The Broccoli Challenge

Ada loves gymnastics. She has been attending weekly classes every Tuesday at 6:30PM for a year and a half now, still excited every time we head out the door. The class has been great, and the time works well for us. Other girls have signed up and dropped out, but Ada has remained a constant, every Tuesday, week in, week out.

Recently a couple of the other girls dropped out, and a few were promoted to the blue side of the room (where the BIG kids practice), and all of a sudden there was just Ada in the class. Her instructor, Ms. Amanda, put her through all the skill drills and decided Ada had the chops to move up a level and join the big kids on the blue side, but dang it, she just wasn't big enough.

Quick background - it took Ada about 30 seconds from the start of her first gymnastics class to start pining for the blue side. She LOVES hanging with the big kids, and if the big kids were on the blue side, that's where she wanted to be too. So for Ms. Amanda to tell her she was good enough for the blue side but not big enough - well that's going to stick in her craw.

On our way out of our most recent Tuesday class, the gym manager apologized to Ada about not being able to move her to the blue side, citing weight and age restrictions for the equipment, and ending with "tell you what, if you have a big growth spurt we can move you over, but you'll need to eat a lot of broccoli so you can grow!"

Ada replied with a quiet "okay" and was lost in thought for a moment. I turned to the manager and told her, "you know, she's going to take you up on that." Sure enough, the moment we set foot outside of the gym Ada turns to me and asks if she can have broccoli for dinner.

"Sorry honey, we don't have any broccoli at home. But we do have spinach, which is also very healthy and helps you grow."

"Okay, I'll have spinach for dinner."

Pause...

"Can I have spinach with my breakfast, lunch, and snack, too?"

Hard to turn down a request like that. For the moment, Ada is happily chomping down spinach with every meal, and may well have the healthiest 5-year-old diet on the planet. But so far, no signs of rapid growth.

sausage

Ada recently started a new chapter in her life. After spending every working day since she was 6 months old at her day care center, she finally graduated! We could have kept her at the center until Kindergarten starts in the fall, but we opted to enroll her in the ESS program at her future grade school. 


While ESS is associated with the school, for the summer it is mostly summer camp, which is a totally new and amazing experience for Ada. She gets to go on field trips twice a week, has occasional swimming days and of course also gets to hang out with new teachers and some older kids. And with new teachers comes new games. Ada shared one of these new games with us this morning in the car. 


Quick side note: We were in the car at 4:45 AM driving to the airport so Elliot and Ada could catch a flight to Saskatchewan... remember that as you read the following story... 


Ada: "I learned a new game at school. Sausage"


Me: "Really, I haven't heard of that one before. How do you play?"


"Someone sits in the middle and you ask them questions, and they just say 'Sausage' to everything. You have to make the person in the middle laugh."


"OK...."


"So let's play. I'm in the middle."


(we played, I had to trick Ada into laughing by pulling out one of my standard goofy voices)


Ada: "OK, now you are in middle"


"OK, hit me"


"What is your favorite color?" 


(in my best robotic voice) "sausage"


"Who is your favorite person?"


"sausage"


"What is your favorite sausage?"


(laughter)


Granted I was operating on maybe 4 hours of sleep, but she caught me enough off guard that I genuinely laughed. This led to more laughter, which then led to game after game after game of 'Sausage' until we hit the airport. 


Not surprisingly, a little bit later as they were killing time before their flight, when Elliot asked Ada if she wanted just an egg sandwich or one with egg and sausage, she replied without missing a beat...


Sausage!! 

dogs

Ada has been curious about animals (all animals) ever since she realized there were other species roaming this land with us humans.

Now the key word there is 'curious'. She isn't attracted so much that she seeks out animals and tries to pet them while they are eating. In fact she NEVER tries to pet them. Not even if we have assurances from pet owners that their dogs LOVE kids, not if said pets are leashed up, and not even if those pets like the look of Ada's cuddly face so much that they want nothing more than to lick her to pieces.

Well maybe it is that last part that has made Ada a little hesitant when it comes to animals.

On the good side of this situation we don't have to worry about Ada trying to pet a snake and getting bitten, or chasing after a rabid bunny rabbit.

This is a good thing.

However, her hesitance to approach any living (non human) creature is pretty funny to watch. At first I thought she was scared. Heck, I was terrified of dogs when I was her age.

