TA-DAA!!!

Recently Ada was enjoying her dinner and, clearly impressed with her own ability to successfully shovel at least some of the food on her plate into her mouth, raised her arms victoriously over her head and exclaimed "Ta-daa!!!". Sitting on the stool in front of her, I provided what seemed to be the appropriate response by raising my arms in kind and returning the ta-daa.

Ada was delighted by this exchange and followed it with the logic of any 2 year old - if something is funny once, it should be repeated ad nauseum. I played along, mirroring her ta-daas dutifully. After what seemed like the 30th go-round of ta-daas, I decided to inject some variety into my end of the performance by responding with clapping and a hearty "yeah Ada!". Ada pondered this response for a moment then raised her arms up for another ta-daa. I again responded with clapping and "yeah Ada!". After a short pause and a confused frown, Ada addressed me with the restrained frustration of someone explaining an obvious concept to a not-so-swift student. "No daddy," she said slowly, "not yeah Ada. Ta-daa." while raising her arms instructively. Thus chastened, I returned to the proper response and Ada was happily ta-daa-ing again.

I say la mesa, you say...

Being the over-informed and freaked-out modern parents that we are, Katie and I take Ada to a toddler Spanish class every Saturday morning, concerned that our collective foreign language skills, being barely sufficient to order a ham sandwich in Paris, will permanently stunt Ada's ability to pick up other tongues.

Neither Katie or I have studied Spanish, so we struggle along with Ada trying to pick up the new vocabulary. This is fine in class, where the ever patient Miss Linda encourages our feeble attempts to help out as if we were just a few more two-year old students, happy if we just make an attempt at saying the words and make it through class without wetting ourselves. At home, it's a little tougher. As parents we feel duty-bound to reinforce Miss Linda's teachings in spite of our complete incompetence with the subject matter. This primarily consists of repeating colors and numbers in Spanish while reading with Ada, but occasionally we'll chuck in a random word out of the blue.

The other night Ada was sitting in her high chair finishing up with dinner. As usual, a good portion of her mac and cheese had found its way on to the chair's tray, the surrounding floor, and probably some not so obvious places we'll only discover when we move out of the house. I grabbed a sponge and handed it to Ada, asking her to clean "la mesa" - no doubt this clever use of Spanglish was delivered with the perfect diction one would expect from mid-western Canadian. Leaving Ada to her cleaning, I stooped down to pick up some errant mac. When I stood up, Ada was looking at me with a puzzled expression while dutifully using the sponge to clean the top of her head. No doubt she found it odd that her dad would ask her to clean her "cabeza" while "la mesa" clearly had a mess on it. I took heart that she was willing to follow instructions from her dad, no matter how idiotic, but I fear her foreign language skills may still be doomed.

starbucks

This morning as I was helping Ada get ready, Elliot asked me if I wanted coffee for the road. Meaning that he was going to make me a latte for my travel mug that I could drink on my way in. Ada heard this and immediately stopped what she was doing and ran to the door shouting "COFFEE, I WANT COFFEE". Now before you think we have already started Ada on a steady drip of caffeine, Ada gets either a steamed milk or a cold milk from Starbucks when we go out for coffee. This is usually a Sunday morning treat when Elliot and I are still rubbing the sleep out of our eyes and Ada needs to burn off a little energy.

Well this morning I needed to desperately get out the door at 7:45 or earlier due to my first meeting time, so a motivated Ada was a good thing. Elliot and I told her we could go to coffee if she hurried up and got her shoes and socks on. Ada took this as MOMMY needed to get her shoes on. So she ran back to our bedroom shouting "Mommy get your shoes and socks on." Like I was going to ruin the whole coffee opportunity for her.

We managed to get out the door on time and as soon as we got to Starbucks, Ada busted through the door and ran straight to the cooler where she picked out her milk and handed it to Elliot. You could almost see the sigh of relief as she watched Elliot pay for her milk and hand it back over.

If she is this addicted to Starbucks now, I'd hate to see her after pulling an all nighter.

so proud

We started potty training Ada over the Thanksgiving holiday and after the first weekend Elliot and I were both silently thinking maybe we had attempted too much too soon. But Ada with some help from day care has proved us wrong.

One thing we did change was her napping and bedtime condition. The day care instructions on potty training stated that they would not diaper her during nap time and that they requested that we did not diaper during nap OR night time at home. Being good little instruction followers we tried this, until Ada's teacher told us that they were diapering her during nap time. OMG!! Once we flipped to sleepy time diapering it took all of the trauma out and Ada is now well on her way to being potty trained. We still have an accident here or there, but Ada is very good about telling us she has to go to the bathroom, or that she needs a "diaper change", or saying out loud, "I'm holding it, I'm holding it". I'd like to say that it is Ada's maturity that has helped us make so much progress is so little time, but really I think it is the promise of Elmo and Princess big girl underwear, as Ada insists on wearing nothing but "Big Girl UNDERPANTS!" At least she has goals.

I could not be more proud!

making out like a band-aid

Ada is talking up a storm these days. And repeating. Repeating EVERYTHING she hears. This has presented some funny situations, and we are frequently reminded that kids definitely say the funniest things EVER.

The other night as we wrapped up a shopping trip to the mall where Ada walked away with 80% of our purchases we commented on how Ada was "making out like a bandit" that night. Ada, trying her best to sound cool, confirmed our statement with, "I made out like a band-aid". A Tinkerbell band-aid, I'm sure.

ice ice baby

We brought Ada to curling on Saturday since it was an early draw and her favorite Auntie Katie was going to be there to help us watch Ada while we played. Ada has been to curling before and as soon as we told her she got to go on the ice she was THE MOST cooperative toddler you have ever seen.

Once we got her boots on I helped Ada onto the ice. Well, actually, I planned to help Ada onto the ice but she just jumped onto the ice without any help and took off. Several years ago Elliot and I traveled to Saskatchewan for Christmas and I had a huge case of cabin fever until Elliot took me out to the frozen lakes to run around. I was like a kid in a candy store and I can only imagine the look of amazement and joy on my face. That look was the exact same look Ada had when she got onto the ice Saturday night. Pure unadulterated JOY.

Ada spent the night trying to move stones, sweeping the ice, twirling around with Katie, skipping with Elliot and basically slipping and sliding on the ice. When it came time to leave she was so distraught that she threw herself on the ice. When we pulled her off the ice she ran back to the ice as soon as we set her down. And before we could finally get her to the parking lot she staged a toddler sit-in at the rink, throwing herself on the ground and writhing around until she felt her point had been made. That point - Ada likes the ice. She isn't sure why she was born into such a warm weather city. Don't we know that she has true maple leaf red Canadian blood running through her veins and those veins, they NEED the ice.

caretaker

On Friday night I had a collision in my soccer game that resulted in a pretty gnarly laceration on the inside of my lip and a pretty large gash in my upper lip. Ada's first reaction was 'ewwwwww' and rightfully so - I looked nothing like what her mommy normally looks like. But shortly after this initial reaction she became really interested and wanted to do everything she could do to help. So for the course of the weekend Ada stated very astutely, "Mommy big owie" and slowly she started to get more daring, kissing the air near my head, getting up close to really examine the wound on the outside of my lip, letting me kiss her good night. Finally after a weekend full of getting THIS close to my owie, Ada decided that for the good of my health she was going to have to bite the bullet and kiss my actual owie if there was any hope of it healing anytime soon. So she mustered up the courage, and quickly kissed the cut on my lip in the same fashion she kisses her knee when she has an invisible owie. When she was finished she gave me a look that told me not to worry - my lip would be healing in no time.

responsibility

Ada has hated brushing her teeth since we introduced the concept. She loves sucking the toothpaste off of the brush, and sometimes she even will take her toothbrush and brush her face with it. But putting it in her mouth and pushing the brush with some sort of force to her teeth is a concept she has fought with such vigor and flailing arms that it often took both Elliot and I to get those darn teeth cleaned - one to hold down the arms and another to pry open the mouth and force the brush into her tiny little mouth. I'm sure she'll have flashbacks in her 30s replaying the torture that her parents once inflicted upon her.

