Lightly Row, the folk song

Adelaide started playing Suzuki violin a full year ago (although it took her from August until October to "earn" the violin to play!).
Today she played a great recital yet.
It was outside at a park near our house, beautiful weather.
The only part I missed in video-taping was her self-introduction, which was loud and confident. Even at the back of crowd, you would have heard her say, "My name is Adelaide Nelson, and I am going to play Lightly Row, the folk song."
Daily practice and twice weekly lesson/class is paying off after all!
The video has been immortalized on Flickr.

appreciating mobility

 Miles is excited to announce that he has gone diaper-free!  He has a new-found affinity for his little potty and loves to plop himself down, announce "peeee!!" (followed by leaping up, demanding "dump" and scooting himself behind the toilet to "flush"). He has little hand gestures to go with his words, and each part of the process is equally rewarding (and pretty adorable). For my part, I am very relieved (knock on wood) that we won't have to manage "two in diapers"!  But I think he's figured out that not wearing diapers gives him more mobility, and thus more productivity on his little projects. It's been hard to capture a photo of his face lately as he is always diligently working - moving wood from one stack to another, loading the wheelbarrow, or chasing Ada on his little bike.

For her part, Miss Adelaide (who is "4 and quarter" she's happy to tell you) has taken off like a banshee on a two-wheel bike. We give Papap credit for the bike and for the first lesson, but within the first 15 minutes, she was off and going - no training wheels, no skinned knees. Amazing. For her 4th ride, we did a 40-minute "family run" - Adelaide on the bike, and we only had to push Miles in the Bob. I was quite impressed with her quick progress and her stamina ("can't we keep going?"), and I can't help appreciating that we've made space for our new baby in the two-kid running stroller. Win-win-win!!

sequel

 I've come full circle on the 'gender question' and resolved my "fear of boys" - I decided that Miles would love to have a little brother - they'll be close in age, so they'll be great playmates, and little boys are adorable fun. Adelaide will be a great little helper either way. We are all super excited to meet the last little member of our family - boy or girl - (even Miles peaks under my shirt at the growing belly, saying "babee!").  And my dreams have changed back to the usual useless renditions and recollections of pregnancy.

In other news, part II of the world's most amazing back-yard play structure is complete! We have a joke that if natural disaster every strikes Portland, our family and all of the neighbors can take refuge in the playhouse, which is sturdier and larger than any reasonable family home.

Props to Joe (and thanks to my Dad) for getting this done - hopefully our little 3 have many hours of backyard fun ahead, although Miles will certainly miss the power tools and skill saw that have been occupying our yard!

oohhh, BOY!

Let me preface this by saying that Miles is the most wonderful little boy I could ever imagine. He is amazingly affectionate, loves to give kisses, snuggles, hugs. His favorite self-soother is to run his fingers (remarkably gently) through my hair, which is quite endearing. He has an infectious sense of humor and laughs often, agreeably cleans up his toys (with encouragement), listens well, sleeps well, eats well, and is generally an incredibly great little person who we love having in our lives.

All that said, he is a boy in every sense, and becoming more boy every day. And he's pushing me to the brink of sanity. I have developed this terrible fear that my third little dragon will be another boy ... and I don't think I can do it! My pregnancy dreams (why do I only dream when pregnant? I hate dreaming) almost exclusively involve some dramatic exaggeration of Miles' less-than-ideal little boy actions.  I've been thinking lots about my Aunt Margaret (who has 4 boys), my Aunt Lisa (who raised 3), my M-I-L and Grandma Mary (who each had 4 along with multiple girls) ... and I tell myself that if they can do it, then I could survive 2 ... and then I wake up in terror because I am not sure I could survive 2!!!

Growth!!

Everyone is our family is growing by leaps and bounds right now (well, maybe not Joe, but he's trying hard to take care of all the rest of us).

