1. There's nothing like planting seeds to make you feel eager and hopeful, is there? I just planted vegetables two days ago, and already I'm like a nervous parent, resisting the urge to check the garden every time I go outside. Are they growing? I'm glad it's raining, but is it raining too much? Will my poor seeds drown? Will I get sprouts? Will I? Will I?

2. Even though I do very little to my garden--basically A) plant; and B) water--I still feel like such a success when things grow. Like "See! look what I've created!" Even though I really have nothing to do it. The seed itself is the miracle. I just get a chance to hold the miracle in my hand for a moment, and yet somehow that makes me feel as though it's mine.

3. Evie has reached that 2-year-old "do it myself" phase. These days all I hear all day long is, "No, mama! My turn! My turn!" Putting her clothes on, putting her shoes on, climbing into the car, brushing her hair--she wants to do it all herself. And while I certainly want her to eventually learn to do these things herself, she's just not capable yet. And when we're trying to go places in the morning, I don't have the time to sit there for 10 minutes while she attempts to put her shoes on. OK, let's be honest--I don't have the patience to sit there for even three minutes and do nothing. Part of me feels horribly guilty for not encouraging her independence, and the other part of me is just saying, "When it's time to go, it's time to go!" So I end up just dressing her myself, and then she weeps bitter tears of anger. It is fun, fun, fun, I tell you.

4. Speaking of Evie's hair, I have some issues with it. This child has the driest, flakiest scalp I've ever seen in my life. She'll scratch at it until she's scratched raw spots onto her head. I've tried several different types of shampoo, I've tried just rinsing with water and using shampoo only once a week, I've tried spraying it with leave-in conditioners, and nothing really seemed to help. Yesterday I tried something I read about in an online parenting forum: when I put her in the tub, I coated her head with olive oil, really rubbing the stuff into her scalp well. I let it sit on her head the whole time she played in the tub, for 15-20 minutes, and then I rinsed it as well as I could and washed as normal. Today, her scalp does look a lot better. Not nearly so flaky. But her hair...well, it looks like it had been coated in olive oil. Like I'm the kind of mother who had never washed her child's hair ever in her life.

Has anyone else ever had a kid with scalp issues like this? How can I help heal it without making her hair all greasy?

5. Speaking of hair, I dyed my hair the other night. I switched brands of home hair dye this time, and I thought I picked pretty much the same shade I had been using. Umm...not so much. It's pretty dark. But as my husband said, "Hey, at least your hair matches your eyebrows now." Not that comforting, considering my eyebrows have always been black, even though my hair (at one point in my life, anyway) was a light brown. Oh well. It looks fine--just dark. It will probably lighten up with washings and with sun. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.

6. Speaking of my husband, last night we made no-bake cookies. As he helped me drop spoonfuls of the oatmeal-peanut-butter-chocolate concoction onto cookie sheets lined with wax paper, he said, "When we had these in Canada when I was growing up, we called them bear sign."

And then I laughed at him heartily. I mean, come on! Bear sign? Bear sign? That is such a Canadian thing to do: name a delicious cookie after animal droppings.

7. But hey, even though Eric does spout off funny Canadian-isms from time to time, I like the guy pretty well. As a matter of fact, starting this afternoon, thanks to my parents' generosity, we get to spend a whole weekend together with NO KIDS. That's right--no kids, no responsibilities, just hanging out with this cute Canadian guy. I think I'll be able to handle it. Just barely, but I think I'll make it.