Farmer Kael and his Tomato Grub

This spring Kael broke ground in his veggie patch. He's expressed an interest in growing things since last year and I figured he was at a good age to care for his own plants. I let him select the plants with some guidance (I nixed the hot pepper plants for obvious reasons) and in the end we settled on 3 kinds of cherry tomatoes, jumbo pumpkins and 2 kinds of sunflowers. There's some room left for either green beans or corn. We haven't decided which yet and at this late date we'll probably pick corn.

Anyway, his tomatoes have started to blossom and he's very excited to see them fruit. Unfortunately I've started noticing that the blossoms are breaking off -- most likely due to the winds. Some have survived and we actually have little tomatoes! The kids are totally excited (Malia especially since she loves loves loves to eat tomatoes) and can't wait to pick them. Lately though I've noticed that our tomato crop numbers were dwindling. Knowing that we have a snail and slug problem, I've been keeping my eyes open for them but haven't seen signs of them slimy bugs. I wonder what was taking Kael's tomatoes? My final deduction: it's got to be some really pesky tomato grubs.


Kael's veggie plots. Pumpkins and tomatoes towards the bottom with sunflowers in the top two.


Can you see how the flowers have broken off at the stem? Luckily we have some stubborn flowers that survived to fruit.


I need to devise some sort of wind screen or something to protect them. I'm open to ideas.


A victim of the tomato grub. Poor little guy. Kael was so upset when he saw this.

Upon further investigation, we've discovered the Tomato Grub:



Malia has been harvesting the baby tomatoes before their time. I don't know how many she's actually taken but let me tell you: it was almost World War 3 when Kael discovered it was her.

Good grief, he was pissed. Despite scoldings and talking-to's, Malia still makes a beeline for Kael's tomato patch so now she's under constant watch in the backyard.

Forget the wind screen... I need to build a little fence to keep her out.

What have I done?

So with the pending arrival of Blub, Truong and I have been fooling around with car seat arrangements in the Expedition, trying to find the perfect layout. The problem is we have Britax seats which, for those who are kidless, are probably the largest seats in the market.

Kael has the Regent, which Erin calls the Lazy Boy of car seats. And she's right: the seat is massive. Huge. Ginormous. It's a pain in the ass to move so wherever we stick him, he's there to stay. Because of its colossal size, it's very comfortable and roomy (it is, after all, a Lazy Boy). It's made for kids up to 80 pounds so he'll be in there for a while.

Malia has the Marathon, which while isn't as big as the Regent, it's no small fry itself. Because she's so small, Malia is very cozy and I can see her in the Marathon for a while.

That brings us to Blub. "She" will be riding in the SnugRide - a standard sized infant carrier. The problem is getting all three in the car.

Plan A
We stick Kael in the 3rd row bench. He really liked this because he got to sit in the middle and see everything (only the middle seat in the 3rd row had a top tether anchor). Unfortunately, that left the left side as empty space. I suppose a passenger (like Grandma) could climb back there and sit with him but I don't think she'd like climbing over a folded seat to squeeze in next to Kael in the "cattle section." Also I'd lose trunk space. Between the stroller and my emergency bag that could sustain a family of four for approximately 3 months should they need to live out of my car, I had room for about 2 grocery bags. Never mind hauling the bike, the scooters, the Razor, the helmets, and the sand toys for the park. I learned this the hard way after a trip to Costco. And you all know how much I love shopping at Costco.

On to Plan B
Kael on one side and Malia on the other, leaving the middle empty for Blub. This seemed to work as there looked like there would be enough room for Blub's seat. The problem was mostly logistical: I have 3 kids, who gets to go in the car first?

Do I stick Kael in first and trust Malia to sit in the stroller/shopping cart while trying to keep Blub close by so his stroller wouldn't roll down into the parking lot? No way. She can wiggle her way out of any standard lap belt unless it's a 5 point harness.

Do I put Malia in first, trusting Kael will actually listen to me and not dance around in the parking lot, while keeping Blub close by? Again, no dice. The kid can't sit still for 2 seconds and we're still not convinced he doesn't have a hearing problem.

Or do I stick Blub in first, trusting Kael to keep Malia in the stroller/cart then stick Kid1 in on one side and then run around and stick Kid2 in the other? Uh, no. That would be a lot of running around for me and I'm not a runner. What if it rained?! I'm not running laps around my car in the rain! Besides, knowing me, I'd end up locking my car keys in the car during one of the laps.

