In Which I Dig A Whole Lot And Connor Is A Big Boy

I've had a ton more energy since I've actually had the chance to start sleeping this week.  Instead of doing something productive, like cleaning the house, I'm using it to dig a huge hole in the middle of my backyard.

Yes, it's the season for the Gardening Bug, which hits me every year right around this time.  Right now I'm digging the hole for what will eventually be our new patio.  I thought it was going to take me most of the summer to get this thing done, but it's going much, much faster than expected. 

I think I was basing this on how long it took us to get the deck done, but I'd forgotten that we had to dig the deck down as far as three feet or more in places to make it level, and I'm only digging down about four to six inches, depending on which part of the yard I'm in.  Also half the deck was in an area only about ten feet away from a couple of the neighbors' maple trees, and so was nothing but a giant web of tree roots.  The patio is in the middle of the yard and is blissfully tree root free. 

So in the past three days I've managed to dig out a little less than a third of the patio, mostly by working on it while Connor is in school because for some reason the little guy doesn't find watching me shovel a whole bunch of dirt to be particularly entertaining.  He gets this very concerned look on his face as he watches me work; I think he's wondering whether or not I've completely lost it and if maybe I should go lie down or something.

The birds also seem to think I'm insane, but they also seem to find it highly entertaining, as they've started congregating in ever-increasing numbers on the tree a few feet away from where I'm working.  Every time I take a wheelbarrow of turf over to the area where I'm piling it up (more on that project later) they fly down to see what kind of tasty bugs have been exposed in the area I just dug.  There's one chickadee who doesn't even bother waiting for me to move; he flies down and starts picking things straight out of the wheelbarrow.  Today he narrowly avoided being crushed on a couple of occasions because he didn't want to move out of the way for the next load.  Cheeky little thing.

So besides the hour or so I've worked on it while Connor was in school today and yesterday, I also spent some time out there this afternoon since Jer got off of work a little early.  That way Connor could hang out with him inside and do infinitely cooler things than watching me dig a giant hole-- like watching YouTube videos of people falling down in funny ways and He-Man lip synching terrible songs from the 1970s.  There he is applauding He-Man's performance.  Jeremy is ruining Connor's musical tastes. 

I swear Connor looks more like his daddy every year.  I mean, they have the exact same ears.  I totally didn't realize that until I looked at this picture.  Also that kid is getting way, way too big.  I'm going to have to tie a brick to his head or something.  He's cutting his six-year molars right now and I'm pretty sure next month he's going to be driving the car. 

Slow down, kid!

~Jess