But that's not it.

Then I thought, well maybe she just isn't used to animals and isn't sure how to approach them. So we taught her to let them sniff her hand first and then to  pet the back, and that some dogs like it when you get your fingernails in there and scratch. She followed our instructions and gave us a look of 'yeah, I get it, don't you remember - I'm the observant one'.

So that wasn't it either.

Then this weekend while we were hanging out at floor hockey a nice woman walked up with two SUPER friendly dogs. She even said, "These dogs LOVE kids, they are super friendly".

Ada wasn't much of a believer in those statements.

But she also wasn't scared, nor indifferent. She was curious. And it almost felt like she really wanted to pet the dogs, but there was something holding her back.

So I prodded.

"Ada, honey, why don't you want to pet the dogs? They are friendly, they won't hurt you..."

No movement.

Then a look of wanting.

Then a statement. "If you hold their heads so that they can't lick me I'll pet them."

And there you have it. Ada isn't afraid of dogs (or other animals), she just really really really doesn't like getting licked head to toe just so she can give a belly rub. 

flying

The family recently took a trip to Maui. Partly to celebrate my birthday, partly to celebrate the end of my semester, but mostly to get away and attempt to relax and work on our tans. 

We were definitely successful in that last part.

Ada spent most of her days on Maui lapping up the luxury of one of the three pools at the hotel we were staying at. Elliot joined Ada for most of that time and I worked in some pool time, some laying out/reading time, and some walking time. 

It was great. 

But we were in Hawaii. Pool time we can do in San Diego, so we decided to get away from the hotel on a couple of occasions. On our last day we drove up one of the local volcanoes and hiked around on the trails. It was pretty awesome and Ada showed us just how grown up she is getting by knocking out the hikes with the speed and skill of parents (just with more stops to get the rocks out of her shoes). 

The volcano was cool. Really really cool.. but it isn't the adventure Ada asked me to write about. Nope. That event was the day before when we woke up early to catch the early departure for pairasailing!! 

When we showed Ada the pamphlet for parasailing she got very excited. She likes parachutes, and she likes boats, so the combo was heaven in her eyes. Still we were a little skeptical that she would actually have the guts to go once we got on the boat so we just bought her a ticket to ride on the boat knowing we could upgrade on board if she wanted to go up. 

The boat ride in itself was pretty cool. But when she saw Elliot go up in the parachute she could not contain her glee!! Ada had to be next! So we booked the upgrade, and Ada and I got suited up in our fancy straps/braces - Ada's was even PINK - and then shortly after Elliot landed, Ada and I were strapped in, sat down and then we were OFF!!! 

We took off so quick we didn't have time to even think about what was happening, evidenced by Ada's exclamation (full of pride) that "Mom! I didn't even have to close my eyes!!" 


So for the next 10-15 minutes Ada and I sailed high above the coast of Maui, taking in the beauty, talking about how grown up Ada was getting, and discussing what the heck we would do if the cord attaching the parachute to the boat was to break. (I assured her that I had a little experience sky diving and could probably do well enough to land us without too much damage). This was by far one of the cooler things I've done with Ada, and not just because we were doing something so cool as parasailing. Nope. It was because in that small moment of time we were totally alone. No work to distract, no toys to interfere, nothing. Just the two of us up there wondering about whatever came to mind and just sharing in our mutual respect for each other for being cool enough to try something like that. And then, at the end of the ride, they lowered our parachute down and dipped our toes in the water. Ada's squeal of joy and excitement summed up our ride. 

AWESOMENESS!! 

apple

There are often moments in our daily routine where it is pretty darn evident that Ada is definitely absorbing some of the environment in which she is being raised.

I have recently started doing an 8 week fitness program called INSANITY with a co-worker, and most of the days we workout at lunch but when that doesn't happen and on weekends I'm left to do the workout by myself. I'm OK with this, I'm a motivated individual, but it does make it easier when you have someone working out with you. Ada obviously picked up on this and for Mother's Day instead of flowers or chocolates, Ada gave me the gift of working out with me. It was cute, she did most of the exercises and kept me laughing the whole time. Since then Ada has been asking me every morning if she can do my workout with me.

