a true family update

Yes, this is officially the "Shelton Family Blog".  Although I guess you'd never know it by the narrow focus on one very small member of our family.  It's hard as a mom not to want to talk about your child constantly.  And I have to say, she's way cuter than me or Robert (sorry Robert, you are quite adorable, but you are no match for those chubby cheeks).  So in the spirit of a true family blog, here is an update on all members of our family.  Starting, of course, with the current star.  :)

ADELINE :

Addie is learning soooo much these days.  I'm constantly amazed at how much she understands.  She is not a super verbal kid just yet, but she's working on it.  She definitely understands vastly more than she attempts to say with real words.  Her signs get her basically everything she needs and we are adding to those as quickly as I can learn them.  She picks up signs really quickly!  These days she's all over the place and she's really strong!  Here's a quick run down of her current signs, words, and physical feats:

• Signs : more, all done, eat, thirsty, toothbrush, light, open, help, please, music, dog, up.
• Words : quack-quack, meow, heh-heh (dog panting) ... all in response to "what does a duck/cat/dog say?, ball, mama, dada, papa, pat-pat, na-na.
• Physical & developmental feats : Climbing all over the place, super cute toddler run, climbing up and going down our Little Tykes slide without any help from Mommy or Daddy, she finally learned "soft touch"!!!  (although she still prefers her normal hard touch), loads of hugs and snuggles for Mommy and Daddy, pushing anything she can get to move (chairs, activity table, full laundry basket, her doll stroller, her actual stroller), putting toddler puzzles together with minimal help from Mommy (she finds the right spot on her own, I help her twist it around until if fits), successful (albeit creative) use of a spoon to feed herself, and coloring.  She can point out a lot of things in the pictures of her books when we ask her to.  She knows her books so well that we can ask her to get a particular one and she runs off to her room and comes back with the one we asked for.  And she now has 10 teeth, including 2 molars that just popped through last week!

Adeline made her first Valentine's day card for her Daddy this year.  We had a crafty playgroup where the kids all made cards and exchanged old school Valentine's.  They had so much fun (so did the moms)!  An added bonus is this beautiful picture of Adeline taken during our V-day play group by Heather Walker (one of the moms) who is an amazing photographer!

Card for Daddy


Adeline loved her tulips from Daddy

Addie got to spend a few nights with Gee-gee when she came to visit last week.  My mom forced us to let her babysit two evenings in a row.  Okay, maybe forced is the wrong word.  She mentioned it once and we ran with it!  Robert and I actually got two free nights in a row and one of those nights was Valentine's Day!!  Adeline adores her Gee-gee.  She is the only person that I have been able to leave Adeline with lately where she doesn't cry.  In fact, she doesn't even blink an eye when I leave if she's hanging out with Gee-gee.  She actually went to sleep without a whimper in Gee-gee's arms... TWICE.  She has never, never let anyone but me rock her to sleep without tears.  Not even her Daddy.  I'm still amazed by that!

Adeline and her Gee-gee

We are headed to the pediatric ENT with Adeline tomorrow.  She just can't seem to kick the fluid in her ears which has caused 3 infections since January.  Since she's allergic to Penicillin, that knocks out one major medicine group and makes the infections a little harder to treat.  I'm really hoping we can work through this without putting tubes in her ears!  

ROBERT : 

Robert has a lot on his plate.  

In one week, he got 3 side projects. The first is to design a new construction bar in College Station.  He knows the site well.  It is in Northgate which is the main strip of bars directly across from the north end of campus at A&M.  Let's just say he's been there a time or two.  :)  It should be a really interesting project.  It will be his first commercial job to do completly on his own.

The second and third projects are small scale renovations on existing houses.  One for a couple in southwest Austin, the other for some good friends of ours, Jen & Chris, who just bought a house really close to us.  They were in our Bradley childbirth class and have a son about 6 weeks younger than Addie.  We are thrilled that they will be so close to us soon and that Robert will be able to help them update their house to match their modern, fun personalities!

So on top of all the side projects he is starting, he also has his 2 final ARE (Architectural Registration Exam) tests coming up.  He's headed to Scottsdale, AZ next weekend with his little brother, Lindsay, for an exam review class.  I know, all the way to AZ?  They don't offer very many of these for the two tests that he has left, so you have to take what you can get.  It should be a really fun trip for them together.  His brother is also an architect, 4 years younger, and is just starting his ARE tests.  Wish them luck!

And last (but certainly not least in my mind!) on Robert's plate is the start of our addition.  We just got the bid in today and although a little higher than we hoped, we feel confident that we can get the numbers down to where we need them to be.  We'll hopefully sign the contract at the end of next week then start looking for some temporary housing and packing up!  

Here are some cute pictures of Adeline and her favorite person (I'm convinced he's got a slight edge over me in her book)... Dada.

PAIGE : 

These days I'm mostly busy carrying around baby Shelton #2 while trying to wrangle baby Shelton #1.  I'm feeling good.  Fat, but good.  I'm 10.5 weeks along now and fighting the maternity clothes like crazy.  It's a losing battle.  I think I'm going to have to give in in the next week or two.  I'm down to just my 'fat jeans' and few other pants that used to be quite a bit looser than the currently appear.  The baby is making his/her presence known through my shirts now.  I am expecting a stranger to ask me when I'm due any day.  We are thinking we've got a boy coming this time.  Not sure why, just a guess.  Regardless, we love him/her and I can't wait to meet this new tiny little person!

I really don't have much else to report on me.  Most of my news relates to Adeline or the new baby, both of which have been covered.  :)

So there you have it... a true Shelton Family Blog update!