Announcement: BIG, New Project

As alluded to in a prior post, I've had something exciting in the works for some time. And by exciting, I mean life altering: The Dirty Radish is having a baby.

Behold! Sprout doing a ninja kick!

The lack of posting lately has not only been driven by the weather but also my need to take a nap as often as possible. It's been interesting growing Sprout (as we affectionately call the thing growing in my womb). There are lots of similarities to growing a plant & growing a human. I mean, if you're using a seed, it's both sexual reproduction. But there are some key & important differences that have made growing a human far, far more difficult that growing a plant. These include:

1. The "germination" period for a human is much longer than your typical vegetable or flower seed.
   
2. Growing plants doesn't make me tired, sick, repulsed by the very thought of food (and thus, veggie gardening) or craving papaya salad. Or fat, for that matter. Growing plants usually relaxes me and makes me lose weight from all the shoveling, carrying heavy buckets of mulch/compost, etc.
3. You can take a break from growing plants or hand over responsibilities such as watering to someone else (like my husband). But, as the knocked up female, I cannot give away the responsibilities for incubating this spawn. And the symptoms listed in #2 make it very tempting to want to do so.
   
4. Have I mentioned how tired I get?
   
5. Growing plants does not make my hair look this good. So lovely & shiny!

However, it's all still very exciting. I mean, terrifyingly exciting. There's still that anticipation of "Did it work?" (and you know what I mean by "it"...). At this point, it's pretty clear "it" did as I'm firmly planted in the second trimester. Now, my husband & I are both wondering "What *is* it?" just like if a friend gave you some seeds they had saved but not labeled. Luckily, we are 100% sure this is a Homo sapien but the exact variety (ahem, gender) remains unknown! Also there is the "When is it going to come out?" question. Right now my due date is July 8th, but we shall see if Sprout is punctual (like its mother) or a bit tardy (like its father).

As this is a gardening blog, I promise to keep the nastiness that I hear pregnancy becomes away but I cannot promise that future photos of a baby dressed up as a little peapod or ladybug or bunny or, um, a radish won't pop up every now and again in the rapidly approaching future. You've been warned...