I actually tried both ways. In the end, sticking both kids in one side worked well because Malia liked having a "job" to do. Meaning it was her job to walk to her seat, climb in it, and I'd buckle her in. The problem was once the novelty wore off, she started wandering around, goofing off, not getting in her seat. I actually lost her in the bowels of the car, running back and forth from one side to the other trying to get her in her seat. Me being almost 6 months pregnant gives me the grace of a hippo, which doesn't make a pretty picture when I have to haul my butt up into the back of the car, in-between car seats trying to chase down and buckle up a squirmy 2 year old.

Besides, Blub's car seat didn't fit in the middle. We tried this weekend so Plan B is scrapped.

Plan C (we're running out of ideas and Truong keeps mentioning the minivan)
Kael and Malia right next to each other, leaving the side open for Blub. Given that I really need the trunk space and room for Blub's car seat (duh) I think Plan C is the one. I just hope that at 2 years and 4 months, Malia will have some self control to not bother Blub since she will be right next to him and that by that age perhaps she'll start listening to me as the voice of authority.

The older kids loved being next to each other. They played well and giggled and laughed and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

However, once again the novelty wore off. On the way to San Diego, Kael started yelling at Malia to stop. I could tell he was really pissed and when I looked in the kid mirror.... it was all I could do to not laugh. She had taken off her shoes and had her leg swung up and over her seat to touch Kael. He kept throwing her leg off him, yelling at her to stop. And because she was getting such a rise out of him, she of course did it even more, trying her dead set best to get even higher up his leg. I'm surprised she didn't get a leg cramp. It was the funniest thing ever. I told her to stop bothering her brother and of course it fell on deaf ears.

She apparently had forgotten the sibling motto of Payback is a Bitch. On the ride home, she started screaming "Kael! Stop it! Stop it, Kael!" Again, I look back and had to choke back my laughter. Kael had his hand touching her car seat. When she started screaming for him to stop, he took it away and with an evil chuckle, laid 3 fingers on her car seat. When in a fit of rage she tried to throw his fingers off, he laid 2 fingers on another part of her seat. On and on it went until she was beside herself and I had to step in. Kael knew he had her and gleefully sat back, satisfied with his work.

In the meantime, I drove on, going faster so we'd get home sooner, wondering just what the heck have I gotten myself into, having 2 kids with 1 on the way.

She is her mother's daughter.

Kael growing up always grew feet first. Meaning his feet got bigger and bigger while his body slowly followed. At age 4, he wore size 11 shoes. I'm not sure how big that is compared to the rest of the world, but amongst his friends, that was pretty big.

Malia on the other hand always had little feet. It took her a long time to find Crocs that fit and even now, she can only wear the Mary Janes that she got for her birthday (and that's only because there's a strap on top). She fits other shoes but all the cool and neat shoes run in the larger sizes.

I am happy to say that she's now officially a size 5. She may even fit a 5.5 depending on the brand. Her shoe world has been cracked wide open.

Currently she's got a pair of Keens and the MJ Crocs that I know for certain fit her well. No sneakers and with the wacky weather lately, she needs some closed toed shoes to keep out the wet. We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific today and we made it just in time for the torrential downpour. Malia learned firsthand just how (un)comfortable wearing Crocs in the rain was. After her semi-nap, we went to Nordstrom's and got her sized, with the intention of me buying her a pair of shoes on-line for cheap. We'd try on some different brands at Nordie's to figure out a good fit so I wouldn't shop on-line blind.

That was the plan, anyway.

What happened was we tried on a bunch of shoes. Mostly Converses because nothing else out there appealed to me. I saw a couple that I liked and we were about to pack it up and head out. Then Malia saw it.

The "Mermaid Shoes."

Despite what you think, the shoes had nothing to do with Ariel or had any kind of overt marine theme. Her "Mermaid Shoes" (as she called them) looked like this:



OK, so the blue looks like the sea and I guess the pink can look like Ariel's hair, if you squint and look sideways. That's pretty much the only mermaid-y theme I can see. She loved them and Truong said just buy them for her. She wasn't going to let me take them off her and Dad being Dad, couldn't stand to see her disappointed. So I left the shoes on her and took the box to the counter. That's when I learned what the shoes were actually called.

The Tie-Dye Slip-On.

Sheesh. She's barely 2 and already she's leaning towards tie-dye.

Is this my child, or what? I'm so proud of her.

The Ants Go Marching On...

I forgot to tell you all about Kael's latest "pet." Actually, I should say "pets."

On Mother's Day we got him.... an ant farm.

"AN ANT FARM?!" you shriek in disbelief. Yes. An ant farm. It's called Antworks, to be precise. It's made of "space-age" gel that houses and feeds the ants, lit up from underneath with blue LED lights.

