The Last Days of Summer

Temperatures dropped 45 degrees overnight and it has begun to rain. So whether we're ready or not, it seems summer is over and harvesting is here.
The green beans grew up corn stalks; we have huge pumpkins and winter squash; our apple tree is heavy with fruit; our cherry tomatoes spilled out all over the garden.




So in spite of our chickens helping themselves to many ears of corn before we could get a taste, it was a very successful and fun planting year.

Lucky for Pace, the mint, which is his and the chicken's favorite thing to feast on in the garden, will overwinter. Story time in the garden, however, may have to wait till Spring.


Hoping the hens will soon start laying eggs, Pace decided introducing them to Tillie in "Tillie Lays an Egg" would be the perfect way to prepare them.

And the biggest shock to our family....
ANDY IS 30!

Lots of PICTURES!!

Here is a recap of the entire last 5 months that we haven't posted images on our blog. There are several posts for all of the images, so that they can be briefly catagorized/captioned, so be sure to keep looking back in our posts.

The first post in the series is Feb - March 2009, so you can start there.

The whole "pictures in order" thing didn't really work out, so the order of the captions and the order of the pictures isn't quite the same, but I figure you'll all have fun with the guesswork :)

If you want to hear more about what we've actually been doing, please scroll down to the June 28th "Spring Recap" post.

Thanks friends and family for your patience!!

2009 Pics: July

In which: we get chickens(!!); Pace shows off his lion balloon from the Farmer's Market; Satya is ready for a bike ride (and cute); Grant, Pace, Satya, and Kira have a "farewell to Grant" trip to the park and ride on rides; the chicken coop is finished and the chickens celebrate by climbing on Andy's back; the chickens sabotage Andy's attempt to work outside.

2009 Pics: May - June

In which: Pace shows off the pear tree and eats mint and collard greens in the garden, Satya plays with Jan at the Children's Museum, Kira and the kids do their hair 80's style, Grant reads with the kids, and Andy and Kira go to a wedding in Boston.

2009 Pics: March

In which: Andy's parents come out and we all celebrate Easter!

Pics 2009: Feb - March

In which Ellen visits and reads to Pace about the moon, Kira and her dad have their birthdays, the kids help Andy take out the trash, Pace makes a salad, and the kids continue to look cute.

Spring recap

Where to begin...

As is true of all parents of young kids, we have been busy. Since March (last post... oops) a lot has happened: Ellen came out to visit, Bruce and Jan came out to visit, Andy went to Dickinson to see Ellen graduate, Grant continues his stay in SLC, Mark and Amelia Parrett (from Princeton days) moved out to SLC, Andy and Kira took their first trips without kids (to Andy's roomate's wedding in Boston; kiddos stayed with Buelo and Buela and did great, for which we are eternally grateful), our garden has expanded, we got six chickens, Say it Green! (our organic, fair trade shirt business) has been growing, the sustainability consulting firm Andy works for got bought (Andy still has the same job with the new company), we have started exploring community development work, and of course the kids have been growing like crazy.

Since everyone really wants to know about the kids, I will start there and then cover some of the rest. I'll throw a smattering of pictures up at the end.

Pace did dance class for a few months a loved it. It was a class with other kids age 3-4 and they would dance to books, dance feelings (happy, sad, angry, silly, sleepy etc.), dance like animals, dance with streamers, dance with percussion instruments, dance with other kids, all sorts of fun stuff. Pace did two classes - the first involved parents (or other "big people") participating in the class, and Kira, Andy, Grant, Kira's parents, even Andy's parents took turns participating as Pace's "big person" partner. The second class was similar in structure/activities to the first, but it was just kids. Big people could watch from the sides. Pace had a great time with those classes.

For this summer, Pace and Satya are enrolled in a music class together that has recently started and they are both enjoying. It is great to have them able to take a class together like that, though I (Andy) have not been able to be at that one yet so I can't provide as many details. We are thinking about putting them into a gymnastics class together (which Satya would love) or putting Pace into a rec soccer league (which Pace would love). Not sure on that one yet.

Satya is coming out of her "destroy everything in sight" phase (which Pace went through at about this age also) and is coming into a phase where she enjoys playing with Pace and us. So much nicer! And good timing as gardening has really picked up and the whole destructive thing would have been a problem. She has been become an absolutely avid reader (well, listener while mom/dad read), and we have been bringing home a ridiculous amount of library books in order to encourage her love of books. We have been sure in include a regular staple of potty books to encourage her to become more comfortable using the toilet. Potty training has started with some successes, though the going has been slow. Satya is still exclusively in diapers, but underwear may be coming within a couple weeks in an effort to encourage the potty training process. At 20 months, Satya's vocabulary has started growing (hooray!) and includes mama, dada, moo (her cow), bau (book or bird), a-wa (all done, i.e. eating), joo (juice), a-na (sandals), shoo (shoes), yesss (yes), chesss (chest), lala (buela - grandma), oo (buelo - grandpa). She still signs for several other things.

The kids continue to enjoy our garden, and both Pace and Satya now love to roam the mint and sorrels and graze on them. It's great! Pace helped plant our annual beds this spring (which is that part that got expanded) and had a lot of fun helping mom and dad put seeds in the ground. Annuals this year consist of: three raised beds with peas, carrots, radishes, peppers, kolrabi (lots - a family favorite), tomatos, and probably other stuff I forgot; a 10'x5' patch of corn and beans growing together with pumpkin, squash, and zuccini also in there; melon and potatoes in a container; and various salad greens by the door to the house (kale, chard, lettuce, etc.). The cucumbers don't appear to have made it (bummer!!) and the melon is being seriously out-competed by the potatoes in the container garden... but we are hoping it makes it.

