June 21, 2018
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| Maddy and her new cousin. |
It is tough to be four years old. Maddy reminds us of that all the time. 40 years old, 70 years old or even great-grandma at 102? To her that's nothing. We just don't understand what it is like to be four. This fact reared its head this past week as we celebrated a new arrival into the Bokor family. My youngest sister (the one from the hard-to-ID canoe picture a few weeks ago) just had her first baby - a beautiful boy! The day he was born we headed to the hospital to jockey for a chance to hold him. We promised the girls that they would get a chance to hold him as well and of course gave them the typical lecture: hold his head, no bouncing and be gentle. We haven't had a local cousin in the family since Maddy was born, so we were all beyond-ourselves-excited. The girls sat in a chair held him, patted him, cooed over him and sung to him.
But then a little misunderstanding reared its head. We wanted to give my sister some space and figured it was about time to go home. So Kim and I exchanged the 'time-to-go' look and started to indicate to the girls that we needed to say our good-byes. Maddy emphatically said 'I didn't get to hold him.' Since she had (we have pictures to prove it), we told her that it was time for him to take a nap and that she would get more chances to hold him very soon. Her response was again 'I didn't get to hold him. It's not fair. Everyone got a turn except me.' And suddenly, nothing we said calmed her down. So we made a less-than-gracious exit with her under my arm kicking and us trying our best to keep the crying under control. You've been there parents. When the magic words that will make a child go 'Ok everything's fine' elude you. Nothing worked this evening. We headed to the car and it wasn't until we were halfway home that she regained her composure. We just chalked it up to her being over-tired from a late night the evening before.
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| Abby and her new cousin. |
And then two days later, she came to us and said that the reason she was so upset is that she thought 'holding' and 'standing' were synonyms. So she thought we had told her she could stand and walk around with the baby, not just sit with him on her lap. We were flabbergasted (mostly because she used the word synonym), but also because she laid out a perfectly logical reason for why she had been so upset. Now, if she had just explained that to us at the time, maybe we could have patched things over without the embarassing exit. But we got to the root of the problem and she had a great visit with her new cousin the next day (and happily sat and held him).
Now she and Abby are already scheming about all of the fun they'll have with him as he grows up. I think they've already made a place for him in their outdoor clubhouse and are planning where he'll spend his first sleepover. We don't have the heart to tell them that some of those things may be a little ways off, so we'll let them keep dreaming!
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Happy Gardening, The Kerby's Nursery Family 
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| It's always fun to watch hummingbirds. |
Create a Hummingbird Destination
Hold your hands out to the side. Now try to flap them 200 times per second (not per minute, per second). Can’t do it can you? A hummingbird can! Just one of the amazing facts about these beautiful little birds. They arrive in Central Florida during the summer, so be sure you have lots of summer bloomers to make your garden a hummingbird destination.
1) Plan for their arrival - Male hummingbirds arrive in March with females arriving a few weeks later. Hummingbirds will feed throughout the summer until they begin migrating south for the winter.
2) Types - The most common hummingbird in Florida is the ruby-throated hummingbird.
3) Plant Red and Orange - A variety of flowers will provide ample food, and since hummers have a preference for red and orange, those should be your colors of choice. Some of our favorites are: firebush, coral honeysuckle, red salvia, orange plume flower and red firecracker.
4) Fun facts - Hummingbirds are only three inches long and weigh about the same as a penny. They flap their wings up to 200 times per second and feed every 10 to 15 minutes all day long.
5) Plant Multiple areas - Hummingbirds, especially males are territorial when nesting and feeding, so plant flowering bushes in a few areas to allow the most hummingbirds to be a part of your garden.
| Summer Blooms | ||
Orange Plume Flower Beautiful color, compact growth 10" Pot - $16.99 |
Coral Honeysuckle Florida Native 10" Pot - $24.99 |
Firefly Firebush
Tubular flowers, compact bush 10" Pot - $16.99 |