Well this morning was one of the days where I was left on my own to do the workout. I somehow convinced Elliot to do the workout with me (he was very skeptical about doing something that implied that you might be a little bit insane to even contemplate completing - and I'm pretty sure he isn't going to sign up for the whole program anytime soon), and once Ada caught wind that there was going to be a workout in the house this morning she asked if she could be part of it. We told her she'd have to get up early if she wanted to participate and boy oh boy did she take that seriously.

As Elliot and I were grumbling about getting out of bed we heard the familiar 'pad pad pad' down the hallway. Our little munchkin was up and ready to go. She came into our room with a GIANT smile on her face and said without hesitation, "Come on, lets go workout".

Clearly, Ada is one apple that did not fall too far from the tree. 

promotion

Ada got her first promotion last night.

No she doesn't have a job, we aren't into child labor.. yet. No, Ada got her first promotion in gymnastics and she we could not be more proud.

I'm such a good mom that I didn't even realize what was happening when her teacher, Miss Kay, came over to give Ada her ribbon and qualification sheet indicating that Ada had crushed the 'Cricket' assessment and had moved on to the 'Super Crickets'.

Once I realized what was happening Miss Kay explained that it was really clear that Ada had been practicing (yay inner Tiger Mom) and that she was doing a much better job at focusing and listening during class.

Ada was pretty oblivious as to what was happening while we were at the gym but once we got home and I explained it to her she kept asking me over and over again what Miss Kay had said, and was particularly impressed that she got complimented for 'being a good listener'.

And then in a twist that even I didn't see coming Ada asked me to 'write a book about her getting her ribbon'. Which translated into - write a blog post about this and then she proceeded to dictate what I should write. So here you go, from Ada's mouth to your eyes:

"Ada did a very good job at Gyminny Kids, (make sure you tell them it was Gyminny Kids so they know it was gymnastics). I got a ribbon and Miss Kay said that I did a VERY good job. And that I practice a lot. And that I am a very good listener, and Kayla needs to pay attention more." 

For the record I told Ada that it wasn't very nice to say that about Kayla and it is pretty safe to say we still have some work to do in the modesty department, but I am glad that she gets to understand how good it feels to work hard for something and to get recognized for that hard work. 

ordering like a grown up

First off - apologizes for not posting recently - we went to Boston for the marathon where Elliot and Tia Jackie kicked butt but it also threw me out of writing whack. 


Now on to our regularly scheduled program...


About a week ago we went out to dinner at a restaurant in our new neighborhood. We've been to this establishment before and Ada has a standard order. When the waiter came to take our order, I did what I normally do - I ordered my meal and then Ada's meal. All pretty standard. The food came, we ate, and Ada earned her ice cream (our secret to good restaurant behavior). 


When the waiter came by to ask if we wanted anything else Elliot started to order the ice cream and when the waiter asked what type of ice cream we wanted Ada took over. She spoke clearly and politely and ordered herself some vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. It was very cute, and very grown up. 


But the best part was right after the waiter walked away - she turned to the table with the BIGGEST smile on her face and said with uncontrollable glee "I ordered my ice cream all by myself!!!!" 


And so begins a whole new type of firsts in our family. 

awareness

I've often been asked - how long will you write Adabeta? Basically, when do you stop broadcasting all of Ada's most embarrassing moments across the world wide web?

To be honest I have always had two alternatives in my head. 

1) When she figures out what I'm doing and politely asks me to stop, or yells that she hates me, stomps off to her room and slams her door with authority. I call this the 'When Ada asks me to' option.  

OR

2) When she gets old enough to know you only post funny non-incriminating stories on the web, I'd hand the blog over to her to continue on in her own voice. I call this the 'Only in my dreams' option. 

Well a couple of days ago Ada was sitting on my lap and I had this blog up on my browser and she asked me what I was reading. When I told her it was stories about her that Daddy and I had written she got VERY curious. And she asked for me to read her a story, and then another one, and then another one. 

For the record she was partial to the Natalie Sunshine post from a few days ago. If I had to guess, I'd say that isn't the last of good old Natalie.. 

I thought it was just a one time curiosity but then last night as we were hanging out before I ran off to class she asked me to read her a story, a story from my computer. And so we did, we read about Ada growing up. 

This has been so much fun for me. I will be honest - I usually throw my posts up, read them through once or twice to make sure it looks OK and then forget about it. But this week we have gone all the way back to the beginning and it has been so amazing to remember where my mind was 2 and 3 years ago, and even more amazing to remember what Ada was like, you know, back when she was 3! 

