Wednesday, May 27, 2009

for my birthday

Somewhere along the way Ada has picked up on the fact that you get stuff for your birthday. And recently we have been having a lot of birthday talk. Two of her best buddies at school just had birthdays which is probably contributing to this new favorite topic. Her teachers also have managed to teach her when her birthday is... Ask her what her last name is and Ada will tell you 'Ada', ask her how old she is, and Ada will tell you, "five", but ask her when her birthday is, and Ada will confidently tell you, "August 15th!!" And then she will launch into a list of what she wants for her birthday. A party, a bike (a PURPLE bike), a party, a dress, a party and a bike. But she is also taking this into her daily negotiations. We were recently at Sea World and we told her she could pick out one item from the Shamu store to bring home. She quickly picked out a nice stuffed Shamu that she could easily snuggle up with. But as we walked around the shop she spotted some Shamu slippers and she started her well honed negotiation skills. When we held firm on the one item rule she switched gears and put the slippers back on the rack and said, "I want those for my birthday". Fast forward to that night at the grocery store. Needing to distract Ada while Elliot waited in line, I took Ada into the seasonal items aisle. She immediately went to the pool noodles and picked out a giant pink noodle. She did her best Luke Skywalker impression and then tried to get me to pull out the other giant pink noodle so we could do a little fencing in the aisle. When I told her that we needed to put the noodles away and that we didn't have a pool and therefore didn't have a reason to buy a GIANT pink noodle she again threw out the "I want this for my birthday". Ok honey - we'll buy you a worthless piece of foam for your birthday just because you asked for it. Got it.

The birthday list goes on and on. We are going with the flow and telling her to put it on her list. I just hope when August 15th hits Ada is happy with what she gets (a bike) and has forgotten all of the other tiny items she adds to the list over the next 2 and a half months. Otherwise I am expecting one HUGE tantrum.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

tidbits

Just a few tidbits about Ada today...

Scarred for life
As I mentioned in a previous post - we FORCED Ada to wear shorts and a t-shirt to school the other day. We didn't warn her the night before but we did manage to get the first word in that morning and that scarred Ada for life. Now, every morning, the first thing she does after opening her eyes is not smile at the morning sun shining in through her window, or ask for five more minutes to snooze. NOPE. Instead she opens her eyes, and as she is focusing her eyes and looking at me, she says in her quiet morning voice, "I want to wear a dress today", getting it in there before I can possibly think to mention that maybe she should try out the butterfly t-shirt and pink shorts today.

I'm guessing that she will stop this routine when she leaves for college and is convinced that I no longer have any control over what she wears to school each day...

You say tomAto I say tomato
Ada is very good at getting dressed in the morning just as long as we let her wear a dress. However she is so afraid that I just might try to get her to wear something that is not a dress that she even refuses to wear undergarments if I insist on calling them 'underpants' rather than what those crazy Canucks call them, "underwear". Ada prefers the Canadian version over the So Cal Valley Girl version, but mostly because she can't stand the idea of wearing anything that might be considered pants.

Lady GaGa - Watch OUT!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

bright light in the midst of darkness

I am so thankful that Ada is oblivious to what is going on with our family this week. So thankful. Although there have been several times this week where I have wanted to just curl up with her to allow myself to soak up the comfort only a two year old can give you only to have her shrug me off with an annoyed 'Moooommmmm'.

To demonstrate exactly HOW oblivious she is to the stress of this week Ada had one of her very typical bouts of independence. This week's theme - 'I want to wear a dress to school'.

Ada has recently discovered she has a new BFF at school - Mackenzie. They have the same jelly shoes, they both like to wear their hair in pony tails, and most importantly of all - they both LOVE to wear dresses.

We recently started allowing Ada to wear dresses to school because we decided that she was capable of holding her dress up out of the toilet water when she goes potty. (I know, TMI) Ever since that first day when we let her wear a dress she has wanted to wear nothing else. Well on Tuesday she had a dentist appointment after school and she had worn dresses to school for more than 3 weeks in a row and we thought - you know what - she has all of these cute pants and shirts - we are going to convince her to not wear a dress today. With a minimal amount of tears we did manage to get her in a pink shirt with stripes and polka-dots and pink shorts (with her jelly shoes of course). Part of the convincing included Ada stating, "Mackenzie is wearing pants today" and me guiltily agreeing. Well we arrived at her classroom and Mackenzie ran over to greet her shouting at the top of her lungs, "Ada, my best friend, is here!" (Ok how cute is that) and imagine Ada's surprise when Mackenzie was wearing (gasp!) a dress. She was still in shock when I left and I was only a little worried about her ability to make it through the day.

Luckily Elliot picked her up early for her dentist appointment and before they were able to leave she boldly told him, "Daddy, tomorrow I want to wear a dress!" And then later that night as we were putting on her PJ's she told me in cold clear terms "I don't want to wear a SHIRT tomorrow" and repeated herself about 500 times for emphasis.

Needless to say - the rest of this week has been filled with pink dresses preferably with pockets.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

chameleon

Last night was a class night. Elliot has been working to break Ada of her habit of waiting up for me to get home from class before going to bed but last night when I walked in the front door Ada was sitting at the table finishing up dinner(!!). Apparently their night had been slowed down at every turn and Ada was happily eating chicken so we couldn't really complain. After a couple more minutes of hanging out we started our bedtime routine and Ada was actually very cooperative. She only spent 5 minutes trying to convince us that the label on the top bunk stating that she needed to be 6 years old to sleep up there was bogus and after brushing her teeth she kicked me out and had Elliot read through her cooking with Elmo book. Yes Ada reads a cookbook before bed EVERY NIGHT, sometimes twice.