We had to buy it for him. You had to see his face when he saw it, then you would understand why I allowed an ant farm in the house. He held the box like it was the Holy Grail and only asked me once, in a very reverent tone of voice: "Mom. This is an ant farm. Can you get this for me, please?" He didn't even look at me when he asked, he didn't use that pleading gimme tone of voice. His attention was completely focused on the box. My heart melted, knowing that of all the things he randomly asked for at Brookstone, this was the one thing he really wanted. The rest he asked for just to ask, like throwing out requests knowing he wouldn't get anything but hey, you never know unless you ask and you just may get lucky.

But this -- this ant farm -- it was crystal clear that this was IT. I played hard to get ("well, let me think about it") just so he knew I wasn't an easy sell. And he didn't say anything, he just stared at the box, as if trying to memorize it. He docilely followed me around the store, not saying a word, not begging, not making promises, just asking me to read every word from the back of the box.

I finally relented and told him that we could get it but only if he promised to be very careful with the farm. He just nodded and continued to stare at the box, in a trance. I paid for it, added $8 for a 2 year insurance plan to replace it should anything happen to it and had it bagged. He insisted on carrying the bag out and when I placed it under the stroller, he wanted to ride the stroller to be as close to the bag as possible. Sometime later, I noticed that he got it out of the bag and had it clutched in his arms. It was still clutched close to his heart in the car, on the way home.

Upon arrival at home, he immediately asked to open it. Now, on an intellectual level, I knew in my brain that there wouldn't be any ants in there. How would they live? However, despite knowing that, and after reading the instructions where it stated "Ants aren't included" I still thought: "well, heck, where are the stupid ants?!" Turns out you have to order the ants. Actually, you could go outside and pick your own ants, but they recommended getting harvester ants for the size. Since it was a Sunday, I told Kael that I'd have to order them tomorrow. That kind of set me up for doom since he asked everyday, at least 4 times a day if the ants came in.

They finally came in Friday and I was not happy that Truong was not home to set them free in their new home. It was about 150 degrees outside so I was afraid the suckers would die from the heat so I had to release them myself. I wasn't about to spend another $4.95 on 25 harvester ants from Utah.

First, let me tell you: Harvester ants are HUGE. Especially when there's 25 of them stuffed in a little vial with a screw top. Second, unlike the worms, ants are fast. I was really nervous that they were going to leap out of the vial and crawl all over my arm. And third, I hate ants! Really hate ants. I'm scared of spiders but I can live with one if I had to. Ants invoke a different kind of emotion in me... disgust because where's there one, there's a hundred just around the corner. Creepiness because there are so many of them. Ugh. I can't stand them.

Anyway, I manage to put them all in. One fell out and made a mad dash across the counter. Miraculously, I got him back in the vial without screaming any obscenities in front of the children and slammed the lid on the farm nice and tight.

And so we all sat there, with our faces inches away from the farm. I don't know what we were expecting, instant digging? but we didn't get much action. They sort of milled around, doing nothing. After a couple of hours they started chewing but not where I thought they would. I had made some holes in the gel to help jump start them but they weren't going there. Great, I bought retarded ants.

By Saturday though, they laid some pretty good groundwork. Did you know that ants sleep? They work and work, and then they all stop in their tracks. The first time I witnessed this, I thought they were all dead, like a mass suicide. But 30 minutes later, they were all action again. You really do learn something new everyday.

So, my final assessment of Kael's ant farm: pretty cool. They are quite amazing digging their tunnels and I can be content watching them work. It's kind of like watching a fish tank. An ant's life cycle is between 1 and 3 months so I have a feeling I'll be placing an order for more ants in the near future.


Kael is very excited about his ants.


Look at how big they are! If any ever escape, I'm tenting the house and bug bombing the hell out of it.


Retarded ants.


Malia's reaction to being told: "NO TOUCH!!"


Kael the bug scientist at work.


Malia tries to be just like her brother.


"This magnifying glass doesn't work!"


This after one day. Pretty cool, I have to admit.

It's GOT to be Dad.

There's no other reason. The past 2 nights that Truong wasn't home they went to bed great: slept within 30 minutes with minimal chatting and goofing around.

Now Dad is back... and they are SINGING!! Or maybe they are just talking -- just at the same time so it sounds like they are singing. Actually, I think Kael is singing and Malia is just talking. Malia is also using her crib as a trampoline -- bounce, bounce, bottom! We had our first gymnastics class today and she was awesome! Unfortunately she's trying out her new skills at home. In her crib. At 8:40pm. Eventually she'll realize that she can't effectively pull off a forward roll without getting a limb caught somewhere.

Looks like it's going to be a long night. I guess I better prepare myself for a 1:00am visitor.

-- I just heard Malia yell out: "Kael! Please! Come in here with Yabba! Please!" What a troublemaker.