Do it!

Ada and Ben Stiller apparently have a lot in common. First check out this clip from Starsky & Hutch.

Then take a look at Ada's version:

Tiny, but Serious Dancer

Dancing is serious business. No smiling or she will crush you!

The Great is the Enemy of the Good...

Or so I've been thinking lately. I've been so swamped with work that I can't really find time to either photograph the little one, or post photos that I actually have. So in an effort to just get some stuff up there, here's a big, mostly unorganized clump:

PLAY GROUP!!!



PIZZA!


UNCLE HALE AND ADA!
She's absolutely amazing! She finally broke the 20lb mark, which is incredibly exciting. She's an all-singing, all-dancing floor show from early morning to bed time. Her favorite new song is Jingle Bells, although I'm not sure where she heard it. Through the ether, I suppose!

Ada is also learning to talk at an amazing rate. This evening when I asked her if she liked something she was eating she said, "I like it!" She also puts her finger into her nose and says, "boogers!" which is gross but no less entertaining.

Jane Jacobs Would Be So Proud

Ada spends a lot of time looking out the window. In the morning we wave hello to New Jersey and to the kids catching the school bus and the people walking their dogs and the lady with the red hat and the man in the white car.... For such a quiet street, Cabrini Blvd has a lot going on. 

Another fun interior decorating note: the chains in Ada's hand are the city-required "protect-your-kid-from-falling-out-the-window" chains. Don't they look AAAAWESOME? We had to put them on all the windows, including the ones that a monkey being chased by um, a bigger, angrier monkey? couldn't climb out of. Ugh. Anyway, I guess they'll protect Ada from jumping out the window to chase one of the entertaining characters she sees through the window.

Trick or Treat #1

A tiny chili pepperitito, the Salsa Princess, Capiscum Kid, Jalapenitita, Hot-Cha-Cha-Cha, Etc... I give you the one and only Ada Pepper!

I'm sure that when Ada is older, she will come up with more creative costumes: Baby Doc Duvalier? Babyface? Babe Paley? Bebe Neuwirth? Baby Spice? Sadly for her, this year was not the most creative. I did struggle with it and came up with all sorts of ideas... ah, right. Ideas -- not actual costumes. Funny how despite all that brain-racking, all I could come up with was this off-the-rack chili pepper. 

It's a good thing Ada is so incredibly cute -- she makes up for all the deficiencies in costume creativity. 

(note: lots more costume photos to follow from other sources)

Rock Rat

You know those kids who spend all day working on the same boulder problem, mostly for an excuse to hang around at the base and shoot the shit? Ada tried that out the other day -- running around the (very flat, very safe) base of a climb while Thor, our friend Elizabeth and I did a little climbing. We weren't absolutely ready to let her get up on the rock so Thor decided to give her a little taste of what climbing is really like:
"Again! Again!"

Apples!

Mr. Apples is a Stone Ridge classic. Fall wouldn't be the same without apple picking in Mr. Apples' orchard.

In another post I'll put up a picture of his sign, which is pure genius. In about 1999 he painted ".com" on the sign in rough, black letters.

He's also apparently a communist, which was entertaining for Thor when he came to Mr. Apples when he was a kid. Although Ada isn't ready to argue for the benefits of a free-market economy (and really, is anyone these days?) she still had fun running between the trees shouting, "apple! apple!"


Sophie, the daughter of our friend Tamara (and the future fashion mentor of Ada) helped Ada choose the right, perfect apple. Ada was a bit too busy wondering why her evil mama stuck a crazy side ponytail on her head. So, so wrong.
Nonetheless, Ada soon picks up the idea... "Apple! APPLE!"

There are just so many to choose from... hmm, which one seems more rotten and wormy? That's the one I want to munch on.

Storm King

A few weeks ago we went to the Storm King Art Center near Newburgh, NY. It was an unbelievably perfect day to stroll through and climb on art. Ada and Thor communed with Andy Goldsworthy's Winding Wall, which is extremely cool although hard to capture with an iphone camera.





After all that excitement, Ada needed a little solitude.


And then it was time to party again. I don't think Henry Moore would mind that she crawled around in his sculpture, do you?

I'm sure a time will come when Ada is just way too cool to go walk around a sculpture park with her parents but luckily that time hasn't arrived. She may not be able to fully absorb the layers of meaning, incredible craftsmanship and importance of many of these pieces, true. Instead she just had fun. One of her new words is, "wow!" Wow.

A (long) walk in the (Adirondack) park

Multisport Ada

In Bend, Ada learned a few new sports:

Rock climbing (she really did climb up here by herself, although I had to help her down)

Triathlon (those transitions from swimming to the bike are always the hardest, right?)

Gravel munching (they're just starting to work on getting it into the Olympics. Maybe Ada has a chance in the 2020?)
100-meter sprint -- watch out, Usain Bolt. Nothing's faster than Ada heading towards danger.

Lonely days

(posted by T while Ada and I are in Bend)

Work is fine and all, but I miss this girl:

And this one:

And this one:

And this one...

...and particularly this one.

Sick, Sad and Wrong

Why? Why do we undermine the dignity of our little ones? Just for fun? I'm so ashamed.  

(Actually, her hair really was getting in her face and this seemed like a good solution. Does it hurt that it's totally hysterical too?)

Oh Cousin Where Art Thou?

Luckily Kirin and I have the same sense of humor (and fabulous taste in onesies)... Ada and Nola are destined to be good friends I'm sure, although I have no doubt that they'll absolutely hate being dressed alike, especially when they're both dressed as extras from the upcoming sequel, "Oh Cousin Where Art Thou?"

