Easter "hot dogs"

For some silly reason, Adelaide calls all forms of candy "hot dogs". This has origin in the similar appearance of a wrapped caramel to a little plastic hot dog in her grandparents toy kitchen set. One of the few limits she has not bothered to challenge in the past few months is the restrictions on eating "hot dogs". She has learned (and we haven't corrected her), that Dad, and occasionally Mom, Grandma, or Papop eat "hot dogs", and Adelaide does not. Last weekend's Easter candy extravaganza afforded many opportunities to reinforce these notions. Adelaide loves to find "hot dogs", sort them, unwrap them, and deliver them to anyone whose mouth is in reach. At Easter brunch, she diligently opened every piece of candy she could find and hand delivered them to everyone in attendance. With no discouragement whatsoever, she never put one in her mouth but delighted in offering them to us; "Marissa want hot dog?". If she ever gets curious enough to taste them, she may discover that "hot dogs" are better eaten than shared, but so far it's our secret! Or perhaps one day she'll try real hot dog, and then we'll really be in trouble!

Adelaide turned two last week. This is a huge milestone as I no longer have to measure her life in months; now she's just TWO. Appropriately, her favorite new phrase is: "I'm a kid! Not much baby, no!" In celebration of her birthday we spent a few lovely hours at Grandma Mary's farm: chasing chickens, gathering eggs (Adelaide was so excited to throw the eggs into the bucket), holding the baby lambs and bunny, watching baby chicks, feeding the llama, playing in the hay loft, and riding on the tractor (after a few rounds in the tractor trailer, I asked Ada if she wanted to drive with Grandpa: "No. Ada drive by self."). It was a lovely time to spend together and such a great celebration of her life.

This past year has brought as many changes and developments as the year before, but much more settling as well. She's now a truly integrated part of our little family, and she's growing into all that personality. My favorite moments are when the three of us play on the floor together and Adelaide's favorite "family hug". On the rare occasions that Joe and I have a chance to be alone together (as wonderful as those moments are), I feel as though a small part of our relationship is missing. People said that I would forget what life was like before she was around, and that definitely has not happened (I remember my pre-baby independence all too well!). But I have forgotten how our marriage used to be when there were only 2 in the family, and I am already starting to wonder what it'll be like when she doesn't need us anymore -- if I'll adjust or if I'll always feel incomplete when she's away. Spending so many hours apart this year (as a result of my crazy residency schedule) has taught us to take full advantage of the smallest moments together. I hope that, as our lives get 'easier' over the next few years, we don't lose the ability to appreciate each other and enjoy the simple times we have together. Moving into her 3rd year of life, I am still so thrilled to be able to witness her development and to be learning together through the challenges.

Mastering Temporal Relationships

Ms. Adelaide is quite an organized little girl. Dirty clothes go in the hamper; books belong on the bookshelf; and the milk goes back in the fridge after you pour a glass. Lately she has mastered the concept of "time" (at a really young age, I think) and she loves to review the organization of time. Her conversations are full of "yhess-a-day" (yesterday) and "ta-marrow" (tomorrow). Of course, she doesn't realize the either of those are discrete time frames. Rather, "yesterday" represents all that has happened before the last time she was asleep, as far back as she can remember, up until just before she took a nap. And "tomorrow" represents all that is in the future. Interestingly, she's also figured out that "next time" means something may come again, though it's not clearly scheduled.

This comes up often in reference to cats. We have several friends with cats whose homes Adelaide loves to visit. So whenever we see a cat - a neighborhood cat out the window, or in our many cat books - she reviews the possibilities. Her monologue goes something like this: "a cat! Ada go Tia's house, see cat hiding!" or "Ken, Andy cat today!" or "This cat name Mike ... yesterday go Crystal's house, see Mike!" or "Eduardo cat ... next time see cat." She has many favorite cats, all over town, that we don't see nearly often enough for her liking. But they do provide a good conversation piece!

Christmas conversations

Adelaide's spoken language is finally catching up with her extensive receptive vocabulary, and she is so excited about it! In a matter of literally two weeks, she has figured out sentence construction, and she loves to show it off. These days she narrates constantly in choppy word strings: "What grandma doing? ... Ada do. it." "Ada go OMSI ... stamp hand ... two stamps!" "Dad hide ... Ada find. you" always full of animation. Yesterday when I came home she said, "Mama, Ada. missed. you. today." What a breakthrough!

It's so much fun to watch her delight in easily articulating the things that she's previously had to work so hard to convey to us. And how perfect that's she's figured out her language skills at Christmastime, when there are so many new things to do and see. This will definitely be a Christmas to talk about for a long time!

Advent Elf

We started a new family tradition: an advent elf. This very charming elfin friend has a pocket for each day of Advent, with little daily treats stashed inside. Adelaide has loved meeting the elf (she talks to him everyday!) and although it's been a challenge to learn that we only get to explore one pocket per day, he's been a really fun introduction to the Christmas season.

Adelaide has only recently learned about "new-new" things and the excitement of getting presents. While I have all of these great ideas about teaching her the "true" Christmas message (vs promoting materialism), the truth is, it's really fun to see her little face light up as she stomps her feet in anticipation of a surprise toy or treat. I am realizing that it may be more challenging than I ever considered for me to restrain from showering her with gifts when it's so fun to see her enjoyment. This will be the first (and probably easiest) year that we struggle with this balance. Yet another example of how I have in mind a lesson for her that in so many ways turns out to be a bigger lesson for myself.

Where is everyone?

Now that she is really talking, it has become very evident to me what a challenge my/our crazy schedule poses for Adelaide. She clearly prefers to have everyone home together, or even better, to go out on adventures together. On the flip side, she has a constant level of concern about which of us might leave at any moment. Multiple times every day, especially on weekends, she askes "Mom go?" and shakes her head, "home" ... "Dad home? Go? Ada go?" We review who is staying home and who is "going" and whether they are going to work (us) or to school (her). If anything changes, especially if anyone puts on shoes or changes clothes, we go through it again, "Dad go?" (shaking head), "home"; "Ada?". I've been working lots of night shifts, so her evening time radar is high. If I get up from the dinner table without warning, she says, "Mom work? No. Home." It must be so confusing for her that every day is different, without a pattern. She gets picked up and dropped off by 3 different people, at different times every day, by bike trailer if I take her and otherwise by car, and I can see her little brain trying to so hard to make sense of the pattern, to find regularity in the chaos. Welcome to my life, Adelaide, the only consistency is inconsistency! It won't be too long until she can read a calendar, and then we'll have to get her one of her own so she can keep tabs on who goes where and when. Until then, we'll just keep up the dialogue. Dad home. Ada home. Mom go.

still an eater!

It's been a good food month. This weekend, to celebrate Grandma's birthday, we went to a fancy seafood buffet on the waterfront. Kids eat free, although they are reconsidering that policy after Adelaide put on her show. She bypassed the "kid's table" (jello and french toast sticks - who needs that??) and literally ate her weight in fresh shrimp and Dungeness crab meat. Of course she had a fair sampling of mussels, lox with capers, and the cheese and fruit platter. You just can't be picky when there's so much variety! She charmed all the servers with a huge grin as she patiently ate and ate ... and ate for 2 hours straight! No wonder her belly is so huge! But Ada is learning that you get your food fastest if you peel it yourself. Here she is, looking proud after learning how to peel her first orange. This of course can be a mixed blessing when she climbs up to the counter and peels all of the oranges in sight. Fortunately, she's been willing to share the goods.