Zach's Binder

A couple of weeks ago I suggested we start a binder just for Zach. He sees my binders for recipes, gardening, plant information, and Home Improvement. Altogether I have 9 binders. He loves his binder. Originally, it was supposed to be pictures of his garden, decoration shelf, and recipes. Somehow, it became more. 

I started by taking a picture of his garden on March 2nd. You can see there has been growth. A couple of days ago it was beautiful so I got my Pansies and planted them while Zach was in school and after lunch we went to get Pansies for my garden at my parent's house and Zach's Pansies. He was so cute looking at all the Pansies and carefully choosing just the right pack. It was a lot of fun planting first his Pansies then going to my parent's house to plant mine for their garden. I'm now in Spring 2 in my garden.


My Garden Spring 2 March 13, 2013

Spring 2

Japanese Holly

Single Chair

Double Chair

Decorations

Pansy

Pansy

Pansy

Pansy

Spring 2

Japanese Holly

Single Chair

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double Chair

 

Decorations

 

 

Pansy

Pansy

Pansy

Pansy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pansies droop in the cold but can survive down to 20 degrees. Today he saw them drooping and got concerned. I was yesterday too until I learned that they will be fine but the Pansies in pots should be covered at night while the ground is frozen. I double checked at the nursery and while we were there the first thing Zach wanted to do was look at the flowers before going inside. After that, we got more pots for covering.

For Zach's Pansies we put them in the smallest cups they make but after getting new pots yesterday I am considering moving them to those pots (and using the small ones for cover) when the ground thaws. That might still be a few days. If they get moved Zach will help. He takes such pride in his garden. Now he has a picture with his Pansies from the warm day they were planted.



Zach's Garden March 13, 2013

The next section of his binder are pictures of all his decorations. I had him set up the self just how he wants it for each season and took a picture of each. There are four pages now, each with the shelf for each month of that season on it. He had a lot of fun setting things up and still looks at the pictures. Here is the March shelf:

The third section is for recipes. I take pictures of his favorite dinners and include the recipe underneath. That way, when he's older, he already has his favorite recipes. So far he has my Chicken Catchatore recipe and Breaded Chicken. Here is the recipe for Breaded Chicken my way. Zach helps me with the flour part sometimes:

 

Breaded Chicken

 

3 – 4 Chicken Breasts

1 – 1 ½ c. All Purpose Flour

1 – 1 ½ c. Italian Bread Crumbs

1 egg for each Chicken breast (1 for every 2 Veals)

½ C. Canola Oil

               

                Cut the fat off the chicken and cut it in half

Or Cut the fat off the Veal and tenderize (pound with cooking hammer)

Put the eggs in a bowl or dish, mix with ½ c water and beat

Dip the meat in the flour, egg, and bread crumbs (in that order)

Put the oil in the skillet and cook the meat until browned on each side

 

The last three pages are just pictures. He randomly wanted to walk around the apartment and take pictures of his favorite things. They include his football, his watering can, his magazines his taggies, his Transformers: Prime figures, his stools, and his DVD and CD shelf. For a Christmas gift, My mom subscribed to the awesome National Geographic KIDS ages 3-6. I highly recommend it. He loves getting the mail and it's a great magazine. It was interesting to watch him walk around excitedly choosing things. The second to last page has two pictures of the two of us together. One is the picture of me holding him in the hospital the day he was born. That's in the Why I'm A SAHM post and below. The other is of us watering a newly planted Aster in my Mom's garden in September. The final page is two pictures of Zach with Daddy. The first is a favorite of mine from Josh's first Father's day. It's Josh about to change his diaper looking at me right after saying "Really, you're going to take a picture of this?" Zach was in his sleeper on the changing table kicking his feet at 12 days old. The second picture is of the two of them setting up the Christmas tree this year.

 

 

 

 

I did for him what I have in my garden binder. I have a snack sized plastic bag stapled to the pocket to keep the tags from my flowers in. Zach has his Pansy tag in his and a couple of Mums tags that were from his Mums from the Fall. He loves looking at those.

I was inspired by him to take pictures of my own garden. As it reaches each new stage I am taking a picture. It means this Winter, when I miss my garden, I still have the pictures to remember. It's not the same but it will help. When we got the pots to cover the Pansies I also got a few to cover the Cabbage in the Winter. Hopefully, that will help it last longer. The plants need sunlight so only cover at night.

This morning Zach sleepily came into my room saying he was ready to wake up but struggled to keep his eyes open. I pulled him into my bed and into my arms, snuggling like we did every day at nap time and in the early morning when he was a baby and toddler. He reached out for me in his sleep periodically over the next hour making sure I was still there. It was HEAVEN!!! I treat each snuggle like it could be the last. I cherish them as I always have. As Zach grows the binder will change and he might get more binders. But at this sweet age of 3 3/4 that binder and all the bonding memories it contains is something he loves. That binder will always be cherished by me too.