Summer is Here

In the past week, we’ve had two heat waves and the start of our summer CSA weekly food pick-up, I started a break from work and am now biking non-stop, Anna got her first bandaid-required injury, went to about 4 museums, and now joins us in family prayer and blessing the meals.

The first heat wave hit late last week and we all ended up sleeping in the office since it is the easiet room to cool down that can fit us all.  Anna has been handling it very well, especially since her MeMe made her cool and airy summer dresses.  The best part about sleeping in the same room was waking up when Anna did because she would pat us on the head.  The second heat wave just rolled in, so we rolled out the air mattress again.  But hey, I’m just grateful we have the power to run the air conditioning unlike everyone I know down in Virginia.

This year Jacob and I decided to join a community supported agriculture cooperative (CSA) which delivers a fresh batch of vegetables, and sometimes fruit, from a local farm to a local church for us to pick up each week.  I’ve been becoming less and less picky ever since I was pregnant with Anna.  We are all trying to eat a bit healthier and that makes this CSA great but also an adventure since I’ve never actually bought most of the plants coming into my house now.  Some of the stuff I haven’t ever heard of, just last week we recieved almost a pound of garlic scapes.  They look like green worms, or curly asparagus, either way we didn’t know what to do with them.  So thank goodness for the internet.  We had a stir-fry with garlic scapes, tomatoes, and brown sugar which was interesting.  Yesterday Anna ate a handful of blueberries, which we followed up today with some blueberry muffins.  And tonight we ate swiss chard tacos for dinner, and loved them.

Sunday we took a stroll as a family at the top of East Rock.  The place was packed and Anna was very distracted by all the balls and frisbees.  We tried to redirect her attention to the trees and grass but she ignored one branch that must have found that insulting and thereafter tripped her.  She got a little scratch on her arm but also a larger scratch on her ankle.  She, uhm, actually didn’t notice and as a typical new mom, I did the freaking out for her.  But she is fine and was actually very interested in her little bandaid more than her ouchie.

Thursday, Jacob took Anna and I to the Knights of Columbus Museum.  To be honest, I didn’t have a clue who they were before I walked in the door, Jacob had told me that they own one of the big buildings downtown to sell insurance.  We found out all about them, and even better we had the whole museum to ourselves.  Anna got to run around and look and laugh, all without a single “no”, well maybe one when she tried to climb up the Mother Theresa statue.

This week we also made a stop at the Peabody Natural History Museum, where Anna fell in love with dinosaurs.  She literally would not move nor stop pointing at the huge collections of bones in the shapes of the large animals.  We also took her up to the Springfield, Massachusetts museums.  They had a nice collection of animal diaramas (with lots of buttons for Anna to push), turtles and fish (what a hidden gem in the basement), bees, fossils to touch, and some lego blocks to knock down.  Anna was quite scared of the large fish but tried to be brave. There were some art galleries with Japanese armor, reproductions of Grecian statues, and Tiffany shades and stained glass windows.

Anna also enjoyed lunch in the courtyard with all the Dr. Seuss statues.  In fact, she enjoyed her lunch so much she tried to share it with me.  Mom tip: the orange creme yogurt bites aren’t as good as the strawberry ones.

I think my favorite development so far would have to be the arm-folding.  When we pray together as a family she knows to grab her left wrist with her right arm, and now she is even bowing her head a bit. Don’t get me wrong, saying “mama” is awesome sauce, and being able to pick up her own food to eat it saves me tons of time each day, but the arm-folding is just so special and close to my heart, not to mention it is utterly adorable.  Jacob asked her to do it a few times and now she does it when we say the words: blessing or prayer.  At first she would fold for when we got started, then she would let go, do whatever, then quickly fold again when we said amen (not that I was peeking…).  But she is now better at enduring through the prayer.  I love that family prayer is now a whole family event!