The Worm and Cookie Monster
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had anything to post. We’ve been busy taking care of the garden. I put in about 20 tomatoes in the last few days, a pumpkin (for Marshall), and a zucchini plant. I’ve sowed a lot of peas and other seeds – I’ll have to see if they come up. It’s amazing how much I can get done with the early Daylight Savings Time this year. I love it!
As you can see from Marshall’s outfit (overalls), he was outside too. I spent two hours removing a patch of invasive Euphorbia in the front yard. All the while he was playing with a huge, fat earthworm. At one point he had it in his hand and was just staring at it. I kept telling him to be gentle with the worm (in the same tone of voice I tell him to be gentle with the dogs). He was holding it with such force that if I didn’t intervene his new little friend would soon be dead, or squished into two pieces. The worm kept contracting, expanding, wriggling, struggling to escape the toddler’s death grip on him. Marshall was fascinated with the wriggler. I appeared nonchalant and cool about it but inside I was wondering how long it would be before he tried to eat it. Eventually he attempted to put it in his mouth, and I caught him just in time (EEEeeewwww!). That’s when I grabbed Mr. Worm and tossed him back into the freshly dug up dirt. I was amazed that he was still in one piece. Traumatized I’m sure but still in one piece.
We went back inside and I gave Marshall a pencil, a highlighter, and a piece of paper to draw on. I kept a keen eye on him as he scribbled away (my nightmare would be if he scribbled on the kitchen cabinets). Somehow he ended up with pink highlighter on the top of his lip. You can see it in this photo: 
Later in the evening, I made a batch of cookies. Marshall loved watching me drop the cookies on the sheet and made the sign for cookie – over and over. We had to explain to him that they needed to be baked first and he actually was patient and waited! Here’s a photo of me and him hanging around the oven. He’s pointing to the cookies inside while signing “cookie”. 
After the cookies were removed and cooled, he got the first one. 
As he kept eating his cookie Marc laughed as he watched Marshall uncontrollably make the cookie sign over and over and over…