Sit Up Straight, You!

Ada's in a funny transition right now. She's still pretty small -- not yet 12 lbs -- but is starting to get a lot more muscle control. She can hold her head up, sit up straight (with support) and will sort of stand up if you support her. It's amazing to watch her take control over her body and make actual voluntary gestures, like turning and reaching. She takes these things very seriously, as you can see in her pensive gaze below:

Stroller Derby

This weekend we took Ada to meet Stamos, the son of our friends Christos and Elena. Stamos was very enthusiastic about Ada but she pretended not to notice him... or maybe she's just a baby and so doesn't really interact with anyone yet. Argh! The tempation to make some totally-not-funny joke about playing hard to get with the boys was almost irresistible. Why do we think it's funny to pretend babies are grownups?

Finally!

Finally back in action! Here's Ada in her mini-spacesuit I mentioned a few days ago:


It's hard to see what I'm talking about in the picture but take my word for it that it looks like something Woody Allen wore in Sleeper.

Still Broken

Hi, Folks. It looks like blogger is still having image upload problems. Hopefully they'll resolve this quickly! Grrr! In the meantime, I can upload videos, so here's a new one. Here Ada's smiling demurely, raising her eyebrow and sticking out her tongue. Oh, the excitement!

Please Stand By

It looks like blogspot is having some trouble at the moment -- I can't post pictures. Hmmm. Anyway, I was going to post a picture of Ada in a white jump suit with little feet that made me ponder wardrobe choices for sci-fi movies. Have you ever noticed that costume designers suggest "it's the future" by putting their characters in white jumpsuits... just like babies! Do you think that that says something optimistic about how sweet and innocent we'll all be in the future. We won't even need separates!

Anyway, the picture is super-cute -- I'll post it when I can.

More Cuddliness

Another addition to our arsenal of warm stuff -- this fleece bundle-y thing is super cozy. I put it on her car seat this morning and she looked so incredibly cute I had to snap a picture or twenty. There's a sort of sleigh ride on the Russian steppes feeling to the car seat now. Considering that it's about 60 degrees outside, perhaps it's overkill?

She's really doing so well these days. She wakes up smiling and stays pretty cheerful most of the day. She does get fussy but it's almost always something pretty obvious -- "feed me!" or "I'm tired!" She's got simple needs. Lucky us. I can't wait for her to start talking but I also know that that means that she'll be upset about much more complicated things -- things that I will be much less able to solve. "The girl in my class is mean to me" or "I hate algebra" -- a whole world of angst to look forward to. It's actually a really good thing that they start out being so straightforward... it's sort of like jazz -- you only improvise once you've got the basic tune down perfectly. Her simple needs give you time to learn the basic tune before you have to get all fancy.

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

Where's the baby? I can't see her any where!

Oh! There's the baby!!!

Exceedingly cute post-bath attire courtesy of some very cool friends. Thanks, Zoulases!

I feel that I may have now mostly redeemed myself for my negligence over the past week. In fact, I think these photos alone may have done it. So re-donk!

More, More, More

Here's another video of Ada playing with her favorite toy... and sticking out her tongue a lot. It just occurred to me that I should probably take future videos of her in a seat other than her bouncy chair, since she tends to bounce a lot... I'm just learning here -- it will get better... I promise!

Ada In Motion

This is a little slice of what life with Ada is like... she's so incredibly expressive that I mostly spend the time giggling. In this video she does her new trick -- the one where she gags herself on her hand because she's so excited to have found it!



(note: to see the video, click on the little "play" button beneath the photo)

Where The *&*^%# Have You Been?

... I'm sure you're all asking. Very sorry for the long delay. My only excuse is that I'm heading back to work next week and I'm trying to practice being away from Ada. I know it sounds ridiculous but it's actually very difficult. Thor and I went on a lovely hike with his dad (see below), I've been to a yoga class and have done a little shopping... and the bottom line is that it's hard to be away from her.
No matter how lovely the setting I'm in , I'm still totally preoccupied with how she is and what she's up to. It was a beautiful hike though -- most of the way down the Shawangunk ridge, in the most brilliant Fall colors I've ever seen.

I'm going to make up for my long absence by posting a bunch of stuff today... stay tuned!

Conversations

Ada and I have been having lots of long conversations. She doesn't really know what I mean and I don't really know what she means but some how we communicate. Here she is telling me all about her day, monosyllabically.... La la la da da da.


Exactly.

Learning From Experience

The great thing about having a kid is that you start to feel progressively more competent as time passes. I'm sure that that feeling will slowly start to erode once Ada can talk, but for the time being, it's nice to not feel totally overwhelmed all the time. Today we had Ada's 4 month vaccinations and it made me think about how horrified we were by her reaction to them last time. This time we were prepared with the tylenol and the plans for a quiet day at home afterwards. I also had the pacifier at the ready, rather than having to scramble for it as she shrieked.

Here she is at home afterwards, sleeping beautifully, and getting some much needed tummy time as well.


Of course, it could be that it's a million times easier this time because she's not throwing up every 5 minutes... hmmm.

Bring On The Snow

Thor thinks I'm unnecessarily hysterical about most things Ada-related, and he's probably right. Luckily he doesn't read this blog so he'll never know I admitted that. In any case, my recent hysteria has been related to the fact that it's getting cold (see previous posts)... and Ada's wardrobe is almost all summer-weight... or rather, it was. We just acquired this deliciously toasty patagonia bundle-y thing. Ada's a little lost in it but I'm hoping it lasts the whole winter so that's probably a good thing.


We tested it out on Sunday during a windy walk in the park. It worked beautifully -- Ada slept the whole way. Oh, coziness!