Adelaide has exploded into 4-year-old-ness. The past few months have been a steep learning curve in every aspect. She now counts to 100 by 1s, 5s, 10s and does simple addition. She's gone from sounding out a few words here and there to reading whole sentences. She does the monkey bars, back and forth, over and over, like a real monkey! And her ability to think and reason are just astounding. She's suddenly a real person. I am daily amazed at the things she can do, achieve, comprehend, remember. It's been explosive. Here she's "spelling" farm animal names.

As for Mr. Miles, he's in a language explosion phase. New words abound every day (today: spider, jump, raspberry), and he's starting to put them together occasionally "Ada, bath" (when she's too slow up the stairs for bath time), "mama, no!" (when I misunderstand his request). Unfortunately for us, his annunciation of all these new words is just above terrible. We recently discovered that "bauk-bauk" (the sound he makes for chicken) sounds almost identical to Papa, his name for my dad, which has been amusing for all but one in the family. Fortunately for us, he is very expressive and persistent, so when we misunderstand, he repeats, points, gestures, frowns, until we get it right! Nonetheless, new language is so exciting!

For my own part, I have a growing belly. Now 20 weeks with the big #3 (third and last, if anyone is counting!). Had my fetal anatomy scan this week, and everything looks good which is a nice relief. I've been affectionately calling the baby Norbert, the little dragon. This baby absolutely tortured me for the first 18 weeks or so with nausea, exhaustion, lots of illness ... it was a rough winter. But now the spring has arrived with gusto and thankfully I am feeling like a normal (fat) person. My belly is swelling to the point that I look "plump" (thanks mom) but not quite pregnant. The nurses at work have been teasing me about my new "booty" and I'm just at the point that my clothes all look too small, but the maternity stuff is ridiculously baggy. Here's Norbs, blowing a kiss from that cozy little space to his/her new family.

catching up!

It's been a busy couple of months.
Here are a few of the highlights:

A trip to Florida for a wedding, complete with rides through the airport:

A quick visit to Disney's Magic Kingdom, which was pretty magical I have to admit.

 Of course, no hotel stay is complete without a good pillow fight.  Adelaide is getting big enough to fight back, but she still loves getting thrown around.

We celebrated Joe's 31st birthday and Adelaide's 4th birthday. Everyone loves candles.  Birthdays are more fun every year as she is more and more able to anticipate, plan, participate, and have a great time.  Adelaide woke up the morning of her birthday and announced, "I'm 4; look how high I can jump now!" And she has been jumping, hopping, skipping, leaping at every opportunity since, showing her newly acquired (or at least newly appreciated) skills to everyone who asks about her birthday. I think 4 is going to be the smoothest year yet.  

 

For his part, little Miles has developed into a busy little boy; he and Adelaide are best buddies. Their interactions have become downright hilarious as they've learned to play together over the past month or two. In this photo, Ada built a "nest" and coached him in, through the obstacles, so they could read together. The reading never lasts long, as most games erupt with a tackle into hugs and shrieks of laughter. Adorable. When the day of "boys-are-stupid-girls-are-mean" arrive, I hope I remember these times of two little happy companions.

a little walking

 Miles finally decided to walk last week!
He's been standing unassisted, even playing with both hands while standing, for several months now, but he has simply refused to walk.
Our theory is this: although he obviously has the balance, he's become such a proficient "pusher" that he doesn't want to slow down to walk.
Miles started pushing a cute little wagon when he was about 8 months, and has become increasingly steady and now super fast with the wagon.
Then he learned to push the little shopping cart (with swivel wheels - an extra level of challenge but also extra maneuverability).
Now he's transitioned to pushing absolutely anything -- he turns toys and furniture over and over until he finds the best sliding position and defty maneuvers them all over, almost fast enough to keep up with full-speed-ahead Adelaide.
Now, although he can walk, he knows that running behind a small table or a tipped stool is much faster, so he does that in stead!! Who has time these days to toddle around anyway??


Adelaide has also been learning how to walk ... up walls!  Here we both are on the rock wall. She surprised me with great enthusiasm for the rock gym and fearlessly attacked some pretty tough stuff!