Well, as with all things Ada, she has suddenly changed her mind. This week I tried something new, after winding down for bed and reading a story, but before we take our stroll around the house to say goodnight to everything we stop in the bathroom to brush her teeth. It started out with a little struggling and a lot of "I do it", but in the end she gave in to letting Mommy do it first and then letting her take her turn sucking the toothpaste out and brushing the minty saliva all over her face. I was happy with this and would have been very pleasantly pleased if this development had lasted. So imagine my reaction last night when we made our stop in the bathroom. We walked into the room, I told Ada to get ready to get her teeth brushed, and turned away to apply the toothpaste to the toothbrush. When I turned around there she was, big eyes staring up at me, hands at her sides, and mouth WIDE open patiently waiting for me to scrub away at her teeth. She let me get all the way in to get the back molars, smiled big and brought her front teeth together so I could get the front teeth all together, stuck out her tongue so I could scrub that a little and then opened up WIDE again so I could get the roof of her mouth. And that is when it hit me, she was laughing. Laughing and squirming and smiling through the open mouth and the minty froth. That is when I realized that just like her mama, the roof of Ada's mouth is ticklish. Unlike her mama, Ada LOVES to be tickled. So even if it meant that she had to endure teeth scrubbing to get to the tickling, she would do it. She would even greet that excruciating experience with open arms (or mouth), if it meant that she would eventually get to the tickling part of the process. I now need to figure out how to integrate tickling into vegetable eating and I'll have finally conquered Ada's last great hold out.

keeping me in check

Tonight we went for a family run. Me, Elliot, and Ada in her rocket ship (jogging stroller). We were less than a mile into our run and Ada - enamored by the fact that I was running next to her - INSISTED that I run holding her hand. YES. You read that correctly. She continued her grip of death on my index finger for about half a mile until she finally let go.

I spent the next two miles thinking about how wonderful it was that Ada loved me SO much that she wanted to be that close to me while we ran. Ada must have sensed the size of my head growing because with about a mile to go, as I took over the stroller and sent Elliot on a surge and she watched Elliot run off into the darkness, Ada WAILED. And wailed and wailed and wailed all the way home. An entire mile of "Dadddyyyyy, daddddddyyyyyy, dadddyyyyyy, DAAADDDDDYYYYYY". I tried everything I could from behind the helm of the rocket ship, but nothing, not even the offer of holding her hand while we ran, could take her mind off of her feelings of abandonment.

Luckily we eventually caught up to Elliot and Ada was released from the confines of the rocket ship to so she could run with Daddy up the hill to our house.

bring it home, mama

Ada has recently started saying, "Bring it home". I'm sure this came from a shopping trip where we asked her if she wanted to bring something home, but for some reason she always just brings it up randomly when we are in the car - most of the time while we are actually on our way home.

Not really knowing what her motivation is behind the exclamation "Bring it home" we've started to have the following conversation:

Ada: Bring it home
Me: Ada, do you want me to bring it home?
Ada: YES
Me: Ok, say, bring it home mama
Ada: Bring it home (pause) MAMA
Me: Dun dun dun da bab bab do grrr grr gr grrrr raaararrarraaaaa (my take on a band wrapping up a set)

We have done this a couple of times and last night on our way home Ada started the "Bring it home" routine, but when I started my wrapping it up section I had to suddenly stop. There was a little voice coming from the back seat (a very concentrated voice): "Dun dun dun dur dur dur dun grr grr dun dun da da da dur dur dun..."

On a night where we really needed a little light heartedness in our lives, Ada brought it home.

creative parenting

Ada has two pairs of princess sunglasses, however, she cannot find either of these pairs. This makes drives to and from daycare difficult in the brown car.

Well, this morning Elliot gave Ada and I a ride to work/school and loaded up everything in the brown car so Ada was out of luck. She seemed to be doing OK until we hit the sun spot and she started crying for sunglasses. I searched through the muck on the floor of the backseat and came out empty handed, except for a bucket from Sea World. What was I going to do with the bucket you ask? Well, Ada likes to put stuff on her head, and hide behind stuff so I pulled out the bucket and said, "Ada, I couldn't find your sunglasses but I do have this bucket." Not having any idea how she would take it, I waited. And then, a little hesitant, "Bucket, yeaaahhh" came out. So she spent the rest of the ride in holding the bucket up to her face, and putting her toys and breakfast into the bucket and taking it out.

Not a moment that will win me World's Greatest Mom - but it might get me an honorable mention for World's most creative mom...

outsourcing

The other night as we were finishing up our dinner, Ada indicated that she wanted one of her treats from her Trick-or-Treating escapades. However, she was only half way through her dinner and we have rules in our house that she has to finish the majority of her meal before she gets a treat. She was a little persistent in her request for her treat so we explained to her exactly how much more of her dinner she needed to eat. She seemed to understand. She looked at her food, looked back at me, picked up her food, looked at it again like she was actually thinking of eating it... and then she handed it to me. I admit I was a little shocked, Ada is usually pretty cooperative. I must have paused a little bit longer than she expected, I obviously needed some encouragement, so she waved her hand at me, gave me an exasperated look, and said "EAT".

She obviously understood the concept - the food must be eaten before she gets treats. We apparently just need to clarify that she isn't allowed to outsource the eating.

ps

Today is picture day. I think Ada knew that.

i dressed myself today

Ada dressed herself today. She didn't start with a shirt and then thoughtfully pick out a pair of pants that coordinated. Or even the other way around. Nope. She started with a pair of black boots. Grabbed a pair of shorts that she had rejected a few days before and put those on. Next she shoo'd me away from her shirt drawer where I was plotting a way to get her to put on a nice warm long sleeved shirt. Instead she picked out a light tank top, that amazingly matched the shorts she was wearing. However, since we have finally moved away from our summer weather shorts and a tank are not exactly warm enough. I did convince her to put on a sweatshirt, however, she picked her fancy pink with white polkadots sweater that we bought to wear with her wedding dresses. And that was the look she was going with.

That is until she found her new jeans, the ones with pink sequins along the seams of her back pockets. Once she found these she insisted on wearing them instead of her shorts, but also insisted on not taking off her boots.

All in all she looked pretty cute by the end of the morning, but we are definitely getting MUCH closer to needing that "I dressed myself today" button.

wet

We had our first rain in months today. Ada really hasn't experienced much in the way of precipitation in her short life, especially in the part of her life that she actually remembers. So this morning, when we walked out to the car to leave for day care and work, Ada paused for a second and noted the strong mist in the air. She turned to me with a look of discovery and interest on her face and repeated over and over again "Wet" "Wet" Wet". She wasn't crying or shouting or scared or excited, just amazed.

I have always rushed through life not really stopping to notice the small stuff, but Ada, she always checks in with me to make sure that now, now I do. I have and will continue to have so many opportunities to give things to Ada materialistically, intellectually and socially - but it will never come close to the changes that Ada is working in my life.

baby canada

As a baby, Ada received a stuffed maple leaf with a music box inside that plays the Canadian national anthem - from her Grampa Hicks. When she first received it she liked the music and it seemed to jive with her little bopping personality. Then it was forgotten for awhile but has recently hit a resurgence in the toy cycle.

It started when Elliot and I started singing the lyrics along with the music box. Now Ada will belt out 'Oh CANADA' over and over again at the top of her lungs. Given this new found interest in Canada, Elliot and I decided to use this as a teaching moment. So we showed Ada where Canada and the US are on the world map that is up in her room. Every time Ada starts to sing the 'Oh Canada' song we ask her to point out Canada on the map. She has gotten pretty good at repeating this task over and over again and was apparently bored one day so she started exploring the rest of the map. She stood back examined most of the Western Hemisphere, cocked her head to the side, pointed to Brazil (which is a slightly brighter shade of yellow than Canada is) and said in a very determined voice, "Baby Canada".

