Welcome to the Hotel Caselli

We don't have mirrors on the ceiling or pink champagne on ice, but we've got kids' toys on the floor and a big jug of sauvignon blanc in the fridge. Couple that with a big guest room upstairs and you've got the perfect recipe for inviting guests galore!

In recent months we've hosted a slew of family members visiting to see new baby Nico, plus John's best bud Ted from Colorado, my dance friend from Bend, our old neighbors and their daughter from Bend (twice, I think), a friend from Alaska getting ready to move to Portland, my sister and nephew, and in our craziest hosting event to date, the entire Danilava-Smith clan moved in for several days when they moved to Portland from Alaska (two parents, three young daughters, and one non-English speaking Baba -- at least their cat stayed in a kitty motel!). It's been chaotic but all sorts of fun. I love that we're able to welcome so many of our loved ones into our home!

Besides all the hosting duties, Nico (aka Little Dude, Tank, Chuckles, Tiger, Milkshake) has suddenly gone from a newborn to practically half a year old! When did that happen? Oh right, over the last five months. We don't currently have an official weight, but as of his last checkup about two months ago, he was already almost 15 pounds -- that's half of his big sister's body weight!

The Little Dude is something else. He charms the socks right off of me. Nico began smiling very early and hasn't stopped. He loves seeing the faces of his favorite people, and is always ready to greet you with a lopsided grin and a chuckle. And boy oh boy, is he a boy! What a loud little kiddo. His current favored time for joyful yelling and squealing and grunting is between 5-6 a.m. Awesome.

He's trying so hard to roll over, and he is one strong guy. But he's got quite a bit of mass to heft around, so I don't expect a roll to be imminent. He's also got a faucet for a mouth, drooling more than any bib can keep up with. The first time I called him "Drool Bucket," Sofia promptly went and found a little bucket and held it under his chin :) The crazy gumming and chewing has commenced, so I'm sure teeth are pretty close around the corner.

Oh, am I one lucky mama. Each night I stand between the two doors of my sleeping kids' rooms and enjoy a silent little moment of awe at the family John and I have created. How can I love two kiddos any more? I treasure those little innocent moments, because I can see now how quickly they fade, and grow fewer and farther between. I see Sofia becoming independent, creating space between herself and Mama. I deal with her emerging temper and willfulness. I listen to the new phrases she picks up from her friends at school, and wonder what she experiences when I'm not there. I can't help but look ahead to the teenage years...

Back to the present, here a bunch of unordered photos posted in an attempt to catch up (Aug.-Oct.):

Sofia and Aidan at the Alaska Zoo during our Sept. visit:

Randomly bumping into my best college friend, Emily, at the Alaska Zoo:

Father and son, chillin:
Back at the zoo, Sofia bustin a sweet move:
First day of VBS for Sof!
This is what happens in the backseat when I'm not looking:
Sofia and her friends found an awesome dirt pile to play in while at the Soap Box Derby on Mt. Tabor (which was super duper fun):

Laughing guy!

Sof getting silly with Mommy's boots:

Sofia began her first ballet classes this summer:

Cannon Beach with Uncle Keith and Aunt Toni -- Sofia learned how to fly a kite!

She also completely encrusted herself in sand:





She is such a great cook. She serves me a glass of wine before she begins, and makes things like strawberry-vanilla-carrot soup.


Cannon Beach again -- we're getting better at building sand castles! I did the bulk of the construction with Nico in the Moby wrap, making it more impressive than it looks...

Back in Alaska, at Shawna and Jeff's beautiful Chickaloon wedding:

Sofia and Shiva:

Cousins Cody and Nico:

Glow stick and necklace party at Grandma O's:

Most of the dancer crowd at Shawna's wedding:
Back in Cannon Beach, family shot at our favorite place to eat, JP's. The family who ran it closed it down this season, sadly. The owner/chef/grandma was kind enough to hold Nico and take him on a tour of the restaurant while we ate!

Super fun trip to Sunriver with Vegas friends Micah, Lisa, Grace, Joey and Cheyenne:

Sofia's first day of preschool! So proud...

Loving the hammocks in Chickaloon:

Rare Jo/Johnny shot:

Nico in the Chariot:

Real men sit in pink Bumbos:

A gloriously hot day at Mirror Lake:


Sofia's first field trip! Lee's pumpkin patch:

Cousins!


Sofia helped me get my costuming ready for a photo shoot:

Mets fan at the pumpkin patch:

Hooray for trampolines!

Fabulous gene pool:

Hey. You talkin' to ME?