Though still small, Say it Green! continues to grow. We just got a big account with the Farmer's Market here in SLC, which is great. As part of our attempt to get our name out in the area, we had hang-tags made for the Farmer's Market shirts so that people know where they came from! It's a big step for us :) We also organized a benefit concert for Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts (MICA), which was put together by Grant and Kira. It was a huge success and a ton of fun. Kira's brother's band, Shake Your Peace!, was bicycle-touring through Utah and played the concert, which raised several thousand dollars for MICA. Thanks to Gabe for scheduling our concert in on short notice!

That benefit concert led to us (Kira and Andy) trying to think of other ways to partner with MICA, which is focused on community building in west SLC (a poorer area of town). We have been interested in engaging in community development work for some time, and are planning on setting aside two years to do that in the Spanish-speaking developing world starting in 2011 (our "hiatus" if you have heard us talk about it). Well, it turns out that the State of Utah asked MICA for a proposal for a "green" art gallery in west SLC, and it looks like Kira and I are going to help with that effort and see if we can help pull something together. We are both very excited about the project, but of course totally clueless! "Learning by doing" seems to have been our motto for the past several years! Fortunately, west SLC has a non-profit that has been active in community building work there for many years now - Neighborworks Salt Lake - and they have volunteered their help. I am sure we will take them up. Plus, our church and a west SLC church plant have recently started a non-profit group called One City Ministries which (I think) is attempting to bridge the east-west divide in SLC. We are hopeful that there will be some partnership there also. So, we'll see what happens. We've read some books, but this is the first hands-on experience we will have. We are hopeful it will lead to something good!

Ok, I am out of writing energy. I will post pictures later (I can hear the collective groans coming from all of you as you read this!!). The kids need to get up from nap soon, so I am out of time!

Quick Story

This little recounting is as much for my own "journaling" as anything, but it is cute so I think others will enjoy. It's late and I need to go to sleep (attempting to wean Satya off her last feeding starting tonight - yikes!!), so this will be quick.

Over the past few months when I put Pace to bed, he has decided on some nights to be particularly cuddly. We brush teeth and go potty, put on his pajamas, read bedtime stories, and sing bedtime songs; all part of the normal routine. Then, when I carry him into his room to lay him down, he sometimes whispers very quietly (Satya is sleeping in there by this point) something along the lines of "Give Dada a hug." So I get down on my knees next to his bed and he wraps his arms around my shoulders and gives me a kiss on my cheek. I give him a hug and kiss back and lay him down, and then he grabs my arms and snuggles. It almost feels like he's treating me (or my arm at least) like one of his stuffed animals. It's so cute that I let him go for a minute or so, before telling him I need to go and he needs to sleep.

It's a very heartwarming and somewhat rare experience, and given my uncanny ability to forget things, I thought I would try to capture a little bit of it. I am sure it won't last forever :(

More to come: Ellen (my sister) visited this last weekend. She traveled all the way from PA on the weekend before her midterms week to visit us! We had a fantastic time, and I will try to pull up some pics to post.

Obama Inauguration and general goings on

This post is mainly going to be pics because I know that's what you all really want anyway! :)

OBAMA INAUGURATION!

Hooray Barack! We were very excited for the inauguration, and Kira's parents got us tickets to view the event on a huge screen at the U of U. Of course, with two kiddos, we were late. So, instead of making a big scene and walking into the auditorium in the middle of the whole thing, we listened to the inaugural speech on the radio in our car, which was quite moving - perhaps even more so without the distractions of the camera. Anyway, we came in after the speech was done and joined Kira's parents for a photo op.


Other recent, fun pictures of the kids:

Look Mom, we really can play together!!

Satya plays it cool with Dad. (She just discovered the fun of sunglasses and had a blast.)

Pace has taken to his new reindeer towel with great enthusiasm. He loves being a reindeer in bed after his baths! (Thanks Uncle Raj and Aunti Nina!)

Romping around together in the "cave" (under Satya's crib). Who said a 3-year-old and 15-month-old can't wrestle??

Hot and Cold Water Bowls

Pace loves to cook! Vegan Pumpkin Bread (especially since he gets to sample the chocolate chips), anything stir-fry (he loves to get out different bowls and separate all the veggies before throwing them into the pan to cook), pancakes, cookies, whatever is for dinner...he loves to cook! "Pace help!" "I can do it! Mama move over!"

Satya had her first cooking lesson today. We practiced pouring water in and out of different sized mixing bowls and stirring. We also did a science experiment to show that metal is a good heat conductor by pouring very cold water into some bowls and warm and hot (not too hot!) water into other bowls. Satya and Pace both enjoyed feeling/splashing in the different temperatures of water and then feeling the outside of the bowls to compare. NOTE: if you do this at home with your own kids make sure to have big towels covering your floor and extra on hand!

In more kitchen news, Satya has been placed on a high fat diet! When she went in for her 1-year-old check up she was just under 18 lbs. I knew she looked thin but I couldn't figure out what more to feed her. She was eating all the time and the same foods Pace was eating at the same age. But apparently she has quite the metabolism or maybe it's because she learned to crawl at 11 months but the girl needed fatty foods. Did you know coconut milk has like 35% of adult daily saturated fat in about 2 Tbsp? So that pancake you see Satya eating, don't be fooled. That's like a circular piece of non-animal lard! Well needless to say, she's filled out those thigh rolls in the last 2+ months. Her next weight check is in a couple of weeks so we'll let you know what her stats are then.