Practice by shopping for ripe melons at the market. Get good at it. A ripe watermelon will be heavy for its size. The "ground spot" will be cream colored, and won't be ripe if still green or white. Put the melon to your ear and tap the melon with your finger. The tap is performed by touching the tip of your first finger to the tip of your thumb, as if giving the "ok" sign, and then give a little flick of your finger. Hit the melon with the flat surface of your fingernail. The sound will be a dull "punk" when tapping with your finger. If you hear "pink", the melon is not yet ripe. On the vine, check for the closest tendril to be dried up. There can sometimes be a little "spoon" leave that dries up as well. Splits in the vine leading up to the melon is a good sign as well. From there, followup with checking the ground spot and finger tap as you would at the market.

Tim, do you know how old they are? If they are peaking out for food, and there's no parents, they could be just about to fledge! Look and listen for the parents singing or calling nearby. If they are of age, this is a dead giveaway that they're leaving. However I had parents BOTH disappear this season and the 5 young prematurely fledged, probably out of hunger. I had to take them to a rehabber. So try to see if the parents are anywhere nearby. They can be obvious when they try to get the young to come out of the box. ~Tim, #2~

Well we never ended up doing anything with this. Since she did have a very large vocabulary at a very early age (her 1st words were "bye bye" on the video camera at 7 mos.) so it was just a couple of mos of this period where she'd get frustrated with not knowing how to tell us things, even though she already had the words in her vocabulary. She just needed to know how & when to use them, which came on it's own. She's now already pretty good at telling me what she wants herself. My sister is a speech pathologist & tested her verbal skills recently. My daughter was 16 mos at the time & we stopped the test at 23 mos - she was able to say or demonstrate she understood EVERY item tested for, which means she test for at least what a 2 yr should be able to do & probably more, but we didn't know since we didn't continue the test. I told my husband when she was born that she'd speak early if we constantly spoke & sang to her. I think it's paid off. Michie

The 3rd group is now complete with the inclusion of Nancy (stitches). This group is to be called "Ribbons and Bows". I have written out all the details for each person in the group and am now just waiting on Nancy (stitches) to send me her information. As soon as I have that, I will email the completed group information to you all. We now have 3 people on our emergency list, willing to fill in if someone has to withdraw. If anyone else would like to be on this list, then let me know. From emails I've received, we have some very keen quilters indeed. Some people have completed half or more of next year's blocks already! This will save a lot of time next year and ensure they send their blocks out early for each person's birthday. Well done! Kristene