who dat?

Today we had a stranger in our house.

She looked like Ada, she smiled like Ada but this person was more like an adult stuffed into a little body.

She woke up cheery and on time.

She got herself out of bed (climbing down the top bunk ladder).

She went potty without someone to keep her company (we told her once she turned four she needed to do it all by herself, she found a loophole telling us that she didn't want help, just company...)

She picked out her own dress AND got herself dressed without any help.

And just when I thought there really might be a stranger controlling her little mind, she called me into her room as she was putting the finishing touches on her outfit for the day and asked in a very matter of fact way, "Mama, when I finish getting dressed will you snuggle with me while I watch Phineas and Ferb?"

I like this version of Ada. Independent, confident, but still showing that when it comes down to it she is still a little girl that needs her time with her Mama (and Daddy - when I finished up my snuggle she asked for Elliot).

one - on - one time

Every once in awhile Ada and I get some time to hang out, just the two of us. This past weekend we had a couple of these (which is rare) and we had a blast. It helped that I knew about the 1-1 time well in advance and was able to have Ada help me out with "planning" our time together.

Our first chunk of time was Saturday evening while Elliot had his curling match. We had a birthday party for one of Ada's friends earlier that day and I wasn't sure if she would even be awake for all of the time at the rink. Ada being Ada, she remembered all of our planning and refused to take a nap - she didn't want to miss a thing!

Now, normally a no nap day results in a cranky Ada right around the time the curling match was set to start so there was a part of me that was dreading the alone time just a bit. But we had a plan, and there is lots of sugar for purchase at the rink so I told myself to let go of the fear, embrace my inner four year old and have at it.

We started the night off with a casual loop around the rink (Ada on skates, me in my curling shoes), with a quick break in the penalty box.

Next we moved on to the vending machine portion of the night. Normally Ada will pick some stickers she wants, or a plastic ring, but this time she went for the claw machines. You know the ones that are impossible to ever win. Well as luck would have it one of the machines had a 'guaranteed to win' feature so we started out with that and got a nice red ball.

We played around with the ball for awhile and then decided it was time for hot chocolate, only, once we got into the snack bar area Ada spotted the Dippin' Dots machine and immediately changed her order to ice cream instead of hot chocolate. To me the two are at opposite ends of the food spectrum but hey, to a four year old I can see how ice cream would trump everything even if I was already freezing.

After making her way through the ice cream Ada decided that I was good enough at the claw game that I could up my difficulty level to one that is not guaranteed to win. The one with the cooler stuffed animal prizes. I had enough quarters for one try. I failed. Then I realized the machine took dollar bills and after about 3 more attempts, we got a cross between a bear and a cow, we call him, "Moooo, I'm a bear". You would have thought Ada found a pot of gold she was so excited about this little bear cow.

Basking in the glow of our victory we went back to the bench to 'take a rest'. Ada was finally starting to admit that she was getting tired. ONLY on our way there she noticed that one of the little vending machines sold stick on mustaches. Of course we had to have one of those. (??) So with our last remaining quarter, we became the proud owners of one adhesive black fuzzy mustache. It was awesome.

The mustache entertained us for a little while on the bench, but in that excitement Ada forgot she was tired. So we told stories, we pulled up the Cha Cha Slide on YouTube on my phone and danced a little bit, we (gasp) watched some of Elliot's curling match, and when we had made sure we had fully annoyed the mother of one of Elliot's fellow curlers (a sure member of the USA 2014 women's team) I decided it was time to run around a little bit.

And run we did. We did a series of about 20, 100 meter races around the end of rink. First Ada insisted on beating me every time, then we went to tying every race. I will give it to her, Ada is really starting to pick up some speed.. she was running so fast that she garnered the interest of a gaggle of three older kids (probably 10 - 12 years old) playing around the rink. So much so that they started to follow us in our races, and finally joining in. Once Ada figured out she had some fans she decided to 'take a break with these guys' and invited herself into their games.

