Baby Spruce is a Dwarf Alberta Spruce we planted in September of 2013. He quickly took on a life of his own, including his own Twitter account. You can follow him @BabySpruce1.
I used to blog about him regularly on a website called Bubblews,com, but it went down the Internet black hole without any notice. So did most of the pictures I had when the computer died. I thought they were backed up, but can’t find that info.
So, here is a quick bullet-type journal of Baby Spruce’s milestones:
2013
- September 29, 2013: Arrives at the Heepies home (Tom and Alex) in Des Plaines via Home Depot and happily settles into a wooden planter.
- October 15, 2013: Survives his first crisis. A horribly unprofessional local tree removal service almost damaged him when removing a diseased tree from our yard. Luckily, we came home in time to save him.
- October 22, 2013: His planter gets relocated and takes over the dead tree’s spot as it is placed on the remaining stump.
- November 25, 2013: Sees first snow.
- December 1, 2013: Adorns a Christmas postcard that gets mailed to friends..
- December 4, 2013: Gets spruced up (decorated) for Christmas.
- December 9, 2013: Gets covered with a blanket of heavy snow.
- December 16, 2013: Gets a star topper.
- December 21, 2013: Lights up for his first Winter Solstice.
- December 25, 2013: Celebrates his first Christmas.
2014
- January 1, 2014: Celebrates his first New Year’s.
- January 31, 2014: Celebrates his first Chinese New Year.
- February 14, 2014: Celebrates his first Valentine’s Day.
- February 24, 2014: Makes the NASCAR champion’s (Brad Keselowski) official website.
- March 3, 2014: Sends his first tweet.
- April 22, 2014: Celebrates his first Earth Day.
- June 21, 2014: Celebrates his first Summer Solstice.
- July 4, 2014: Celebrates his first Independence Day.
- September 27, 2014: Honorable mention on NASCAR champion Brad Keselowski’s website.
- September 29, 2014: Celebrates his first birthday.
2015
- May 10, 2015: Acquires tree sibling: Baby Vitae.
- September 29, 2015: Celebrates his 2nd birthday.
- November 20, 2015: Chicago Fox Meteorologist Tammy Souza posts pic of Baby Spruce to illustrate accumulated snowfall near O’Hare Airport.
2016
- September 6, 2016: Becomes a cartoon.
- September 29: Celebrates his 3rd birthday.
2017
- June 7: Finally manages to confirm Twitter account.
- June 20: Receives his first piece of fan mail.
- July 15: Becomes a member of Postcrossing.
I realize there’s a lot in 2014 and not much after that, but that’s because 2014 was a year of many firsts. Plus, I am still trying to recover lost posts and will add info as I can. The same goes for pictures. We do decorate Baby Spruce for many holidays, special days and occasions and I had pictures for all, but can’t find most of them.
The links below the pictures I did manage to retrieve are to the defunct site, so unfortunately you can’t access them anymore. However, I am keeping them here in the hopes that some day I can retrieve the content (I already tried the Wayback Machine and only found a few of the early ones).
Pictures
Operation Dwarf Alberta Spruce
The Continued Adventures of Baby Spruce
Baby Spruce is Getting Spruced up for Christmas
Baby Spruce Lights up for Winter Solstice
Baby Spruce Adorns a Christmas Card
Baby Spruce Celebrates New Year’s
Baby Spruce Says: Happy Chinese New Year
Baby Spruce Celebrates Valentine’s Day
Baby Spruce is Feeling Olympic
Baby Spruce Explains Mardi Gras and Fasching
Baby Spruce and St. Patrick’s Day
Happy Earth Day from Baby Spruce
Baby Spruce Fared Better Than I Thought
Baby Spruce’s Home Gets Spruced Up
Happy Summer Solstice from Baby Spruce
Happy Independence Day from Baby Spruce
Baby Spruce is Ready for Football Season