It has begun.

Rocknocerous

We went to Wolf Trap's Theater in the Woods to see the children's group Rocknocerous. Sophie especially liked the ice cream.

How to get a child to carry their own diaper bag.

Shakin' her maracas. Er, maraca.

In case you were wondering, this is the Fresh Beat Band on Nick Jr. This show is really awful and absolutely annoying if you are over the age of 4. That said, Sophie loves it.

Gardening update

The last hydrangea bloom of the season.

Fall garden. The squash is doing exceptionally well, but I'm afraid the lettuce has completely disappeared.

19 Weeks, 2 days

Today was the "big" ultrasound. All of Peanut's parts are absolutely perfect, from the zipper spine to the four chambers in the heart. Measurements are right on track, even though our doctor thinks Peanut measures a little on the larger side. We're now at about 10 ounces, the ultrasound tech says we're just shy of a soda can.

But now for the important thing:

We're having a GIRL!!!

Because I thought I needed another hobby.

We decided this year to start our garden. We're starting with some fall crops, and crossing our fingers.

We are using the square foot gardening technique, in a raised bed. This is really popular in Northern Virginia for a couple reasons. The first is that you can grow more vegetable plants in less space. The second, well, is Virginia clay, the predominant type of soil around here. It's not completely unarable, but it's a b!tch to dig holes in. We opted to set a cedar box on top of our existing soil, and use the recommended blend of 1/3 topsoil, 1/3 compost and 1/3 peat.

This is what the garden looks like filled with soil and the square foot boxes marked off with kite string.



Come spring, we'll put a mulch border around the outside of the box, and we needed the bricks on the one side to make it level.

I started most of the seeds inside in a Jiffy Box that I got at Home Depot. Some germinated quite nicely, others not so much. I filled the empty squares with direct seed, just to see what would happen. This is what it looks like fully planted.

For the fall/cool month plants we've got:

3 squares sweet corn (4 plants each)

2 squares cucumber (2 plants each)

1 square tarragon (1 plant)

1 square turnips (9 plants)

2 squares summer crookneck squash (9 plants each)

2 squares broccoli (1 plant each)

1 square dill (1 plant)

4 squares Romaine lettuce (4 plants each)

Beating the heat.

The State of Aquaria, August 2010

Coral reef shrimp

Tiger brittle star

Peppermint shrimp