Cranberry House

Here are some group shots - none of them have everyone. The first one is from Friday, the second from Sunday.

We spent an amazing weekend with great friends (and Adelaide's first real party!)Our friend Frances found this amazing rental house in the forest with great access to some of the best river holes, hiking trails, and right next to a golf course for those of you who like that kind of stuff! Adelaide was the only kid there, but she still had tons of fun. It was so beautiful. She loved the river and didn't care how cold the water was. She also loved walking through the forest. She wanted to pick up every single rock and stick that she saw. I kept a collection for her for a while, but it got too big to continue holding onto. There were cows at the property, and lots of dogs. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Busy Summer

It seems there is no time for blogging these days! We have been really busy. Adelaide and I have started our "summer job" of watching our little friend Oliver (from our birth group, so he is about 4 days older than Adelaide!). It's been a lot of fun and a lot of work. I'll have lots of pictures from that, but first I need to catch up on what we have been doing! We have gone blueberry picking twice now. Once with our friends, and once just Adelaide and I. The first time we only got about a pound and a half, but the second time we had 3 and a half pounds! It was actually really nice to be out there with just Adelaide. She was really good at picking them and loved it. When she got tired of picking blueberries she had a seat on her blanket and colored in her coloring book for a LONG TIME! She really likes being out in nature like that...and so do I! She must have eaten a pound herself while we were out there. Here is a precious video of Punkie picking her blueberries. Her friend Zurie was a bit concerned because she was picking the green ones too...but Adelaide figured out how to only pick the blue ones after a while.
We have also been exploring some of our local parks~

And here is Myles and Adelaide at the concert in the park. There were millions of kids there and it was really fun, but a bit overwhelming for Punkie after a while. Here she is dancing and her legs are so tired she can't even walk anymore.

Austin Lucas

Adelaide is obsessed with several things. She has an obsession for Bikes, Bike Helmets, Umbrellas and hats. She talks about these things all day, and gets very excited when she sees them. It's so funny to see how her little brain works, and I always wonder where she gets these obsessions from.
The thing she has been most obsessed about lately is a song. The song is called "Go West" by Austin Lucas. I have no idea why she picked this song. It all started one day when we were in the car. The song came on and she was making happy sounds and I simply said "Adelaide...do you hear the banjo?" She calls the song "Boodalou" which we assume means banjo. The funny part is that the version of the song she usually hears doesn't even have the banjo in it....but she doesn't care about that. As soon as that song was over she kept saying more, more, more, buudalou, boodaloo, more" and maybe I did the wrong thing..because I played it for her over and over just as she requested. Well her obsession went further than just that car ride, and before you know it Myles and I could be seen playing her videos of the song on Youtube, or different versions that we found online etc. Every time we got in the car she would just say "boodalou" over and over until I would play it. Any other song would not do - she only wanted to hear that one.
At first I figured that she loved the song because he says the word "boots", which was one of her first words. She obviously recognized the word and thought that was a beginning of being able to sing along. The I realized that Myles and I had gone and see Austin play acoustic at a house here in Portland when I was pregnant, so she must have heard him then! THEN I remembered that he was also part of the Revival Tourthat Myles and I went to when I was VERY pregnant, and so of course she heard him there too! Maybe hearing him reminds her of the simpler life of comfort in my womb =) Wouldn't that be crazy?! Also, about a year ago Austin played at a Wine Bar down in Oregon City, and it was early enough that we could take her...so here is the picture from that night.

Anyway, we went to this cool block party thing up in Vancouver last Friday and Austin Lucas was there. He was part of an AMAZING line up, and we were so excited for Adelaide to get to hear her favorite song live. It's not often that she gets to see a show, she can't get into bars obviously, and goes to bed much to early. I took her up to Austin to meet him in person. I had no idea if she would have any idea who he was (although she has seen his video about a million times) or what he would think of his youngest fan...but I'm so glad I did it. He took us up to the band room and played her favorite song to HER! It was such an amazing moment. I think she was a little bit overwhelmed because there were some other people in there watching her...but I know it made an impression. Myles filmed the whole thing -so watch it and turn up the sound. You can tell Austin is amazing just by how great he sounds recorded from our tiny little digital camera. He blows me away every time, he is amazing.

