How to grow an orchid.

Orchids are notoriously known as the "difficult plant." My neighbor gave me an orchid for my birthday last year, and I was a little bit intimidated. No one I knew had ever had the guts to take one on, and I have some pretty green-thumbed parents. I treated my orchid so delicately...for a couple of weeks. Then, life got busy and suddenly my tender care was reduced to negligence at best. Now, you know that this is going to get worse, because I didn't even have a baby OR a job at this point. Months pass and I manage to water the orchid every couple of weeks. By July its beautiful blooms had fallen off, one followed by the other around 2 weeks later...shortly after I had proudly announced to my neighbor that I was managing to keep it alive.

My pitiful orchid stood with a stick supporting nothing up its middle for months, and then Josiah came. Welcome to the desert, my orchid friend. It was about 3.5 weeks into Josiah's life that I finally got around to watering the house plants. It wouldn't be so tragic, but I couldn't recall the most recent watering before his birth, either. The poor orchid's roots had grown out of the top of it's little pot, searching for water, begging for SOMEONE to offer it a drink. At Christmas, the topic of orchids was brought up with a couple of my friends. After telling my orchid with a stick story, they both told me that I would need to buy plant food to encourage it to bloom again. I said okay, secretly knowing that I wasn't devoted enough to the orchid to spend $3.29 on a bottle of plant food. I had pretty much given up hope, thinking my orchid was too far gone...then...

About 3 weeks ago I noticed that my orchid with a stick now had more to it than just a painted wooden stick. It had an actual live stem with tiny buds! Stunned, I went out to the store to buy a slightly bigger pot to reward my orchid (and because the roots had grown out the top so much they were starting to look like limbs themselves). On Friday, my orchid's first bloom opened, and as it shines proudly, there are 5 buds growing bigger each day! WOW! Who has even seen an orchid with so much potential?! So, incase you were wondering how to grow an orchid, the mystery has been revealed.

In other more relevant news...
Josiah and I spent the majority of the weekend with my parents, because Jonathan was out of town all weekend. We had a great time visiting them. Last night as we were going to bed, my mom decided to lay Josiah on his tummy to encourage him to talk (alright, so maybe we have figured out he will talk in protest and we occasionally use it against him). As soon as she put him on his belly, he lifted his head, kicked his right foot, and gracefully rolled onto his back. He seemed pretty pleased with himself (we were all cheering for him as well), but we promptly flipped him back on his belly to see if he could do it again. This time he seemed a little irritated that we would ruin his successful work from the first time, but the same process took place--intentional bend of only the right leg, kick, push with the arm, and over. Take THAT, tummy time! Josiah has never really liked tummy time and I think that he has just figured out that he doesn't have to participate ever again! It was pretty funny, and no, we didn't make him do it a third time. I know my limits.

The countdown has begun, as I return to work one week from today. I am not excited about it in the least. I'm not tired of being a mommy yet! I was hoping my resolve would be stronger by now, but I have a feeling I will be crying like a baby when I leave that morning. I have to go back to hospital orientation for two days, and I am still trying to strategize how I am going to pump on those days. The whole thing is in an auditorium, and the only escape is a small, old bathroom with tiny stalls. This could definitely get interesting. I mean, I don't need a lot of space, but it will be more than slightly awkward to be sitting in a stall with the chug of the machine going for everyone to enjoy. Nevermind the smooth re-entry to the workforce as a mother. This day has "traumatic" written all over it.

Josiah just got up, so I better get on to savoring my last week with this sweet boy!