a weekend of welcoming

After a summer of diligent chicken-tending: feeding, watering, spreading hay, Farmer Ada found the first egg waiting for her when she came home from school last Thursday.  You can't imagine the delight inspired by that tiny brown egg.  Now we've gotten 4 (almost one per day), and we hope that whichever of our three silly chickens has mastered this important skill will soon teach the other 2 to keep pace! We are looking forward to a winter full of delicious scrambles.

Miles had visitors from Wisconsin and Seattle this weekend for his baptism. Miles must have somehow understood that Father Pat was someone to be trusted, because he took to him right away. Although Miles is nothing but smiles for us, he doesn't often put on a show for a stranger. During the first night of Father Pat's visit, Miles sat across the table and smiled and laughed, even offered up his toast! Perhaps he felt honored that a holy person traveled such a distance for him.

moveable alphabet

Adelaide's writing and drawing ability has sky-rocketed this past week.  Last week it was just a series of scribbles, but now she draws recognizable pictures (little people - or pumpkins - with arms, legs, faces).

More impressive, she's been using the etch-a-sketch (thank you Uncle Danny!) to practice writing words. In this photo, she's written "mom" (when she writes "m" she says: "three down, one across" which explains why they look more like cross-hatching then letters) and "ada" without any help!

 Last week Miles started at Cedar Montessori, in the "infant" room. His transition hasn't been too bad -- they say that he really likes music and he likes to snuggle. We've noticed that he takes advantage of his smallness to squeeze into little spaces -- like next to the musical instruments in our (converted) fireplace.

waves and words

This week Miles has been developing his social skills:

He can wave!  A huge-arm, full-body, glad-to-see-you, hello-wave (no goodbye wave yet). You can't help but smile at that enthusiasm :)

And he learned his second word: "up!" spoken somewhat stilted but very assertively with full Miler excitement.

in = out

Miles hit his 9 month milestone last week. We've now been independent people for as long as we shared space. And being 9 months has brought him a new level of independence. He loves to play with his sister and even entertains himself pretty well. He has recently discovered the bookshelf and loves to stand there pulling all the books down. He "reads" to himself and yells at the books when he can't get the pages to turn as expected. When he tires of his games, he calls "mamama" and chases me around, pulling at my legs and smiling up at me. Without a doubt, this little boy loves me. Between his periods of new independence, he is all the more affectionate, cuddly and loving, chases me and snuggles me. Here begins the process of separation, allowing him to grow up and do his thing and loving to hold onto him. Nine months in, and he's undoubtedly the world's cutest, most content baby. I am so excited watch him develop into an animated little boy.

there are two certainties in life ...

Grandma and Papap recently had to put down their beloved dog, J.D. (sniffle!). Adelaide has thus come to learn about death. For the past several weeks, "dying" has been her favorite topic of conversation, which I know means she's trying hard to figure it out.  Her processing has been quite hilarious recently. For instance:
- Watching a slug: "We are just like slugs." "Really?" "Yes, we and slugs are both living things, and we both will die."
- Reading The Hungry Catepillar: "He is eating so many unhealthy things." "What about the cheese?" "Cheese is protein, and protein is healthy because it makes us grow bigger, and then we can die."
- Joe gets a haircut: "Will your hair get longer again?" "Yes." "And my hair will grow?" "Yes." "Then we will get haircuts again?" "Yes." "And then we will die."
She learned so much from J.D. in life (like the meaning of gently, and why we don't steal food from dogs), I imagine he's smiling down from doggie-heaven somewhere, happy that he's taught her something at the end of his life as well.

little campers

Miles' first camping trip: he loves the camp fire and sleeping in a tent as much as the rest of us!
He must have been inspired by the tastes of nature (eating dirt and sand?) as he choose the occasion to sprout out his first two teeth!!

athletic weekend

Miles was well-represented at athletic events this weekend.
On Saturday, he proudly showed off the marathon "finisher" medal, posing with Joe and "Papop" ...

Sunday morning, he sneaked into "T1" for a quick pre-triathlon breakfast before I got into a wetsuit ...

He must have been inspired as he was practicing this favorite move all weekend ... "down-dog" yoga pose?  or is he getting ready to race off the start blocks?






Based on his now-refined crawling ability, we are guessing it won't be long until he's climbing high ... chasing sister Adelaide.