Week 29

Everyday this week we've been in the yard! It's great that Shamus gets home from work in the afternoon with enough time (and sometimes enough energy) to take a pick axe to the rocks in our backyard and prepare it for grass seed. We're watering our hill and there's no sign of grass blades yet but we've got about 5 more days till we'll see anything. Shamus did plant this week on one plot of land, which he named Samwise Gamgi. I spent lots of time tilling up the land and picking rocks on a plot that I named Ron Weasley. For correct pronunciation of "Ron Weasley", please watch this short video: Harry Potter Puppet Pals
The other day I called Gram Cronin - the Master of Laundry - about whether or not I could wash clay-covered clothes with not-clay-covered clothes. (Our yard is mostly clay, with a few hundred weeds.) Well, she's from the north and they don't have orange clay under their plants so she just said not to risk it. So, in order to safely experiment, I threw in some white undershirts with the load of clay-covered clothes. I even washed everything on hot and I had no clay on anything in the end! I love my washer! (*Make sure you soak the clay-covered stuff in shout and water and then rinse it out before you throw it into the machine. That's what I did.)
We heard that we only have a month to plant grass (mid-Sept to mid-Oct) so we're planning to plant our whole yard by the middle of October!! That means weed pulling is next!
This weekend is actually free for us! Which means we'll be in the yard, working hard.
Bartok is still busy growing and kicking and such. He's made a big improvement in his appearance: his head is now in proportion with his body!! So he looks more like a "normal" baby... although the Cronins have pretty giant heads in general so he might have Cronin Cabeza. I guess we'll see when he comes out! He's the size of a squash - around 15.5 inches long and around 3 lbs. He'll be around this size for the whole 7th month! By the end of the month, he'll be closer to 4 lbs and 16.5 inches. And he'll still be curled up and looking extremely uncomfortable, but apparently it doesn't bother him. And he'll be super flexible for a while after entering the world thanks to these 9 months of practice! I can't wait to catch him teething on his toes!