Halloween party at school for our Pink Flower Fairy (costume by Mom):

Cherishing those little details

We've always been very proud of Sofia and her language skills (come on, she talks about food going down her esophagus). I get the biggest kick out of sitting around and chit-chatting with her; watching her mimic adult tendencies. I love watching my little girl grow up this way.

But no matter how proud I am, no matter how much I love watching her grow up, I just know my heart is going to break a little the day she stops saying the following:

Ploby = probably
Bip, robop = bit, robot
Wery = very
Lellow, lell = yellow, yell
Free = three

Grow up, Sofia, just not too fast, please!

Psychedelic conversations, part 2

There is no context to this conversation, this is literally how we jumped into things:

Sofia: That's the soft package we take on the airplane.

Me: Um, what?

Sofia: We take the soft package on the airplane and put it in the trash.

Me: Oh, I see (read: complete incomprehension). Then what?

Sofia: We put it in the trash, and when it comes out it's a beautiful butterfly!

Me: Wow.

Sofia: With a shell. And a ladybug.

I wish I could remember the conversation about the bubble who wants to be monkey king, but I've forgotten the pertinent parts. Because, you know, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense.

Psychedelic toddler conversations

This whispered conversation just took place with Sofia. Why it was conducted in whispers I have no idea...

S: The volcano exploded so we are going on a Capri Sun vacation.

Me: That sounds like fun. How will we get there?

S: We'll drive there. In Mommy's car.

Me: OK. Will it take us a long time to get there?

S: Yeah, it will take us...like five minutes.

Me: What will we do when we get there?

S: We'll go see the waterfall, but we won't go under it. It's a new one.

Me: Then what will we do?

S: Go see the armadillo.

Riiiight. This is just one of many similar conversations. And I have to include her question the other day as we were walking and we were passed by two bicycles:

"Mommy, was that a peloton?"

Parenting is a lot of things, but it's never boring!

Another exercise in anachronism

We're going back in time here to highlight some more milestones. During Aunt Lisa and G's visit, Nico was baptized! Also included are shots of Sof's buddy Hannah's birthday party at our house, Grandma Caselli and Auntie Jess.

Holy big boy, Batman!

Since birth, Nico has put on five pounds, grown three inches in length and two inches in head circumference. Wowsa. That's just six weeks!



Also in the last six weeks, we've had visits from Aunt Lisa, G, Grandma Caselli and Grandma Oldfield. Frankly, it's all a bit of a blur, so I'll try to just put a bunch of pictures up and piece things together.

After all our visitors left, we took a hike in the Columbia River gorge, yet another waterfall trail. Sof gave the new Ergo a test drive and loved it. She also hiked the entire second half of the hike -- atta girl! Oh, and we saw a snake and I didn't even feel the urge to scream. I'm doing very well with my snake-fear conditioning.




While Grandma O. was here we walked up to one of the free outdoor Mt. Tabor concerts. It was great fun -- warm weather, Italian ice and fun rockabilly music.





Nico slept:

The kiddos got lots of snuggles from all the relatives (I'm still going through pictures and will get more up of the rest of the fam!!):




While Aunt Lisa and G were here, we did a ton of stuff, including going out to the new Wings and Waves indoor waterpark. Clearly, the kids loved it!


I took Sof and Nico down to the new Tabor farmer's market, where Sof got to decorate a cookie. What a fantastic new little market!


We celebrated the Fourth of July while Grandma O. was here. Sof wasn't too sure about the loud fireworks, but LOVED the sparklers and pop-its. We walked up to the Tabor reservoir to catch the big downtown fireworks display, and got an amazing view of all the illegal fireworks all over the southside. Dang, there were a lot of lawbreakers this year!


We returned to the Beverly Cleary fountains at Grant Park, such fun.


On Father's Day, I surprised John with a trip out to Hood River for a flight on a glider airplane! He was properly pleased with the whole thing, and I was tickled pink that we pulled it off.



Stay tuned for more out of order posts!

Sofia & Nico - love at first sight

It was 3 a.m. Tuesday morning, and I knew. I knew we would have a baby that day, just like I knew at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday morning a little more than three years ago with Sofia.

Three years ago, however, I felt invincible. I went to the office, I held a meeting, I didn't think too much about what I was, or wasn't, eating and drinking. And yes, I paid for it later on. Though Sofia's birth was the most profound experience of my life to that point, there were certainly some, shall we politely say, rough stretches.

So this time around I was armed with knowledge gained from that experience. I ate the most nutritious food I could before the pain got to be too much, and slugged a ton of water. Score a point for me. But sometimes ignorance is bliss, because with all my lovely knowledge came...more knowledge. Knowledge of hours of contractions, exhaustion and pain that pushes you to the brink. Honestly? I was scared. I questioned whether or not I could do it again.

