On Saturday, Lemon and I went to the two farmer's markets that are on our street. That's right, two farmers markets, on our street. Both were great fun although the selection was pretty much limited to scallions, radishes, and spinach. All were absolutely delicious, however, and hint at what's to come. I also bought a few little plants, which I installed in our garden this evening (with assistance from the watering can piggy that the previous owners of our house left behind--good of them to do so since I haven't managed to locate an outdoor spigot yet). There's still tons of space left in the raised beds in our yard, so more is certainly to come.
On Saturday evening, I think Papa Bear and I hit a new level of new-home-owner-new-faculty-new-baby madness. We had an early dinner as soon as Lemon went to bed, and as soon as we were done I ran off to Home Depot to buy a variety of things including salt pellets for our water softener. Then as soon as I got home and unloaded the car, Papa Bear hopped in it and headed off to lab. This is apparently our new idea of a good time...On Sunday, we met up with another couple and their baby and went on a walk in Madison's free zoo. We saw all kinds of animals--lion, tiger, giraffe, rhinoceros, meerkat, red panda, and capybara. Which one did Papa Bear choose to photograph? The only animal that Lemon was even mildly interested in was the tiger, since it was pacing back and forth in its enclosure very close to him, where he could see it. Plus, he is fond of orange cats. After the tiger he lost interest and took a restorative nap for the rest of the walk.
In addition to those highlights, I feel like Lemon is really blossoming now. I think it took him until this week to fully recover and make up the ground he lost during the April Plague. He's finally sleeping through the night again (phew!) and eating everything in sight during the day. He's figured out the army crawl, creeping very purposefully towards objects as much as 6 inches out of reach. He's starting to develop little opinions about things (mint flavored ranitidine = bad, cat = good), and his range of facial and vocal expressions is growing every day. He can stand really stably holding on to something with just one hand. It's a very fun time for me, although it makes me realize how soon he will be a year old and leave babyhood behind. Is it too early to be nostalgic?
