Willard Family Adventures: I'm learning

We planted a garden this summer. In the past, we've had a few tomato and pepper plants, but never a true garden, since we had little to no sun in our yard at our old house. Since

we have the opposite situation here, we thought the conditions were ideal to give our first garden a try. You may remember my parents hauled their rototiller up this spring to help us get started. Scott built a rabbit-proof fence, and I planted some seeds and a few plants. Then we learned a few things:

1. You don't need to water a new garden every other day. Only the lettuce came up from seed; I think we drowned everything else. We learned, and planted another round of seeds. Less water this time.

2. We didn't need two and a half rows of lettuce. In my defense, I had no idea how much lettuce would sprout from those seeds. But we now have enough lettuce to eat a salad every day, and then some.

3. We don't love the lettuce variety I planted - Simpson Elite. It's a little bitter. We'll try something else next year.

4. Cucumbers and squash take over the world. I wasn't really sure how big of a garden I needed, and it turns out it should have been quite a bit bigger, particularly with a big 'ol area for the cucumbers and squash. Similarly, when I saw how well the cucumbers were coming up, I should have thinned them out a bit. As a result of these two missteps, we now have vines wrapping around everything possible - the tomato plants, the pepper plants, even the green beans themselves (see photo). We have one squash growing at the very top of the fence, where it wound in and out of the chicken wire. I can't imagine it's going to make it as it gets heavier, but we'll see!

Despite, or perhaps because of all of these lessons, it's been fun to literally watch the garden grow. And we're enjoying the bounty - particularly the yummy cherry tomatoes from the plant Jamie gave us. Oh, and if anyone needs cucumbers, let us know - we're about to have them coming out of our ears.

The other lesson one would think I would have learned by now is about toys. Perhaps you can relate - I sometimes find myself on the never-ending quest to find the perfect toy that Zach will absolutely love and play with forever (independently, of course). But, as all you parents know, kids don't really even need toys. I remember when Zach was (and still often is) more interested in the packages than the gifts inside. I have seen him entertain himself with my tupperware and pots and pans. And a flashlight? Heaven.

But apparently I need regular reminders of this fact of life, and I got yet another one the other day. We went to the 3M family picnic - a lovely barbecue held at a pavilion at 3M's Tartan Park, complete with a (very old) playground, bouncy castles, a big inflated slide, a climbing wall, etc. Little of which Zach would go in or on - although he did get about 90 seconds alone in the bouncy castle before more kids climbed in.

Anyway, as part of the festivities, the kids received "prizes" - basically every kid's name is entered into an age-appropriate raffle, and they call the kids' names one by one so they can come up and claim a prize. When I looked over the 0-3 bounty, I thought - uh-oh, Zach is going to want to choose from the 4-6 group. The prizes for the younger kids were primarily baby toys, more appropriate for one year olds. The 4-6 year olds got to choose from wiffle ball bats, basketball hoops, etc. Well, when Zach's name got called about halfway through his age group, he had no problems charging up there and picking a prize.

What he chose: a round plastic tub containing bath toys. Age listed on this package: 6 months. Interesting choice buddy. I'm sure you can see where this is going: in the last week Zach has had an absolute blast playing with the fish, boats, nail brush, comb, and rolled-up washcloths that came in this bath set. Particularly the washcloths. He also, of course, has been using the container as a drum - I did see that coming. What I didn't imagine was the games he'd create with the rest, including the ribbon that came as part of the packaging... endless fun and games.