And baby makes three (months, that is)

Tonight, my dear, sweet Annabel Jane turns three months old. And my, my it has certainly flown by. Yesterday I packed up several of her cute outfits that she's already outgrown, much to my dismay. She has started chatting constantly, mostly saying "Whooooo" -- sometimes insistently, and sometimes in a more relaxed, drawn-out manner (I would like to think this is because she is cognizant of her owl theme, but really "whoooo" is just fun to say. Seriously, try it). She can do a baby push up, where she lifts her whole chest off the floor and turns her head 180 degrees. She laughs in her sleep. She loves to be read books and poems. She has started picking up toys and shaking them around. She smiles when I act silly. In short, she is seeming less like a baby and more like a little girl each day, no matter how hard I try to hold on to her baby-ness.

As resistant as I already am to my baby growing up, I do love to watch other things grow. I mentioned that I come from two long lines of farmers, so it is probably in my blood to take great delight from digging in the dirt and watching plants spring forth. So, last week, we planted our garden on Annabel's twelve-week birthday. Two years ago we built a raised bed in the backyard and have had success with collards, various peppers, and tomatoes. This year, we got a cherry tomato varietal, a regular tomato varietal, spaghetti squash, a bell pepper, and our collards. I'm hoping our collards will come up -- we planted them from seed that we have used in previous years.

Also, my beloved yellow colander that we got as a wedding gift has started to shed its enamel, thus making me fear it is no longer food safe. I was delaying throwing it away because I like it so much, when Southern Living came to the rescue. The good writers there recommend using old colanders to plant strawberries, which thrive with good drainage. So we are trying it out. It sure would be nice to have strawberries this summer that I know aren't full of pesticide. Not to mention the mere thought that I could successfully execute something from Southern Living makes me positively giddy.

I hope Annabel likes to watch plants grow and dig in the dirt too. You may notice that she isn't too excited in her photo with the gardening supplies. But don't worry, once I described what we were doing with the plants, I got a much more positive response.

We had a big weekend. It's festival time in Atlanta, which is one of the best things about the city. Atlantans are not scared of throwing a festival for any occasion and do so constantly from April to September. On Saturday we went to the Sweetwater festival in Candler Park. The weather was gorgeous, so the festival was packed. We heard some great music and had a good Sweetwater beer, as we normally do at the festival. However, this year we also spent a good deal of time in the family area, which was new for us. Annabel was of course too young for the playground and bounce houses, but I think she liked being around the other kids (and I liked having her out of the crowd, though she was as cool as a cucumber there too).

On Sunday, we went to the Dogwood Festival, which is an art festival in Piedmont Park, 3 blocks from our house. Actually, Annabel and I went through the festival on Friday too as part of our daily walk in the park. I never realized that the festival gets fired up that early, since every other year I'm at work on Fridays. But our real day at the festival was Sunday because we went as a family. Fox and I enjoyed a fantastic lunch from Soul Vegetarian -- those guys make a mean vegan plate of barbequed tofu, collards, and mac n' cheese. We strolled and looked at art, hoping to get something nice for Annabel to call her own when she's old enough. We got a great piece by a local artist who does really great acrylics on wood of Atlanta signage. We picked out one depicting some of our favorite places, and figure Annabel can take it with her to her first place (if I ever let her move out of the house). The Dogwood Festival was also packed, but we had a lovely time. What can we say, the kid likes crowds! Or maybe she is excited about her art.

Thanks for checking in with us. Check back next week for an Easter edition of The Foxes Three. Will Annabel catch the Easter Bunny? Will she be confused as to what he has to do with the resurrection of Jesus? Will I be able to remove the bed from her nursery and sleep in a different room from her? The answers to these burning questions await you soon dear reader, but for now, signing off as a three month old...