This post finds Ade in his fifth day (I think) with snow on the ground. Which is pretty much heaven for Ade because, in case you didn't remember, he loves snow. It started out with just a little: That same day we figured out that snow turns into water. The next day we had a lot more snow! And it's snowing again today, five days from the start. Adam's Daddy has been home from school for the last days because of inclement weather! Yeah! How does Ade like the snow?
Making the gingerbread hous and decorating the Christmas tree. Very exciting stuff.
So, what else is new? Everything is still "Why?" and Ade is 99.99% potty trained. Hadn't had an accident in WEEKS until he had a little accident in bed the other night.
Ade has taken an interest in photography, i.e. "I take a picture, Dada?". Here is a few of his first shots...the only coaching was "Point it, and press this button....Don't drop it, okay buddy?" Some nice shots, some disturbing ones...who is that grinning idiot in the last picture? Anyway...
Ade really likes playing "Tendo" with his Dad. He is actually VERY good at Wii Golf, considering he's only 2 and a half. He regularly hits bogeys and double bogeys with the occasional par thrown in. It's a lot of fun.
This video shows him playing Wii Bowling..."Let Go!"
Ade counts alot...he's been doing it for a while. He easily counts up to 5 to number different objects, it takes longer to get his fingers to contort into the "shape" of the numbers, but as you can see from the photos, he does that too.
Upon request he can go as high 10...no problem. He even started at 6 and made it up to 15 once. His math-teacher dad was pretty proud.
Ade with his cousins. L to R: Nathan, Ade and Hannah.
Goodness, I don't know what's taken me so long to get back on here and write something down. The longer I wait, the less I know what to write.
Ade's personality continues to make itself known. He is an amazing little person. Quite serious one minute, then raucous and silly the next. Always energetic and curious.
He speeks more and more words, more and more clearly all the time. What word was it that caught me off guard the other day? Oh yeah, he said "either." I told him I didn't like something, he said "Me either" with a serious look on his face. I couldn't help but laugh. Oh yeah, it's been so long since I posted I forgot about the defining word of the past five or six weeks:
"WHY?"
Everything is "why?"
Dad: "Let's get our pajamas on buddy." Ade: "Why?" Dad: "Because its almost bed time." Ade: "Why?" Dad: "It's dark outside and its getting late, so it's time for you to go to bed." Ade: "Why?" Dad: "You've had a busy day, and your body needs to recharge." Ade: "Recharge? Why?" ...You get the picture.
It can be exasparating but it really is fascinating to see the wheels turning in his mind. I'm trying hard not to let it be frustrating so it doesn't become a game. Initially Ade used the word "Why" in place of because, i.e. "Ade, why did you do that." Ade: "Why I'm hungry." His appropriate use of the word "why" was quickly followed by using the word "cuz." Go figure.
Just a couple guys being silly:
What else have we done in the past, say, 2 months? ALOT!
Played baseball in our underwear:
Patterson Family got together because Uncle Mike was being honored as distinguished alumni of the year at Corban College. Ade cooperated for the picture...
Hung out with the cousins:
Oregon Coast Aquarium:
Pumpkin patch with cousins Hannah and Nathan:
Put our pajamas on by ourselves (kinda):
Went trick-or-treating with Aunt Carissa:
That's enough for now, I'll try to post more often in the future.
Some of you might be wondering how potty training is going, or went, or whatever. So way back when, you'll see a post called "Our first no diaper day." That was a historic event, but it didn't really precede a series of no diaper days. In fact, it went well for a little while then a series of unfortunate events caused Ade to have a great fear of using the toilet. So, he went back to diapers for a while. He went back to diapers until about August. Recently we've been back at the training game, and he's been doing much better. He only wears a diaper at night now, and he frequently wakes up in the morning dry. He wears elmo underwear at nap time and he hasn't had an accident then, yet. It's been a few weeks and he's doing great!
Here's a couple shots from the state fair a weekend ago or so, the weather was great and everybody had an awesome time!
It's been HOT. Okay, not quite that hot, but over 100 degrees the past couple of days. The three of us (Ade, his Mommy and Daddy) have been trying to keep cool anyway we can. We've been visiting Grammy and Grampy P. who have a shady air conditioned house, and Oma and Opa where we play in the water. What happens when a two year old plays in the water? Say "goodbye pants" and jump in!
Today, Aug. 18th, was much cooler and it actually rained. Thank God. Also, today is Grandpa Ernie's 88th birthday. Everybody met over at his place for a little birthday party. Ade had fun eating cake, and singing "Happy Birthday" to "Papa Onie" as Ade calls him.
How long has it been?...More than a month!?!? So, where shall a delinquent blogger begin?
The last real update has been months and months, so here's the run-down. Ade is now 2 years and 2 months old. His vocabulary expands daily as does his ability to pronounce words clearly. For example: for many moons Ade's "Thank you" consisted of the correct sign language gesture and the word "ehbu". Recently that has morphed into a very clear "tank you"...he'll find that missing H eventually. It's remarkable how fast he learns, and how curious he is. He is such a blessing.
What about the "BBB"? He's in a full-fledged big-boy-bed now. Ever since we moved to South Salem (more on that later), he sleeps in a twin bed. Very exciting. He still has the nasty habit of getting up in the middle of the night to join his mom and dad in their bedroom, but we're working on that.
