cousins

One of the reasons why Elliot and I moved to San Diego was that we wanted our children to grow up around some of our family. Of course we didn't have any children at the time but in theory, that is what we wanted.

Now that Ada and her cousins are old enough to recognize each other and play together, I really believe this is one of the best decisions we have made. Ada and her cousin Taylor hang out on the sidelines of soccer games weekly. They get to see each other every Friday night and every Sunday morning. They are both walking and babbling and have really started to notice each other. Whatever Taylor is doing, Ada wants to do; and whatever Ada is doing, Taylor wants to do. They are not gentle with each other either. In a world where everyone handles them with kid gloves, because they are, well, kids - it must be refreshing for them to be able to tumble around with someone their own size.

Ada also gets to see her older cousins Maia (3 yrs old) and Eric (only 4 months older than Ada) every Monday night. Ada has always been a lot more cautious at Maia and Eric's house than with Taylor and I figured it was because the kids were a bit bigger or the play rougher. It also seems to fit her personality more - observing and thinking rather than just taking action. Last week Ada very timidly started to play with Eric and Maia. This week, she jumped in with both feet. She seems to be really interested in both of her older cousins but in different ways. She likes to follow Eric around, getting into whatever mess he is in, following him around getting in his way. Her interactions with Eric are very similar to those with Taylor - more rough than you might expect from our little observer. With Maia, Ada approaches things much more carefully. She will examine what Maia is working on, will watch her and slowly try to integrate herself into the activity.

I have been lucky to be able to just sit back and watch a lot of this cousin interaction. The look of pure joy on Ada's face as she romped around with Eric last night was just infectious. I love that Ada is getting the benefit of a large family, especially since I didn't have to go through pregnancy and labor 4 times to give it to her. :)

communication

Ada's daycare is attempting to teach her baby sign language. We have picked up a few key signs we are using at home to try to create some consistency. One of these signs is the sign for milk. You basically open and close your hand like you are milking a cow with your thumb at the top of your hand. So for the last few weeks we have been asking Ada if she wants milk and making the sign for milk, feeling sort of like an idiot as she just stared at us like - what are you doing with your hand. Then we noticed that Ada was waving wildly at us at certain times of the day. Wow, we thought, she is really getting the hang of waving Hi to us. How cute. Then one day it dawned on me. If I turn my hand 90 degrees and make the sign for milk it looks an awful lot like waving Hi. Since we made this discovery and Ada has realized we made this discovery she has become quite adamant about her milk requests. Yesterday morning she asked for milk so I fixed a bottle, and while it was warming up I did a few things in the kitchen and Ada played away in the living room. When I walked out to the living room without a bottle of milk she turned and looked at me and did her milk sign WITH BOTH HANDS. The look on her face said. "Where is my milk? Don't even think of coming out here without any milk!" Let's hope she gets less demanding of her wait-staff as she gets older. Otherwise, I'm guessing she will eat one to many meals containing the saliva of her waitress, purposely placed between the bun and the patty.

sleeping in

I used to be a morning person, able to wake up at 5:30 AM to get a workout in before my day started. I even had Elliot rising early during the final months of my pregnancy because it was too hot by 7 AM to go for a run, but the year of waking up several times during the night has broken me of that habit. Before Ada arrived I had all of these notions about how I wouldn't be afraid to let my baby "cry it out" (CIO) if they weren't one of the angelic babies who sleep through the night at 3 months all on their own. Funny how having the actual baby in your house can change things. Not to say that we didn't try, but Ada is what we like to call stubborn.

As we hit Ada's one year birthday without her sleeping through the night I figured we might have to pull out the CIO card. Elliot and I were zombies during the week, and it was obviously affecting Ada as well as she would sleep in until 8 or 9 AM if we let her. Which was a nice little treat for us on the weekends but sort of a pain on week days. I was anticipating horrible nights of long crying stretches and a bleary eyed family for a few weeks. So far we seem to be doing Ok. The first few nights she woke up once, cried for maybe 5 minutes and then gave up and went back to sleep. The last two nights she has actually slept through the night, waking at 6 AM. It is more like a popping awake. She will be sleeping soundly one minute and then POP her eyes open and she is ready to start her day. Up until this week Ada and I had a nice thing going, Elliot would get up to shower and we would sleep in. Those days are now distant memories. Ada, feeling refreshed does not want to waste one drop of a day by sleeping in. I try, but she pulls my hair, grabs my nose, forces her fingers in my mouth, anything she can think of to wake me up. I usually last about 5 minutes, but I'm taking note of all of her techniques. I plan on using each and every one of them when she hits her teen years and refuses to wake up in the morning.

what separation anxiety

I think Ada has moved past the whole separation anxiety thing. Yesterday when Elliot dropped off Ada she was a little clingy until she spotted her BFF Reese across the room. She dragged Elliot to the play area gate and anxiously waited for him to open the gate so she could get to Reese and PLAY. This morning was more of the same. Clingy until she spotted her BFF and then she was all about getting into the play area so she could start.having.fun. This makes the whole drop off process much easier, and for that I am extremely grateful. It does make me realize how fast she is growing up. I expect next week she'll start asking us to drop her off at the corner.

saturday night fever

I have always been a closet singer. I sing in my car, I sing in the shower, I sing in my head while I run; usually off key, and usually either my own made up song or made up words to popular songs. So it isn't really all that surprising that I now sing about and to Ada, a lot. What is surprising is that Ada seems to naturally know how to dance. Her currrent favorite is the tune B-I-N-G-O and Bingo was his name-o. If I start singing anything to that tune she will start to clap and move her little body. Even in the car. Yes, she is one year old and she is already a car dancer. Another current favorite is the Frère Jacques tune. I started singing my own version of this last night and Ada started shakin' her little booty, like she was born to dance. Super cute. She definitely has a future of night club dancing ahead of her. When she is 35.

hi

Ada doesn't do a whole lot of surprising things. Or maybe I'm so used to expecting the unexpected that nothing she does seems all that surprising any more. Today, that all changed.

Ada has been babbling up a storm, lots of bubububububs and dadadadads and tttttttttts, but to date, nothing that doesn't sound like it is coming out of the mouth of a one year old. This morning, we walked into her classroom, she took a quick look around and then out of her mouth popped, "Hi". Firm and crisp, and with a little bit of attitude.

I had to look back at her to make sure she hadn't turned 13 while I was signing her in.

p.s.

We decided to pop open Ada's tunnel at home now that she has shown love to the daycare tunnel. She seemed like she might be warming up to it until Elliot decided to put his head in one end and lift the tunnel up like an elephant's trunk. That sent Ada running for cover. I guess she figured the tunnel at home actually DOES eat people.