Sunshine and Happiness (in my heart)

Ten points to anyone who can name the movie that the title quote comes from!

I am worried about my garden. I just don't have the time to love on it this year that I did last year. My plants are getting tall, but something is wrong with my basil... it's turning black. What does that mean? Is it getting fried in the sunshine? Do I need to move it to a shadier spot? Also, there's rarely time in the evening to get all of my watering done. Between Anja's bedtime and Greta's grumpy time, all hands are needed for the girls so something is bound to get neglected outside. I just hope I can keep a few things alive... at least my tomatoes...

I've decided to start putting Greta down for the night whenever she falls asleep around dinnertime. Last night I tried this, and while it made putting Anja down a little trickier and while Greta woke up a number of times between 7:00 and 9:00, once Anja and Greta were both down (around 10:00) she slept well. She is good at putting herself back to sleep. She was originally put down on our bed but when Martin and I went up there she was awake. So we just sat on the floor for a little bit and when I looked back at her a few minutes later, she had fallen asleep without a peep. She is so cute. Tomorrow she'll be 2 months old!

And speaking of being 2 months old, she had her two-month checkup today and we walked to the appointment. It is an amazingly short walk... I think it took me less time to get up there than it usually takes us to get up to campus. The walk there was delightful except for the sun in our faces and the walk home would've been delightful except for all the silly things that kept happening... like how I kept tripping in little patches of gravel and getting rocks in my shoes, or how we had to go back to get our little baby elephant toy that Anja had left in the waiting room, and the way I didn't get a very tight wrap on Greta so she kept squirming out and getting mad instead of snuggling up and falling asleep. Oh well. It was still a good experience and I plan to walk to all of our doctors appointments from here on out, as long as the day is sunny.

Check out the Cooking Blog to find out what we've been eating!

Sometimes I find it hard to discipline. Anja is a good girl; most of what she does, even if it is less than stellar behavior, isn't something that needs to be nagged about. There are certain things she's never allowed to do, but for the most part, her misbehaviors come from trying to help and not knowing how. However, playing in the trash can is a habit she's had since she learned to walk, and it's one that I have been trying and trying to break for her. But now there's a new twist: she knows how to throw things away! So she'll find something on the floor that really does need to be picked up and thrown away, and she'll go to the trash can and toss it in. But as long as she's in there looking at all that interesting stuff, she often helps herself to other bits of trash. Today she was wandering around with an empty bottle of olive oil and I found myself saying, "Hey! You dug that out of the trash, you scumbag!" I guess in retrospect I could've chosen better wording. It was just such a surprise.

All Greta does is smile and laugh. (Except when she's screaming.) It is soooooo cute.