Being the cool mom that I am I stood a safe distance away from the kids so I wasn't hovering, but was also close enough to jump in if it seemed like the play was getting out of the 'safe for a four year old' territory. Ada handled herself wonderfully, she held her own while playing, stayed out of the fights, and didn't try to do anything she didn't feel like she could do.

Let's just hope this wisdom sticks with her through the years.

time

Ada was 6 months old when she started attending her current day care. This put her in the youngest class of kids at the school. It was in this class that she started to walk, started to talk, and really started to show her personality.

Over the past 3.5 years she has slowly made her way up the ranks at the school. Moving to a class where binkys and bottles weren't allowed, another where the precious sippy cup was outlawed. She got introduced to the potty, and the concept of the beautiful world of non-diaper wearing freedom. She also started to actually play with other kids, has built friendships, figured out how to navigate playground dynamics, and has successfully negotiated her way out of her first nickname (Adabeta).

On Monday she will move full time into the OLDEST class at her school. In this class she will learn to write legibly, start to develop her reading skills, and get prepped for the big scary world of Kindergarten.

As much as I am amazed that Ada is now one of those big kids that I used to worry about her sharing a playground with, I am equally amazed at how fast those 3.5 years have gone.

I can't wait to see what challenge she conquers next.

beginning of the end

Ada's school had a teacher in-service day last Friday so the family took the afternoon off and went to Sea World. We have passes so we go a couple of times each year and Ada has a very good memory about all the shows, rides, and animals she sees. It is safe to say that Sea World is one of her happy places.

This is good and bad. Good because we can hold trips to Sea World out there as a carrot when trying to get her to behave for the week. Bad in that she never wants to leave once we get there.

This time was particularly bad because she had only a 20 minute nap under her belt when we entered the park. This should read as "Warning - tantrum and whiny negotiations ahead."

The day was pretty good - we did the Elmo ride, the Shamu show, the Oscar the Grouch ride, the new Dolphin show (classic quote from Ada as we entered the stadium "They did a pretty good job with it"), and then one final turn at the play area where Elliot and Ada had a date on the ropes course. They went through the course once and then came desperately running over to where I was sitting. Ada needed to go potty - NOW! We had rented a stroller for the day (see note about short nap above) so we threw Ada into the stroller, popped a few wheelies, and cut a few corners as close as we could - and got to the potty as fast as was humanly possible.

Random question - why the heck do they not have a massive bathroom in the play area? Or a kid themed one with little potties? Seems like a good idea to me...

Anyway, I digress. After the potty break Elliot and I decided we were ready to head home. Ada however was not really down with this plan and started to enter tantrum, whiny negotiating mode. This is when I went for my go to play for the last four years. When all else fails, make one of Ada's dolls/stuffed animals talk to me, telling me they want to do exactly the thing Ada is refusing to do. So I picked up Ada's new purple dolphin and held it close to my ear.

"What's that dolphin? You want to go home to see Ada's other toys?"

holding dolphin up to my ear

"Yes, that's right, she has two Hello Kitty dolls"

holding dolphin up to my ear

"I know, they do sound cute, we should go home right now so you can meet them."

setting dolphin down in the stroller

"Come on Ada, dolphin wants to go home"

Ada picking up dolphin

"What's that dolphin? You want to stay here and ride the Abby ride with me and Daddy?"

putting dolphin up to her ear

"You don't care about going home yet?"

putting dolphin up to her ear

"You really really want to go play some more?"

"See Mom, dolphin doesn't want to go home, she wants to go play with me!"

sneaky smile spread from ear to ear

Game. Set. Match.

I need to get a new play book.

FOUR

Ada turned four this weekend. Below are some of the highlights:

Pierced Ears! Ada has been obsessed with wearing earrings for about a year now. She will take my longer earrings and hook them over her ears, or she will insist on putting stickers on her ears to pretend that she had real earrings on. The whole 'when to let her get her ears pierced' conversation started about this time last year. We considered three things before going through with this.

