Home-grown

The Wagners gave us fruit from their apple and pear trees this year - we got 16 qts. of free (not counting labor) applesauce, and slightly larger muscles from scrubbing the apples. The pears are amazing. I've never eaten pears so juicy in my whole life. Ben, who doesn't usually like pears, even liked them. We're now considering how we can stick a pear tree in our yard, just for fresh eating in a few years.

Mariah is really learning the advantages of speech. She can put 2 words together, she can get help when she's stuck, she can tell on Lily, she can ask for a beverage of choice, she can ask for someone to read to her... Tonight she climbed in my lap and started tickling me (unprompted) and told me that was what she was doing! She also gets lots of milege out of the word "hiding"... Mariah (heading behind the couch), where are you going? 'iding. Mariah, where's duckie? 'iding. Mariah, where's (name anything else)? 'iding. Meaning: I don't know where it is, you go find it!

Tonight, we drove by SIA (Subaru Isuzu Automotive) where they have a huge parking lot with rows and rows of newly manufactured cars. Lily commented as we drove by, "There are cars all over the place."

Oh yes, we bought a van tonight. We've joined the ranks of 2-kid families with mini-vans. It's a Toyota Sienna. 8-passenger. Desert Sand Mica is the color. Theoretically, this is the best mini-van to fit six car seats into, just in case we get to that point. With the IN car-seat laws, we might get there. And then again, we don't really want to dwell on the logistics of 6 kids under 8. Three seems like plenty for now. At least we have room to tote them all around and the myriad of things that seem to go with. I guess the best feature is that there are three spots for car-seat "latches" across the middle seat. The second best feature is that you can be 9 mo. pregnant and get into the back seat without having to do a) gymnastics moves or b) pivot on your big belly. We like Toyotas. But don't tell that to Deda.