Growing Palms and Babies

My mind and time has been consumed with the growing of two things:  our gardens and our baby boy.

Every day, there is work to be done in the yard.  Eliot splashes on the pool steps, plays in his sandbox, and throws everything (and I mean everything) he can get his hands on into the pool while I garden close by and Chris continually works on his excavation projects to prepare for more planting.  I push myself further than I should physically and drink too little water for a pregnant lady, resulting in pains later.  Chris tells me to go inside to give my body and fair skin a break.

We've been working hard to transform our backyard for a more, well, tropical feel.  The house came landscaped with awesome flowerbeds and brickwork, but everything was so overgrown that we had a lot of work on our hands.  A tropical backyard has been Chris's dream, and he is doing an amazing job.  I have been eager to take photos of our final product, but there is always so much more to accomplish that will make the yard look even better and more presentable.

Yesterday's work

Four of our six palms.

By the way, that dark area in the pool is an ore that Eliot threw in the pool.  Like I said, Eliot throws everything in that he can find.

Today's palm adventure on the other side of the pool:  a pindo palm.  Chris has been clearing that flower bed for over a week--so many bushes, roots, and four holly trees came down.  Eventually, we'll add two more large palms and another pindo to the fence line, but this is it for this year.  We might plant an agave plant or some flowers too.

We have one more palm to plant--just one more.  I think our backyard work will be finished in the next week.  I mean, we could do more, but we gotta call it quits eventually.  Eliot loves it, though.  He gets to play by the pool and dig holes every day.  That kid gets so many baths and showers.

All of the yard projects help keep my mind off of the baby growing.  I mean, it's not that I don't want to think of him, but I know I could drive myself crazy with the waiting and the growing and the speculating.  What will he look like?  When will he come?  What will labor and delivery be like this time?  How will we transition?  Wait, is my belly button seriously gone now?  I'm at 33 weeks, so I definitely have some time left to ponder the coming of our babe.  For now, I'm trying to keep busy.