First, Ada had to want to get it done. And not just the I want the pretty things in my ears part, but she had to know that it was going to be painful and that she was going to have to make sure her ears stayed clean. We almost did this for Christmas this past year but Ada decided she didn't want the pain (I pinched her ears to simulate the pain). After thinking about it for 8 months she finally decided she wanted to get it done.

Second, Elliot and I had to feel that she was old enough to not rip the earrings out, or wouldn't let us clean her ears. We have a great morning and night routine which Ada sticks to no matter how tired she is and we felt like the ears would be a good part of this routine.

Third, We wanted to get it done before she started playing sports. I know this may sound minor but as a former coach of girls in the prime ear piercing stage let me tell you - it is stressful for the girl and it is a pain for the coach (if they even try to help out). As long as Ada had passed items 1 & 2 before she hit sports age, we wanted to have her avoid this unnecessary stress.

Ada was a champ. There was one moment right before the earrings went in where she remembered the pain, crinkled up her face and said, this is going to hurt... but went through it anyway. She cried for a max of 30 seconds and then was BEAMING with pride. She has been a pro at letting us clean her ears and probably plays with them less than I do.

Wake Up! Ada was so excited about her birthday she went to bed at about 7 the night before (getting up briefly to help me make her cupcakes, but then heading straight back to bed). Then as I was trying to sneak out of the house at 6:30 the next morning to head to the beach to save a spot for her party she saw me (she was wide awake) and exclaimed in her most excited voice "Mom! I'm FOUR!!!" I got her out of bed and brought her to Elliot in our room where I hoped she would let him sleep a little longer. Apparently this didn't happen. She sat there scratching his nose until he opened his eyes and then doing her best impression of her parents said, "If you sit up I'll rub your shoulders for a bit." Needless to say Elliot didn't get much more sleep and they got down to the beach well before the party started.

Party! Ada has been looking forward to her party for a few months now. She stayed unwavering on the Hello Kitty theme and the idea of having it down at the beach. She also insisted on Oreo Chocolate Hello Kitty cupcakes. So that is what we had. We invited all of her little friends from school and ended up with a handful of crazy 4 year olds running around screaming and laughing. It was a blast and Ada had the time of her life. I'm not sure Elliot and I have recovered yet, but Ada is more than likely already planning her 5th birthday party. God help us.

restructures

Ada recently started to take swim lessons. She loves being in the water, and thanks to the invention of water wings has experienced some freedom in the pool this summer. However, we felt that it was about time for her to get some real instruction.

For the next 3 weeks Ada will spend a couple evenings a week working with a swim instructor at the pool near her school learning how to kick properly, move her arms, and to float without the aid of a float belt or water wings.

Ada takes this job VERY seriously. After all, we told her that she can't go down the water slide until she learns how to swim. Who knew that THAT would be the only motivation she needed.

To date she has had two lessons. Both were about the same. Ada putting on her most serious of serious faces, mouth clenched as tight as she can get it, goggles down to cover her eyes, and her little body motoring for 30 minutes straight (no breaks). Perhaps the most hilarious part was watching her balance her desire to stay focused and maintain her serious clenched mouth while also exuding her natural wide grin that pops out when she is having the time of her life. The smile ended up winning and she ended up swallowing a bit of the pool water and spitting all over her instructor.

Along with the seriousness has come a bit of silence. Ada doesn't really want to talk about her swim lessons that much, and has especially shied away from any talk of her instructors.

Until yesterday. The pool that she does her lessons at is in the same park complex where we play floor hockey. We had arrived early for our pick up hockey session and I was walking Ada to the bathroom - a path that takes us past the pool. When we got to the pool Ada correctly stated "Hey, this is where I do my swim lesson!" I responded with a yup.. and did you know this is where Reese's birthday party is going to be. This really REALLY confused Ada. How could there be a party at a pool (oh boy does she have a lot to learn) and as she was throwing the idea around in her head she finally let out what was causing so much consternation.

"Are my restructures going to be there?"

"Your what?"