Elliot eventually emerged from Ada's room but it was clear that she was not asleep yet, but at least she was quiet - for now. After about 10 minutes we heard some noises coming out of her room and I went to investigate. Ada had dumped all of her pillows on the floor and was attempting to jump around on the bottom bunk (with limited success, obviously). I was able to calm her down a bit and explain that she needed to have quiet time. She looked me in the eye and nodded so I left. And we didn't hear a peep.

As our night wound down a couple of hours later we went in to check on Ada to make sure she had a blanket on and was a safe distance from the side of the bed, only she wasn't on the bottom bunk, she wasn't on the top bunk, she wasn't under the bed, on the floor next to the bed, or under the pillow pile she had created. Just as my heart started to race and my mind started to go where parents hope their mind never has to go, I turned to run out of the room to get Elliot and that is when I saw her. She was sound asleep, laying upside down on her big chair, head on the seat, legs up over the arm. I have no idea how she ended up there, but she sure did look comfy.

Let's hope she can figure out a way to control her excitement about her new beds to a point that will allow her to actually fall asleep IN her bed tonight.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

big girl bed

After several nights of getting up when Ada rolled out of her toddler bed and then sitting on the floor with his head propped up on the side of said bed, Elliot agreed that maybe it was time to get Ada a big girl bed. So we started the search and also the requirements gathering. After a short analysis we decided that a full/twin bunk bed set fit the need for a big girl bed, plus the need to have a bed to sleep in when we put up overnight guests in our room.

Ada loved the search. Let me repeat that, Ada LOVED the search. She classifies each store that we go to by the color of the store. The furniture store in this case is yellow. Even weeks after we ordered and paid for the bunk beds, Ada was begging to please, PLEASE, PUUUHHHHLEEEAASSEEEE go back to the yellow store.

Well the bunk beds came today and luckily the arrival date fell on a Monday - our one true family night. So after a long day at school, reading a few books, going for a run, we finally got down to opening the boxes and putting the bed together. Ada patiently (very patiently) sat in her big chair and waited, and waited, and waited as Elliot and I put the beds together. When we finally put the twin mattress up on the top bunk Ada immediately wanted "UP!". The look on her face as she lay on that top bunk was adorable. It was happiness and mischievousness, and satisfaction in finally getting HER bunk beds all rolled up in one. However, the mean parents had to step in and declare the top bunk as her play bed and the bottom bunk as the sleeping bed. We just don't trust Ada to not roll out of the top bed just yet. After HOURS of negotiation we finally convinced Ada that as the parents, we were not budging and she gave in, only to feign injury and have Mom apply an icepack while cuddling her and singing her special song.

I'm sure we still have many nights of battling over the top vs. bottom bunk but for tonight I'm declaring the bunk beds a success and Ada DEFINITELY a big girl.

Monday, May 4, 2009

jaguars

We went to the zoo last weekend and spent a good three hours there walking around to all sections of the zoo. This is different from most of our trips to the zoo where we stop by to shout 'Hey' to the elephants and the monkeys, eat some popcorn and then hit the road. This time however we went by many more animals including all of the cats. Now when we asked Ada if she wanted to walk by the cats I'm sure she pictured cute cuddly kitties not large predator type cats who would be eyeing her like a tasty little snack since we happened to swing by the cats right around lunch time. Most of the cats were quietly stalking back and forth in their cages, quietly waiting for their trainer to bring lunch by. The Jaguar however was loudly growling for all to hear, eyeing every small child and calculating what it would take to squeeze his big head through the bars of the cage and how hard the parents would fight. Ada picked up on this. Boy oh boy did she pick up on this.

Later that night as we were eating dinner I asked Ada what her favorite part of the zoo was. We are still working on the concept of having a favorite so she didn't really answer me, she just said, Yes, which is what she says when she doesn't really understand what we are saying to her. Anyway, I digress. So when Ada said, "Yes" to my question about her favorite part of the zoo I started probing, was it the sky ride? was it the elephants (a usual favorite)? was it lunch? was it the monkeys? or was it possibly the Jaguar? Which prompted this conversation:


Ada: Jaguars eat people

Me: Well in the wild they might, but the one at the zoo gets served lunch from their trainer

Ada: Jaguars are scary

Me: Yes, I can see how they could be scary, but don't worry you are safe here

Ada: Jaguars are going to come eat me

Me: Oh no, the Jaguar can't get to our house, he doesn't know where we live

Ada: (quizzical look, questioning my sanity)

Me: Think about it, Jaguars don't have a car so they would have to walk the whole way

Ada: (nodding) They would have to use their feet

Me: Right, and they would have to go on the highway so people would see them and report them to the police.

Ada: (nodding some more) That is a long way

Me: Yes, and they don't know where we live so they would have to find the right house

Ada: I live in MY house

Me: Yes, and even if the Jaguar guessed the right house, they couldn't open our door because they don't have thumbs

Ada: I have THUMBS!!

Me: Right, so you could get inside but the Jaguar couldn't. You would be safe.

Ada: Jaguars don't have cars, they can't drive

Me: (nodding, thinking this is actually sinking in)

Ada: And they don't have thumbs, so I'm safe. Jaguars aren't scary.

Me: That's right, so what was your favorite part of the zoo?

Ada: Yes!


Totally cool that we are starting to have actual logical discussions with Ada. Dinner time is going to be much more fun from now on.