Elliot and I (muffling our laughter) quickly corrected her, telling her that the country she had pointed to was actually Brazil. However, Ada persists in her classification of Brazil as Baby Canada. I like to think it is just her loyalty to her secondary citizenship and is plotting for a colonization of Brazil by the Mounties. They'll never see it coming.

spanish for fairy

Last week at Ada's Spanish class her teacher told us that 'Ada' pronounced more with a soft 'aaa' rather than the hard 'a' we use, means fairy in Spanish. It all makes sense now. Ada's 'pretty dresses' are actually fairy dresses, with wings and all, and her favorite toy these days is her blue fairy Barbie - again with wings and all - she calls this doll Tinkerbell.

I think everyone already knows that we did not have Ada's name picked out when we got to the hospital on her birthday. Instead we had a list of three names that all matched up to a certain image in our heads. Ada was our dainty, feminine name. So when Ada came out with long fingers, eyelashes, and limbs it was a no brainer, when we pictured what an Ada would look like in our heads - it was pretty close to what she looked like when she came out.

In a lot of ways Ada's name picked her. And now we know why.

she listens, she really listens

Everyday at day care Ada's teachers fill out a daily sheet about how Ada's day went. When she was in the infant room it was an extremely detailed sheet that basically gave us a breakdown of every movement she made. The Toddler room sheet was a little less detailed but still let us know every time Ada pooped or how long her nap was. Now that Ada is in the 2 year old room the daily sheet is pretty brief - a total of six possible check boxes and a section for notes on her day. We don't really pay attention to what these check boxes are unless one of them isn't checked. Recently there have been a LOT of unchecked boxes especially around sharing with friends, helping out, and listening. Now I always got mostly A's and B's in school and there is a part of me deep down that sees Ada's unchecked boxes as the first indication of her spiral down into the world of C's and D's. Ok it is a very very small part of me, but I'd still like her to get all of her check marks.

So on Tuesday morning, after noticing a missing check mark next to listening on Monday, I talked to Ada about being a good listener and how it was important for her to listen to her teachers. We have a process in our house where if Ada is not listening to us we tell her she can do whatever we are asking the easy way or the hard way and we count down from 10 to allow her to make up her mind. She is yet to defy the 10 seconds. It works, but I think it has set Ada up for missing check marks at school since her teachers don't have the time to do that with every kid. So I explained to Ada that she had to listen without the 10 second countdown at school. I figured I was just filling the air with words, but when I picked her up from school that evening right there next to 'Listening' was a big fat check mark, and a comment from her teacher about what a good listener she was all day. However, it wasn't all good news, the box next to 'Good Helper' was amazingly blank.

Given my seemingly good success with the whole listening thing I decided to give the helping out item a try. So on the way to day care yesterday Ada and I had a big talk about helping out her teachers. She nodded, and again I wondered if I was just filling the air with my words. But when we picked her up yesterday she had ALL of her check marks, and a comment about how she was a 'Really big helper!'.

I feel so proud that she actually listened to me. Of course there is always the possibility that Ada rolled into day care, plopped down a twenty and said, "Yo teach, I need that check mark next to helping out, and there is a extra 5 in it for you if you throw in a comment with an exclamation mark."

orange car

Over the summer we assessed our driving habits, our ridiculous need to swap cars if Elliot had to drop off Ada and I had to pick her up and decided it was time to swap the BMW for a car that could actually fit a car seat comfortably in the backseat. After much analysis and business case justification Elliot convinced me that a Mini Clubman was the answer for us. I have to say the final straw that sold me was the heated seats, but I also thought Ada might like looking out the windows or through the sunroof.

I was wrong.

Well at first Ada loved the new car. She liked that she could see planes through the sunroof, and the trucks, and buses, and bikes - those were all cool too. But then she realized that the new car didn't block out the sun the same as the old boxy Element did. The sun is Ada's latest nemesis. After all, the sun does not listen to Ada's scolding. It does not find a cloud to hide behind whenever she asks for it to. Nope, it defiantly shines right into her eyes EVERY SINGLE MORNING.

Well Ada finally figured out a way to beat the sun for good. She has decided to avoid their awkward daily interactions by self selecting the car that hides her from the sun the best. It started out so cute. Her first chorus of "Orange car, orange car, ORANGE CAR" brought on an "Oh look, she knows what color the Element is". But as her demands became more and more adamant it has turned into something so much greater. My prize for getting out the door on time and bringing Ada into daycare (even on my early meeting days) was to drive the new car, the one that zips around, the one with key less entry, the one with HEATED SEATS! But now, Ada's battle with the sun is traipsing its way into my prize and squashing all of those mileage savings that Elliot used to sell me on the new car in the first place.

Well this morning we put our foot down. As Ada wailed away as we drove away from the house in the horrible new car we made a deal. This weekend, when we should be napping and recovering from a cold brought on by daycare, we will hunt down some shades for the windows so that Ada can triumph once again over the mighty sun.

pretty dancing

Ada has recently become OBSESSED with princesses and fancy dresses and anything that has to do with one or the other is gold.

Well the other night Dancing with the Stars was on TV and Ada fell in love. There are pretty dresses and in her mind princesses wearing the dresses, dancing, music, and applause and laughing following the dances.

She loves this show so much that it has surpassed the movie Ratatouille in her favorite things to watch. Now when she walks into our room instead of repeating 'watch mouse' over and over and over again, she now asks for 'pretty dancing' or 'watch pretty dresses' and then followed by 'Ada's pretty dress', or 'Ada princess', or 'pretty dress, pretty dress, PRETTY DRESS'.

I know Elliot and I are probably going to hell for allowing Ada to watch TV at such an early age, but we just look at it as broadening her horizons. So when Ada decides at age 6 that she wants to become a ballroom dancer, we will not think it random, we'll just know that the vision of Warren Saap doing the Hustle really did have a lasting impression.

that one

Ada has recently started to show preference for certain toys and objects that she considers "hers". In particular she has identified one of her blankets as her favorite. It happens to be the patchwork blanket that my Smith friends made for me while Ada was still in my belly. I love this blanket because it reminds me of all of the love and friendship in my life and makes me feel like I'm wrapping Ada up in this love when she uses this blanket. I think Ada likes it because it has so many colors. But the patchwork nature has lead to difficulty in describing the blanket when she wants Elliot or I to fetch said blanket. Once when we went into her room I asked if she wanted this blanket (pointing to a different blanket) or that one (pointing to the patchwork blanket). From that point on Ada started referring to the patchwork blanket as "That one". It took us a couple of very dramatic breakdowns before we figured out what "That one" meant, and it didn't fully click until we asked Ada to show us what "That one" was. Ada walked into her room, sighed, put her right hand on her hip, and pointed to the patchwork blanket with her left, cocked her head back towards us and said, "Duh". Ok, maybe not exactly like that, but if you could translate 2 year old body language into adult body language - that would have been it.

no no sun

Ada is very verbal when it comes to talking about what she does not want to do, or what she does not want done to her. We have a lot of "no no Mommy" and "no no Daddy" these days when we try to help her out. This is pretty funny to us since she says it with the strongest voice she can muster and shakes her finger at us while she is doing it.

Apparently Ada likes the reaction she is getting from us when she tells us "no no". So much so, she has started to use this command on anything that is bothering her in the slightest. Her hair gets in her face and we hear a "no no hair", her tissue is not cooperating - "no no tissue", her fairy dress isn't flowing quite right "no no pretty dress". You get the point.

