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.