Introducing little Roberto, Baby Bieksa, Little Raffi & Baby Burrows...

Jeff and Tamara Coates are proud to introduce their newest additions.  Baby Bieksa, Little Raffi, Baby Burrows, Little Lou, Little Sami, Baby Manny, Little Samuelson, Baby Christian, Little Schneider, Little Jannik, peppy, little Kesler and sweet, little Sedin are all doing well after their early fight for survival.

Proud parents are counting down to their boys' next big debut.  Tomorrow they take on a fierce, new opponent: life outside on the balcony garden.

We are tentative gardeners.  Right now we have two house plants aside from our baby tomatoes.  But all our plants have names.  It's easier to talk to them that way and encourage them to grow.

We inherited these baby tomatoes from my sister.  She had grown them from seed but was forced to find them new homes after a recent move. In the few weeks they've been in our care (they seem to respond best to Jeff), they've about 6 inches taller! I'm learning how satisfying it is to grow things yourself -- to see  how sensitive and at the same time resilient plants can be...how they bend toward the sun, how they droop when they're thirsty, and practically rise before your eyes with a little drink.

So far it's been a very cost friendly project too.  The seedlings were donated (if you know any avid gardeners well, many will happily share a cutting or two here or there - a nice way to ease in, inexpensively).  I've accumulated some nice clay pots and a couple of bedding boxes over a few gardening attempts over a few years.  Last week I spent $10 on a bag of super soil from Home Depot, and $3 on bamboo skewers that will soon help our little guys stand. 

Who knew good clean fun could come so cheap?