Oh man, I love this age. There’s so much I want to capture and hold on to.
Ada’s evenings are spent reading books, playing with stickers, singing, and feeding her stuffed animals “soup” using a plastic bucket and sand shovel intended for the beach. Her budding creativity is my favorite – I love watching her line up her animals and have them make slurping noises as she feeds them. She also makes boats and trains out of empty boxes and gives the animals rides around the living room.
“Sticker? Sticker?” is a common request. We got started on stickers because she was less likely to eat them (something that cannot be said for crayons) and now she’s hooked. She used to decorate anything she could find but now the stickers are mostly contained to her sketchbook. Her grandmother got her puppy stickers and there was much consternation when those were all gone and she had to revert back to the boring shapes I’d gotten her on Amazon. Alas.
At school, whenever someone is hurt, they get an ice pack. At home, Ada loves to replicate this using her frozen teethers to ice her various pretend “injuries”. She will ask for “ice!” and you have to open the freezer to let her pull out all four teething toys. She gets an almost gleeful look in her eye when she trips or bumps into something because she knows she gets to ice it down.
She told the cat, “bless you!” after he sneezed the other day and I nearly died.
She loves to be helpful around the house. We keep shoes in a basket by the door, and Ada is always quick to put her shoes away. She tries to put her cups in the sink (it’s still a bit of a reach), brings Odie his toys, and throws things in the hamper with glee. The things she throws in the hamper aren’t always clothes, but I appreciate the effort.
On weekends, we spend as much time as possible outside. Ada loves the water, so we visit a rotation of nearby splash pads. I love exploring the city with her and seeing it with new eyes.
We have this goofy little game where one of us will put something on our head (usually the plastic sand bucket when it’s not being used to feed animals “soup”) and pretend to sneeze and cause it to fall off. To Ada, nothing is funnier. She will mimic it herself or make her stuffed animals sneeze off their hats and just shriek with glee.
The current favorite food is hummus. It’s so beloved that Ada will bring us her diaper cream (which comes in a small tub) and say “mummus? mummus?” because she’s convinced that’s what’s inside and she doesn’t want to miss out. The kid can also put away an entire pint of blueberries solo.
She does yoga – specifically poses we call “frog” (seated on her knees, hands on the ground), “starfish” (jumping in the air – not quite yoga I suppose but it’s practically mandatory after “frog”), and “scorpion” (similar to actual scorpion if you kept one knee on the ground). We get pictures of her doing yoga at school – mostly downward-facing dog – with one of her friends. I hope to foster more toddler yoga as she grows!
She loves her dad and always searches for him when we get home from school. She lights up when she hears his keys in the door. He is required to sit with her at dinner time or when she’s showing off her tricks in the bathtub.
I love that goofy kid.