Nadia Version 2.5

Dear Nadia,

Yesterday you turned 2.5 years, or 30 months, old. And no, we didn't give you this crown to celebrate - it, along with the cute bag, is a take-home treat from a birthday party you attended recently. I love that the two parties we went to in August both sent home cool toys instead of candy. Very health-conscious.

Oh Mooper, where do I begin? First off, let me apologize for not writing a letter when you turned 2. I really have no excuse. Sure we were in the middle of life craziness ie. your dad finding out he could stay in the navy, trying to buy a house, and surviving the first trimester of pregnancy, but I I'm sure there were a few minutes here and there I could have taken to sit down and write some...thing. So like I said, no excuse. I can't promise I won't lapse in the future, especially now that there will be two of you for whom to capture memories.

(Your first horsey ride at a recent bday party. A bit apprehensive at first, but you seemed to dig it.)

You have become a bit of a daredevil at playgrounds and such. Here you are at the end of a slide ride that involved you stopping yourself several times in the tube and giggling, calling out for "dada." For someone who used to be so cautious, I am amazed (and freaked) at how eagerly you clammer for ladders, rock walls, and spiral apparati you can climb to the top of. What I'm not surprised by, however, is your ability to accomplish such feats. You've always been an athlete and are continuing to hone your skills, what with running around our backyard and sitting room, saying you're running "faster yike mama and dada." Notice I wrote "yike" instead of "like." Ok, so you have some pronunciation problems like the letters "l" and "r" especially, you end words that end with "k" with a "t" instead, and you just generally have interesting ways of articulating words, but your ability to have conversations all...day....long, as well as your ability to understand and relate concepts kinda makes up for it. And you are always improving. Though you still refer to yourself as "yaya", you now are no longer a "mop", but a "moop." Just like we taught you;)

Your favorite questions these days are "why?" "why cause?" and "what's he doing? - when pointing to a picture of something, say, a boy in a book, for instance - my response, um, just standing there, being a boy " (Not so creative, your mother.) I'm glad you're curious, but dang girl, sometimes it can be exhausting!

You love making not only your animals and dolls talk (after 2.5 years of us doing it for you), but also pieces of food. A strawberry was recently told it was nap time by her strawberry mother, for instance. I've noticed the conversations always start with the child saying, "mama?" and the mama snapping back, "WHAT?" Um, wow, do I really sound like that? Things like this make me realize just how much you are observing and taking in. Oh, and other things like you relating back stories (sometimes with the details a little skewed, sometimes combining two events) your father and I have told each other over dinner. Adult stories. About people. About work. Things a two year old probably shouldn't be talking about - like a recent court case. Good thing we don't watch TV while you're awake, who knows what would be swirling around in that brain of yours!

You also love to tell me that you're "Dora", I'm "Boots," and your father is "Diego." (Favorite show perhaps?) For some reason, though, whenever we play Bert and Ernie you always refuse to be Bert. Funny cause I didn't like him either as a kid. Ernie was always WAY cooler.

You are a really good kid, definitely a little Canadian. I mean, you say sorry to the wall if you happen to bump into it. How's that for polite? I don't worry much about how you'll be as a sister. You have already made a picture for your baby sister (that we framed) and talk often about how you're going to "help with the baby." Oh, and apparently now you're having "just one girl, like mama." Before you were having 2 boys and 2 girls, quadruplets that were constantly having to have their heartbeats monitored by a doctor. (Attending midwife visits has had quite an impact apparently.)

You have shot up in height over the past few months and not so much in weight and as a result are really starting to look like a little girl. You are still breathtakingly beautiful and I can only hope that we get this lucky a second time, especially since for someone with possibly the most boring, non-kid-entertaining-mother-there-has-ever-been, you seem quite happy. Keep being your fine, entertaining self.

Love,

Mama.

(Oh, and p.s. - you are now night potty-trained as well- accidents here and there occasionally, but I'm very happy with how well you have done with the whole process.)

P.P.S. - Favorite expressions: - "You're wopen!" (you're welcome)

-"You want to pay in 'Ya's room?" -This is more an order than a request and is most often asked of your father after dinner. It seems it has become his sworn duty to play with you between dinner and bedtime and you will not have it any other way. So his choices are your room or the backyard. Sometimes, if it's not too hot, he'll take you to the "part." (park)

-"There, now you're all pitty." (This after doing me the beauty favor of brushing a piece of hair into my eyes.)

The Return of Pigtails

We cut her hair 6 months ago because she was fighting having anything done with her double-crowned mop.

The other day she asked for a pigtail.

Today she got two.

I told her to smile then make funny faces.

Exactly what she did.

31 Weeks

31 Weeks. 16 lb. weight gain. The babe is becoming more active and is hurting me in the same ways Nadia used to. Midwife commented I must have some sort of sensitivity in there, maybe around the pubic bone. Am still running 20 miles a week, often more, and still have good days/bad days. When I described the pain I get in my right side, like a sharp pain the size and shape of a quarter, the midwives asserted this is round ligament pain and said they had felt the exact same thing in some of their pregnancies. Weird how round ligament pain is described on most sites as being pain that radiates. This does not radiate. It stays in the exact same spot.

Sundays have become my day off from running and we have been going on 10 mile bike rides. I LOVE my new bike. So sleek, so fast. By far the nicest I've ever had. It's a road/mountain hybrid that I may actually do a duathlon with some day. My run the next day does suffer a bit from stiffer than usual legs, but it's worth it to have such an enjoyable xtraining day. Nadia likes it too:)

Nadia was doing really well with the night potty training - to the point where she had started going straight to the bathroom in the morning before coming in to wake me up, but has recently regressed. To be fair, she has had a bit of a cold this week, and I've read illness can disrupt the process. Also her brain is clearly busy evolving as she spent last week stuttering on question words only ie. what, where, (I've read this can be caused by the brain developing all of a sudden faster than what the mouth can keep up with) and then on the weekend asked "why" for the first time. Since then, it has been nothing BUT why this, why that. (I know, you're so jealous of my life right now.) So, obviously she has a lot going on and may not have room in that head of hers to remember to get up and go to the bathroom. Ah well. At least we have a functioning washing machine; wet sheets aren't the end of the world. Though I will say that despite the fact that it is a really nice machine that the previous owners clearly spent a lot of money on, and the fact that front-endedness seems to be a desired quality in a washer, at 7 months pregnant, bending down and loading said front-endedness ain't so hot, yo. I'm sure there is a very good and functional reason why they're in such demand, but for now it's a bit of a pain in my, well, everything.