August 1

What? It's August? That's just plain crazy!

Also crazy is that today, on August first, we were finally able to eat something from our garden. That's right - my poor vegetable garden has been hanging out all summer, the plants growing bigger and blossoming like crazy, but yielding nothing. Until now, that is.

It's pretty sad when one lone cucumber is so exciting, but here we are.

Everyone got a turn to hold the cucumber, inspect the cucumber, pose with the cucumber...

Everyone except Lily, that is, because she was napping inside.

Daisy was appropriately thrilled. After all the picture-taking, we sliced that bad boy up and ate him for lunch.

(Side note: did you notice Daisy's busted lip? Yesterday she was walking - WALKING - down the hall carrying a book, when she randomly tripped, fell, and busted her lip open. Today, she bonked her head into stationary objects like the table, a desk, a chair, at least five times. The girl is in the midst of a serious clumsy spell!)

Chris was at work all day today, and the kids and I did really great. I even got all three of them down for naps at the same time, which would have been perfect if Caleb had chosen to actually nap. But at least he was in his room, in his bed, even if he didn't sleep.

Lily helped me put Caleb down for his nap. She looks much more tired in this picture than he does, and their naps proved that to be true. But crummy 4-year-old naps aside, look at how much Caleb adores his sister! He doesn't even want to snuggle with me anymore; he just wants to snuggle with his Rainbow. Before nap time today, Caleb, Lily and I were all snuggling in his little twin bed when I asked him why he loved Lily so much.

He thought for a moment, then replied, "I love her because she gives me big, slobbery baby kisses, and she snuggles me."

I asked if he would still love her so much if she didn't do anything at all, and he immediately replied, "Yes, I would still love her because she is so beautiful."

He really is a devoted big brother!