This is such a fun age. Every day I get to see new pieces of her personality emerge or new skills acquired. There’s so much I want to remember.
I love watching Ada pretend. She was given a bucket and sand shovel as a party favor on Memorial Day Weekend (and then got another one from her grandmother) and now she loves to pretend she’s feeding her stuffed animals. We call it “soup” and she will lovingly scoop from the bucket and feed any animal we mention looks hungry.
She knows so many animal sounds, including holding her arm up like an elephant trunk or hopping when we ask what frogs say. If faced with uncertainty about a particular animal, she will answer “woof, woof!” with confidence.
Her favorite song is “Wheels on the Bus” and she will insist “bus! bus! bus!” until you acquiesce. She knows the hand motions to most standard verses, but her favorite is one we made up (“The Odies on the bus go meow, meow, meow!”) and she will meow to let you know that verse should come next.
We spend as much time as possible outside. Ada loves the water, so she and I are on a mission to test out splash pads throughout the city (current favorites are Maggie Daley and Weisman). We also play with the hose in the side yard of our building. This week her school is starting Water Wednesdays and I think Ada is going to be beside herself when she gets to take her swimsuit with her in the morning.
I love to watch her explore outside and I try to step back a little and let her try to conquer playground equipment (which led to a teeny fall a few weeks ago and left me questioning my parenting prowess). Ada is fearless. She took on the tall, curly slide last weekend without batting an eye.
If there’s a ball in the park, she will find it. I’m not sure if this is indication of some early athletic ability – which, to be clear, was not inherited from me – but the girl’s got a decent arm.
Ada is such a sweet kid and is always trying to share the things she loves. I spent a large part of last night curled up on her floor trying to coax her to give in to slumber and she passed me her beloved pink bear to cuddle. She tries to jam pacifiers in her stuffed animals mouths and was almost successful in sharing an applesauce pouch with the cat.
Cheese is her favorite food and she will ask for more whenever it is present. Her first full sentence was “more cheese, please!” (so polite!). Her palate impresses me – goat and sheep cheese are consumed with the same enthusiasm as cheddar.
Ada loves her books. We spend a lot of time with her in our lap reading from her collection of favorites. She will happily point out any animals in the story – whether or not said animals are pertinent to the plot – and tell you what they say. Ada loves to hand out books so that no one is empty-handed, even if they are not the ones currently reading to her.
Sometimes I look at Ada and I’m just blown away. My little baby is becoming a little girl and it is so much fun. We have some struggles, for sure (e.g., aforementioned bedtime battles in which I’m sure I’m doing everything wrong and a general refusal to acknowledge when the cat needs alone-time), but the joy (and the naps!) fill me up.