sleepy head

Last night when I picked up Ada from daycare I noticed that she hadn't taken her afternoon nap. Not unusual, but it usually means a cranky ride home and an earlier bed time. So imagine my surprise when I handed back a binky early in the ride and then didn't hear another peep. Given that it is dark when I pick her up now - I couldn't see what she was up to until I got home. Turns out she was asleep. We put her in her crib and figured we had enough time to finish up some work until she woke up and wanted dinner. One hour passed - nothing, two hours - nothing, finally we started to get ready for bed and she started to stir. We quickly gave her a bottle (forget the sippy cup), changed her diaper, put her in her jammers and laid her back in her crib and she was still happily sleeping when I left the house at 6:30 this morning. I'm sure she is growing and needed the sleep, but in the back of my mind, I can't help but wonder if she figured we would be trying to push the sippy cup again last night and she was just really creative in her attempt to rebel against our attempts.

power struggle

Last night when we picked up Ada from daycare the center director asked us to step into her office because she wanted to talk to us. Nothing bad, Ada is going to be transitioned to the toddler room at the center and she wanted to discuss that process with us. The biggest difference for Ada is going to be the removal of the bottle. Once she moves to the toddler room she will no longer be allowed to drink her milk from a bottle. You wouldn't think this is a big deal since she is very proficient with her sippy cup, but you would be wrong. We have until January to make the transition but Ada is apparently so attached to her bottle that the director thought we should start now.

So being the studious parents that we are, we went home and presented Ada her evening milk in a sippy cup. Seconds before that she had been drinking water from a sippy cup but that is apparently very different. We warmed the milk, poured it in the sippy cup and tried to hand it to Ada. She pushed it away and said, "Nah".

Side note here - I love that Ada says Nah instead of No. It just seems so much more relaxed and cool. Like she just doesn't feel like doing what she is being asked to do rather than full out defiance. I know... I'm only fooling myself. But it is the little things. Ok back to the story....

So I offered her the sippy cup a few more times, Elliot tried to lay her across his lap like he normally does with the bottle and got the sippy cup as far as her lips but then she pushed it away again and said, "Nah". We figured it might be a bit much to do all in one night so we explained to her that we would let her have her milk in a bottle but that we were going to continue to first offer her the sippy cup and after this week we would not be putting the milk in the bottle for her. Quite the logical argument but I'm not so sure she is going to let us off that easily.

So this morning when it was time for her morning milk, Elliot offered her the sippy cup and when I got out of the shower, he was still trying to get her to take it. She is normally so sleepy, calm, and hungry in the morning you can get her to do just about anything. Anything, that is, except drink milk from a sippy cup. She ended up with her bottle again. We'll see how long this takes. If we have learned anything in the last 15 months it is that Ada is a strong willed little being. In fact I think that was driven home most poignantly when we were struggling to get her attached to the same nasty little habit we are currently trying to break - the bottle. How ironic.

the grey cup

Yesterday was The Grey Cup, the Superbowl of the Canadian Football League. And as luck would have it, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were not only in the game they won the whole thing! Through one of our local Canadian friends we found out that a local bar was actually going to be showing the game so of course we HAD to go.

Last year for Christmas Elliot got some Roughriders gear for the family, including a cute little sweatsuit for Ada. So we put on our gear and headed downtown for the game.

The game wasn't all that exciting, but our time at the bar was interesting. Unfortunately, the owner of the bar didn't know he was going to have the game on in time to advertise to the local Canadian contingent, so there was only two other groups of Canadians there. However, it was fortunate for us because it allowed Ada to have run of the joint without us worrying to much about her. We did take in a little pub fare including Ada's favorite of all time - ketchup - with a side of french fries. Technically we ordered and paid for the french fries and they threw in the ketchup for free but Ada merely uses the fries as a means for getting ketchup into her mouth and all over her face. She has really developed quite the technique for moving ketchup from the plate to her mouth. She spends a lot of time orienting the fry in between her fingers so that she is just holding the very tip of the fry, allowing her to get the maximum surface area of the fry available for ketchup dipping. She then slides the fry into and out of the ketchup resulting in a full double dip of ketchup per dip. You would think this would be good enough but she then takes it a step further. She then licks and sucks the ketchup off the fry and goes back in for another dip. She will only actually eat the fry after it has been fully saturated with ketchup.