Well as the days get shorter the sun has become more of an annoying factor on both our drive to day care and our drive home. During both commutes there is a section of road where the sun is shining directly into Ada's face. She first met this sudden rudeness with crying and tears, then she went the stoic route and just closed her eyes, gritted her teeth and turned her head. Well this morning it must have dawned on her that she had not tapped into her favorite discipline tactic - scolding. So today on our drive into day care today, as we hit the sunny spot, I started to hear Ada whimper a little and then all of a sudden she stopped, pointed her finger and shook it at the sun and said "NO NO SUN". And if Mother Nature knows what is good for her - she'll listen.

little miss popular

Ada has now been in the two year old class for about 4 months. Around the 2 year mark a lot of kids started up at the Kids Care Club - I'm guessing that their parents wanted them to be in a more pre-school type environment. At the same time the center separated out Ada's core group that she had been with since she was six months to the 'older' kids (Ada's group) and the 'younger' kids. Combine that with a normal amount of attrition and it leaves Ada and two other girls that have been together since they were 6 months old and a whole slew of newbies.

This could have wrecked some havoc on Ada's social networks and standing especially since she is now one of the younger kids and also on the small side. Of course two year olds are unbelievably accepting and probably don't have a bone in their tiny little bodies that think about coolness and popularity - they just like everyone. But you never know - kids are growing up much faster these days.

Well, luckily we don't have to worry. Ada and I had a difficult time getting out of the house yesterday morning so we arrived to her class around 9:10 am. All of her classmates were already there and most had already finished eating their snack. When Ada (and I) walked in all of the kids came running over saying 'Hi' to Ada and shouting "Ada is here" with a tune of Hooray in their voices. I hurriedly signed Ada in and put her lunch away and when I looked back, Ada was holding court by the cubies. Letting all of the other kids come to her with looks of anticipation as Ada would assuredly have some sort of great tale as to why she was soooo late for class.

And if Ada was telling the truth she didn't hesitate to mention that she had some very important tasks to do at home before she left and of course she couldn't leave without putting her makeup on or doing her hair. And let's not even get started on the outfit her parents picked out for her.

And yes, she is my daughter, I have the scars to prove it, but her complete embrace of all things girly is starting to make me wonder. :)

independence

One of Ada's favorite phrases these days is "I do it". We'll try to help her put her shoes on and she says "I do it", we try to help her into the shower and she says "I do it", we try to open a bag of goldfish and she says "I do it". You get the point.

So our newest tack is trying to figure out ways to convince Ada that it is her idea to do things, and to break down tasks that we would normally do for Ada into smaller tasks that Ada is able to accomplish on her own. For the most part this is pretty doable, but every so often we run into a task that Ada can't quite get her head around and then the course of "Elp, Elp, Elp" comes raining down.

Of course this doesn't happen too often, but when it does, it comes with a dose of - how could you think I could do this on my own - incredulity.

empathy

Ada has always been very observant. In fact if you go back a year on this blog you will probably find a post about me marveling at how Ada just takes in the world and lets it sink in. And as she has started to grow up and mature a little bit so has her observation skills. Add to that the ability to communicate and we have tapped into something really cool.

Elliot and I are now able to watch Ada grow emotionally as well as physically.

The other night as I sat in the kitchen with Ada as she ate her dinner, counting down the minutes until I had to leave for class I put my head in my hands to rest for a second. Ada was preoccupied with something Elliot was doing and I thought I could steal a quick relaxing moment without much notice. But notice she did! As soon as I put my head down Ada turned to me and very astutely said, "Mommy tired". I confirmed this for her that yes, I was tired, but I would be Ok. And without even thinking about it, and despite the fact that she was actually so full of energy that she was close to bouncing off the wall she cocked her head to the side slightly and said in the most reassuring voice she could find, "Ada tired" and nodded. You could tell by her words and her body language that she was trying to let me know that it was Ok to be tired, and that sometimes, she gets tired too, and if it made me feel better she would pretend to be tired so I wouldn't be alone.

Empathy.

I probably responded more boisterously to the first time I noticed she could talk or walk or roll over for that matter. But the moment I realized that Ada was developing real human emotional skills - I melted.

smarty pants

Our weekends have been feeling a little light recently (insert sarcasm here) so we decided to add a Spanish class for Ada on Saturday mornings. We didn't intend to start this at her age but we went to a free class sponsored by the Mom's group at HP and she LOVED it so we decided that since we don't do anything special for Ada on the weekends we would sign her up and start to learn Spanish as a family.

Elliot and I are doing a great job picking up the words we learn each day and Ada's favorite thing in the world to say these days is Adios! She says Adios Papa to Elliot in the morning, and Adios to the house at night before bed. Adios, Adios, Adios.

Yesterday morning Ada took one of her bath toys, a blue foam number 8, out of the bath and was holding on to it while I was getting her dressed. She seemed really into it so I asked her what color it was, expecting her to say Red or Yellow like she normally does, only this time she looked at me and said AZUL!! (Which is Blue in Spanish for those that are like me two weeks ago).

Our little smarty pants!

my day with ada

Due to a work emergency Elliot had to spend Sunday working, so, with a little help from Grampa, Ada and Mommy spent the day hanging out and seeing some of Ada's favorite places around San Diego.

We started out the morning with our routine Sunday trip to Starbucks with Elliot. Ada has started to drink coffee (chocolate or vanilla flavored milk - sometimes steamed) and these trips are pretty funny. Today she decided that she HAD to wear her Mickey ears and carry two of her stuffed animals (the 2010 Olympic mascot and her new lion). After our morning refresher we made a quick stop at home to pick up my soccer stuff and some snacks and headed to the Zoo.

We have passes to the Zoo and have made a few quick trips, mostly hanging out by the monkeys and the elephants, but today Ada insisted on taking a swing by the bears. While we were hanging out watching one of bears play in the water a camera crew from ESPN (and a nosey crowd of onlookers) showed up to do a shot for this week's Monday night football game. So if you see a shot of a bear playing in the water with a Jets and Chargers helmet in front of it, imagine Ada climbing up and down the railing, paying no attention to the camera guy saying over and over again, bye bye bear, hi bear, bye bye bear, hi bear - just off to the right. This was pretty much the highlight of the trip to the zoo and we were soon off to our next stop - Mommy's soccer game.

Ada managed to squeeze in a quick nap between the Zoo and soccer. I thought she might stay asleep while we walked down to the field but she sensed fun and popped awake. Shortly after we made it to the field Grampa showed up to babysit while I played my game and from what I could tell they had a wonderful time together. Each time I looked for them they were in a different spot, reading by the bench, exploring the side of the track, tracking down soccer balls, climbing the stadium stairs, riding the tackling dummy, and using the stair railings as a jungle gym. It is important to note that Ada got very excited when I told her she was going to hang out with Grampa today, but didn't realize it was at soccer. So later on when I said we were on our way to soccer Ada demanded, "No no soccer, Grampa!" When she realized she got to hang out at the stadium AND play with Grampa her day was made.

As if this day had not already been full of tons of fun, we decided to get some Jamba Juice and head to the beach after the soccer game. Elliot's office is down by La Jolla Shores and there was an off chance that he would soon be done with his weekend work, plus Ada has a newly discovered love of the water so this seemed like a good trip. Once at the beach we finished up our smoothies and Ada insisted on stripping down to nothing but her diaper. After some initial clingyness she started darting into the water and then quickly darting out of the water running away from the waves. I have never seen Ada have so much fun in such a close proximity to water. She LOVED the muddy sand, and the shallow water. She even stopped her fun for a little while to try to show a younger boy how much fun splashing was. Finally, after about 20 minutes of this I coaxed her over to the shower by the beach bathroom to clean up, letting her out of her diaper. Once I had her cleaned up I got her shoes on but before I could get her clothes on she proudly walked out of the shower area nekkid from head to ankle, nothing but her shiny pink sneakers on. I love this kid!!

