Casa da Caselli: Growing flowers, veggies, babies, etc.

Oh, spring. You fickle thing, you. Teasing us with 60 degrees of sunshine one minute, only to snow/hail/rain on us in the next. But it's OK, I still love you. So much, in fact, that I tend to have all my babies in the springtime. I have to say that that's quite clever of me. Ha. Anyway, SPRING. My first ever daffodils are up, I have veggie seedlings sprouting in my windowsill, and garden beds are being prepped left and right. This is not to say I have any idea what I'm doing with all this gardening business, but as my wise friend once advised me, I'm just putting seeds in dirt and seeing what happens. Hopefully we'll get some deliciousness out of it for our soon-to-be family of FIVE!

Baby #3 is now officially 31 weeks old, and is a tap dancer by night. It's become quite normal to wake up around 4-5 in the morning and have no hope of getting back to sleep due to the crazy acrobatics happening in my tummy. We've turned the corner from gentle squirming and thumps to quite painful jabs and stretches. Some days I think she will literally burst through my stomach. Happily, I'm quite healthy and despite my grumbling, I'm once again loving carrying this little life inside of me. Mmm, these hormones are gooood!

Nico "The Torpedo" Caselli. Yes, indeed. The first trimester was pretty challenging, dealing with absolute physical exhaustion in addition to a very strong-willed, curious toddler. Nico climbs, explores, opens, throws, rips, empties, and otherwise dismantles pretty much everything he's not supposed to. Baby 3 has even burrowed into what my midwives refer to as "the safety position," and has manufactured high amounts of amniotic fluid to protect herself. But I'm watching Nico's intensity beginning to come into focus. I'm seeing a fantastically happy and social little guy who has this incredible zest for life and a LOT to say (even though he doesn't have words yet). Don't believe me? Just show him an excavator and check out his extremely loud vocal reaction and the amazement on his face. Every. Single. Time. He adores his big sister, and always tries to do everything she does. He loves wearing her hair clips and bracelets, and is forever imitating her dance moves, expressions and sound effects. The last time we went swimming, they spent a huge chunk of time holding hands and jumping into the shallow end together. His favorite books are Where the Wild Things Are, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Monsters Don't Eat Broccoli and Too Many Dinosaurs. His favorite thing to say is "beeauuuuuutiful butterfly," from the last page in The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Of course, it sounds like "BEEEEEEEEEE badadadada." I've been trying to catch this on video with no success. I hope I never forget what he sounds like saying that! He now thankfully sleeps past 6 every morning, and instead of waking up mad at the world, we find him chatting and messing around in his crib, just waiting for company. He's trying so hard to ride Sof's razor scooter and balance bike. He's also trying to please/help us in general, I can see it in his face. Of course the ratio of actual helping to destruction is still way skewed in favor of destruction, but I love the direction this is going. He will throw things away, flush the toilet when asked (and when not asked), hand me towels, put toys away, and he even helped me weed a garden bed the other day. He's a pretty cool little dude.

The big sister, my little nurturer. She is so excited to meet her baby sister, she kisses and loves on my tummy every day. My tiny big girl sat with her legs crossed the other day, talking to me like a miniature adult. She said, "Mom, soon you will have three children. You will have your hands full! But don't worry, I'll help you." I can feel my Sofia updates becoming trickier already. We're beyond the baby/toddler milestones and headed into increasingly grayer areas. She has countless "best friends," and even a few boyfriends. Don't worry, I clarified that she simply means boys who are friends. However, one day she came home with a lovely cut out, colored heart and explained to me that the boy who gave it to her is "pretty much like her husband." She is becoming aware of things that might feel embarrassing, sometimes sharing whispered confessions with John and I about various things. She talks about how much she can't wait to grow up and be a teacher and a mom, and have a pug to sleep with her in her bed every night. My heart aches and I want to slow time down! But she is still a precious little girl who loves to sing her preschool songs and play endless imaginary games. She adores dressing up all her stuffed animals with jewelry and whatever sparkly items she can find. She is a lovely dancer, and I watched her absolutely burst with pride when I told her I could see she was a great leader in her dance class. What I don't want to forget about her right now...how much she loves her mommy and daddy. She told me she loves me as much as God. She loves me around the solar system, through the black hole and back twenty-one-thirty times. She looks at me with innocent eyes that aren't yet irritated with me, or embarrassed by me. She sings to me at night, "You are my mommy, my only mommy. You make me happppy, when skies are gray. You'll never know, Mommy, how much I love you. Please don't taaaake my mommy away." My little heartbreaker.

So life is good. Challenging and full of hard work, but equally full of rewards and countless blessings. We're looking forward to a summer literally cram packed with unknowns. Wish us luck!

Way back to Halloween. You can't see the full glory of Sofia's parrot costume, but I was pretty proud of it (made by me):