Baby Fuerth

My daughter, Tractor Tom

2009-03-24T14:53:00.004-04:00

Ada has decided to take on new identities, three of them in total, depending on her mood. Strangely, all three are names of sentient modes of transportation. First was "Chuggington", or "Little Red Chuggington", based on a 10 minute British show that she happened to catch one Saturday on Treehouse. She spent most of the week asking to see "the other train show" (as opposed to Thomas the Tank Engine), and when I finally figured out it was a new show called Chuggington she became obsessed. When I said to her "Come to the table, Ada!", she would correct me, in her best insulted teenager voice "Come to the table, LITTLE RED CHUGGINGTON, mommy!" Even when she referred to herself in her cute 3rd person way, she would say "Ada, no, Little Red Chuggington go upstairs!" I was glad when she allowed me to drop the "Little Red" and call her just "Chuggington", but it was still a mouthful, especially after 2 1/2 years of simple "Ada". Next came "Tractor Tom", from another 10 minute British show that we found at the library. "Good night, Ada!" "No mommy, Good night, Tractor Tom!" At least it was easier to say. Then it was "Lightening McQueen", from the Disney movie "Cars". This was an influence from her favourite 3 year old, Liam, and yet another mouthful for both of us. I think that's why she has moved back to "Tractor Tom". So, between a train, a tractor, or a race car, she seems to have settle on the talking tractor regularly saving the day within 10 minutes of the crisis. Not a bad role model, I suppose. :)

Here she is after international day at the parenting centre, wearing the same kilt my sister and I each wore when we were two.

Elliot's latest achievements: Learning to love to chew on Sophie, the ever-popular giraffe, and finding his soul-mate, the Jolly Jumper.

I'm back!

2009-03-16T15:01:00.006-04:00

Okay, instead of a long-winded story about why I haven't posted for A WHOLE YEAR, I'm just going to continue on as if that never happened. I look back at what I wrote for Ada's first 18 months, and I am happy that I have those stories and thoughts written out, and I'm sorry that I have missed this past year of experiences. I feel like I should be re-introducing Ada since she is a very different girl from a year ago. Also, now I need to introduce a new member of the family that didn't exist a year ago - Ada's little brother Elliot.

So here is Ada in a nutshell:

She is now an active two and half year old, and she is beautiful, happy, and fun to be around. And for me, sometime a little exhausting to be around. She talks non-stop in her broken 2 1/2 year old way, with cute pronunciations and expressions galore. She has been described as a "walking narrator", since she gives us up-to-date running commentaries on her current thoughts and actions, usually in third person. "Ada running! Ada jumping on couch! Ada looking out window! Ada eating lunch!" She loves words, and is always trying out new ones and learning new things at an inconceivable pace. She loves to draw. She draws faces on every piece of paper she has access to, and loves to colour in her colouring books. As much as she also loves to paint, she sees it more as a science experiment and prefers mixing colours and making a general mess, which is what being two is all about. She loves to bake, especially with daddy; crafts, especially involving scissors, glue, and glitter; and exploring the outdoors, especially if it involves puddles and/or mud. For a two year old, she has a pretty varied appetite, but prefers her rice to be plain, her cheese to be cheddar, and her tofu to be peach/mango. She has her mother's sweet tooth. Her routine consists of GO! GO! GO!, then a solid 2 hour nap mid-day, then GO! GO! GO! until she drops into bed for a solid 11 hours. She is loving and gentle, especially to our two cats and her little brother, and loves nothing more than running around with another toddler while in a fit of giggles. And while she has been stubbornly testing her boundaries and exploring everything to the limit, I wouldn't have it any other way.