Our lives have gone from busy to insanely busy these days and I do not get a lot of time to hang out with Ada one on one so today was extra special for me. I wasn't sure if she was having fun all day but I got my answer as we started our bedtime routine. She started screaming, flailing, and trying to out muscle me to get back to the living room. It wasn't until we got to her bedroom and I made eye contact with her and asked her if she had had fun today. She didn't answer me. She didn't nod her head emphatically. Instead she stopped fighting me, snuggled her head deep into my neck and gave me a big hug. That was all the answer I needed.

kisses

Ada has been watching the our daily morning routine now for almost two years and she knows that after Elliot gets us set in the car, he shuts her door and then gives me a kiss goodbye. This varies some, but that is the routine 90% of the time. Well, Ada has now decided that she wants to be more involved in this part of our daily routine. The other day as Elliot leaned into the car to kiss me goodbye Ada declared, "I want kisses". This was funny enough all by itself, but then we looked back and she was sitting there, strapped into her seat, leaning forward, head tilted back, eyes closed, and lips pursed waiting for a kiss. We tried not to laugh too much and Elliot of course obliged with a goodbye kiss.

This was just the start of Ada's kissing frenzy. She will now decide that she wants kisses just about any time of day. And if she is around Elliot or I and she wants a kiss she will grab a hold of our cheeks and bring our face down to hers and once again declare, "I want kisses!".

Yet another tale I am tucking away for the days when she wants nothing more than to pretend that she is an orphan roaming around the streets of San Diego with nothing as embarrassing as PARENTS to hold her down.

Thanks!

Wow, where did August go! We had a great month. Ada turned 2, had her first trip to Disneyland, Elliot and I enjoyed another year of wedded bliss (5 years!!), and this blog celebrated one whole year of activity!

Thanks to everyone who tells me that they check on a regular basis for new content, this motivates me to write more. I started this blog as a way to let all of you into the life of Ada and hopefully my descriptions are enough to let you see her joyfully bopping through life.

healthy fear of water

Yesterday Ada attended her first pool party of the summer. Last year she went to three or four and by the time the summer ended she was a little water lover. Well, the fall, winter and spring happened and she forgot how much fun water could be. So we spent most of yesterday's pool party with Elliot and I in the water, standing next to the side of the pool where Ada was sitting with her feet in the water. She faked like she was going to get into the water a couple of times, turning around on her belly so she could kick her feet in the water like the big kids, but never slid in. She did agree to come into the water once, early on, until she realized what she had agreed to; and she did jump into the water once but then quickly realized that she had jumped into water and screamed her new piercing scream until we pulled her out. Then there were the three times I scooped her up and brought her into the water with me but those too were accompanied by the piercing scream so we gave up. Ada was content to sit on the side of the pool throwing every toy that was once on the side of the pool into the water.

She did happen to fall in once when she was trying to retreive an orange football that was right by the edge. Luckily both Elliot and I were there to scoop her up out of the water and eventually put her back up on the 'blanket' as she moaned out her request over and over again. This one tumble was enough for her to refuse to come anywhere near the edge of the pool again. And while I'd love for her to love the water, as an over protective worrywart of a mother, I'm also very thankful for her healthy fear of the water.

traveling soul

We spent this past Saturday through Tuesday traveling up to the Pacific Northwest to attend the Campbell Family Reunion (my Grandma Ott's family) and also to visit Elliot's family in Vancouver and Vancouver Island. We were a little worried about the whirlwind nature of our trip and how that would jive with Ada but she handled it like a champ.


The trip started out very early on Saturday morning, we had a 6:30 am flight out of San Diego which meant leaving the house around 5 am. OUCH! Normally, Ada will sort of wake up, look at us like we are crazy, and then go back to sleep until we hit the terminal at the airport. Not this time, she took one look around the car and realized something was afoot and sprang awake. We should have known then that this was going to be a great trip, and it was.

Here are some highlights:

Picnic: The big inflatable slide!! Ada easily spent half of her time at the picnic on this slide. She started out cautiously (not surprising) forcing her Dad to carry her up the rope ladder and then slide down with her on his lap. However, once she convinced her Grampa Ott to take her over to the slide he convinced her to climb up the ladder herself and slide down on her own (with him close behind). It wasn't until Mom took her over that she was forced to do it all on her own. I am SO mean! Had we given Ada a choice between staying at Al's house on the slide and going on the rest of the trip with us, I'm not sure she would have selected the time with us.

Coffee with Auntie Jackie: On Sunday morning Ada's auntie Jackie let Elliot and I go for a run while she took Ada for a walk. They went to get coffee, well milk for Ada, but Jackie called it coffee and I think that made Ada think she was so much cooler. Once Ada had her morning coffee she opened right up and chatted up Jackie all the way to the park where they watched swimmers and saw ducks and pretty much entertained each other.

Great Grandma's Basement: Who wouldn't love a basement full of fun stuff to explore and jump off of. Making it extra cool was Grampa Ott and Daddy helping her discover all of the really cool things like dynamite boxes (empty of course) and a vice.

The Trampoline at Erica's house: Ada got to meet two more of her cousins on this trip: Erica and Niccolo. She has met both of them when she was younger but this time she actually interacted with them. She and Erica became fast friends on the trampoline in the backyard. They worked so hard we all burned hundreds of calories just watching them. Ada also insisted on Erica joining her in the blue plastic car so that Mommy and Daddy could give them spins around the yard.

The big hotel bed: Our hotel room in Vancouver had two beds, so we let Ada own one of the beds. You could just tell how regal Ada felt as she lounged on the big fluffy pillows and pulled the cozy comforter up around her. Of course she did not want to sleep in the bed alone so (after trying to climb into bed with Mom and Dad) she slept in her pack-n-play, but first thing she did in the morning after waking up was crawl back into her throne.

Great Grandma's muffins: When we were at my Grandma's house on our way up to Vancouver Ada ate more bran muffin than anything else, so we were sent off with a baggie full of muffins. This turned out to be a life saver as we didn't have time for breakfast the morning we headed over to the island and these muffins served that role just fine. Ada liked them so much she even ate the wrapper of the first one we gave her. Of course she insisted on eating her muffins while sitting in her throne.

Balloons: Since our trip was so close to Ada's birthday she received many gifts while we were traveling along. Her favorite was really not a gift, but it was the balloons that were on her present from her Grampa Hicks and Grandma Lynn. These balloons provided intermittent entertainment the entire time we were at their house.

The beach: Elliot's Dad lives right on the beach on Vancouver Island. Ada is not a huge fan of water but after some coaxing she did manage to make her way down to the beach. She even walked on the sand (and over rocks and shells) until the water hit her feet, where she quickly scampered up my legs and into my arms. She then INSISTED that I walk out into the water, and once we hit my depth limits she insisted that I walk up the beach - still knee deep in water. Elliot eventually came to join us and took over the job of holding Ada above the water. However, Elliot was much meaner that me - he lowered her feet into the water and pulled her through the water. And for a second Ada forgot that she has sworn off water as she let out a giggle and even managed to smile a little bit.

The hose: When we came back from the beach Grampa Hicks brought out the hose to hose the sand off our feet. Ada loved this and eventually managed to gain control of the hose and figured out how to pull the handle on the nozzle and aimed it at both her Dad and Grampa. She LOVED this.

The ferry: The ferry ride over to the island was not all that eventful. Ada did lots of exploring and dragging Elliot and I around. The ride back however we were able to get a row of two benches with seats facing each other, as well as a window sill just wide enough for Ada to sit with her back against the wall and legs up on the sill watching the water below us go by. She climbed down every so often to get some food or to wake Elliot and I up, but for the most part she was the Queen of the ferry.

Getting home: While we definitely enjoyed our trip, the look on Ada's face when she saw her own crib, and all of her own toys was one of relief and comfort. As much fun as she had traveling the coast, just like Elliot and I, she was happy to finally be home.

We really enjoyed catching up with everyone and our only wish is that we could see all of you much more often. Many thanks to all of those that took us in, fed us, entertained us, and just let us visit; and special thanks to Elliot's mom for timing her visit to coincide with ours.

first mile

I believe Ada ran her first mile last night. I say 'believe' because we weren't measuring the distance and she was not running a route we normally run, but she was running, and running, and running, and running. Running so much that Elliot and I were having to scamper along behind her to keep up.

