Our Garden

This winter has been very cold, at least that is what all our neighbors are telling us. I’ve had a lovely winter, we enjoyed our coats but not our snow boots and our only problem was getting Anna to put pants on. I have a little dress-wearing diva. Sometimes tights would be enough but if we were going to be outside for a while and she needed pants it has always been a fight. Even with it being so “cold” down here, almost every week had a beautiful day for getting out of the house and we would watch the weather and take advantage. We’d end up at a park or walking around our library or go to the zoo. But with spring officially here and baby brother threatening us with house-arrest any day now, we decided to plant a few plants to keep us entertained here at home. We potted two tomato plants and a short row of snap peas. Anna loved planting and had a hard time being finished with the very fun chore. Every day she waters our plants. Jacob bought a nozzle for the hose she can squeeze herself so the chore is all hers. I do try to divert some of her attention to other random plants (shrubs, and trees) in our backyard so she won’t drown our little container garden. She cares a lot about those plants and really wants to see them grow! She sometimes will note them in her prayers asking for them to grow, and she really can’t get enough of using her watering can.

We have really had some beautiful days of weather this week. Yesterday, I brought a book outside while Anna did all the watering. She even found some berries on a few bushes and just picked them off and threw them on the lawn “for the birds to snack on.” Going outside first thing in the morning is so refreshing, with some grass between our toes, even in the spring chill, it feels great. We did some yoga then played catch with her big red ball. She picked every single dandelion she could find and collected them up in a jar. Today there was another jar’s worth, Anna was ecstatic, Jacob was not. Ha. I love how much Anna loves being out back. We could play all day out there and these days I’m so happy just doing that. She runs and jumps and creates games and sings and dances. She jumped down the stairs into the yard over and over again counting jumps and changing how many times she jumped. “Mom, do you want to watch me one more time?” Yep, one, two, three hops! “Mom, do you want to watch me one, uh, a lot more times?”

I jumped with her a little bit but decided not to go too crazy. I am 38 weeks pregnant. I feel huge and am definitely feeling like any sleeping position is uncomfortable but once I get asleep I do sleep well still. Baby Brother can be active but I think I remember Anna being more antsy (maybe that was just because of Jacob’s antagonizing…). I really can’t wait to meet our little boy, it is easy to stay wrapped up in our current life, obsess about Anna, especially when we haven’t had to worry about buying any clothes for him thanks to our awesome ward. So we’ve just been living and letting him grow but now that we are down to the wire we are getting excited! Anna is very ready to meet her little sibling and so am I.

We haven’t taken any specific belly pictures this go around so I made Jacob come out in the backyard today and the wind and sun was just crazy. But there is the belly, ha. All my girlfriends have been teasing me since my shower that now I actually look pregnant, so close to the end. There is just a lot of torso for that baby to hide in I guess.  I do definitely look and feel super preggos these days and dislike sitting on the ground and standing up and chasing Anna too much. But I will take some more discomfort to avoid diapers for a few more weeks! Anna being potty trained is awesome, how soon do you think we’ll be able to make it happen for our son? 😉