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.

PS: bless you

This morning as I hurried around the kitchen getting Ada's breakfast ready and packing my lunch for work, I sneezed. A very strong, loud, intense sneeze. So intense that Ada stopped her squawking, looked at me, and said 'Bless You'. All on her own, without prompting, and even sounded like she meant it. I was immediately both amazed and saddened. Amazed that she has picked up on this courtesy and knows how to apply it properly; and saddened that she has shown once again that she is on the fast track to 30.

book worm

One of Ada's favorite books was a gift from my college friend, Nicole. It is the story of 5 silly Monkey's jumping on the bed. Ada LOVES this book, and has even memorized her first full sentence, "No monkey jump bed". So it did not surprise me the other morning when she insisted on bringing the book in the car for our drive to daycare/work. I expected that she would kick the back of my seat yelling for 'Mo MonKEYs' until I gave in, turned around and read the whole book to her.

Stop freaking out, Elliot was driving.

Imagine my shock (and pleasure) when instead of the seat kicking and the Monkey screaming she instead settled thoughtfully into her car seat, opened the book, put her hand up to her chin and started to 'read' the book quietly all to herself. She did this the ENTIRE thirty minute drive, and was so quiet and thoughtful in her reading that I half expected her to break out in full collegiate sounding sentences about the post modernist angle of the third silly monkey when we pulled to a stop. Instead she dropped the book as soon as we pulled up to my office, blew me a few kisses and then started shaking her finger as she screamed 'No monkey jump bed'.

ada's commands

Our cute cuddly little baby is turning into a very opinionated, bossy (and still cute and cuddly) little girl. She is getting more and more comfortable with her place in our family and as such, she has started to do what I'm sure she will try to do for the rest of her life - boss us around. She has a few favorite commands that she uses over and over again.

Sit Down (while patting where she wants you to sit). I know where she gets this one, it is from me. It is a combo of two of our most common interactions over the first 21 months of her life. The command 'Sit Down' we use a lot. Mostly when she is in her high chair and is trying to stand up. She does this A LOT, so she has heard 'Sit Down' many, many times. The patting of the location where she wants you to sit is one I've used since she was mobile. I use it in a very similar way as Ada does, and that makes me smile every time she does it.

"I want pizza" (while banging her fists on her high chair tray) Not really a command but she sells it like it is one. We have Ada's auntie Katie to thank for this one. And she has started to use it for her other favorite food - chicken (well Dino chicken). She has actually become very adamant about her food lately. She knows what she wants and when she wants it. And heaven forbid you try to give her blueberries when she really wants yogurt. Watch out. At least she doesn't throw the unwanted food (YET) - but the fit, and the tears (oh the tears) are pretty much unbearable.

Sit ups (while pushing your back down to the ground so you can do sit ups). Ada has a strong future as a personal trainer, and she is learning her skills from her father. We all have a stretching routine before we go for a run, but Elliot has more of a ritual. He doesn't just do the normal stretches (calf, hamstring, quad, butterfly) but he also does a big back arch and a set of sit ups. Ada thinks both of these additions are HILARIOUS. So much so - she thinks everyone else should do them too. So she'll do her first set of "sit-ups" with Elliot then she'll move to me and push me down to do my set of sit-ups, only she doesn't let me off with a measly 25. Nope. Just when I think I'm done, she pushes me back down, shouts "SIT UPS" like a baby drill sergeant, and starts counting again. Only we never get to 25 because she only knows two numbers - 1 and 5. So our count goes something like this "1, 5, 1, 5, 1, 5 ... SIT UPS". I would have to pay a LOT of money to get some stranger to do this to me, Ada does it for free.

"Get me, Get me" This one is also a combo, I think. I have been tickling Ada since she was born and will often say something like "I'm gonna get you". She has also witnessed her favorite big cousin Maia running around the house yelling "Chase me, chase me" several times. But Ada doesn't have a big open living space to run around so she has had to adapt. Instead, she gets up on our bed and runs around in circles, waving her hands in the air, and shouting "Get me, Get me, GET ME" over and over again. Stealing glances at us while she is running around. When she does this I have to resist every urge I have to immediately swoop her up, plop her down on the bed and tickle her until every last giggle has been giggled. Of course I eventually give in.

And now you all know, it isn't just her Daddy that Ada has wrapped around her little finger. Mommy is right there too, wrapped around the pinkie not occupied by Elliot. And right now, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

clown shoes

Ada's love of shoes has taken a strange turn. In a mix of her obsession of Mom and Dad's shoes, and her love to walk around without her shoes falling off - Ada has become obsessed with a pair of hand-me down pink Maryjane's that are two sizes too big. Effectively the toddler version of clown shoes.

She is so obsessed with these shoes that she insisted on wearing them to floor hockey last Sunday. Not phased by Auntie Julie cracking up every time she caught site of the large shoes, or the fact that anytime she picked up more speed than a brisk walk she tripped and scraped her knees. She spent the duration of two hockey games clomping around showing off her hockey celebrations and just doing her normal flirting with her various floor hockey boyfriends.

When we got home we put the shoes up on the kitchen counter to keep them out of her site, but last night as I carried her into the house from the car she spotted the old ratty pink long boards and while I quickly changed into my non-work clothes she managed to pull them down from the counter (when did she get so tall), took off her super cute red keens, and had the pink rattys on before I even knew what she was doing. And then she INSISTED that she wear her clown shoes on our walk around the neighborhood.

Up to this point I have tried to nurture Ada's shoe obsession in a hope that she will end up with some sort of fashion sense, but her love of her pink hand-me down Maryjane's is making me rethink this plan of action as I envision a day when I have to walk Ada into her day care clad in her fleece footed PJs and her pink clown shoes.

shades of emotion

I recently realized yet one more thing that I have passed down to Ada - my 'Angry Katie', don't mess with me, what the heck do you think you are doing look. I want to take this chance to apologize to all of Ada's future soccer opponents and referees, but this one is biological, either that or she has been really paying attention at all of those soccer games we drag her too.

Ada decided to pull this one out of her magic bag of toddler surprises this weekend. And she liked it so much she pulled it out over and over and over again. Most of the time I was addressee because I didn't quite understand that that book, the orange one, with the green eggs and ham, yes THAT ONE, must be read 20 times before getting dressed in the morning. Or because I refused to let her hang out with Daddy while he was using a circular saw, you know the kind with large jagged teeth, to cut up pallets with sharp nails that could go flying in any direction if not cut properly. Boy did she ever let me have 'the look' after that one.

But perhaps the most surprising exhibition of her new found emotion was last night at floor hockey. She had spent the past 20 minutes playing with Julie's floor hockey ball and Taylor had played with it for exactly 20 seconds so I called Ada over and told her to share the ball with Taylor. We have had a bit of a hard time recently with sharing items so I expected a struggle, but Ada was so excited to be playing with Taylor again that she handed the ball over without complaint. Only to watch Taylor rebuff her and toss the ball aside. And that is when Ada whipped out the death stare. Her expression was communication enough for her point to get across. She was saying "Do you know how much that pained me to just hand that ball over to you? I SHARED!! I have had my mom convinced for weeks now that I do not remember how to share, and I just trashed all that work. OOOHHHHHHHH, HMPH!"

And then as quick as she had turned, she started smiling again, picked up the ball and ran after her buddy Dan to get thrown up into the air again.