The next morning (and every morning since) Adelaide's first word is Austin Lucas. She wants to watch the video over and over and over and over. It's all she talks about. She now says "Dooo esssstt" which means "go west", and sings it to herself, I've even heard her say it in her sleep!
I actually let her watch it the other day while I was trying to get some work done, and then I looked down and she had completely formatted the card on the camera and deleted EVERYTHING!!!! My heart sunk because I knew we had lost this precious video. Luckily I found a program online that I had to buy which was able to get it back! Whew! Can you imagine loosing that video?
I feel so lucky to get these chances to expose her to music that her daddy and I love so much. I want her to love music like we do, and I can tell that she already does.

Pool Party

Potty trained compleatly

Tonight was the first night Adelaide slept without a diaper, and she did NOT have an accident! This is such exciting news. She is very young to be potty trained, and I feel like I haven't really even tried to get her to this point, she was just ready and pretty much did it on her own. I never read a single "potty training" article or book, but wanted to write down what we did and why I think it worked so that I can remember always.
I think the most important part of the equation is that we used cloth diapers. This is typical for cloth babies, they potty train on average 18 months earlier than babies that use disposables (or so I have read). This makes me so proud, because not only did we save money and the environment for the 18 months that she was wearing diapers, but imagine the cost and garbage that ANOTHER 18 months of disposable diapers would create. It's so amazing really.
The other big part of the equation is that I have been holding her over the potty and practicing a relaxed form of "EC" since she was only 2 and a half months old. To see proof and pictures click here. Seriously, you really should click and look at her cute little self over the toilet - the pictures are priceless! Anyway, I think this is why she is used to being held over the potty, and it's no big deal for her, just part of life really. I still hold her over the toilet like that, or put her on her little Elmo seat that fits over the normal toilet seat, and we also have a little potty for upstairs that I have to dump when she pees in it.
So I basically just stopped putting diapers on her. I did notice that her diapers were often dry, and then I would hold her over the toilet and she would pee. But then I tried it. She would pee in trainers, and even in her little undies, but if I just put pants on and nothing else she would hold it. She only had 3 accidents in 2 weeks time - pretty impressive! Now I put her undies on, or trainers if we are going somewhere (although she hasn't had any accidents in them). I also have to check to see if she has to pee quite frequently. I've held her to pee in places like the Target parking lot, and even our front yard, but she doesn't mind at all. I'm just so proud of her, but a little bit sad that my baby is definitly grown up. Today I packed up all of her diapers and covers and it was bitter sweet. I never minded changing her diapers, it was always fun and time to focus totaly on her.
Next up - we might start some night weaning, because no milk in the tummy means no pee in the middle of the night.....right?

Summer...FINALLY

We have been waiting a LONG time for it to get warm. It's been cold, cloudy, rainy, and miserable for far, far too long. But the sun is finally here! Adelaide LOVES the water, so what better place to stay cool than in the sprinkler?

July 4th

This holiday didn't really look that promising. It was always one of my favorite holidays as a kid because we were always together with close friends and family, but now that we are in Portland we don't really have any of that here. We did have plans to barbecue with some friends, but they ended up no feeling well, so the three of us stayed home and Myles made a great veggieburger dinner. But then it got dark.
There are always lots of fireworks around our house. Growing up in California means you don't really get to experience this because they are illegal, but here people are blowing up all kinds of stuff EVERYWHERE and it feels like you are in a war zone or something. Before Adelaide went to bed we lit off some sparklers, hoping to get a little bit of excitement out of her. She seemed to like them, but it was a bit disappointing because it was still light out so you couldn't even see them very well.
The best part though was once it got dark and Adelaide woke up. We wrapped her in her little blankie and took her out on the roof to watch the fireworks, and she LOVED it. She was so happy and excited to see them going off. She kept saying "works, works" and that was even her first word the next morning. What a special time that was, with her all snuggled up to us, having just woke up from her sleep and excited for this special event. It ended up being the best holiday I've had so far.

Adelaide at work - Henna shoot

I did a photoshoot for my friend Beth, who had a henna tattoo done on her very pregnant belly. I was a little bit nervous to take Adelaide with me on a job, but I knew I could make it work. She's been with me shooting at home, but this was the first time on location. She did great. The henna studio was so beautiful and had such great lighting that I had to shoot a few of my "assistant" as well. Can you believe how big and grown up she looks?!
And here are some of the belly shots ~