Snow storm!

The most exciting news in the Wilkinson family this past month has been the arrival of the first Swap cousin/nephew.  Cliff and Susana welcomed their first baby, Brandon (Brando) Webster about a month before his due date.  He is doing great, and is so amazingly cute.  Here he is coming home from the hospital.

Cousin Brandon

You can see more photos of the little guy on Susana's blog, here.

We also welcomed another "cousin" with the arrival of Quinn Richard, my cousin Noel and Brad's littlest addition.  He just got here on Thursday, and he is a sweetheart as well.  Next up is Matt's sister Tara's baby, who is due any day now.

This weekend has been a snowy one in Portland.  We had more snow in the past few days here than in the entire 5 years Matt and I moved here - probably about 6-8 inches.   Today it was topped off with a solid 1/2 inch layer of ice.  Grady has been loving the snow.  He has been enjoying ice skating, throwing chunks of snow and ice, making tracks, building caves for animals, and even building his first snowman!  Clara on the other hand - not such a fan.

Snowball! 

Trekking home from the store.  They don't plow streets here!  

Yup, still not a fan

Ice skating on our little puddle pond

Grady built a (tiny) snowman!

Shot of our neighborhood.  Skiing appears to be the most efficient and safest mode of travel

Clara's - and my - preferred vantage point

Most of the rest of the past month has flown by as we finally began preparing for the arrival of "baby brother."  The biggest part of that is that Grady and Clara are fully moved into their new room.

It was a rocky few weeks, but things are starting to even out a bit.  In addition to sharing a room, Clara also transitioned to the bed from her crib, so transition was to be expected.

Passing out after multiple trips out of bed

After some experimentation, the current rule is they can talk as much as they want after lights out, but they can't get out of bed.  For the most part that's been successful, but there are occasional shouts from Grady that Clara has gotten out of bed.  Poor Grady is becoming somewhat chronically sleep deprived, as he stays up about an hour later laughing and singing with Clara, and then gets up about an hour early due to Clara's intense love of the 5 am hour.  He's being a good sport, and we are hoping it will all even out at some point.

The baby's room is about 80% set up.  We need the crib to be reassembled and pictures hung, but we've got some time.  Three weeks until due date, and he'll be in our room for a while after he's born.

I finish up work on Wednesday, and have been busy finalizing last projects at work before then.  I've also become a knitting fiend, knitting a blanket, two baby hats, pants, and a sweater in the past month.

For cousin Brandon

And a coordinating one for our guy

Baby blanket

Detail

Done enough

I've also been working on making a mobile for the baby with origami stars.  The kids really like picking out which paper to use.  I'm hoping it will come together in time!  It's a time consuming project.

The start of star madness

Other than crazy nesting, all is good.  Grady has learned to write his name well, and is making some really impressive pictures.  Some recent favorites are a person with a fridge that has carrots, milk, and a sugar monster inside; a snowman; and a complicated one involving the sun and rainbows and water.  Clara also loves to draw but her pictures are a bit more abstract.

Clara has decided to turn 2 a few months early, and we have been having some power struggles, to put it politely.  She is very independent, and although it can be frustrating, it is amazing how much she can do when she puts her mind to it.  She can put on her socks, pants, shirt, and shoes all by herself - even occasionally her jacket.  She is perseverant.  Her language is increasing daily.  She can mimic back long sentences, and can make her desires known quite well.  Her sentences are getting longer, and she can string together 4 or 5 word sentences if they involve the word "mine."

Grady and Clara are best friends.  They laugh together and already have inside jokes that no one understands.  Here are some examples.

Grady is trying to teach her everything he knows.  Right now he is teaching her colors.  Orange and green seem to be her favorites.  They also take good care of each other.  If Grady gets upset, Clara looks very concerned and asks "Grady? Crying?"  If Clara is upset, Grady will hold her hand and try to cheer her up.  Of course, as Grady says, "Sometimes she's mean to me and sometimes she isn't."  That cuts both ways.

That's all the big news around here.  Here are some pictures of the goofballs from the past month.

She may be a lego genius

Levitating superheros 

Grady doing his "bat hang"