Heh. I crack me up. 

Smorgasbord

Everyone knows about Ada's thrice-daily smorgasbord, but she's got nothing on Nola. Nola has a portable picnic -- in the park:

In the woods:

Or mellowing out at home...

Actually, it's been absolutely lovely hanging out with her (and her Mom!). Nola is a completely sweet, mellow baby with extremely rare moments of crankiness, which tend not to last too long, considering that the smorgasbord is always close by. Kirin is a complete natural as well -- calm, organized, happy, not even a little bit overwhelmed. Amazing! 

Walkabout

A few weekends ago, my friend Allison and I piled into the camper van with Ada and Allison's twin boys, Thomas and Max. It was a sight: three car seats and weekend gear for three babies. I think the moon landing was only slightly more logistically intense. You can see more pictures from the weekend here: http://malcolmsisters.blogspot.com.

Allison captured this photo of Ada learning to walk all by herself -- I just love this image. It's a view of Ada that I see a lot of these days: her back to me as she scurries off to investigate some horrifically dangerous object. Why are they only attracted to precipices, wild animals, virulent piles of garbage and other gaping maws of destruction? How about reading about cuddly bunnies and puppies on Mama's lap? What's wrong with that, I ask you?

Weebles Wobble...

Well, weebles might not fall down, but Ada sure does. As you can see below, she looks like she's been in a bar fight. She's starting to take a few steps on her own and while she's mostly doing great, we have had some spectacular wipe-outs. The little cut by her eye was the result of a play ground traffic jam -- a bunch of big kids were running around in circles and I was trying to get Ada and her little scooter past them without injury. Just as I turned around to make sure the coast was clear she toppled sideways and hit her head on a ladder. I saw it coming and yelled, "fuck!" which is apparently not approved language on the playground. I'm still getting dirty looks from the other mommies. Oh well. Their three-year-olds were bound to hear the word at some point, right?

As far as the bruise on her cheek, I'm honestly not sure where that one came from. Another dramatic wipeout of some sort. Amazingly, she's pretty unfazed. She howls for a second or two and then settles down and goes back to whatever she was doing, leaving me wringing my hands and worrying about concussions and memory loss.

Bathing Attire

Not that I'm a prude or anything, but it's probably not a good idea to expose the little one to, y'know, destructive and cancer causing rays of the sun. Oma found her this lovely ensemble (includes sunglasses, not pictured) that covers her up in style!

Posterity

Last weekend I managed to capture Ada in her standard napping posture -- totally sacked out, with her but in the air. I realize it's not much in the way of competition for the extremely cute early pictures of Nola but nonetheless, probably worth documenting... for posterity. heh.

The Play Group

The kid likes people! There's no telling where she got her outgoing nature -- certainly not from either me or Thor, that's for sure. She loves her Tuesday morning play group, which is a baby and toddler lollapalooza -- guitars, slip'n'slides, treats, the works! We also go to a music class on Wednesdays where she crawls around the circle, waving hi to everyone, and then sitting next to the teacher, patting her guitar. It's a little strange that this tiny person has made me SO much friendlier -- I've met more people in the last year in my neighborhood than in the previous 6 years!

C-aaar-nivore!

A lot has changed for Ada in the last week or so... mostly because now she eats. People far and wide told me, "just leave her alone! She'll when she gets hungry!" Well, I had other priorities and really, really wanted to make sure she gained weight... unfortunately, all of our tap dancing and , "hey, look over there!" distractions were just making her more resistant.

So we stopped! Now we give her a ton of different finger foods (avocado, her favorite of all) and let her have at it. At the same time we feed her a few things here and there, but wait until she actually opens her mouth and goes , "mmmm!" That's a sound I never thought I'd hear her make! As you can see below, she's really getting into this whole eating thing -- she picked that chicken clean! (OK, not really)

Oh, happy day. She's actually finished a meal in 15 minutes this week... rather than the normal hour. Imagine! All that time we'll get back for marauding!

Anniversary of Ada Today

I was hoping to mark the anniversary of Ada Today with a whole bunch of backlogged pics but am having trouble uploading pictures again... maybe I'll take the opportunity on this momentous anniversary to move things somewhere else? Really, really annoying! Grrr, Blogger -- you are soon to be dead to me!

In any case, lots going on around here but I'd venture to say that there's lots more going on in Bend, OR... perhaps even the arrival of Tiny Niblet Stryker (I don't think that's the actual name, although I've suggested it a few times)... yaay! Kisses!

Heat Wave

It's hot here, and heat makes Ada cranky. Last night I actually had to wrap up a cold pack (like for icing sore knees) and put it in her crib with with her. She fell asleep clutching it! Despite the crankiness, she's eating pretty well, getting a little chubbier and staying active as well.

I don't have any great pictures of the heat wave but I do have a few glamor-shots. She's such a poser! Oh wait...

Mmmm, saucy minx!
In this picture, I think she looks like she'll look when she's an old lady: thoughtful but a little skeptical, like she's seen it all before.

There's a Party in my Tummy!

Yaay! Ada's starting to eat a little better! Wheee!
Maybe she was influenced by this fine piece of film-making: Yo Gabba Gabba's "There's a Party in my Tummy!"

Lunch

Here we are, at home. Having lunch. Sitting in the high chair. Eating Yogurt. Throwing stuff on the ground.
Will wonders never cease?
(Usually when I use that phrase I use it sarcastically. Not this time.)