First "Fruits"

Yesterday I was lucky enough to harvest the first "fruits" of my garden. I planted 6 snow pea plants to see if they'd have any luck, and here is the harvest from the plants.

They were pretty tasty! Now I know for next year that peas would do well in my garden! Can't wait for the tomatoes!!! :)

For Tim on his Birthday...

Today is my husband's birthday, and sometimes with the busy-ness of life and the craziness of parenthood, I don't get to quite express how much he means to me. I thought instead of getting him a sappy birthday card, I'd write him a sappy blog entry....for all the world to see. :)

I love how you make me laugh and go out of your way to cheer me up on days I'm tired/stressed/grumpy.

I love that you are adventurous and encourage me to be adventurous along with you.

I am proud of how hard you work and how passionate you are about doing a good job.

It makes me smile when you unload the dishwasher and put things away in random spots. But it doesn't matter, because you are helping. :)

I love watching you with Sam. You are a great father. He loves you so much: I can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he says "Papa".

I love the way you hold me.

I love the way you dance with me.

I love the way you laugh and your eyes crinkle up in the corners.

I love you.

Happy Birthday.

Stewed Rhubarb: An Early Summer Treat

It's the time of year where rhubarb is fresh and ready to be harvested. I love rhubarb because it grows so easily in your own back yard. Really, it's as low maintenance as it gets! I have already pulled out several stalks from the patch in our backyard and have also received it for the last two weeks in our veggie basket.

There are lots of ways to prepare rhubarb - in pies, in baked goods (made some yummy rhubarb muffins yesterday!) - but my personal favorite is stewed rhubarb. With a little bit of sugar it's tart and just a hint of sweet - which goes well on its own, on ice cream or even over a freshly sliced banana. Sam loves stewed rhubarb, which makes it even more versatile. Here is how we prepare stewed rhubarb in our house:

1. Wash and trim rhubarb stalks. Chop up desired amount of rhubarb (let's say in this case it's 4 cups).
2. Place chopped rhubarb in glass dish (that is microwave safe).
3. Add ~1/8th of the glass dish's volume in water. So if in this case you had 4 cups of rhubarb in a 4 cup measuring cup, you would add enough water to fill up to the 1/2 cup mark (with the rhubarb already in the container!) *You have to eyeball this one and experiment a little bit, some people prefer runnier or thicker stewed rhubarb. Adjust water accordingly.
4. Place the glass dish in the microwave uncovered. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add some sugar/honey/maple syrup to obtain your desired sweetness. If you use honey or maple syrup, decrease the water slightly to compensate for the liquid nature of the sweetener.
6. Cook for another 4-5 minutes until the chunks have cooked down and the mixture has reached a boil. Stir at least once.
7. Let cool. Enjoy!

What are your favorite early summer recipes?

Veggie Venture

I like gardening. There's something very peaceful about digging in the dirt. There's a certain amount of satisfaction in helping to create something out of a mound of soil and a small helpless-looking plant. I am useless when it comes to keeping plants alive indoors, but when it comes to an outdoor garden, where mother nature does the watering (most of the time) and all I have to do is pull some weeds and add a little nutrients now and then, I do well enough. :)

When I left my first job, one of my wonderful coworkers gave me a great book called "Basic Gardening: A Guide for the Horticulturally Helpless" by Yvonne Cunnington. It has been an excellent tool for learning in my gardens. I am by no means an expert, but it gave me the confidence to try things out with some trial and error. We've had some wins and some losses but thankfully no tears.

This year I am trying something different. I have for several years now wanted to grow a vegetable garden but for one reason or another have not had the time or the motivation to maintain it. I decided instead of buying a whole bunch of annuals that look beautiful but then die in the fall, why shouldn't I try planting some vegetables instead and see what happens? It's a fun idea, and if I get some vegetables out of it, then bonus! I'll learn a bit about gardening in the process, and maybe I'll get to make some salsa or something out of my peppers if they manage to grow. We'll see. :)

Little Changes Big Changes

It amazes me how time flies when you are working and looking after a child and just living every-day life. Here it is already the middle of May, Sam is growing before my eyes, and there's a hint of summer in the air. Life's changing nature is never more keen than in the spring, and this spring especially seems even moreso. My son seems to surprise me every day with new words, new skills, new humour....he is unbelievable.

As we do every April, we went to Hatteras Island NC (part of the Outer Banks) for a week of holiday-ing and relaxing. The house we stayed in had several flights of stairs to which Sam had unlimited supervised access. He mastered climbing up and down the stairs that week. He also mastered the words "apple", "en haut" (up in french, although it sounds more like uh-oh), and putting a great effort towards the word "turtle". More recently Sam has added the words "hat", "hot", "flower/fleur", "tree/arbre", "juice/jus", "wow" and "yay" to his ever-growing vocabulary. He is a very communicative little guy. :) He LOVES music and singing, I swear he would be happy to listen to me sing "twinkle twinkle little star" over and over and over again.

He also took his first few steps while in Hatteras but hadn't taken any since. That is until last night. It had been a good month since Sam attempted to take any steps, and then out of nowhere, after his bath last night he just started walking between Tim and I. Tim took some video, but Sam was completely naked, so it won't be going up here. However, I did manage to get a few clips of Sam walking today. We were halfway through a diaper change and he decided it was time to walk instead. He would go behind his closet door, peek out and then walk towards me. Enjoy! :)

Baby blue

Sometimes being a mom can be hard. I feel like I pour so much of myself into Sam that there isn't anything left for me. At the same time, it doesn't particularly bother me - other than when I'm feeling a bit run down. Lately I have been feeling a bit burnt out, like there is just so much going on and I can't seem to keep up with it all. It can be hard to keep my patience when Sam is wailing constantly or getting into things that he shouldn't be. However all it takes is for him to flash his baby blues, to give me a big smile, to giggle....and it seems to make everything better. I think God must have made babies so cute, otherwise they wouldn't last long. :P

Things Sam Says These Days

• Mama - this is what he calls me
• Papa - this is what he calls Tim
• Chat/cat - he calls any small fuzzy animal "chat" or occasionally "cat"
• Pa-pee - When I go to the washroom I leave the door slightly ajar, and commonly Sam will push it open and crawl on in. When I tell him "Je fais pee-pee" (I am going pee-pee), he'll respond "pa-pee". :)
• Up - Sam says this when he goes up the stairs, when we close the dishwasher door and then sometimes just randomly.
• Hi - he'll say this greeting inconsistently, but appropriately when people arrive to our home or call on the phone. He's more likely to greet them by blowing them a kiss.
• Baby/Bebe - he has started saying this occasionally to refer to himself, especially when he wants something he will say "bebe bebe bebe".
• Mememe - I don't think he knows what this means yet, he just says it.
  

He's also starting to make the "s" sound and the "t" sound. It's quite exciting!