Maarit's Garden

Finally Sun!
We've been waiting all of July and into August, but here it is folks, finally some sun for our poor deprived garden. And it's been a beautiful thing. Maarit has been out helping me weed and tame our tomatoes and she helps train the crazy pumpkin vines...they are reaching out into the street so we have to wrap them around the mailbox and the apple trees. There is nothing that Maarit likes better than being outside and she loves the dirt and veggies in the garden. Today she ate a tomato right off the vine and loved it. I'm so proud.

Here's Maarit clapping for her pumpkin patch! There will be (baring any critter attacks in the future) pumpkins galore for her birthday in October.

Shots of Maarit's house and Garden.

And a relatively poor shot in which I am attempting to capture the wooden walkways we built this summer and which we recently finished. The picture doesn't really show how nice they look, you'll have to come visit to see.

August has really gotten away from us. School starts for both of us next week already! I know, I know Kurt, you don't really feel too bad for us seasonal workers =) Justin has extra days as the media center specialist and I have special education conferences, then it's teacher inservice and hello fall. I am not looking forward to leaving Maarit, it has been such a gift to spend every day with her this summer and I am grateful for every minute we've had playing and snuggling and watching her grow and change. I look back at pictures of her at the beginning of the summer and she's grown so much! Her most recent appointment was just last week and her doctor said she's got to start weening from the bottle because she's off the charts, time for more big girl food.
She is really starting to communicate with us using her signs. She says 'all done', 'more', 'milk', 'no', 'up', 'hello/'bye bye' and she's starting to create her own signs which is amazing. She points to drinks and then points to her mouth when she's thirsty. Last night Justin and I were sharing a glass of wine and Maarit pulled herself up to standing by the coffee table, pointed to the glass of wine and then pointed to her mouth with the funniest expression on her face. It was priceless. She has even asked for naps, she will look at me and sign 'all done' and 'bye bye' and then rub her eyes and sign 'up'. There is a lot of progress on her walking, she's scooting around holding on to furniture and she'll let go and balance for a good 5 seconds before plopping. And just today she popped through another top tooth for a grand total of 7.
Keep your eyes out for a massive post of our recent trip to visit cousins Chloe and Hanna coming soon.