Bonus Points to anyone who got that last reference... you are truly a dedicated reader.

natalie sunshine

The other occupation that Ada seems to be drawn to is ROCKSTAR. 

One of her friends, probably one with an older sibling, taught Ada about Hanna Montana. And that little miss Montana was indeed a ROCKSTAR and therefore someone to be emulated. 

God help us now. 

Anyway, Ada has always been a little bit performance driven. She likes to move her body to music and thanks to a long standing family tradition, she also likes to make up her own songs. I didn't say we had a long standing tradition of making up GOOD songs, just songs. So we'll often find Ada singing through entire hours of her day. You combine the performance, and the inhibition towards song writing and BAM you get a little mini ROCKSTAR in training. 

Right around the time the whole Miley Cyrus (aka Hanna Montana) pot smoking story broke Ada seemed to amp up her desire to play ROCKSTAR, and in particular to be the one, the only, Hanna Montana. 

I'll admit it. 

I couldn't handle the image of my little angel pretending to be this person who was doing things that some would argue are way to adult for the real Hanna Montana to be doing, let alone a little 4 year old. I also didn't want to let Ada get away with just imitating art, especially not when she is so good at creating it... 

So we struck a deal.. 

Ada could play ROCKSTAR if she came up with her own moniker. After much deliberation and a few denied offerings from mommy, she came up with Natalie Sunshine. And so a star, or really a ROCKSTAR, was born. 

Behold... NATALIE SUUUUNNNNSHINE!!!!

 

career choices

It is decided.

Ada has decided what she wants to be when she grows up...

An Astronaut.

When Elliot first heard this he informed her that this meant lots and lots of school. First grade school, then high school, then university, then 'astronaut school'... And Ada has signed up for all of that.. she is dedicated. At least for this week.

There are a couple of factors at play here.

1. One of my co-workers who doubles as an airline pilot saw a barbie like doll dressed up like an Astronaut in an airport gift shop, roll-y bag and all, and bought it for Ada. Hey if a barbie doll can do it - so can Ada.

2. Ada's Papa bought Ada one of the coolest space books on the planet (he he). Ada spends hours and hours looking at the pictures in this book and requesting anyone around her to read it to her.

3. One of Elliot and Ada's favorite games to play is "Solar System" - where Elliot holds up a ball and pretends to be the sun and Ada holds a ball and runs around him pretending to be one of a variety of planets, her distance from Elliot determining which planet she is.

4. And finally - Ada's class spends at least a week a year talking about space. Looking at books, talking about the planets, and basically geeking out space style.

And there you have it. Ada wants to be an astronaut so she can take care of Space.  

a serious turn

Ada likes to get up as early as possible on weekends. 

And who doesn't really? Oh wait, mom and dad, that's who...

I digress...

Due to her early Saturday mornings, Ada has started to participate in a Saturday morning tradition older than time - Saturday morning cartoons. Only now that we have DVRs Ada doesn't get to watch whatever horrible cartoon happens to be on TV, she gets to watch whatever educational cartoon mom and dad have recorded.

So now each Saturday, the second a drop of sunlight hits her precious eye lids they fly open, she pads her way down the hallway to our room, and then one of us sleep walks down stairs to put on Word World, Dinosaur Train, or Dora and then sleep walks back up stairs to catch a few more zzzz's.

This weekend however, Elliot actually got up too because he had to get in a 21 mile training run before the heat set in. Luckily, they both let me snooze away and when I got up for good a little while later I decided to join Ada for some breakfast and cartoon watching. This week's choice was Word World and the episode was about Duck trying to perform on stage in front of all the other word animals but getting stage freight over and over again. But he kept trying, and trying, and trying until he finally managed to get out all the right words to 'Twinkle twinkle little star'.

At this point, I was getting ready to get up to really start my day when Ada turned to me with the most sincere serious voice I've ever heard come out of her little body and said "Mommy, it is very important that we never NEVER ever give up! We have to keep trying and trying and trying."

I'm pretty sure that Duck's trials and tribulations were not the first time Ada was exposed to this lesson, but I thought it was cute that she thought I might not have heard that one before and wanted to take this time to focus on this teachable moment.

Good thing, I'm not sure I would have figured that one out on my own... :) 

growing up

I know it was bound to happen. 