Thankfully, I had a little help.

In what has to be one of the biggest blessings of this pregnancy/labor/delivery/recovery, my sister flew down from Alaska on Monday evening -- just in case I happened to go into labor during the three days she was able to stay with us. Because of the effort that required, especially traveling with 2-year-old Aidan, I just assumed that it was pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't have Nico while she was here. But in one of the best cases of timing EVER, there I was, in labor.

So with Sofia wonderfully occupied by Auntie Jess and cousin Aidan, I labored away. Labored and wondered just how all of this would turn out. The contractions grew stronger, but were still sporadically spaced out -- anywhere from 5-15 minutes apart. They needed to be consistently five minutes apart before it was time to go to the birthing center. As it turns out, they never did reach that point.

All of a sudden, contractions were coming fast and furious at 2-4 minutes apart. John called the midwives, who were to meet us at the birthing center in half an hour.

And here we faced the dreaded car ride. As there was NO WAY I was going to deal with these contractions while strapped upright into a seat bumping along the most pothole-filled road in Portland, I crawled into the backseat and hung onto the headrest for dear life. I may have also yelled at John once or twice...or maybe every time he so much as touched the brakes.

We reached the Alma birthing center at 9:30. Every second of the car ride was worth it the moment I entered the candlelit birthing room to the sound of the tub being filled. Ahhhh. It was here that I could finally, completely release myself into the process. No more clock watching, no more half listening to the kids, no more physically holding back. It was go time.

After about a half an hour on my hands and knees on the bed, I dimly wondered how much more I could take. Thought I never wanted to do this again. Wondered if I was two centimeters or ten. It was at this point that I caught my heaven-sent midwife Melissa telling John that I was likely about nine centimeters. I also somehow perceived her encouraging me to get into the tub.

With Sofia, I was so exhausted and dehydrated that moving from the bed to the tub was impossible. This time around I managed the ten feet or so to the tub, stopping for just one contraction.

The moment my skin hit the water, I could breath again. I knew I could do this. I prayed, I meditated, I let my body do what it needed to do. Every ounce of my strength was directed downward, and I realized I wasn't just having contractions, I was pushing. And then came the realization that although I was completely released into the birthing process, I was still in control. As soon as I felt I could take no more, I stopped. I let the water envelope me and relax me. When the time came, I marshalled my strength and gave it everything I had.

And thus at 10:31 p.m., May 31, Nico entered the world.

If there is a more intense moment in the world than when a mama first meets her baby, I can't imagine was it is. The physical relief, the elation, the amazement, the pride, the awe, the LOVE. And let's face it, a little bit of shock! All these things hit at once...and there are simply no words to describe it.

Later on, I learned a bit more about the moments surrounding Nico's birth. My little rock-n-roller had his cord wrapped around his neck, but God blessed and guided the hands of my midwives and they unwound him so gracefully we never even knew it. And apparently, my little guy took a bit of a swim upon his grand entry! John will swear he breaststroked across the tub.

The next few hours were a blur of bonding with, nursing, and eventually measuring Nico (7 lbs, 6 oz, 19.5 inches). Watching John meet his son was tremendous...I knew immediately we'd be fighting for snuggle time!

As I've looked back on all this over the last few days, my amazement continues to grow at the natural birth process, and at the utter awareness and skill of my midwives. Aside from checking Nico's heartrate, there was no need for me to be monitored or measured in any way -- simply by listening to me and watching me, my caretakers knew exactly what needed to happen and when.

Now I continue to process layer after layer of this, the second of the two most profound experiences of my life. Since the moment of Nico's birth, my circle of awareness is slowly expanding from simply realizimg that my baby was in my arms in a seeming blink of an eye, to my husband, to my body, to my daughter, and now it's slowly expanding to the world around me. I think I even know what day it is today! Monday? Yep! All right!

But the outside world can wait awhile still. Right now I'm reveling in watching this incredible love blossom between Sofia and Nico. It truly was love at first sight, and Sofia is exceeding all our expectations of being a fantastic big sister. She loves checking on Nico, and he's the first person she wants to see when she gets up in the morning. When she snuggles with him, he is quiet and still and looks at her with what I think are adoring eyes.

Here is Sofia meeting Nico for the first time:






This post can't be complete without a section on John. He has been nothing short of Superdad this last week. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, diaper duty, entertaining Sofia -- he has handled it all gracefully! He even managed to prune our front yard AND set up Sofia's trampoline. Now if I can just get a neck massage out of him, I can confidently say he's been perfect. Thank you, thank you, thank you, John, Sofia's father, Nico's father, my hero!