Had the Chargers been in, and won the Superbowl I would have great memories of great catches and hard hitting tackles, because, you know, I would have watched the game. You would think the same would apply to the Roughriders winning the Grey Cup - but honestly - I will always remember this victory by fry manipulation and the art ketchup saturation.

giving thanks

Yesterday was American Thanksgiving, as opposed to Canadian Thanksgiving, which Ada also celebrates. We hosted what we called, Lazy Thanksgiving. The only rules we laid out were that we would eat when the turkey was ready, football would be on the TV, and we would most likely be in our comfy weekend clothes. My parents, Julie, and Taylor joined us for our lazy day and we all had fun hanging out, but Ada and Taylor showed us that they are learning how to be quite the tag team.

They are just starting to get to an age where they are playing together. And play they did. It looked like a toy store had thrown up in our living room by the time the day was over. In fact, they were so busy playing that they didn't have time to take their afternoon naps. Not that Julie and I didn't try. We would try to put one down and they would cry past their normal amount so we would take them out and then we would try the other one. Each time one of the girls was sprung loose from the crib she would walk back into the living room with her head held high and a slight glimmer of mischievous satisfaction across her face. This was the routine for a couple of tries then they picked it up a notch. I didn't see them talking this through ahead of time but I'm guessing that they had some sort of code worked out, because what happened next had to have been plotted out. Taylor once again had a little meltdown, the sort that just announce to everyone around that it is time for a nap. As a mom I love these meltdowns because they are so transparent you don't have to spend any time wondering what might be the source of the tantrum. But, as had happened the other three or four times we had tried to put one of the girls down for a nap, once her head hit mattress the screams got even louder and varied.

This is where the plotting comes in. Taylor and Ada must have figured that among the adults, there must be at least one that would succumb to their total cuteness. So they set up an elaborate sequence of crying rhythms and when the other one heard this they knew it was time to set their plan into action.

As the adults sat around waiting for Taylor to get through her full litany of cries, Ada snuck back to the bedroom and started lightly pounding on the door. And the girls were right, someone saw Ada pounding on the door and they let her in, she wandered in looked around and had a smug little look on her face that said, Yup, suckers. I did my job, they won't be able to resist Taylor now that they are in the room. And she was right. As Taylor walked back into the living room this time she held her head even higher, and the smile on her face was extra big. I'm sure that if we had video footage of the girls following this incident we would have seen them high fiving and giggling as they realized that they have us wrapped around their little fingers. And as silly as it sounds, THAT is what I'm thankful for this year.

spa girl

Ada has been showing her inner spa girl lately. First, on Sunday morning as she and I were quietly playing so that Elliot could get a little extra sleep she kept grabbing my nail polish bottles. I don't think she knew what they were for but she kept grabbing them and banging them together and then handing them to me. I was out of fresh ideas for exciting play activities so I figured I'd show her how to paint her nails. Ada is normally very possessive of her fingernails, if she sees you trying to mess with her nails she will quickly pull her hand away and then try to get out of your grasp. Sunday morning, however, she was intrigued by the brush and the color and let me paint 8 of her 10 nails. She didn't even try to touch her nails and mess up the color. She did however try to paint my nails so I ended up with the odd 2 nail manicure.

Another sign of her inner spa girl is her persistent requests for back rubs. Now when she realizes that I am doing a pre-bed diaper change all by myself, she will roll over after I get the diaper on (and sometimes before), grab her favorite bottle of lotion, hand it to me, and then lean forward so that I have the best angle to rub lotion on her back. She has it down to a science. And if I take to long, she whips around to make sure I'm at least in the process of opening the bottle of lotion. Of course she only does this for me.

Her final spa girl sign needs a little back story. No pun intended.