Ada getting older. 


Wiser. 


More mature. 


And I know she has a long long way to go, but every so often I have these moments where I realize, really really realize, that she is blossoming into an amazing little girl - no longer a toddler and most certainly not a baby. 


And I LOVE it. 


Don't get me wrong - I loved Ada as a baby, and as a toddler. Even when she was puking all over me and throwing her biggest tantrum of all time - probably more so in those moments. 


But I love watching her watch the world, try it on for size, make judgments for herself about what she likes and what she doesn't. It is fascinating and wonderful all at the same time. 


This morning Ada's favorite cartoon (Dinosaur Train) was wrapping up and everyone's favorite paleontologist was encouraging the kids to 'get outside and explore' I asked Ada if she was going to do some exploring today. 


'No'


'Why not?'


'I don't want to be a a paleontologist' (hello - that's a big word for a 4 year old)


'Why not?'


'There aren't any dinosaur's anymore'


'Well you could study old dinosaur fossils and bones' 


'Yeah, I don't want to do that' 


And there you have it - Ada's first career development conversation. I'm not sure she knows what she wants to do when she grows up, but she is definitely forming ideas as she navigates through life. 

leave button

Elliot and Ada have a variety of games that they play, each game fits into a theme. There is a tag theme, a hide and seek theme, a story theme, a doll theme, and a button theme. The button theme is one of the more creative variations of games they play - basically one of them will call out "X" button while pushing an imaginary button and then the other person has to adapt the game to whatever button was called out. This is usually used when they are pretending to be fighting aliens and they need a quick escape.

Well tonight I came home before heading to class and ruined Ada's plans to force Elliot into hour upon hours of GAMES. She was momentarily excited that she got to see me, but then she wanted me gone. I was able to joke around with her a little bit, I tricked her into a game of tag (yeah - I made HER play tag - how do you like them apples Elliot), I told her that she had to catch me to get me to go... even with my bum leg I should be faster than a 4 year old running around in tights on hard wood floors.

What I didn't account for was Ada's desire to get me out of the house. As I made the second trip into our home gym area about to head around the stationary bike Ada LAUNCHED herself at me in an attempt to lay me out in an open field tackle. (note to self, Ada might have watched TOO much NFL this past season). Lucky for me I'm wily and was able to elude her tackle, unlucky for Ada this meant she landed face first on the hard wood floor. Realizing what had just happened I picked up Ada and started giving her healing kisses to which Ada replied 'Kiss button'!!

This went on for a few seconds and then Ada started trying once again to convince me to leave a little early for class. When her best appeals fell on deaf ears she went into game mode, stuck out her little pointer finger and said 'Leave Button!!'

Ouch.

That was harsh.

But pretty darn clear. Ada loves her Daddy and really really enjoys their play time together. I am glad that Ada does not hold my class nights against me but I think we need to teach her a little bit of tact.

:)

looking out for the future

March 8th was International Women's Day. I'd never heard of it before the actual day and as an alumni of an elite women's college I was a little surprised about my ignorance. But boy was I inundated with notes and info about the day, it is apparently a big big deal overseas and I credit Facebook with my new awareness since most of the info I got was through my Facebook feed. I'm apparently friends with a lot of people who fight for women's rights and equality. Given that whole women's college thing not a huge surprise.

Well as a result of this new 'holiday' there have been a few articles about how women are doing in various industries, and I recently read this article talking about how women are stacking up in the business world.

**Warning, here is where I veer off of the 'how cute is Ada' track and jump on my soap box, I won't blame you if you stop reading now...**

A lot of the material was a repeat of stuff I've read over and over again. The focus of the article was around how women in the business world require flexibility to perform. I agree with this to some extent but I would argue that the flexibility can exist in your family life if it can't exist in the business world. Don't get me wrong, I think a flex schedule at work can work, but I've also seen it go horribly wrong at no fault of the woman wanting the flex schedule.

