Spring Chickens

This spring has been a whirlwind of new critters and new developments at our house. To start, we got baby chicks. Awesome, hilarious, and challenging. It's been a great adventure teaching Miles to handle them gently, and trying to keep them out of "Nica-ville" (because if she can get one, she squeezes a death-grip on it!).  We've made it through the 'baby chick' phase with no tragedies!

We also added a "praying mantis egg sack" to our zoo ... and last week a whole pile of baby praying mantises hatched out.  We're trying to keep them alive with 'fruit crawls' (flightless fruit flies) but our success rate is yet unknown.

Little Anika has gained mobility (hurray Sneaka!) but she's most adept at backwards and circular travel. Amazingly, she is able to sit herself up from a lying position (the first few times, we were sure she had been helped, but now she does it regularly - I am honestly shocked that she has the core strength for that at this age - I've signed her up to be an Olympian (no pressure!)). She's by far our smiley-est baby -- she seems to expect that someone is smiling at her at all times, and she looks around until she finds a smile. Perhaps that's a learned habit - the benefit of having 2 older siblings is that someone IS always smiling at her!

Little Miles has seen the most change this spring. Although he's still a little peanut in size, now at 2-and-a-half, he's matured into a full-blown little boy. His language has exploded such that he now speaks in full expressive paragraphs and gives us precise insight into his busy little mind. We used to marvel at how much he could communicate with a few carefully chosen words, and now he narrates his entire world-view "I slipped but I got up and I'm fine because I'm a toughie." In the past few months, he's been full of endearment: "You are my FAV-orite mama" or "I want a hug from your tummy" and "Can I sleep on your tummy?" when he crawls into my bed in the morning. I get the feeling that these are the things he's wanted to say for months but until now he hasn't had the words. These days he has as much language as personality and it has been all together hilarious and lovable. I feel so proud of him, and yet this time around I know what a transition he is going through, and I am mourning the loss of the baby boy I love so much.

Sitting up for her first meal

When Miles and Adelaide were small, we "taught" them to sit up, stabilizing their upper bodies, letting them topple onto pillows, supporting the process. Little Nica didn't give us the chance. Last week we sat her up, and she stayed there. With virtually no practice, she now sits bolt upright, sometimes leaning forward on a hand for support, or even uses both hands to play with toys in front of her.  Amazing!  

Perhaps she knew that there are 3 requisites to getting "solid" food: 1. interest (she's had that for months, even "chewing" her little jaws together while she studies us intently at the dinner table). 2. Being 6 months old (yesterday!) and 3. Sitting up with good stability.

Tonight was her first meal of ground millet (yum!). Adelaide and Miles were so excited for this event, that it ended up ... perhaps a bit anti-climactic. She took a few bites, swallowed some, spit some onto her chin, smiled a little, frowned a little, tried to grab the spoon ... overall a quiet unassuming step toward nutritional independence. She sneaked her way out of infancy and is now a full-on baby, and she's still simply delightful.

girls at fives are worth it all

Adelaide turned 5 this past weekend. She had a 'tea party' for her friends - we spent the last few weeks making invitations, crafting, planning games, creating an amazing menu of little sandwiches, fruits, etc. The party was on Saturday after I finished a night shift - Joe and I were both exhausted after a week of trying to have everything perfectly prepared - and I have to confess to more than one thought along the lines of "I don't like parties ... I am not crafty ... I should have just bought sandwiches ... why am I doing this?". But by the time the guests showed up, everyone looked calm and collected, we had lovely little decorations and a beautiful spread of tea time ... the girls (and Miles) giggled and laughed; the moms took lots of photos, and it was overall a raging success. The minute the guests were gone, Adelaide overflowed with "oh thank you mama for the best party ever ... I loved the tea ... my friends had so much fun ... this game ... that treat ... thank you, thank you" on and on. And that delighted little face definitely made it all worth it.

Little Anika is now 5 months and still happy and delightful - very studiously watches everything. She is absolutely enchanted with her siblings and is working hard to learn to move - I know she wants to be able to chase them around and sing along with their performances (check out the Flickr movie!). Unfortunately, I think we have diagnosed a milk-protein allergy (she poops blood - yuck!), so I am in the process of going dairy-free ... and trying hard not to cry about it. She's totally worth it!

3 months: tiny talker

After 2 kids' worth of effort to get a good baby photo ... I got a new fancy camera (yay!) and it's paid for itself already - look at this happy baby!!

Little Anika at 3 months is our little talker of the family: she "oooos" and "goooos" at every opportunity - her favorite game (well, okay, she only knows one game) is a "conversation" - I say "aaahh" she says "oooohhh" ... back and forth and back and forth. She has an amazing attention span to match her huge observant eyes, and no one can complain about the 8-9 hours of sleep every night. She rolled over for the first time a few weeks ago, trying to keep up with her busy siblings. Now if I can just teach her to sleep by herself ...

Little Miles gave us a good scare yesterday. He got an olive pit lodged in his esophagus ("pit stuck, mama, mouth hurts") ... and couldn't get it out, or get anything else down. After several hours of me dancing around and trying not to play doctor at home ... he got it up on his own (details omitted). Yikes. We're so glad he's smiling again.

a good read

The latest trick for keeping Nica happy in the car - a favorite book! Thankfully reading doesn't seem to make her car-sick.

giving thanks

 Thanksgiving Day: our first all-family exercise was a raging success!
Adelaide on her bike, Miles and Anika napping in the chariot, and Joe, my dad and I ran for a full hour!!

No complaints, but with all of the coordinating that was required, I had to wonder: would it save time for us to each run alone for an hour than to fuss with trying to run together? Probably a wash at best.

Little Anika has been better known around here as Tiny-ka, Nica, Nica-nic, or my favorite Ana-Nika (any of which Miles can say, although he can't say Anika).  Despite her name, she's not too Tiny-ka anymore: weighed in at 9 lbs 13 oz and 22 inches, despite being a week early for her 2-month check-up. Good grief! She doesn't seem to eat all that often, so all I can figure is that she's fattening up because she sleeps so much. Solution: more tummy time for Tiny-ka.

Miles is Two!

 Miles celebrated his second birthday this past weekend. He had an awesome swim party (complete with swimming pool cake). He absolutely had a blast -- he was so excited to have all of favorite people swimming or watching - over and over we heard "hi Margaret!!" and "Grandma watching" with such excitement. He is fun to watch in the pool on any normal day, jumping in with such enthusiasm and splashing like he owns the place, but a birthday swim was especially fun. We must have gone down the water slide 50 times.

Over the past month, his skills have really blossomed - he's turned into a two-year old!  Just this past week, he surprised us with counting to 10. Although I never before heard him say a number past 2, he now regularly counts to 10 correctly. He must have worked it all out in his little brain and waited until he had it perfect before spitting out those numbers all at once. Miles also has learned his pronouns - me, you, I, my - a lovely step in communication. And he has figured out how to play "imagination" games. My favorite is "going fishing" - he has a little striped cloth bag that he loads up with acorns or any random thing, slings it over his shoulder and announces, "Bye! Tomorrow!" (Miles, where are you going?) "Going fishing! A big one!!" -- This is just hilarious because I have no idea how he knows what fishing is, or why he wants to catch a big fish. He's never been fishing, and as far as I know, he doesn't even know anyone who goes fishing or have a book about fishing. Where did he get this idea? How does he know what "fishing" is? And how does he know to catch a "big" fish?  I have not a clue. Does this stuff come naturally to all boys?

In any case, we are very proud of our very independent little guy. He has such a joyful personality, always laughing and smiling, and it's such a treat to watch all of his recent developments