Ada has one great guilty pleasure. Not candy, or binkies, or even running around naked. All of those she gets really really excited about, but all of those things she could live without if forced to. Ada's one guilty pleasure is her baby signing time DVDs. She LOVES these, well actually just volume 1 as this is the one that she requests all the time. She will be playing in the living room or her bedroom and then all of a sudden, she'll get up, grab one of our hands and lead us back to the office, walk over to the Mac desk, and motion violently that she wants up. And if you don't lift her up, immediately, she throws a little fit. Once on the desk she will situate herself so that she has her legs out in front of her under the monitor and her face about 3 inches from the screen. She has even started to figure out how to put the DVD into the Mac Mini so she can get her 'Bebe' - she says this as she does the sign for baby - there is no way you can resist when she does this.
Her baby signing time is the only time she will sit still for more than two seconds, and I'm not really sure it is any better for her than watching TV. I try to convince myself that because she is actually learning and she wants to watch educational programming she is just extra driven when it comes to her education. But really, I think I'm starting to raise a desk potato with an unrelenting work ethic. Now I'll just sit back and wait for her future bosses to thank me.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
deep in the heart of Texas
We took a zip in and zip out trip to Dallas for one of the Theta Xi guys wedding this past weekend. It was great to see all of Elliot's friends and the wedding was beautiful, not that Ada noticed, she spent the entire ceremony looking at the latest entry into the Theta Xi family - little Lila who is about a year younger than Ada. She was mesmerized by the little fingers and the little toes, and well, all of the little stuff.
This was just the start of the excitement for Ada. After the ceremony she discovered the most amazing thing about weddings. They are followed by these big parties, in a big room, with lots of music, and many many people who think little girls running around in cute dresses are the most adorable thing EVER. Needless to say, Ada thought the whole party was for her. She spent the first hour of the cocktail reception greeting all of the guests (or running around smiling at them and laughing as she ran away). As the night wore on she started to get more and more bold and by the end of the night she had even worked up the courage to ask a perfect stranger for a dance (he accepted). By the end of the night it was apparent that Ada had maintained her celeb status in the Theta Xi world.
All in all it was a successful trip to Dallas, a bit short, but I have a feeling that Ada will always have a special place in her heart for Texas.
This was just the start of the excitement for Ada. After the ceremony she discovered the most amazing thing about weddings. They are followed by these big parties, in a big room, with lots of music, and many many people who think little girls running around in cute dresses are the most adorable thing EVER. Needless to say, Ada thought the whole party was for her. She spent the first hour of the cocktail reception greeting all of the guests (or running around smiling at them and laughing as she ran away). As the night wore on she started to get more and more bold and by the end of the night she had even worked up the courage to ask a perfect stranger for a dance (he accepted). By the end of the night it was apparent that Ada had maintained her celeb status in the Theta Xi world.
All in all it was a successful trip to Dallas, a bit short, but I have a feeling that Ada will always have a special place in her heart for Texas.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
most fun ever
Last night we did our usual Monday night dinner at the Ott house. Each week Ada becomes more and more comfortable, and is spending less and less time in our arms and more and more time running around.
We usually spend a little bit of dinner eating together and then one by one the kids will get up to go play while the adults get to finish eating and have some real conversations about what is going on in our lives. Well, until recently, it was the adults and Ada. She was perfectly content to sit on our laps and listen to the conversation around her. Well the last few weeks she has started to join in the kiddie fun. She'll still stay at the table a little longer than Eric and Maia, but once she notices that Maia is running around in her princess shoes, or Eric is jumping off the coffee table she scoots her little bum off of her chair and RACES to join them. Last night the kids did several laps around the core of the house and the look on Ada's face said it all. "I never want to leave, I never want to stop running, I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!!!" And just when I started to believe that she would never stop running around she hit the wall. She had exerted all of the energy she had, and she was DONE. So she climbed up into my lap, put her head on my shoulder, and rested. Until she saw Eric jumping again and she forgot that she was out of energy and like a bolt of lightning shot out of my lap to join him on the couch.... Ahhh to be 1 again!
We usually spend a little bit of dinner eating together and then one by one the kids will get up to go play while the adults get to finish eating and have some real conversations about what is going on in our lives. Well, until recently, it was the adults and Ada. She was perfectly content to sit on our laps and listen to the conversation around her. Well the last few weeks she has started to join in the kiddie fun. She'll still stay at the table a little longer than Eric and Maia, but once she notices that Maia is running around in her princess shoes, or Eric is jumping off the coffee table she scoots her little bum off of her chair and RACES to join them. Last night the kids did several laps around the core of the house and the look on Ada's face said it all. "I never want to leave, I never want to stop running, I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!!!" And just when I started to believe that she would never stop running around she hit the wall. She had exerted all of the energy she had, and she was DONE. So she climbed up into my lap, put her head on my shoulder, and rested. Until she saw Eric jumping again and she forgot that she was out of energy and like a bolt of lightning shot out of my lap to join him on the couch.... Ahhh to be 1 again!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Me me me me...
It is inevitable, when babies grow into toddlers, they decide they want to be part of adult conversations before their parents realize that they want to be part of adult conversation. Most toddlers will scream, bite, hit, and umm ... scream to get their parents' attention, which is understandable, they can't really talk and as parents we are conditioned to respond to this negative behavior.
As a family we spend A LOT of time together in the car, and somewhere in the last month or so Ada has decided that she wants to be part of most of our conversations. Especially when we are going over our days, she always has something to say about each of my meetings, and every new PowerPoint Elliot is working on. This could be bad. Could be, if Ada was like most normal toddlers. Now don't get me wrong, she does her fair share of screaming, and hitting, and sitting in the naughty corner; but in the car, she has developed a new plan of attack - she laughs. If we have not tried to bring Ada into the conversation for an extended period of time she will just start laughing. And laughing, and laughing. It starts out as a real, genuine laugh; but it quickly turns to a fake, cocktail party laugh. This development makes me happy not only because she is not screaming, and hitting, and ummm ... screaming during our long commutes, but also because she is proving at a very early age that she has what it takes to be a mover and a shaker.
As a family we spend A LOT of time together in the car, and somewhere in the last month or so Ada has decided that she wants to be part of most of our conversations. Especially when we are going over our days, she always has something to say about each of my meetings, and every new PowerPoint Elliot is working on. This could be bad. Could be, if Ada was like most normal toddlers. Now don't get me wrong, she does her fair share of screaming, and hitting, and sitting in the naughty corner; but in the car, she has developed a new plan of attack - she laughs. If we have not tried to bring Ada into the conversation for an extended period of time she will just start laughing. And laughing, and laughing. It starts out as a real, genuine laugh; but it quickly turns to a fake, cocktail party laugh. This development makes me happy not only because she is not screaming, and hitting, and ummm ... screaming during our long commutes, but also because she is proving at a very early age that she has what it takes to be a mover and a shaker.
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