Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Recent Happenings

Lots of exciting stuff going on with us. Maya outgrew her bathtub:

Guys? Really? This is ridiculous.

I've been gardening. These pics were taken 2ish weeks ago, the plants are way bigger now and yesterday we got our first red tomato!!!

Oodles of basil plants, inside & outside:




Habanero & Jalapeno peppers---they're being attacked by aphids, so I don't know if we'll get any peppers:


Lettuces & Spinach:



Windowsill herb garden:


Tomato plant:



First basil harvest:


Mommy & Maya went to KIPP's 8th grade advancement ceremony:


Maya did a Father's Day craft:



We read books:


And go back to doctor's appointments:



(Maya is having a genetic test called a microarray done. The geneticists still feel like some genetic issue has caused Maya's delays and the test will search for microdeletions or duplications which could have caused a syndrome. Results due in 2ish months.)


We celebrated the 4th of July with a yummy cookout in NJ:




Where Maya enjoyed watermelon and chocolate:



We are getting ready to have a big change in September. For the first time in 8 years, I'm not going to be returning to the classroom. I have super mixed feelings about it, but we've decided that it would be best if I'm home with Maya. It will make it easier to schedule appointments and therapies, and give me more hands-on time to work with her. At the same time, I'm going to miss my KIPP family, and hopefully Maya and I will visit all the time.


I'm not going to take the year off entirely, instead I'm going to be working from home with a grad school that's affiliated with KIPP and TFA, among other schools. I'll be helping to evaluate first year teachers via videos, which is web-based and can be done any time, day or night. So I needed to create a home office, and Dave and I bought a desk at IKEA. Now, I love putting crap together (Really. It's very satisfying to build stuff.) . . . but this was intense! It came in 2 boxes that looked like this:




It had this many parts:




After a few hours of work it looked like this:


Finally, all done:



It's normal to have left over parts, right?




We're rearranging our 3rd bedroom to make it more workable with the new desk, and we're back to work (for summer school, which I'm working at but not teaching) tomorrow!

3 comments:

grandma said...

great blog!!!! but even better pics of precious little maya!!! and the garden looks great---that bunny might just hop out of her cage to nibble on those veggies!

Michele Zampino Riley said...

That's great news that the test all came back negative!!! As far as crawling / walking, Dana didn't crawl forever and then one day she just started .. the next thing we knew she was pulling herself up and standing then walking. She didn't walk until around 14 months ... they all have their own pace!!

I have a great formula to get rid of ants, aphids, and mites in the garden .. it sounds a little strange but it works wonders and it's all natural. I had mites attacking my meyer lemon and aphids on my basil and tomatoes and they're all gone now.

Fill up a spray bottle 3/4 way with water. Add some pumps of fragrance free clear hand soap, a little olive oil, some finely crushed garlic and red pepper powder. Shake it up, spray, and enjoy pest-free plants! Works as a spot bug killer too and it's kid and pet friendly. Hope it works for you!

Michele said...

Forgot one ingredient .. mint .. I grow peppermint and ground some up with a mortar and pestle, added some water, and strained out all the little bits from the extract and combined it with the rest of the ingredients.