This week I have been off of work but still taking Ada into daycare so that I could help Elliot recover from his Lasik surgery, get some stuff done around the house, and tap into my own inner spa girl. Elliot and I are going to a local day spa tomorrow for a little mental recovery and we have been talking about it for a couple of days. Apparently Ada was listening. This morning when we got ready to head to daycare she was all smiles and didn't cry one little peep of a cry on the way in. Until we got to her classroom. Then she broke down like someone had stolen her binky and put coffee in her sippy cup. There was no consoling her. I was a little deflated by this experience since she never has this sort of melt down when Elliot does the drop offs alone, but Elliot has a good theory. He figures she heard all the talk about the spa, and knew it was coming up, and that it is just silly for men to want to go to the spa for an entire day, so the only other logical explanation for me loading her up in the car all by myself was that the spa day had finally come and she was just minutes away from being scrubbed down with a Eucalyptus Lavender Sugar Scrub. And when she saw the door of the daycare rather than the gates of the spa she was crushed. Her little spa dreams dashed. Given that disappointment the only logical thing to do was to cry uncontrollably and take absolutely zero solace in the smiling faces of her classmates and teachers. NOW that melt down make total sense.

cuddly sickness

Ada has never been very cuddly. Even with nursing she started out cuddling up to me because she thought she had to, but by the end she was much more aggressive about getting her mookie and didn't so much as ask before she decided to latch on. Just about the only time she gets cuddly is when she is REALLY REALLY tired and she wants to go to bed. In this case she'll crawl up into your lap, wrap her arms around your neck and squeeze. This is her way of saying, "In case you didn't notice, it is well past my bedtime and I'd like to go to sleep now." And even in these instances the cuddling really only lasts a few seconds and her body is still sort of stiff and deliberate.

Well yesterday she had a little bit of a fever, enough to stay home from daycare, and according to Elliot she was very cuddly all day. She just wanted to be held, because no matter how old you are, that just makes you feel better. I didn't really believe it - not until I got home and Ada immediately jumped from Elliot's arms into my arms. I wasn't prepared for the cuddliness that Ada had in store for me. She was relaxed and soft in my arms, she laid her head on my shoulder and burrowed her head into my neck, and she wrapped her little arms around me and squeezed just hard enough to let me know that she wanted to be right there, in my arms. It was one of those moments that make your heart melt. That is when I turned to Elliot and asked if he was going to be able to stay home with Ada again today, because if she was so sick that she didn't mind cuddling, there was no way she was going to be well enough to go to daycare the following morning.

disruption

I don't think I realized how much Ada has started to rely on Monday's at Uncle Eric's house, until last night. Eric, Monique, and the kids are back East until early December which means we did not go up to their house for dinner last night. Elliot and I used this as a chance to catch up on our energy and work from a pretty busy week last week, and we figured Ada wouldn't really know the difference. Boy were we wrong.

When we got home Ada sort of looked around as if to say, "Wait, where are the other kids? And the cool furniture, and the dog, and... and... and... ". After she got over that shock she started loudly pouting. A very deliberate "HMPH". A long wallowing whine. And loud deliberate steps. When we started to make dinner she got extra pouty, solely because she didn't have her cousins to entertain her. The funny part is that she is no where near that dramatic on other nights when we make dinner or *gasp* try to play with her when we get home.

It is safe to say that the whole family misses Eric, Monique, Maia, and Eric - but Ada - she misses them the MOST.

the littlest curler

Tonight was an open house for the San Diego Curling club. Since Elliot is the president of the curling club he had to be there and Ada and I tagged along. Since Ada attends many of our ice hockey games she already has an outfit designed to keep her warm while in the rink but tonight was the first time she got close to the ice.

At first Ada and I just hung out in one of the player boxes and watched the action. Ada sitting on top of the wall, banging her boots on the boards as if to root on the motley crew of new curlers. Next, gaining some confidence and comfort, Ada decided that she wanted to wander to the back area where the Zamboni is stored. I thought she was interested in the machinery but really she had seen the barrel of curling brooms earlier in that section and was bringing me back so that she could get a broom and get on the ice like everyone else. So we grabbed a broom and I extremely cautiously let her down on the ice. The grip on her boots was fairly good and Ada was extremely comfortable as she insisted on NOT holding my hand. She grabbed her curling broom, pushed it out in front of her, and started to walk and sweep just as she had seen others doing earlier. I spent the rest of the night worrying that she was going to whip around and fall and crack her head on the ice but she was out to prove one thing to me. She has Canadian blood in her. This Candianness comes with a natural instinct for negotiating ice travel. She proved this point by being as agile on ice after about 5 seconds of experimentation as her Mommy who has several years of ice hockey and a few seasons of curling under her belt.

imagination

Last night when I called home to talk to Elliot and Ada it dawned on me that without the distractions of flying chicken nuggets or constantly running around cuteness, talking to Ada on the phone allows me to focus on what she is actually "saying". And usually her babbles sounded exactly like her babbles at home, but every so often I would ask a directed question to Elliot and I swear I would hear Ada answer with a clear and relavent answer.

