Recap

It really feels like Spring has sprung around here. This weekend was so great. The windows were open and we cooked out on our brand new grill. I made barbecue baked beans and cut up giant amounts of fruit from the local market. We saved some of the watermelon seeds and are going to plant them...somewhere. Last year I had watermelons growing in my compost pile. It was fun. Sometimes things really are free. I also plan on growing pumpkins from our seeds from October. If these experiments don't pan out, no big deal. I've only sacrificed a little grass and some water.

I also made sweet potato baby food, which New Baby just LOVED. He was covered from head to toe. And it was so easy, I doubt I will buy any jarred baby food at all this time. I had a neighbor give me a bunch of jars of baby food left over from her baby that are still good. I sent a good bit of them to the sitter and kept just a few. When she runs out, I will send her frozen stuff I have made ahead of time. I am kind of excited about it, actually. Of the jars we have, a lot of them are meats, which I never used to buy because they look just like cat food. Blek. If all else fails, I might actually feed them to the neighborhood cats! Who will, to pay me back for my kindness, probably poop in my pumpkin patch.

Our yard was filled with neighborhood kids yesterday. Brother was displeased about this because, frankly, he is a grudge-holder. Many of the kids had pissed him off in one way or another and he plain didn't want them around. I tried to reason with him.

Me: Honey, look at all these kids! This is great! You used to love having kids over.
Bro: They just want to be here because of the swing set and the barrels and the Nerf guns and the cool mom who gives everyone treats!
Me: (flummoxed) Isn't that what you want? Isn't that what every kid wants? I am pretty sure that is the wish on an episode of Fairly Oddparents!

But that's apparently not what Brother wants. (But he is not the only kid in the house who needs a social life, so he is overruled.) Brother wants his select friend (singular) to hang out. He sees all the other kids as 'using' him. And it does suck when kids want to come over to play with your stuff and not you...but they might be more willing to play with him if he weren't so grouchy about it all. He is totally my payback for being such a grouchy negative kid. I keep chirping at him, "Change your attitude, change your life!" which is stolen from Erin. But I think it is better than my parents' approach: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't talk. Boy, did I hear that one a lot.

Ah, parenting.