Suddenly a big boy! Joshua's first haircut

 

The first haircut is so hard for me as a mommy.  After all, that feather-fine, fly away, uneven mess of  hair is what my baby was born with!  His birth hair.....some of it did fall out, but those wispy curls you see are his ORIGINAL hair.  Yet, the time had come when the drawbacks exceeded the cuteness. The length was making him too hot and sweaty during hot afternoon naps, it was going every which way over his ears....it was time.  So I impulsively took the opportunity one morning in our backyard.  

 Before view from the back:  Looks greasy, but that's just strawberry jam.  Really.

 I was in shock for about 4 days after the haircut because Joshua looks so much like a big boy now.  Is it possible he's only 13 months old?  His resemblance to Jonathan increased dramatically with the haircut.  If it weren't for the size difference, I'd have a hard time telling them apart!

Preschool science -- Avocado tree!

So we did the ol' put-an-avocado-seed-in-a-jar-and-see-it-grow experiment.  For two weeks, nothing happened, but then sure enough it DID grow!  After a while, I realized that it would need more to live on than just water, so we had a transplanting lesson the other day.  I didn't get a before picture of the avocado still in it's jar, but by the time we got around to transplanting it was over a foot tall with a good root system and at least a dozen slightly caterpillar-nibbled leaves! 

The boys are very excited to be, not only outside, but encouraged to play in the DIRT!!!

Jonathan did most of the digging all by himself.  I just had to loosen the topsoil a little bit. 

 

Of course Joshua had to sample the dirt while big brother was doing the hard labor!  

 

 The seed is almost covered with dirt.  Just another shovel or two. 

And some water...

 All done! 

Foliage 1 -- Bananas and a "basket tree"

   We have some small banana trees in our back yard that have never born fruit.  We recently discovered that one of them is growing its first bunch of bananas .....stay tuned for progress!  We're going to have to get some help from the neighbors to know when to pick them. 

 We saw this fascinating tree while out on a walk the other day.  It was rainy, so that is why the picture is so gray.  My first thought is it looked like a pineapple tree ....which I knew was impossible since pineapples grow on the ground! 

Closer inspection revealed the pineapples were simple baskets placed over the fruit of the tree to keep it safe from birds until ripe.  I couldn't help but wonder who had the job of climbing out to the very most fragile branches of the tree to apply the baskets!