(note: as you might have guessed, these photos weren't taken with my laptop camera, but since they're my rules, I guess it's ok to break them.)

OK, Fine... One More, Since You've Been So Patient

So cozy all we need is a snowstorm and some hot chocolate!

Cold Enough For Ya?

"Can you believe the air out there? It's like the coldness of my refrigerator! I'm not sure I'm going to like this whole winter thing!"


Yes, it's true... it's getting slightly chilly. A perfect excuse to start bundling our little bundle up in all sorts of cuddly things. Fun!

Peaceful Slumbers

Phew! That was hard work! We've been having a terrible time trying to find someone to care for Ada while I'm at work . I'm going back to work on October 29th and procrastinated finding a sitter to the point where it was keeping me up at night. I've talked with dozens of people, met several in person... and we've finally found the one. After two unsolicited recommendations, I finally called Risoris, who works for another family in the building (they're moving away). We liked her when we talked with her and decided to invite her to spend a day with us. After spending 5 hours with her, we're all in love. She'll be starting to take care of Ada towards the end of next week.

Thanks to Risoris, Ada has eaten more in the past 5 hours than she did in the previous 24. She's taken some real deep naps and when she was awake, gazed adoringly at Risoris. She just left -- and this is what Ada looks like now:

She's relieved, I'm relieved, Thor's relieved. Maybe we should all go take a nap!

(on a sidenote: check out the awesome sweater romper thing she's wearing, courtesy of my Dad and Jean. Thanks, guys!)

Double Take

Ada and I were hanging out, being mellow...


When in walks Thor...


who proceeds to completely blow Ada's mind...



And then completely horrify her.

Honestly, I don't think Thor was actually doing anything all that amazing. It's almost as though Ada woke up this morning and went, "whoa, this is one crazy place I'm living in."

Deeeep Focus

Ada and I absconded from Thor's Parents' house with this amazing toy. She's mesmerized by it, and at its size, it's a full body experience for her. I've had to disentangle her arms and legs from it several times. Luckily it's soft and squishy.


How amazingly cool to see her interact with things... and with us. She's been doing things like singing back when you sing to her. She's a little liberal with the actual lyrics but really participates in the singing. One thing I've learned (as you can tell from this blog): the sillier you are, the more she likes it. Maybe it's the secret plan of babies - to come to earth and make all the adults start to take themselves a little less seriously.

Feeling Much Better

After my post yesterday about Ada being enraged all the time, it seems she's decided to mellow out a bit. She's actually consented to pose beautifully for several pictures today, looking more like herself... so serene and lovely. I've been thinking a lot of people who have babies with colic recently, and I honestly can't imagine how they do it. Ada's been pretty cranky lately but no where near the non-stop crying one hears about. I can't imagine going through nine months of pregnancy only to be faced with inconsolable crying for the first three months. It's got to be horrifying. To those people who've been reading this blog and feeling slightly bitter about all the comments referring to Ada's placid nature, I sincerely ap0logize.


A sidenote: she's actually wearing a dark brown shirt -- not black. We're not forcing the goth on her too, too often...

Binary Ada

These days it seems like Ada has two states: enraged or asleep. I keep trying to take pictures of her in funny or fetching little get-ups and keep getting thwarted.

In the enraged category, we have Ada unhappily modeling an extremely cute hat made by my Aunt Catherine (Thanks, Catherine!)...

and here, modelling a bib that does indeed say "I heart Mommy" -- purchased for Ada by Thor. Very sweet and silly, especially since in this picture, she definitely doesn't look like she hearts anyone!

In the Asleep category, we have Ada in this cute pumpkin bib, riotously celebrating Fall...

...and in her oh so chic little black onesie...


Sigh.

Just Hanging Out

I know I've been slightly remiss in posting pictures. The thing is that Ada seems to get really fussy every time I start to take her picture. This morning I finally got her in a mellow mood, gazing quizzically at her Dad. The world is clearly a strange, strange place.

Swingin'

Ada loves the swing sooo much. Look at her little forest friends flittering around her head -- can she ever , ever get enough?





No, I don't think so.

She's been a lot more, ummm, vociferous lately. Sometimes she's even been downright fussy! No matter how grumpy she gets, she can always be soothed by her little swing. So, so nice.
(note: I just added this last photo -- too presh to miss.)

What Is Wrong With You People?

Ada's been communicating a lot more... not with words necessarily, but with a whole new range of expressions. I think this one means, "Oh. My. God. You people are so incredibly strange. All that singing and clapping! I don't even like yodeling! Ugh!"


Notice the expressiveness of the eyebrows -- you can see where she takes after her Auntie Kirin...

Bad Mommy

"Bad Mommy! You let two whole days (and several scintillatingly cute outfits) go by without any posts! I'm so ashamed of you!"


Terribly sorry, folks! We did have an incredibly exciting weekend filled with walks, naps, milk, more naps and oh yeah, more milk.

On a totally different note, I've been thinking about something. It's strange -- people always say that babies smell good and it's true... Ada smells really good and homey, and I've figured out why: she smells like gourmet (natch) macaroni and cheese. Is that weird? I think it's a delicious smell. Honestly, I don't know why people waste time trying to smell like flowers or old leather when they could smell like mac'n'cheese instead! She's schrumtuze.

What does Ada think about that?


That's right. She thinks I'm a freak. I should probably get used to that stare. According to several people, I do it myself fairly frequently. In this case I probably deserve it. Rhapsodies about how delicious my baby smells are probably slightly over the top. Oh well. She makes me rhapsodic, what can I say?