As I read the article I started to think about Ada and what a different world she knows from the one I knew, and WOW how totally different is her world from my mother's or my grandmother's. It also drove home that while my mother and grandmother's generations laid down the ground work for the opportunities I have in front of me, the work is not done. I think the challenges for my generation are not so much equality of opportunity or pay (although there is a bit of that left over) but it is about creating a new understanding of what a working woman/mother looks like in the business world. For so long it seems women have been trying to be like men. Makes sense, it was a familiar comparison point and the closer we could get to men the better we could be understood and evaluated. But here is the thing, we aren't men. We look at the business world differently, we interpret information differently, not better or worse, just different. I believe this difference is an important part of business today. It adds a dimension and an understanding to strategy that is very powerful. But it is only powerful if we respect it, don't try to shove it down and don't try to deny that it is there.

So that is my challenge to my generation of working women/moms - be proud of who you are and what you bring to the table, fight for balance in your life whether it is flexibility in the office or flexibility at home (or both), and visibly show how proud you are of both the work you do and the time you dedicate to your family.

I know I don't do all of these things all of the time. It is sometimes so much less stressful to take the easy route and ensure your boss that work comes first, or promise your partner that you are going to carve out time to focus on family. But the catch is, you can't be true to either of those promises unless you are 100% honest to all partners in your life. If you promise your boss that your work comes first you better have passed that by your spouse/partner otherwise you will feel stressed and guilty and will do a worse job because of it, and same with the promise to your family.

I never took women's issues so strongly when I was single, it is much easier to paint yourself in the image of the familiar masculine business person when you only have yourself to report to. But now, now that I have a little girl looking up to me and imitating everything I do, and a man that I have committed to sharing all of life's joys and burdens with I feel a lot more compelled to speak up. So in honor of International Women's Day (about a week late) - I'm jumping up on my soap box and calling out my generation.

Let's do this!

...all 6 of us reading this blog :)

exercise

As Elliot posted about a month ago, Ada has been forcing him to play tag most nights after she gets home from school. I've been spared this request because 1) I'm not there all the time, and 2) I'm hurt and as Ada says 'You can't run because you are hurt'.

Well last night was the first night of daylight savings time and in celebration Elliot took Ada to a park near our house. They took her big girl bike (without training wheels) and Ada sort of rode there and back, and she ran around the park a bit and played with some neighborhood kids when she got back home. All in all a nice evening in the lingering sunshine.

Elliot figured it was a nice break from the normal immediate onslaught of tag, but just a break, not a reprieve.

Ada saw it differently. It was in this moment that Ada's motivation for the game of tag came to light.

As they entered the house Ada declared 'I don't need to play tag tonight because I've already exercised!'

Wow.

Yes.

That's right, our little baby has already drilled into her mind that she should exercise every night. I know that my drive for exercise comes from a very similar place. I learned to love the feeling of working out at a young age (although not as young as Ada), and it is the memory of this feeling that drives me to stay in shape and get back into shape when I've lagged for a bit (or been pregnant or injured). I can't tell you how amazed (and happy) I am that Ada has made this connection to exercise.

I'm sure there is a percentage of you that think I'm crazy for being so happy that Ada already has this affinity for exercise, but in a society dominated by childhood obesity and other unhealthy habits, I'm pretty darn happy that simply through example Ada already has a grasp on living healthy.

Now, if I could get her to stop asking for Mac-n-Cheese every night I might be on to something.

stats

I recently discovered that I can see stats about the number of people viewing this blog and very general information about where they are viewing from (basically what country they hail from). And boy oh boy - what a surprise! I had always assumed that most of my readers are family and friends and, yes, most are from the good old USA and Canada.

Not so expected - we also have readers from Japan, China, Brazil (or as Ada says, 'Baby Canada'), the UK, and a variety of other European countries with a few views from India and Iran thrown in to boot!

For those of you out there from other locales - welcome! I would have said it earlier if I'd known you were there.

And for my family and friends that read consistently - thanks for your years (!) of loyalty and patience - even through my bouts of writer's block and absence when life just gets too busy.

Feel free to sound off in the comments - I do read them and they help motivate me to write more frequently.

enforcer

One of the features of our new house is that Ada can hear the garage door opening from her bedroom. This means she knows exactly when I come home from class. I have also convinced her that she better be in bed when I get home or ?? Who really knows.

A few weeks ago I knew Elliot was having a long week and Ada had been testing her boundaries with him a bit while I was at class. That morning I told Ada she better behave for her daddy that night because he was tired (something she would understand) and that she better be in bed before I got home. That one little heart to heart was apparently written in blood and sealed with a kiss because it is now the LAW in our house.