All this running happened while we were at the Padres game. She really loved the game, and the details of all the funny things she did while watching the game may make their way into a future posting; but the really great Ada moment came when we finally talked her into making our way out to the Park at the Park.

For those unfamiliar with Petco Park, there is a large park, with a hill, and a mini baseball diamond out beyond the stands. If you stand on top of the hill you can watch the game live, otherwise, they have a HUGE screen on the back of the batter's eye showing the TV broadcast. This is pretty much the most awesome thing in the world for parents.

Once we made it out of our section and up the stairs to the main concourse Ada decided to run. So she ran from section 109 around the right field side of the stadium to the Park in the Park where she found a group of kids rolling down the hill. Ada of course had to join in the fun, so she managed to trudge up the hill and then tried REALLY REALLY hard to roll down the hill. Except Ada lacks one very essential quality necessary for rolling down any hill - the ability to let go. So she tried to roll down but her fear of losing control got the best of her and she never quite got there. She did however master scooting down the hill, and walking/running down the hill (which was no small feat as the hill was steep and the grass was wet).

Next, we managed to coerce Ada into checking out the OTHER side of the hill, and the mini baseball diamond. She wasn't all that impressed with the other side of the hill, but as soon as she saw the mini diamond she was IN LOVE. She sprinted towards the field and found the closest entry gate. Ada was easily the smallest kid involved in the mini game. In fact, she maybe came up to the waist of the next smallest kid out there - but this didn't stop our little runner. Nope. She started out at third base and ran to the pitchers rubber, walked it like a balance beam and then "jumped" off of the rubber and headed for first. Then she took a lap of the outfield, back to third, pitchers rubber, through the pitching traffic, back to third, across to first, and out the right field gate. Phew. I'm tired just writing about it. Had she realized that running through the gate was the end to her mini baseball diamond fun I'm sure she would not have made such a GLARING mistake, but that's the reason I'm the Mom and she's the toddler.

Next we headed to the Padres store to look for possible gifts to bring up North to Ada's cousins (sorry guys we didn't find anything). Ada loved the store almost as much as she loved the mini baseball diamond. She found the big foam fingers like a heat seeking missile and proceeded to entertain everyone in the store with her sprinting around with the foam finger on her tiny hand.

After we managed to drag Ada out of the store with a monkey and a foam finger in tow Ada started the last leg of her mile.

We left the park with Ada up in my arms but she quickly decided that she wanted to walk. So from Tony Gywnn Way (just outside the park) to our parking spot in the San Diego Convention Center, Ada RAN. It is probably important to note that Ada took turns between running, wandering, and jogging along with the foam finger practicing her Gretzky pump. She did this the ENTIRE way back to our car. I tried to help her down the stairs to the parking garage - no dice. We offered her a lift from the stairs to the car - no dice. Nope. She was in it for the long haul. Well almost the long haul. She ended up tripping herself about four feet from our car and in a moment of unusual whininess she laid there crying until Elliot picked her up. Thus ending her miles of running.

Needless to say she was asleep before we hit the freeway. Thank goodness for running!

cake

Ada has discovered the world of cake. Not entirely surprising since I have morphed into a mad cake making machine since Ada was born, but somewhat surprising since she practically ignored the cake we served up for her on her first birthday. Well over the weekend Ada helped me make a cake for her Auntie Monique, cracking the eggs (her favorite) and pouring the sugar. Confidently spouting out her new favorite words 'cake' and 'cupcake'.

Last night when we were up at Eric's house for dinner she finished her meal, brought her plate to the kitchen, and even emptied her leftover food into the trash. Then she wanted to go outside. So much so that after I explained that the rest of us were going to finish our dinner at the table and then went and did just that, she clung to the screen, moaning a droning 'moommmmeeee, moooommmmeeee' until I finally gave in and came to find her at the door. She stopped her moaning but quickly turned to all out wailing and flailing on the floor when she heard my words, "After everyone is done eating dinner". The only thing that got her to quiet down and even join us for dinner was the promise of cake, leftover cake from Monique's birthday party. But I had warned her that it would not come right away. She was going to have to wait for all of us to finish our meal and conversations, and that she was going to have to sit there, politely, through it all. And sit through it she did. She sat in her chair, scowl on her face, hands grasping to the table so tight you could see her knuckles turning white, and eyes that kept repeating, "Have patience with these people, for cake is coming. Have patience with these people, for cake is coming." We tried asking about her day, or asking her what color the flowers were, but her concentration was strong and our attempts were nothing against her wall of sullenness.

And when the cake came she completely flipped. She forgot about outside. She forgot that she was mad at us for making her sit through conversations about jobs and soccer. She forgot that she was working really hard on her teen angst act that she will no doubt perfect in the coming years. All that was out the window the moment the yummy pumpkin and chocolate cake was presented before her. She silently but enthusiastically ate the top layer off of her slice and only once she made it through this top layer did she smile a chocolate toothed smile that let me know all was good and she was once again a happy child.

At least until tonight when we ask her what she wants for dinner and she confidently says, "CAKE!!".

ada loves taylor

We had the good fortune to watch Taylor (Ada's cousin) on Sunday afternoon for a little lunch and nap time. The girls really enjoyed riding in the car together, swapping car seats for the afternoon, shared some lunch, and were the picture of chumminess while they shared sippy cups, forks, and chairs. And as we counted down the final five minutes of play time before nap time, they took turns focusing the play on one toy or the other. I LOVE watching them play together, such a difference from Christmas time when they were both learning to share. Once we got to the final 30 seconds of play time before nap time, Ada ran back to her room, yelling for Taylor to follow her - and she did. I curiously followed, to see what Ada had in mind, and to my shock, she was standing there, grasping her crib, anxiously waiting for me to lift her up into the crib so she could start her nap. I can verify that this is THE most excited she has ever been to take a nap. Once I lifted her up and into her crib I found out why she was so excited. Once she was lying down with her blanket, she was still bursting with with excitement as she patted the mattress next to her and said, "Laylor, Laylor". Taylor was not as much on board, but the look on Ada's face is one I think I'll see plenty of times in the future when Ada and Taylor work Julie and I over, plotting for sleepovers where they can stay up all night whispering and giggling and sneaking into the kitchen to raid all the junk food.

observations

Ada has always been our thinker. Sitting back and watching the world, taking it in so she is prepared for future occurrences of similar activities.

So last night when I got home from work and was exhausted, something Ada has (unfortunately) seen a lot of lately. Instead of screaming and pulling me in every other direction. She walked over to me as I sat on the couch helping her play with her giant legos, and patted a pillow next to me and gently led my head down so that it lay softly on the pillow. I don't know if she did that because that is what I do when she looks tired, or if she just took one look at me and decided "Mom needs a nap". In either case, it was sweet of her to observe that Mommy was not up for a dance party or for flying her around the house in her Bumbo, or a vicious game of street hockey on the back patio.

Either that, or she wanted some alone time with her Daddddddeeeee and she knows I'm a sucker for naps.

in control

Last night as Ada, Elliot, and I chilled out snacking on some SnapPea Crisps - Elliot sat, resting next to Ada, with his arm sort of wrapped behind her but up on a pillow. Ada saw his hand sitting there, empty. So she grabbed his hand and instead of wrapping it closely around her like she normally does, she maneuvered it so that she could put his hand in the bag of SnapPea Crips, because there is NO reason in the world why he should be sitting there without a snack in hand. Literally.

no accounting for taste

As Ada grows older it is becoming more and more apparent that she really is half Elliot and half me. One of the more recent examples of this is Ada's current choice of breakfast food - pickles (YUCK!!). As you might have guessed by now, she certainly does not get this from me. What is even more odd is that we have never pushed pickles on her. At one point in time when Ada was just about a year old she took a bite of the pickle that came with a sub Elliot had brought home, and instead of throwing it to the floor in disgust she happily bore in for another bite. From that point on she has loved pickles. So much so, that we bought a jar of mini pickles - which I promptly hid away inside the refrigerator behind the jalapeno peppers and the six kinds of mustard we have. But that hasn't stopped Ada. She has always known where the pickle jar resided, and will (if hoisted up high enough) pick out the jar even though she has to maneuver it around the obstacle course of condiment jars I have set up. So for the past two mornings when I opened the fridge and asked her what she wanted for breakfast, she looked past the yogurt and the milk, past the bread and the left over chocolate birthday cake and proudly said, "PICKLES". And since I refuse to even touch a pickle, let alone get the pickle juice all over my fingers, I open the jar for her and she reaches her whole hand into the jar and pulls out the pickle of her choice.

