, we haven't forgotten about you two!

It's been super hot here and the heat can trigger Spanky's seizures. He was having a really bad one the other day and he was burning up, poor little guy. He actually let me rug ice cubes on his ears to cool him down. It's funny, but also sad.

So this is what happens when Dave is on day care duty.

 At least, he got the collar too.

They went to Marbles kids museum and had a rufffff time!

Mother Earth's Bounty

We've been busy outdoors planting, replanting and some relocating.

 We had to replace a few plants that died or got eaten by the deer. The weeping cherry has done exceptionally well.

 Only the holly here remained from last year (and the trees, of course.)

 We planted vinca minor here and the cicadas have made this area their home. Did you know cicadas shed their skin? There are literally thousands of cicada shells here. Cameron has taken to collecting them. And separating them by bodies, wings and shells. Lovely.

 So the garden has done really well! The beans and peas are in the trellis' and the herbs are up front. The cucumber and canteloupe plants are taking over.

 Tamatoes galore! And check out the baby watermelon.

Can't wait for harvest time!

The Lodge

We made our maiden voyage to the Great Wolf Lodge this weekend.

When we arrived, we were awestruck!

As was required, we all took a photo op in the Great Bear Chair.

Some of us were more excited than others.

The waterpark itself was worth the trip. With the 500 gallon barrel of water dropping every 5 minutes, to the wave pool (where Cameron found his grooooove) to the Tower of Tornado (where all of us over 48" agreed was our top pick), it was a rocking weekend!

The picture above is like 1/8 of the total water park.

Jackie and Cameron loved the racing slides w/ spinning buckets of water. And Lucy and I enjoyed the outdoor zero-grade pool w the spray fountains.

At bedtime, the creatures in the lobby came to life to sing an exceptionally painful song about The Nature of Wildlife in which the kids were mesmerized. (I was trying to find my happy place for 15 long minutes.) The Native American, the moose and the owl were the singers, along w the racoon and the trees. Totally realistic.

After that, Wiley read a bedtime story to the kids, then posed for pictures.

Yes, kids! You have to take more pictures b/c we are at The Great Wolf Lodge! Zip it and smile!

This picture was taken by Cameron.

 And this was their reaction to the news that we are done with photos. For today.   

 

Arrrrrgh!

We are blessed to have such a wonderful pediatrician. Dr. Joe talks about my kids as if they are his own grandkids. And did I mention how he offered his mountain house for Dave and I to use on our 10th anniversary last year? Anyway, Dr. Joe noticed Lucy’s ‘lazy eye’. He said she’ll probably need to see a pediatric opthomologist, just to be sure it’s a simple strabismus.

Somehow, we ended up at the general opthomologist’s office. I’m not saying it wasn’t in the plans, but a visit to the general optho was NOT in the plans. After 2 hrs, he decided we need to be referred to the pediatric opthomologist. Grrrrr!

So, after 3 hrs of testing at the ped optho, Lucy was tired of it all. And I was beginning to realize –holy crap- glasses or exercises weren’t in the realm of possible solutions. This wasn’t just a simple strabismus. Super tired Lucy wouldn’t answer the technician when they asked her for the millionth time what picture was on the screen. She was like: There’s the screen! You look at it already! When the tech left the room, Lucy said “birthday cake, horse, car, glasses" which were all the pictures up on the screen. I love my stubborn baby.

I’ll skip the near-fainting episode due to the doctor’s delivery of the news and cut right to the chase: Lucy has great vision up close. But her distance vision, especially 3D, is bad. She’s no longer using her right eye and the muscles have atrophied significantly. We need to correct it now if we want to save the vision in her right eye all together. So she’ll wear a patch for a few hrs a day. We patch the good eye to strengthen the weak one. After 2 months, we re-evaluate if it’s working. If not, she’ll need surgery. All together, it’s a 75% success rate.

Dave and I used to joke about how uncoordinated Lucy was. We’d say it was due to her large head and tiny feet. Or that simply she was going to be our brainiac, not our athlete. But really, she just couldn’t see. Yeah, I got some serious Mommy Guilt.

After calling my baby Oriental and making me feel terrible about not knowing in depth Lucy’s birth family’s medical history, I suggested sensitivity training to the nurse/tech. Only to be laughed at by my Asian friends who say this shit has been happening to them for nearly 10 yrs. Get off my High Horse and stop getting all Den Mother on them and just realize I need to educate the uneducated. (For the record, yes, I was totally The Uneducated before I got my Asian baby.)

The doctor explained that this condition is often missed in adopted Asian babies b/c their eyes sit differently than ours. Also, low birth weight or pre-term babies are more at risk for this condition, as are babies whose mothers drink during pregnancy. Lastly, family history is a major predictor in this condition. (Yes, I felt like a total ignoramous after hearing this news expained to me a little more eloquently. And yes, this Den Mother is off her High Asian Horse.)

Lucy picked out the PINK! glittery eye patches and has been pretty tolerant so far about wearing them. Jackie, CamO, Leigh and Hunter are sensitive about it all and comment on how pretty Lucy’s eye bandaids are. My little pirate is mostly interested in looking at herself in pictures with the eye patch on. But she’s ready to take it off after 3 hrs. I don't blame her. Maybe a popscicle will help.



New Rides

Grandad and Grandma Holly are enjoying their retirement in style. They've upgraded to a rockin' RV. Ken posted all the specs on his blog.

We also got a new ride. Ours is a bit smaller, and has a maximum speed of 7 mph. But it's eco-friendly. It uses renewable energy and the maintenance is pretty cheap. Ride on! 

Out of the dark ages

It is blogworthy that we are finally out of the dark ages! We live in the Research Triangle and have abysmal internet speeds. In fact, it’s about as fast as dial-up.


Yesterday, we got 7! Seven gigs or megs or whatevers, but it’s soooo much faster! It’s what S Korea had 2 yrs ago!

Anyway, we are excited to watch videos online and perhaps even skype with the grandparents!
Woohoo! I hope it lasts.

I had intended to post this yesterday, but then CamO crashed on the bmx track and I had more important things to do. He’s fine now. He’s got a large hematoma on his elbow, but it’s not broken. Thankfully. And we are sooooo blessed to live amongst many doctors. (Peggy, you rock!)

So they grow the bugs really big here in North Cackalacky. Now that it’s practically summer and we’ve had lots of rain, the bugs are out. Cameron found a few ‘little’ friends yesterday. He wanted to name them. Since they were dead and looked like giant cockroaches (as my dad pointed out), I wasn’t so keen on naming them.

I think they are cicadas, but what do I know? I’m from the North where it’s too cold to grow anything sizable.

BTW, it’s also snake season. Come visit!