Before we had Raina, I had visions of gardening alongside a play pin or with a baby on my back. I think most people are naive about the realities of parenthood before they enter the realm, however, I blame my parents for fueling these visions. According to the stories, I was an easy child. My mom could sit me in a corner at her exercise class and come back to me sitting in the same spot an hour later. Apparently I just sucked my thumb and simultaneously picked my nose most of the time. Raina must take after her father. Stories of him include “hang-dropping” from the crib and running around the house in the middle of night. Raina rarely sits still and two years into the game, I have yet to garden with her around. Don’t get me wrong, being a parent is the biggest joy in my life. It’s also the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Much harder than starting a farm from scratch, not even close!

Since there’s not much room in my life right now for anything other than family and farm, I find myself connecting the two all the time. Not knowing how the world works, Raina thinks kisses magically make ouchies go away, and that someone is always there to catch her when she jumps. I too find magic in the garden. Just today, I stood in awe at a tomato seedling emerging from the soil, its curved hypocotyl paving the way upward (yes, we’ve started some tomatoes already!). And when I’ve gotten in over my head, someone has magically appeared to help me through.

To vent her endless energy we often go “wimming” at the rec center. Today I noticed her climbing the stairs to the waterslide alternating legs up each step. She’s progressed from my carrying her, to my lifting her as she jumps, to right leg leading and left leg following, to finally doing it like a big girl, all on her own. The farm has made these baby steps toward progress as well. Sometimes the changes are monumental like finishing the 100-foot hoop house or putting up the fence. But most of the changes happen incrementally from hard work, day after day.

Though I’ll always remember the day that Raina first crawled, like on the farm, the majority of her development happens right before our eyes without our noticing. Hard as it is, there’s never been a day when I’ve wished I didn’t have to go to the farm, just like there’s never been a day when I’ve wished I didn’t have to be with Raina.