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.