I just posted how proud I was of our little tomato plant and the small cherry tomatoes that my son and I had grown, when today my son went to check on the tomatoes and saw two huge bites taken from them!

We are in shock.

Dismay.

How could this happen to our darling little plant?

Here’s the photographic evidence:

This last photo is a bit blurry because I was focused on my son’s hand, but you can get the sense of the size of the bite from this tomato.

Lesson learned: We need to put something around the plant to keep critters away. I’ve got a CSI team investigating the crime.

What started out as a project for my mother to entertain my three-year-old son when I got home from the hospital with my new baby, has become a new family activity.

My mother stayed at my house with my son when I was in the hospital and decided that one of their projects together was going to be buying and planting a tomato plant. They made the pilgramage to the Target garden center to buy the supplies: baby tomato plant (sans tomatoes), potting soil and a small tomato trellis. I had tons of empty pots laying around in my backyard from years of abuse. I had given up on gardening long ago.

One afternoon they went outside and planted the tomato plant together and placed it in a sunny spot in the front yard. She explained to him (and to me) that it would need to be watered every single day. Admittedly, this worried me. With a newborn and a pre-schooler I felt I had enough to do without having to worry about not killing a plant. But, I knew that my son needed something special.

Within days we say the plant grow. It kept getting bigger and bigger. My son was intrigued.

Having the plant in a spot (the front yard in our case) where you spend a lot of time is key. Each time we would leave the house, I would point out something I noticed about the plant:

It’s growing taller.

Look at all the leaves.

LOOK, there’s a tiny tomato!

LOOK, there’s another tomato.

LOOK! The tomato is getting SO BIG!

LOOK! The plant is double it’s size!

LOOK! How many tomatoes do you see? FIVE? WOW!

I started to tell him how the tomato would get bigger and when it turns red we’d be able to pick it and EAT IT. This intrigues him. So, finally, just the other day, my son noticed one of the tomatoes starting to turn red. It’s an orange shade right now. Then, a couple more started turning red.

LOOK! They are turning red!

It’s been a great experience and give us something to do together each day. I like that it also teaches him some responsibility by having to water the plant. Even though this task only take five minutes of our day, it gives us some time alone to do something great together. Take a look at the photos below. I was able to practice with my new lens to capture these photos.

During both of my pregnancies I developed gestational diabetes and was forced to give up all sugar. That means the white crystal stuff that most of use on a daily basis, but also it means all refined sugars like flour, white bread, potatoes and so much else. It was hard. Very hard. I don’t know how diabetics do it every day of their lives. Now that I’ve had the baby I’m back on sugar. I’ll have to take a glucose test in a couple of weeks to make sure I don’t have diabetes, and I’ll have to take this test every year from now on, but for now I don’t worry about it.

Now, I have a new dietary restriction — no dairy. This is a doozey. Just lovely. I only started eating sugar again a few weeks ago and now I’m already restricted again. My 4-week-old baby has reflux and the medicine doesn’t seem to be working as well as I’d hoped so her Pediatrician suggested I eliminate dairy from my diet and see if the baby responds.  Since I’m breastfeeding, what I eat affects her.

I used to tell people … Do you realize how many foods sugar is in? Now, I’m saying Do you realize how many foods milk is in? It’s hard to eliminate it completely …

• Cow’s milk
• Cheese (oh, how I love cheese) — and this means, no pizza
• Cottage cheese
• Yogurt
• Ice cream
• Butter
• Mayonnaise — do you know how much is made with mayo?

That’s only a partial list. I have yet to do all of my research to know all that I should not be eating.

If you have to give up either sugar or dairy, which would it be?

I just finished reading, “How Starbucks Saved My Life,” and find it to be a compelling account of transition in American society today. Michael Gates Gill tells the story of how he was abruptly fired from his corporate, six-figure job in Manhattan. In his fifties, he has to start over, not knowing what it’s like to not have money. He writes about how he comes to terms with the firing and turns his life around with the help of a young manager from Starbucks.

It definitely needs to be a must-read for any job seeker, or person who would like to find a new job, as it paints the picture that there might be something better out there for you.

For me, the book personifies how so many large corporations treat employees. We often are not treated as Mothers, Fathers or people with families. We are expected to leave that life behind when we are in the office. To always be “working.” It’s hard to find a company that really cares about you as a person and that can bend to meet your needs when family situations arise. Compassionate workplaces do exist, you just have to find them.

I’ve worked for large and small corporations and have seen my share of problems. One of my first jobs didn’t offer maternity benefits, which meant that if I had a baby (and took leave) my job was not guaranteed. Furthermore, our health insurance plan didn’t cover babies, so I would have had to shell out the money (100%) for every doctor visit and hospital stay. We fell into the “under 50 employee category” so they weren’t required to offer the benefit. Needless to say, I didn’t have a child while working there and left when I found a better opportunity.

“How Starbucks Saved My Life” is an example of how one takes a lay off and turns it into something positive.  With so many people still being laid off from their jobs — many who believe their job was their life — this book is a must read. Don’t think that if you loose your job, it’s the end for you. You never know, something could turn around for you and you may enjoy it even more than you did the job you went to every day.

Here’s the book description from Amazon:

In his fifties, Michael Gates Gill had it all: a mansion in the suburbs, a wife and loving children, a six-figure salary, and an Ivy League education. But in a few short years, he lost his job, got divorced, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. With no money or health insurance, he was forced to get a job at Starbucks. Having gone from power lunches to scrubbing toilets, from being served to serving, Michael was a true fish out of water.

But fate brings an unexpected teacher into his life who opens his eyes to what living well really looks like. The two seem to have nothing in common: She is a young African American, the daughter of a drug addict; he is used to being the boss but reports to her now. For the first time in his life he experiences being a member of a minority trying hard to survive in a challenging new job. He learns the value of hard work and humility, as well as what it truly means to respect another person.

Behind the scenes at one of America’s most intriguing businesses, an inspiring friendship is born, a family begins to heal, and, thanks to his unlikely mentor, Michael Gill at last experiences a sense of self-worth and happiness he has never known before.

One of the episode’s of Oprah last week was about talking to your kids about sex. What is the best age to start talking about the “mechanics of sex”? The emotional part of sex? Self stimulation? Masturbation? Even … vibrators?

It was an eye-opening episode for sure. Dr. Laura Berman (a sex therapist, who also has a twin sister who is an MD), says that we should start doing this when they are young. On the show, she walked an embarrassed mother through the mechanics of sex conversation, using print outs of the female and male genitalia (available for download on Oprah.com). The daughter was 10.

Dr. Berman says that 10 is not too young for this conversation, and that by the time the kids are in middle school we should have had this first conversation so that we can begin to have the other parts of the continuing conversation as they age.

She even suggests we tell our daughters about the possibility of using vibrators around the age of 15 or 16. As you can image, this caused quite a stir in the audience.

Kids today are sexting on their cell phones and talking (even engaging) in sexual conversations and acts at very young ages. I’m grateful that the Oprah show decided to expose this to us so we can prepare our children (boys included).

This Thursday, the conversation continues on Oprah — what to do if your child tells you he/she is ready to have sex.

Related:

• Dr. Berman created a booklet, “Handbook: How to Talk to Kids About Sex” and is offering it as a free download on Oprah.com.
• Get the free anatomy graphic downloads (internal female anatomy, external female anatomy, male anatomy).