South Salem is now where we make our residence, since late May. The far-too-frequent commute to Salem finally did us in. We now live just a short jaunt from Ade's Oma and Oma H., his Great Grandma and Grandpa P., and his Great Grandpa Ernie (Ade's middle-name-sake). Here's a pic of a recent visit with "Nana" W. and GG Ernie:
Ade has done all sorts of fun things that you may not have heard about because of Adam'sDaddy's long silence. Here's a brief run down:
The Portland Zoo:
This was our "Let's start Dad's summer-vacation celebratory trip." The weather was great, and we got to see lots of animals.
Silver Creek Falls: We took several 5-8 mile hikes around the falls area as a family.
Thomas the Tank Engine: Oma and Opa took Ade to see Thomas. Ade fell asleep on the train-ride.
Camping at Cove Pallisades State Park: It was HOT and dusty, and Ade won't take a shower so we had to get creative with bath-time.
Ade Like's Ice-Cream: But then who doesn't?
After the fun family camping trip above, Adam'sDaddy took a goldmining trip down to southern Oregon with Uncle Alex. They had a fun time dredging for the yellow stuff until a boulder fell and rolled over Adam'sDaddy's left foot, then pinned his right foot, trapping him underwater. Luckily, Uncle Alex was able to move the boulder enough to get his foot out, and take Daddy to the hospital, where he was told he broke four bones in his left foot, and would have to have surgery to relieve the swelling in his left foot. Ade got to spend several nights at Nana W's house while Daddy recuperated in the Grant's Pass hospital. Everybody's back home and Daddy's foot is healing fine now.
Ta-Ta until next time, hopefully less than a month from now ;)
Hi again readers. Sorry for the enormous delay in updating this blog. It certainly isn't because nothing notable has transpired. What caused the layoff? I'm not sure exactly, it started with the death of Ade's great-uncle (Ade's Grandpa Williams' brother) Dan Williams. This caused a brief interruption in Adam's Daddy's routine, and apparently I never recovered.
What all has happened? I can't list everything. One big thing, we've moved from Stayton to South Salem, much closer to Ade's grandparents. We just returned from a camping trip to The Cove Palisades state park in central Oregon.
I'll update more later, with perhaps about a million pictures.
Praise God! Ade still wears a diaper to bed, but from the time he woke up this morning and went potty on the toilet, until he went to bed, he didn't have an accident or soil a diaper all day. That includes one two-hour time span between trips to the toilet. Pretty exciting stuff, huh? I knew you'd like that. He's been doing great with potty-training, we do have the occasional accident, such as: "Wet Dada" as a warm liquid flows off the seat and down the legs of the high chair, or "Mama Wet" as he walks, legs spreg wide, in a sort of cowby mosey toward the bathroom. We aren't complaining, he hasn't had a single #2 accident in or out of his big-boy-underoos since we began.
In other news, Ade got his first tricycle this past week. In case you didn't know, he loves bikes, and he loves to wear a bike helmet (I wonder where he got that from -- nature or nurture? Only God knows). I don't have any pics to post yet as the weather hasn't been very cooperative. I'll get some soon enough, have patience. For the time being, watch this video and be appeased.
How about the big-boy-bed(BBB)? Perhaps you've forgotten about the BBB excitement around here every evening...probably not. Ade is doing much better with the BBB. He regularly goes to bed with no issue whatsoever. Tonight he kissed me goodnight, said "bye-bye dada," laid down and got cozy all on his own, we didn't see him again after that. Every now and again, he will decide he's not quite ready for bed and will leave his room to come find mom and dad, but these issues are inferior to the initial headaches we had.
Where did it go? I have no idea. In any case, a couple of interesting things have happened. Have I ever mentioned that Ade loves snow? Well, it's true. And strangely enough we've actually received quite a bit of it over the last several days. It's much too warm to stick around but just seeing snow in the Willamette Valley in late, late March is rather peculiar. When it's snowing you can't keep Ade away from the window, cross that with the potty-training-nude-stravaganza and you get this adorable picture (that is snow falling in the background): On the potty training front: Ade continues to take well to the whole potty training undertaking. Our nudity laden household has transfigured itself slowly into an underoo and plastic pants bonanza. When we go anywhere we put a diaper on him because he's just kinda unpredictable, hmm I wonder why? He does really well at home.
On to the BBB: So, I don't remember which night but he finally figured out that if he cried long enough he didn't have to fall asleep on the floor, as Mom or Dad would rescue him. So he did, cry long enough that he didn't have to fall asleep on the floor because Mom and Dad did come rescue him. Dad also took a lesson from Nanny 911 and said "Ade, it's time for bed darling," and put him right back into bed. In case you were wondering, Ade didn't like this very much. He was quickly back at his bedroom door. Dad said again: "It's time for bed" and put him back into the big-boy-bed. A few moments later, back at the door, this process repeated, again and again maybe seven or eight times until Ade fell asleep in his BBB. The last couple of nights he has gone right to sleep in his bed without any issues. So the BBB problem is solved....or is it? Only time will tell.
BTW Ade likes chocolate pudding...but who doesn't?
