Just wanted to do a quick post while I actually have some down time. McKenna has been doing wonderfully with her new sister. No more hitting incidents, just the occasional roughness when 'giving' her to us, but most of the time she asks us to take her out of her lap and we just pick her up. I still can't leave them alone together. I can't wait until I can trust McKenna enough to do that. Soon she'll be the big sister that mommy can depend upon to keep and eye on her sister and keep her safe. She still wants to pick her up and yesterday was sitting cross-legged on the ground next to Madelaine and picked her up in her arms, and when I saw her she was holding her but then let her thud back to the ground on her back. Needless to say we had a tough talk about how we have to be gentle and how that hurt her sister. I've been trying to show her how to hold her when we're in bed together so that if there's a fall it's a soft one, but she knows she's supposed to ask permission before picking her sister up.

We got haircuts yesterday. McKenna's is nice and short and mine is short all over. I have bangs, and that's the longest length on my head. I can kind of spike up the back a little... it's pretty cool. Literally as well as figuratively!

In other news, I'm being swamped by beans, cherry tomatoes, and yellow squash. Zucchini has dwindled, thank God! I'm at the point where I'm sending squash to work for Noel to get rid of and offering it to friends. I've already blanched a ton of stuff already and the large outdoor freezer is getting REALLY full! I'm happy though... it feels good to grow your own stuff and not have to worry about getting it somewhere else. Kiddo's awake, gotta go!

We're doing well here... Madelaine is getting to be a little chunk. She has a voracious appetite and I don't think I'll have a problem with lack of milk like I had with McKenna. She's a pretty agreeable kiddo and McKenna has been behaving herself and acting very loving towards her sister. We haven't had a hitting incident since I last posted.

I'm recovering pretty well from my delivery. Have to go back to see my doc in 4 weeks so he can make sure I'm healing up well, I guess. I'm able to do a lot more around the house now, so am relying on mom a lot less.

Mom has been helping me blanch vegetables from my garden. Mostly bush/pole beans and zucchini/yellow squash. We're not getting as many tomatoes as I had hoped, as they are gradually coming on. That may be because they are indeterminate, but I haven't been keeping up with the suckers either, so they could be overwhelming the plants. We're getting lots of cherry tomatoes, but I had to cut out some of those vines to give one of my other tomato plants some breathing space. Peppers are doing well... I have bell, anaheim, hot chili, jalapeno, and serranos. We have more peppers than tomatoes, so Noel is hoping we get more tomatoes so he can make salsa. He already made a small batch that I canned, which was my first canning effort. All of the jars sealed, so Yay for me!! :) I'd love to get more tomatoes, so I can try canning them as diced or as tomato sauce. We go through a lot of canned tomatoes in the winter. I may have to start chopping off blossoms on my squash plants or pull them off because they are producing like gang-busters and I can't seem to get ahead of them. Patty pan squash is doing pretty well, but my scarlet runner bean plant hasn't done anything except put out some pretty red flowers. I want to plant garlic this fall and try potatoes and onions next year.