On apples, waffles, and 221b Baker Street

[silverbromide]

We managed to pick several pounds of apples, a bunch of peaches and a handful of plums on Saturday. While Jim made pickles from the cukes and dill from our garden, I put together what was supposed to be plum jam. We didn't have enough plums to make a proper pot of plum butter like we did last year, so I followed this recipe, which uses methods

Comments

[omizu]

Start with the basics Tiff, good old fairy tales. :3 And mother goose nursery rhythms.

(and by old I really mean not the originals, but not the disney versions either)

[silverbromide]

Most fairy tales are usually a little too long or wordy to keep his interest right now. I have a bunch from all different cultures, but he won't sit through them yet. They don't rhyme or have sound effects. :o) (Plus I have a problem with imbalanced gender roles, but that's a completely different post...)

Nursery rhymes are a good idea, though... I know we have a book or two of those. Thanks!

[chiashurb]

I believe I read recently that squash bugs like hubbards best of all, and that people sometimes plant them to protect their other crops :-{

How is yours doing? I know kiarrith and Mark have an enormous plant growing in their garden, but no fruit yet.

[silverbromide]

Oh, really? I thought I read they were squash-bug resistant. Maybe it was some other kind of atypical but not uncommon squash. Will investigate.

We have lots and lots of squashes growing, though squash bugs are starting to infest the leaves and vines. We need to spray them with neem and sprinkle ash again. The squash bugs seem to like the butternut best, eating the fruit and everything before they're even ripe.

Did they only plant one vine? I wonder if squash are self-fertile...

[chiashurb]

My understanding is that squash are self-fertile but that if you allow them to be visited by the local bee population, they will likely be cross-pollinated with every cucurbit in the neighborhood. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Save some seeds and next year you might have a squash that nobody has ever seen before!

[silverbromide]

Huh! I knew cukes were like that, but didn't realize they'd cross with other cucurbits. Neat! We'll want to be careful with our cukes next year and if we ever succeed at growing a tasty melon, but I feel that squash can interbreed like cats or apples and always be interesting. Good to know!

[angus_mcnitt]

Just make stuff up. Pretend that everyday items are more then they are. Pull aspects from the shared little bit of TV into everyday life.

Maybe try have Connor build off his fantasies as is. Help him go hunt a dinosaur, then cook it and wash his dirty hunting clothes when done.

Just guessing. As I have no real kids, I guess based off of the students.

PS: From my mom: "And she's upset about that? Hell, it took my over ten years to teach you that stuff and even then it didn't quite stick."

[silverbromide]

Heh, well it's not "upset" so much as mildly concerned. :o) I also wonder if the glamour and intrigue of being able to wash clothes and cook at will is going to wear off by the time he's old enough to do it alone!

I could try harder at pretend with him. I've attempted to play animals (Cat or some other familiar creature) with him, but he just looks at me crawling around and purring like "Mommy's silly!" and goes back to cooking his marbles. I'll try some games like suggest, he might get into something more active.

[angus_mcnitt]

Well, if he's cooking his marbles, at least he's not losing them.

I asked one of the Docs here about. She said that his behavior is totally normal and you should she a migration toward fantasy in a year or two. Right now he is in the money see, monkey do developmental phase. Her only suggestion was lots of crayons and fantasy related colouring books. There is supposed to be some trigger there.

Considering the parents, I don't think you really need to worry about it. :)

[keyake]

I liked Beatrix Potter a lot as a kid, and there was some book of myths child-bite-sized with pretty pictures that I really liked too. And anything about dinosaurs.

[zanduar]

Those old golden books were what I grew up on.

http://www.randomhouse.com/golden/