Fast forward to a few nights ago. Elliot is doing his best to get our little lolligager to put her clothes in the laundry room and head up to bed. Ada was pulling her - "I'm to scared to walk down the hall routine" and had already gone a few rounds with Elliot when the grumble of the garage door started to rumble the back side of our house.

As fast as she could Ada sprinted to the laundry room, violently threw her clothes in the existing pile, turned on a dime and shot herself into her room and up her ladder into her bed. Record time, no fussing, and no additional cajoling from Elliot was needed.

By the time I had gathered my bags from the car and headed into the house, Elliot was down in the kitchen waiting for me and Ada was cuddled up in her bed pretending to sleep.

Elliot is now going to start carrying a spare garage door opener in his pocket for 'special' occasions.

shopaholic

I'm a busy busy mom. I work full time. I go to school. I try to exercise when I can. And on top of it all, deep down I am a woman. I like shopping. I don't really like the trying on of stuff, but I do enjoy a nice session of window shopping. Since I don't really have any leisure time to wander around malls or through shopping districts I have turned to the web to do my window shopping. Let's face it, the web is sort of a mecca for window shoppers. If only someone could invent a way to feel texture through the web and provide the essence of relaxing, the experience would be just about perfect.

This little habit is pretty safe when shopping for stuff for me. See, women's clothing, shoes, jewelry, and accessories are pretty expensive, or at least they are usually priced over my strike price.

Enter a discount site for designer labels, a unique collection of little girl dresses priced like little girl dresses should be, and mini-fashionista at home that wears nothing but dresses and I'll admit it - I've occasionally crossed that line into purchasing. Now, I'm smart, I know Ada's preferences in dresses, I buy dresses two sizes too big so she can wear them as ankle length dresses, mid calf dresses, and cute - just above the knee dresses. And when all is said and done, we get a good 2 years out of these articles of clothing. But apparently Ada has had enough. For now.

She informed me this weekend that I was, under no circumstances, to order her any more dresses. (To the 16 year old version of Ada who is just dying because I won't buy her that $200 dress for prom and is reading this on my directive - I told you so!)

I'm still not 100% convinced she doesn't want any more dresses. I'm thinking she decided that this might be a good way to break her disdain for my fashion sense to me gently.

weekend snuggles

I've talked a bit about how weekends are full of special Ada/Mommy time. We hang out together, do our homework together, go to the park, etc..

This weekend was rainy in San Diego. And cold. (stop laughing) So we spent a lot of time inside doing inside things.

One of the many things we did was subject Ada to the latest SDSU basketball game. This is quite a season for SDSU and since Elliot graduated from there and I'm currently attending we felt a little pull to watch. So we recorded the game (Ada had skating class during the live broadcast), and Ada, bless her heart, spent the whole game cheering for BYU - she apparently likes winners.

After the game, we had all sorts of intentions of productivity. Instead we took a nap. A three hour nap. All of us. Elliot on the recliner, Ada and I on the couch.

Yes. You read that correctly. Our anti-snuggle munch-kin who will normally put up with a maximum of 3 - 4 minutes of close snuggling before physically removing herself from the situation. Watched me fall asleep, found a comfy position, and snuggled in for the duration. I woke up to her arms and legs draped warmly over me, like I was one giant stuffed animal.

I'm not sure why Ada overlooked her long standing cuddling policy but I for one was grateful. Even if it meant I had warm goldfish breath in my face until she woke up.

beautiful day

The weather around here has been uncharacteristically cold lately, you know, sort of like a normal winter around the rest of the country. We had rain yesterday, not just rain, but HARD rain. And not just rain but small bits of hail here and there, and even reports of SNOW in the outer reaches of the county. Ada is very fascinated by this new weather. She likes to talk about. A LOT.

In fact, she has been telling us that the rain and the cold are here because it is winter, and that our normal weather is what she likes to call Summer Winter. (Really, she said those exact words.)

Makes sense.

The rain lasted a whole day and now we are back to beautiful sunshine, only it is still cold outside. Deciding that we were brave enough to face some chilly air we decided to walk to breakfast this morning. Ada usually ebbs and flows from walking behind us to sprinting past us in exhilaration. At one point as Ada was exploring the nature behind us, Ada very matter of factly stated:

"Today is a beautiful day. Except. It is really cold."

We are definitely raising a little Southern California girl.