After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

This past week brought yet another reminder that our littlest little one is growing up. Till now, Laney's diet consisted of non-homogenized and non-pasteurized milk, but that is now ancient history.  It is now the start of the color wheel. You may remember that Macy's doctor had us introduce foods to her based upon their color and that her first vegetable was Rutabaga. (I'm still not certain how that happened and if you offered me a million dollars to identify one in Publix, I'd go home a poor man.) I can't officially declare that her unusual introduction to food choices is why she has such an adventurous palette, but I'd like to think so. (Just this afternoon Macy was chowing on ceviche and loving it.)

We decided to dial it back a notch with Laney and her introduction to non-dairy products was Butternut Squash. Based upon how things went, I would say that she was more than happy to broaden her palette. It is still early on, but I have to say that I'm amazed at how clean an eater she it. I seem to remember that after every meal, Macy had remnants in her hair and stuck to her eyelashes. I think Laney is just such a good eater and that she's afraid to be messy for fear that she won't have enough to eat. As it is, you'll notice that she's trying to supplement each meal with a healthy dose of toes and feet and you might have noticed but been too polite to mention that she's SOLID. I probably shouldn't be mentioning this, but even with almost a 17 month headstart, Laney is now wearing the same size diaper as Macy. It just doesn't seem right, but it does make changing them a bit easier.

Family dinners just got a whole lot more active. (You might notice a bow painted on Laney's forehead...just ignore it for now. I'll explain more in a few days)

While we are discussing another of Laney's firsts, I want to mention a "third." One of our most dedicated readers just recently welcomed home her latest grandchild, Matthew who joins his two brothers Gregory and Daniel. WOW...a real life "My Three Sons" Congratulation to Marc and Stacey and the rest of the family.

Hi, my name is Scott and I'm a sloppy blogger.

I'm guilty of slopping blogging, a new and  crippling phenomenon in my life. In my haste to get our Halloween post published, I ignored the fact that Annie and I had spent a perfectly good Sunday morning running around with the girls to get a pumpkin and to take some themed photos. So instead of having a nice post about how excited we were about the upcoming holiday and the cute photos we took during our photo shoot, and then providing some "night of" shots, I just blew past the first portion.

Not only am I guilty of bad blogging, but I'm also guilty of not paying attention to my surroundings. After we took the pictures you'll see below, we scoured the pumpkin piles for just the right pumpkin..one with a nice round shape, perfect for carving. Now there was nothing wrong with our pumpkin selection and there was still nothing wrong with having a few of the neighbors kids over to watch me carve out my carefully marked up Jack-O-Lantern. Macy even assisted in the scooping out of the seeds. Where I failed in this task was in overlooking that we live in balmy South Florida. Sunday morning we carved up the pumpkin and set it out for display; by Wednesday morning I was wearing kitchen gloves and holding my nose, as I scooped our now rotted pumpkin into a garbage bag. You'd think after 16 or so years down here that I would know that leaving a freshly punctured pumpkin outside in the elements was a recipe for disaster. By that Tuesday, Annie called me at work to tell me that the bugs had had such a feast with our offering that the rotten pumpkin flesh had caused our jagged tooth jack-o-lantern's mouth to close. I've since been told that I should have sprayed it with bug spray first, but I think next year we'll just keep it inside to enjoy.

I can't promise you more posts or even more timely posts, but I can promise you that I will try harder to provide you with more accurate informative posts that are occasionaly even interesting. It is the least I can do for you, my loyal readers.

You might have missed the recent AP article about our family, so I've decided to reprint it here: 

Today marks what will certainly be the triumphant return of the prestigous "Sznitken Farms". In recent weekends there were sightings of Farmer Sznitken out in the fields, preparing the soil for what will be a corageous attempt to restore the current weed fields back into Sznitken Farms. Obviously ignoring recent history, the Sznitken family is once again overlooking their lack of free time and sleep and instead focusing on the yummy taste of homegown vegetables.

If you remember, Sznitken Farms was formed during the pregnancy of their first child, producing a record amount of organic-like vegetables & fruits. You may be surprised to learn that a small family owned farm owns any growing records, so we should probably clarify that the record is the "Most Tomatoes Ever Grown for 1 Lunch Sized Salad" and that this one salad bowl basically contained an entire season's worth of the fruit. [Tomatoes are fruits--you can look it up]

After the record setting meal was eaten, the family was clearly rested on their laurels, content with their new found fame, and let the farm deteriorate beyond recognition. But things have changed. The 18 square foot farm, often referred to internally as the "garden" is coming back. We aren't sure how they managed such a successful season while the primary agricultural expert was 'with child', but she's no longer pregnant and all expectations are that both little ones are already jockeying for the prestigous title of Directory of Irrigation Services.

"Combined, our daughters have 28 months walking/crawling/lying on this earth, I think they have more than enough life experience to be an asset to the farm", said Farmer Sznitken. He expects that he and his three female farmers will find anywhere from 6-9 minutes a WEEK to focus on the vegetables and fruit.

With this new found vigor and excitement, these weekend farmers are raring to go and we wouldn't bet against them...you just better be around that one afternoon that they harvest the bounty, or you may not get your share of THE cucumber.