"My restructures"

"What is a restructure"

"You know, my RESTRUCTURES"

"Uh"

"My restructures, are they going to be there to help me swim"

"OHHHHH Instructors! No, I don't think so, the party is just for fun. You'll just be swimming around with your friends."

Ada got quiet and you could see she was still a little conflicted. Excited at the prospect of a day in the pool without having to go through the grueling kicking and paddling exercises, and a little disappointment that her new favorite pool buddies would not be there.

Some how I think she'll survive.

planner

I guess it should come as no surprise that Ada is a planner. After all her mom and dad make a living around planning and managing large organizations - this has a way of seeping over to the rest of our lives and Ada has picked up on this vibe.

Ada goes all out with her planning, often telling us what we need to say and do as we navigate our way through the day. She'll then repeat this to us several times until the event actually happens and then she will relay exactly how something DID happen, highlighting the parts where mommy and daddy 'got it wrong'.

This love of planning was recently highlighted when Ada lost a new Barbie doll while we were up in San Francisco. We looked high and low for Barbie but she was no where to be found. The adults took in the scenario - figured it was just a doll - a new one that Ada didn't really have much attachment too yet - and discussed a plan to bring the doll back down the following week when our SF friends were already planning on being in San Diego. Now the only thing left was to disclose this plan to Ada. She took it reasonably well, and didn't say much the whole way back to San Diego. It was only the following weekend when we were talking about meeting up with our friends at the beach that she laid out the plan for us.

"Bradee was going to take pictures of Barbie and send them to us"

"Umm, yeah, honey that didn't happen"

ignoring my bad news "and then they are going to bring her to the beach because she was wearing a bathing suit"

"Ahh, honey, they didn't find Barbie, she isn't with them"

Silence...

Silence, that is, until about 10 minutes later. Turns out Ada was formulating a new plan. A better plan. The new plan involves Barbie finally being found, being boxed up, and sent in the mail all the way back down to San Diego in a package addressed to ADA. (Ada loves getting stuff in the mail)

Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?

Well, Ada called Barbie on her imaginary phone to firm up the details just in case.

the pity button

Due to my work schedule and my school schedule I often miss a lot of the moments that Ada and Elliot share together. They have an amazing bond and every little girl should be so lucky to have a Dad as cool and caring as Elliot.

I often get stories about the games they play together or I'll hear the loud explosions of laughter coming from the living room while I'm on a conference call back in the office. But rarely do I get to witness the joy first hand. Since I'm off from school and had a rare non-working night last night, I got to witness the Ada and Elliot play time live and in living color while I mixed together some banana bread.

Elliot and Ada were both pretending to be frogs, well more specifically Elliot was a toad and Ada a beautiful purple frog. Elliot's toad was first trying to catch Ada's frog. This in itself was pretty funny as Elliot would say "I'm going to push my fast button" and Ada would immediately retort (with peals of laughter) "I pushed my faster button" followed by Elliot countering until he got all the way to his "ridiculously fast button" and the whole house (myself included) erupted into side aching laughter. At some point the frog and the toad joined forces as Ada mistakenly hit the "Alien button". As they tried to escape those pesky aliens Ada found more and more interesting buttons to push.

Ada: "I pushed the head button, we are just heads"

Elliot: "How can we push a different button, we are only heads"

Me (from the kitchen): "Noses!"

Ada: giggling "I pushed the leg button with my nose"

Elliot: "How can we push a different button, we are only legs"

This went on and on, with Ada pushing different buttons and Elliot perfectly interpreting the situation and setting up the next play.

Most of these moves were fairly straight forward - there was a circle button, a cube button, and then out of no where, a curve ball to end all curve balls, Ada exclaimed, "I pushed the pity button!"

I was a little lost at that point, what would Elliot do with that one? Most of his other solutions had something to do with new funny contortions of the body - how would he physically embody pity? Without missing a beat Elliot became very calm, sat up straight and leaned in with a look of genuine concern turned to the aliens and said, "Oh aliens, I'm so sorry, are you OK?"

Ada giggled, and moved on to the next button.