Of course after she sucks all of the pickle juice off of the pickle and takes a bite or two she tires of the taste, and knowing that Mom does not do pickles, she calls out for "Daddy, Dadddeeee" and hands him her pickle and waits for the look of delight on his face as he takes a bite. To his credit Elliot usually obliges. I'm not sure he is always in the mood for pickles, but is doing his part to make sure that Ada's passion for pickles does not fade due to lack of encouragement.

The things we do for kids.

in other news

Ada's adventures with Grandpa didn't just involve Oreos, she also showed that she is starting to get ready for a life without diapers. More recently she has made a fuss when she poops in her diaper, a sure sign that she realizes what she has done and wants it OFF. She'll even refuse to put her bottom down on the changing table so she sits there with her back and feet on the pad with her pelvis raised up in an arch. Pretty funny to see in person, but TOTALLY understandable. And she has also recently started doing stuff like laying down when you ask her if she wants a diaper change, and peeing next to her potty when she has her diaper off and waiting to get in the shower, but I always thought that was just because she was cold.

But this weekend at Grandpa's she moved it up a notch. She started lying down on the ground next to her diapers when she wanted a diaper change and even stealthily tinkled in the potty (FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER). I'm so proud. And now I'll be able to tell Ada a long tale about how Grandpa potty trained her in one weekend. Sort of like the stories of trudging to school in two feet of snow, up-hill both ways. :)

However, this morning as she grabbed a diaper, and then me, and dragged both of us to her changing pad in her room, waited for me to un-clasp her diaper and then raised her legs without me having to ask her - I thought to myself, "Why now?" Why is it that now that she has finally mastered the diaper change, cooperating and even helping me out, is she getting ready to dump the diaper all together? Seems the way with kids. Once they have us lulled into a sense of security they bust through our comfort level and find all sorts of new ways to challenge us.

But now I know what to do. If I want Ada to quickly move on from a particular stage, I'm just going to send her to Grandpa's house.

oreos

Ada spent the weekend at her Grandpa Ott's house while Elliot and I were up in San Francisco for a wedding. We spent the two weeks prior talking up Grandpa's house, and how he had a beach nearby, and had stairs, and how he always had grapes, and of course there was Grandpa - who is just super cool. Ada bought into this and all week leading up to her overnight adventure every time we asked her if she was looking forward to going to Grandpa's house she nodded very emphatically.

The weekend went off without a hitch. Ada slept on schedule and didn't even mention Mommy or Daddy once! Was it the stairs, or the beach, or the grapes? Well I think that had something to do with it, but the real secret was that Grandpa gave Ada almost unlimited access to Oreos. Now, Ada has had Oreos maybe one other time in her life. She has had Oreo like cookies and crackers before, but we try to keep Oreos out of the house because Elliot and I would probably polish off an entire bag of double-stuffed in a couple of days - and THAT is not a good thing.

So when we showed up at Grandpa's house yesterday to pick up Ada she seemed a little torn. Happy and excited to see Mommy and Daddy again but also a little bummed out that she was going to have to leave Grandpa's with the stairs, and the beach, and the grapes, GRANDPA - and of course the Oreos.

For those that want to see Ada in action, Grandpa took a little video of Ada as evidence that she really does love Oreos.

recovery

Monday morning Ada woke up with a temperature so she spent the day home with Elliot, sleeping a lot - and when she wasn't sleeping, she was cuddling up with her dad. Tuesday was not much better temperature wise, but since I went in to get Lasik done on my eyes, she had to hang out in the waiting room of the optometrist. But when we got home, and I went to bed to follow doctor's orders to sleep all day, Ada watched and then insisted on following suit. So she climbed into bed with me, grabbed her bee blanket, snuggled up next to me, and spent the rest of the day revolving between snoozing and cuddling while we watched every kid movie we have stored on our bedroom DVR. I don't have scientific evidence, but I'm pretty sure that my eyes healed faster than normal because of all of the Ada cuddles and kisses.

old tricks

When Ada was young she loved to be swung. She didn't care if it was in her car seat, our arms, or any other box she could sit in. Recently she has re-discovered this joy.

We have a laundry basket in our kitchen that usually houses a helium balloon that Ada treats as a pet. We call the laundry basket the balloon house. However, when she lets the balloon loose, the laundry basket is available for free rides on the Daddy mobile.

She sits in her basket, puts on her demanding scowl, furrowed eyebrows and all, and say 'Daddy, 'Daddy', and either pulls Elliot's hands down to the handles of the basket or points to the handles with emphasis. And being the greatest dad in the whole world, Elliot will lift her up, take her on a trip around the kitchen, and then gently give her a soft peaceful landing. And all along Ada's giggles tell the tale of pure joy; and her smile tells the tale of satisfaction at once again getting Daddy to do just what she wants.

a touchy subject

I try to keep this blog about Ada and what is going on in Ada's life. But occasionally something will hit me and make me feel so strongly that I feel like I need to let everyone know what I'm feeling. And this morning as I killed five minutes before my first meeting of the day, I read this article on CNN, and my blood boiled and my heart got all racy, and I felt like someone had just jumped me in an alley. So I thought I'd share.

For those that don't want to read the article it starts off telling the tale of two working moms whose children are grown, looking back on their decision to be working moms. One would still do it today, and one wouldn't. I'm so Ok with the start of this article, and had it stayed on that path I would have enjoyed the article and moved on with my day. Nope, it is some where in the middle and the end of the article that the blood boiling started.

I know the working mom vs. stay-at-home mom debate is a touchy subject, and those that chose one way or the other have their reasons. And my blood didn't boil because someone was challenging my decision, I have the utmost respect for women who chose to stay home. It is a challenging job and one that does not get enough respect. I get that. I don't have a problem with that. No, what started to get my blood boiling and my heart racing was quotes claiming research, "that found women are happiest in clearly defined and traditional marital roles." Or that "it takes a certain kind of maturity and self-awareness to be comfortable, because you don't get your ego stroked or awarded like you do on a job."

Are you kidding me? The best reward I have ever gotten is a spontaneous hug from Ada, or the look of excitement on her face when she wakes up and sees me in the morning. Those ego strokes are so much better than anything I could possibly ever get at work. Whoever wrote that quote (a mother of 12) has obviously forgotten the early days of motherhood, and I doubt has ever worked a corporate job in her life.

Anyone that knows me (or raised me) knows that I don't work because I need my ego stoked. I don't sit at work every day and wallow in the fact that I can't be home with Ada cleaning house and cooking dinner. I work because I saw first hand what can happen if you are a woman, and you don't work, and your life plan changes somewhere along the way. I work because I want to set a good example for my daughter, that it is Ok to follow your goals and pursue your dreams. I work because I am driven to work by my self-esteem and self-confidence that was drilled into me as a kid. I work because I know that I am a better mother for going to work and that Ada, my poor child who has to go to daycare every day, is getting lessons on things I wouldn't have even dreamed of teaching her. If I felt for one minute that Ada was suffering, feeling neglected, or was not excelling in life I would adjust our situation. Fortunately, Ada is a happy child, well adjusted, and socially strong.