"How did picture day go?"

"Not so well, I guess"

I'm sure it was really more like "Na na so ga ga" but my baby deprived mind tapped into my over active imagination and added full language skills to Ada's ever growing list of attributes. Or did it? Maybe Elliot is such a great parent that he was able to teach Ada how to construct a full sentance with proper inflection with all of the extra one on one Ada time he has had this week.

missing you

I have been out of town on a business trip since Tuesday afternoon. This has been the longest I've been away from Ada - EVER. By far the hardest part was when Elliot and Ada dropped me off at the airport. Most of the ride was OK. Ada and I made faces at each other, we sang along to Banana Phone, and clapped our hands many times over. The horrible part started when we got to the airport. When Ada saw the line of cars, and the loved ones hugging goodbye she put two and two together and realized that either Mom and Dad were leaving or that we were going to force her to sit still, on a plane, for hours and then spend the night sleeping in a strange place. I'm not sure which one would be worse, but whatever it was, caused major turmoil. She screamed, and yelled, and moaned, and then screamed some more. No amount of kisses would calm her. And as Elliot and I kissed goodbye on the curb it was highlighted by an extra loud scream from Ada that rose above the sounds of traffic and creeped out of the confines of the completely shut car. Apparently this didn't last long but it did make the walking into the airport extra hard.

I guess Ada spent some time on Tuesday night wandering around the house looking for me, which totally makes me feel loved. But other than that she seems to be totally enjoying her Daddy time. After all he lets her stay up as late as she wants and eat chocolate for breakfast. :P

When I called home last night both Elliot and Ada seemed to be doing OK. Since Ada was still up Elliot put me on speaker phone and Ada and I had our first phone conversation. It was full of babbles, and kisses, and baby interpretations of the word "Yellow". It was absolutely delightful, well, until Ada hung up on me.

my hero

I normally reserve this blog for stories about Ada but this is a crazy family story that needs to be documented for posterity.

Last night Elliot, Ada and I did our normal Thursday night bike ride and then went to get some dinner at a plaza near my work. We go into the pizza place - order our food and have 20 minutes to kill so we decide to walk across the parking lot, which is down hill (this is important in a second) to another store. As we are walking I hear what sounds like an electric car going by - only it is moving backwards, it wasn't an electric car - it was an old Volvo station wagon, and there was no one in the car. Being the hero that he is, Elliot ran after the car, tried to open the door... of course it was locked. So he turned to brut strength and tried to slow it down himself. When that didn't really work he started shouting, louder than you may think Elliot can shout, at the car that was in a direct line for a collision with the runaway Volvo. Just as that car started to slow down, the Volvo also miraculously hit a bit of an up slope and slowed just enough that Elliot was able to finally make some progress on slowing down the Volvo, sparing the car from crashing into the building not 10 feet away. Elliot was then able to push the car back into the aisle of the parking lot so that it wasn't blocking traffic and we started to assess what had just happened.

Turns out, some kid had pulled into a parking spot at the top of the parking lot. Forgotten to put the car in park, but had removed the keys and locked the car before he headed into the Pei Wei for some dinner. Since the car was parked at the top of a hill it slowly started to move backwards, picking up momentum as the hill got steeper. It was about half way down the hill when it passed us.

This was the perfect storm of events which allowed Elliot the opportunity to show his inner hero. The car was luckily parked in line with an aisle in the parking lot. Had it been one spot to the left or right it would have hit another car, or us as we were walking down the other side of the aisle. We almost decided to go to another pizza place that was more on our way home - had that happened we would never have had the chance to save the car. I was holding Ada, which freed Elliot up for hero duty. And had the driver of the Volvo not been such an oblivious kid we would never have this crazy tale to tell.