Learning, learning, learning

Mim figured out a few things recently, like how to get (mostly) undressed:

This is what she was wearing a few weeks ago when I went to get her in the morning.  Naked on the bottom, and her head out of her shirt.
She also learned how to get up on chairs and the couch all by herself.

She also learned how to climb into the kitchen drawers.

And how to cheese it (she's not in pain, I promise).

And finally, how to hold her phone between her shoulder and her ear when she talks and needs to be hands free.

She's learned a lot of other things, too.  Like where her nose is and where my nose is.  She's also been saying "tickle" for awhile, but I don't think I've written about it.  It used to just be feet she'd tickle, but lately she's taken to tickling any object, like her dinner bowl, various toys, and sometimes the cat.  She also signs please for pretty much anything she needs.  In retrospect, it probably would have made more sense to teach her other signs first, and then teach her to add please, but ahwell.  I mostly taught her because it's so cute.  She communicates pretty well with pointing, so I don't worry about it.

Rose garden... CHECK!

Mike went and got mulch yesterday while I was putting Mim to bed, and then we both applied it.  I'm so excited- not only does it look good, but I WON'T HAVE TO WEED IT!!  Except for a tiny bit around the rose bases. 

The rock border isn't finished, but I knew that would be a work in progress- we'll add on every time we go on a rock hunting trip. 

Mim had a big day on Thursday- she learned to undress herself (when I went to get her in the morning she was completely naked on the bottom, and her little t-shirt was mostly off- she had gotten it over her head, but her sleeves were still on) and she learned to get up onto the couch and the kitchen chairs.  Neither is a really convenient thing for her to learn (at least for me) but it was pretty funny.  And now she gets up on the rocking chair in her room and looks through her books, which is cute.  I have any cute pictures of that, yet, but I do have this:

She's helping Mike play the guitar.

Yard progress!

Mike's tilling up the field, so that's yard progress, but that's not what I'm excited about.  This is:

That's the rose bed.  And the brown line down the middle is the trunk line of my newly installed drip irrigation system!  I did it so I wouldn't have to spend a million hours a week weeding all that dead space in between the roses.  And also to conserve water, I suppose.  First, I weeded it like crazy, then I put down the weed blocker landscaping fabric, then I put in the drip system, and now the only thing left to do is put down mulch over it all, because it's pretty ugly as is.  Plus, I've learned how to do a drip system, which is something I want to implement in our vegetable garden. 

These are also worth an exclamation point.  Peonies are my very favorite flower.  I've also come to love these:

I've never been an iris fan, but they've grown (haha!) on me this year.  Especially these almost black ones.  So cool.
One last reason to smile:

Studious baby.  She didn't even look up while I was taking pictures.  That book she's holding is an abbreviated Nephi story that her Great Aunt Ann (who is also a great Aunt Ann) gave her for her birthday.  It's adorable- all the illustrations in the book are pictures of real-life kids.  Laman and Lemuel always look grumpy or are fussing. 

She woke up from her nap on Tuesday and was playing quietly, so I finished up some stuff before I went in to get her.  This is how she was.  Her leg was very stuck, but she wasn't being sad about it at all.  I had to use lotion to slide that chubby leg out- the mark was still there when Mike got home an hour or two later.  At one point, I was worried I was going to have to cut the crib slats.  And yes, she does have a crib bumper; it's just not as effective as it once was because she squishes it down now.
So, that's what we're up to.  Hopefully have more yard progress to report soon!

I don't have a baby, I have a tiny little lady

That's what Mim thinks.  She loves wearing "jewelery."

(I've mentioned before how she loves to put on "necklaces".  Well, yesterday, she was sitting on my lap on church and she kept pulling my necklace over her head, as well.  Sharing a necklace is not super comfortable.)

And everybody's shoes.  When I have heels out, those are her favorites.

(This outfit was brought to you by Mike.)

The yard. Or lack thereof.

This is what Mike and I did on Saturday (mostly Mike, as I was only available when Mim was asleep):

We rented a sod cutter from Timp Rentals and cut our lawn all up so we can regrade it all.  The sod cutter was crazy.  I used it for awhile and was surprised at how hard it was shaking.  I was also surprised when my forearms started to swell up later that the day.  I felt like I was bruised from wrist to elbow.  Apparently shaking violently for 45 minutes can actually do physical damage.  Mike used it for 2 or 3 hours, but he's ok- he's a lot stronger than I am. 
We get a lot of questions about what we're doing with the yard- so here's the plan.

This is before we started ripping everything up.  There was a cement retainer around the front yard that also enclosed the yard to the north (this picture is taken pointing northeast).  It also bisected the property running east-west, separating the yard area from a field/pasture area (Mike's grandma used to board horses on that side of the property).  This whole project started because we have no need for a field and we want to put a privacy fence in that will enclose the entire backyard.  We didn't want to have 2 levels of yard, either.  We wanted to make the property into one big yard and give it a more cohesive feeling.  So, that meant ripping out the cement retainer wall.

So that's gone now.  We hired that part out, Coleman Xcavation (I'm pretty sure that's how they spelled it) came in with a back hoe and pulled it out.  It looked like pulling teeth- they claw hand would come down and grab a section of the cement, wiggle it back and forth a bit, and then pull it out.  Fun to watch. 
Next step is pulling the sod off, which we did Saturday, and this week will be tilling and regrading the lawn.  And tilling the field (Mike killed everything in the field a few weeks ago).  And then getting our grow boxes in so we can still plant some things before it's too late.  This fall we'll reseed the lawn and maybe get a fence in (but maybe not, because those things are expensive and this has already cost us more than we were planning). 
I decided to publish our plan for a few reasons, 1) because we get asked about it so much and 2) to solicit help.  Seriously, feel free to come haul sod or let us borrow your tiller or something.  Oh, the other question we get asked about a lot- What are we doing with the sod?  We're piling it in the back for now, once it decomposes we'll have some good compost.  We're keeping the back corner of our lawn field-y for now, so the sod has somewhere to go, and because that's where we'll eventually plant our mini orchard and I plan on putting rocks down around the trees anyway, so no point in planting it with grass.  We'll just keep killing the weeds there.

Mim says hi.