I know that I am lucky to have the family I have. Elliot supports me in every way a husband could possibly support a wife, and we came to our decision on how to raise Ada together, without judgement or disagreement.

I also know that I don't fit into the typical woman or mommy box. I never have. And maybe that is why this article made my blood boil. I took it personally. It was talking about research, and that is typically the reporting of averages, of normality; and when you don't fit into a box, the quoting of research and statistics will make you feel completely mis-represented, and apparently make your blood boil. There is a brief mention about some women that "say they wouldn't be happy or feel healthy if they spent every second with their offspring. Their solution is a mix of work and caring for their children." But it only goes on to talk about women who work from home. As if that is the only acceptable solution if you really feel like you, the women with the ticking biological clock and the reproductive organs, really still need to have a job to stroke you ego.

This article is just the latest in a string of articles I have read since we started thinking about having a baby that purports the benefits of stay-at-home mommy-ness, and I know there are probably just as many that support working moms. It is however the first article that 'Trojan horsed' me with a title and an intro talking about one fairly innocuous aspect of this debate and then took a wild left turn to full out partisan support of one of the more controversial sides. I just wish we could take the activism out of this subject.

This article did have one positive effect, I have responded with such vigor that I am now 100% positive that the decision we made on how to raise our kids is the right one. For Us.

I promise, tomorow will be all about Ada.

naked baby jumping

We set up our air mattress in our living room last weekend when Taylor was over as a distraction for Ada and Taylor, and it worked. They spent a good 30 minutes jumping on the air bed dancing to music, and flinging themselves from the air mattress onto the couch and back again.

Seeing that Ada had so much fun and that we are all worn out from the weekend, we have left the air bed up. This has proved fun for the whole family as we have had jumping and dancing parties every night this week. Last night Ada took it to a whole new level. She was climbing on the couch, jumping down on to the air bed, and the repeating all over again. After about five rounds she must have gotten a bit warm because she stripped all the way down to NOTHING (yes, all by herself, this scares me). Once she was fully nekkid she started her whole climbing jumping, repeating process again, only this time she jumped harder and farther and with a much much bigger smile. Letting us know that those clothes, yeah the ones we put on her everyday, are TOTALLY slowing her down. From now on, if it is up to her, she will go through life without the restrictions of clothing to slow her down.

future marathoner

As parents you try to not lay expectations upon your children. You say things like, "She'll do whatever she wants to do", but really deep down you secretly hope they pick something that you really like and really understand. Because then you can bond over that mutual love, and you can provide some sort of help on how to achieve the most they can possibly achieve at that something.

It is no secret that Elliot and I love (well I am more of a like in this category) running. Heck, Elliot even bought a jogging stroller before we got our crib. So Ada's recent most favorite thing to do - EVER - is bringing us lots and lots of joy. We try to go for our evening runs when she is winding down for the night. We do our stretches (which Ada also loves), load her up in her rocket ship (her jogging stroller), and out we go. In the past, this was a sure fire way to get her to fall asleep. She would be active for the first half, bored for the next quarter, and then asleep for the last quarter. All was great, we had a wonderfully easy way to get Ada to sleep, and we were getting some exercise at the same time. PERFECT!!

And then a couple of weeks ago Ada went and messed it all up, only it is the cutest thing in the world so we aren't holding it against her. Now she stays awake for the whole run, insists on getting out once we have reached the corner where we stop running, and then SHE runs. It is about 250 meters from our stopping corner to our house (up a hill!!) and Ada runs the whole way. Well, she does stop once about halfway home to talk to the rocks in one of our neighbor's front yards, but then she picks it back up and heads home. She of course, insists that we jog with her and I'm sure this looks pretty funny. Ada busting as fast as she can, me practically running in place next to her, and Elliot following behind, pushing an empty stroller with the biggest smiling, laughing grin on his face.

tunnels - the final chapter

Ada's dislike of tunnels has been documented at length so it is only fitting that I write the final chapter of Ada's relationship with tunnels.

Last night as we were getting Ada ready for bed she was scrambling, trying to find SOMETHING... ANYTHING... to keep talk of bed and nighttime at bay. She had already gone through just about everything in her room and was starting to think about venturing out to the hallway to find something to distract her parents with when a brilliant idea popped into her mind. You could almost see the light bulb pop out above her head. "There is that orange thing under my crib that mom is always trying to get me to play with, I'll bring that out and she'll get totally lost in the moment!" And we did. The orange thing is Ada's pop up tunnel. She dragged it out from under her crib, commanded me to open it up, and then spent the next 25 minutes(!!) running around it, climbing through it, demanding that Elliot and I take our turns squeezing our bodies into the tiny tunnel so that we could squirm around like live sausage links. It was a blast. And through all of it, Ada didn't show one single inkling that she might be TERRIFIED of the tunnel. She has finally conquered that cagey beast, and even liked it so much she dragged the tunnel from her room, down the hallway, and into the living room.

As it turns out the reason we moved all the way out to the living room was because the lighting was better there. Once we had the tunnel situated between the coffee table and the love seat, Ada grabbed Elliot's fancy camera, handed it to me, and started posing for shots in and around the tunnel. I guess once she discovered that tunnels can be used to accentuate her action shots, she stopped fearing the possible eating capabilities of the tunnel and embraced the true contrasting backdrop capabilities.

trip to the zoo

This past Sunday Elliot had a Curling open house and while hanging out in a nice cold ice rink would have been a wonderful way to beat the scorching heat wave that blew through San Diego, Ada and I decided on a girls morning and went to the zoo instead.

Ada loves the zoo. She loves animals - especially very large non-domesticated animals. She can stand and stare at elephants and giraffes and monkeys for hours on end - and that is pretty much what we did. Now, I'm not normally a stop and smell the roses kind of girl and my patience for lingering is famously low, so the prospect of strolling through the zoo at a toddler's pace was quite the new experience. And I'll confess - I loved it. It was great just sitting back and watching how Ada would look at each animal from a variety of angles - and then laughing as she would look up at me with eyes that said "did you SEE this" each time she noticed something new. And THAT is what made my day. Not only did Ada let me tag along as she visited some of her favorite animals, but she wanted me to be a part of her experience. For the first time she really showed that I wasn't just along to help her get from point A to point B - but that I was there to take in the experience with her, because she wanted me to be there. Ada and I are buddies.

I'm no dummy. I know this will go full circle. So I'm going to lock that memory up and put it away in my vault so I can pull it out the first time that Ada makes it all to clear that I'm not cool enough to hang out with her and her friends, and um if I could just not come around while they are over, except to maybe bring them sandwiches and ice cream, that would be great.

tomboy princess

A couple of weeks ago Ada's daycare teacher broke the news to me: Ada is going to be tomboy. WOW, what a shocker. ;) I'm not sure that Ada had much of a choice on this one, after all she has been attending soccer games since she was 5 days old and hockey games since she was 2 weeks old. She will have logged more miles in her jogging stroller by age 2 than some adults log on their feet their entire lifetime. Ada's exposure to all things athletic is evident in her love of balls, and hockey sticks, and baseball bats, and gloves, and helmets, and running, and jumping. In fact, she is probably the only almost two year old I know that threw a fit because she got kicked off the hockey rink in 100+ degree weather. So the breaking news that Ada's teacher so sadly broke to me two weeks ago was really no shocker.

No the real shocker is that even though she has been raised with and exposed to many many many hours of sports, she has a primal draw to all things pink and sparkly. Most recently evidenced by her latest Target purchases of bright pink sparkly/glittery shoes and a pink Dora the Explorer fashion ball cap.

So this morning as Ada walked out of the house in her purple monkey shirt, camo shorts and pink wind breaker, pink glittery shoes, new Dora ball cap, one of my purses over her right shoulder, monkey doll in one hand and her Elmo doll in the other - I just smiled, loving the fact that Ada is already turning out to be one well rounded little girl.