Luca Has 2 Mommies (and a brother, too): SUNDAY: Fevers, Food Processors and Five-minute Time Outs

Segundo came down with a fever late yesterday afternoon, making today a "home day" by default. We had hoped to go to the beach and/or hang out with friends today, but it was obvious we needed to quarantine the little hot head. And, not feeling one hundred percent, the poor thing was somewhat unsteady on his feet and wound up falling into a bench in the backyard - resulting in a bruised and somewhat swollen nose. He currently looks like he has the schnoz of an aged drunkard. But - he recovered well. And, since we had at-home projects on our (loose) agenda and since his fever was only low-grade during the morning/early afternoon - staying in and around the house worked out just fine.

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that Primo might be next in the fever line, as his behavior today was less than stellar. Countless mini-tantrums (and subsequent time-outs) added more than a bit of aggravation to our Sunday - but we still managed to get some things done and have some fun in the process.

Debbie set up the kiddie pool and the water table out back so that we could get some gardening done. Some of the plants are starting to show the effects of the Florida heat. They're still faring pretty well, but we had to shift a bunch of things around so that the ones that were becoming afflicted with a "mid-day sag" were moved into shadier spots.

The tomatoes are still doing well - and we've been snacking on them as they ripen.

Luca has been good about asking before he picks them, but I don't think many of them will be seeing the inside of the kitchen.

I also don't think I will ever get tired of discovering those tiny, new tomatoes.

The cantaloupes are steadily growing. I counted seven that are well under-way, and getting bigger by the hour.

And - we figured out that we're growing long beans.

They're not kidding about the "long" part. There are already a bunch of them that are measuring about twelve inches.

Some of the basil plants aren't doing all that well.

I'm not sure if it's too much sun, too much water, not enough water, etc.

I moved them into shadier spots and am hoping for the best. Since some of the leaves weren't looking that great, I decided to put them to use before it was too late to use them at all. I didn't have enough of any one variety - so I picked some of each of them (Spicy Globe, Thai, Mammoth and Italian Sweet).