backyard oasis

one thing i love about my parent's house is all the time and work they have invested into the yard. i am not a gardener, i convince myself that i am sometimes and then i plant a bunch of things excitedly and then neglect them to death. i aspire to one day have a yard like this.

hopefully once caleb is older and planting and gardning is an experience for us to share and that he can enjoy and learn from, my mommy-determination will override my gardening laziness.

it has been so fun to watch caleb explore (with help) all the flowers, plants, trees, and grass, and to spend a fair amount of time enjoying the outdoors. we discovered quickly that the grass really frightens him (we think it's the prickliness) but he has started to overcome it and has voluntarily wandered over and started investigating it on our backyard baby picnics.

my mom also loves birds and has quite a few feeders to attract them, so caleb has been able to to some birdwatching. but everyday birds are not the only things finding their way to my parent's yard. a pair of ducks have now visited twice that we know of, and appeared to have even gone for a swim, and yesterday morning we discovered that a baby snapping turtle had crawled all the way from a nearby creek. thankfully brave uncle jake was willing to transport the feisty little guy back to where he had come from.