Learning from Richard Scarry

One of the fun parts of growing vegetables, for me, is learning how the plants actually grow. Vine, bush, or whatever. We planted some corn, which is now growing quite well (although somewhat strangled by beans). The other day Craig asked me if the corn was going to have more than one ear per stalk. My response was, "I don't know. I assume three ears, since that's what corn looks like in Gavin's Richard Scarry books." It's always good to get your cultural knowledge from children's books. [And, just FYI, learning experience for growing beans: don't do it in an enclosed bed where you will then need to 1) crawl inside the bush mass to pick beans, and 2) dress in long pants and sleeves so you don't get a rash from the leaves. ]


Gavin loves the Richard Scarry books (thank you, Carol). His favorite story these days is about Pierre the Paris Policeman who captures a robber. Now when he's taking something from the kitchen (a bag of pretzels or the salt shaker, for example), he runs around the kitchen yelling, "Stop that robber! Stop that robber!" He's also started quoting Officer Monty of Monaco who says to "always walk on the sidewalk". I keep reminding Gavin that he also says, "Never push or hit. No one likes a bully." But so far, Gavin's not really taken that advice to heart.

As a result, Graeme is getting quite good balance. He mostly gets a kick out of Gavin's attention, and I'm sure he's just giggling because he knows he'll be fairly equal in size pretty soon.