And now, introducing Elliot William:

Elliot was born at 12:01am on November 24th, 2008, at 7lb 14 oz. Now coming up on 4 months old, Elliot gave me a dream pregnancy and a complication-free birth. He has been a pro at nursing since day one. And now that he has overcome is Evil Gas and daily vomiting, he has more opportunity to display his happy, calm little personality. Now if only he would learn to take a bottle of expressed milk now and then, mommy would get a chance for some much needed "me time". He is my "little man" - all boy, solid build, with the longest eyelashes possible. He seems to be keeping mommy's dark hair and daddy's blue eyes, and is one handsome little guy. He loves to watch all the kids running around at Ada's groups we attend, loves splashing in his bath, playing with the arch on his chair that lights up and plays music when he kicks his feet, and is a real talker. He insists on going to bed at 7pm every night, and is usually up only 2 times for a nurse, and will often sleep in to 8 - 8:30am. He loved the "calming vibrations" mode on his bouncy chair, until it broke from over-use. Overall, he is a content little guy who is all smiles for his big sister. I can't wait to get to learn more about him as he shows off more of his lovely personality.

As for me, I'm keeping busy with these two. Some days can be rather overwhelming, but I'm lucky to live in such an accessible neighbourhood, and to have friends and family to go to when I need them. I'm looking forward to getting some "me time" again (ie overlapping naps and a baby that takes a bottle so I can get out once in a while). But I don't want to forget the current times and appreciate what I have while I have it, instead of looking back and saying "Why didn't I realize how good I had it?" I know I do - I have it good.

Long time no write

2008-03-13T13:39:00.013-04:00

At 18 months, Ada is officially a full-time toddler, and she takes her role very seriously. Gone are the days when I could sit on the couch while she amused herself by exploring the room. Now she expects me to enthusiastically take part in her explorations by answering every "DaaAA?!?" (Translation: "What's that?"). She knows every book from cover to cover, every toy and how it could possibly be played with, and every nook and cranny of our new house (well, at least the baby-safe main floor where she spends her awake time). On to bigger and more exciting things, mum! I haven't run enough today! Let's meet more people! Explore more environments! Try new foods, new chairs, new stairs, new anything! And when nap time or bed time comes around, she is out like a light. She is now an expert napper (usually about 1 1/2 to 2 hours midday) and sleeps soundly from 8pm to about 7:30am the next morning with no nighttime waking. All that running and eating can exhaust a toddler. Besides, she still has a lot of growing to do, and a lot more learning ahead of her. That's what makes her such a special little creature, and me the exhausted mommy I am today. Luckily, we now live in a fabulous neighbourhood that has oodles of opportunity for FREE play. I have always loved having access to local libraries, community centres, and schools, but now I have so much more appreciation. We are so fortunate to have these amazing programs available to us.

The following will be an extremely quick update to the past four busy months. Let's start with December.

December:

Packed. Cleaned. Gutted. Painted. Worked our butts off. Moved. Started unpacking. Somehow squeezed in Christmas celebrations. Played with fire engines.

January:

More unpacking. Worked on house. Explored new neighbourhood. Crawled through blue tubes.

February:

Unpacked some more. More work on house. Shovelled way too much snow. Made snowforts in our new backyard. Made cardboard forts in our new living room. Learned how to use a fork. Learned how to brush teeth on our own.

March:

Still unpacking. That bathroom will get done one day. Installed a dishwasher! Played dress up in Papa's clothes. Sat in boxes. Had our first playgroup in our new house.

Ada has been working on new words and signs every day. She now has a very clear and regular "Mama" and "Da-dee", which I can't get enough of. She loves sitting on her potty, but she believes it's for reading books with your pants at your ankles. She has a huge appetite, and will eat just about anything you put in front of her. She is a master at recognizing and giving the sounds for five different letters (M, P, H, F, and S), and she knows the numbers 1-5 on a good day, and 1-9 on an even better day. She loves banging on the piano, dancing, watching videos of herself, twirling, "vacuuming", and running around non-stop. I love that she will play with taking care of her dolly one minute (insisting it needs a diaper change, or giving it cuddles) then she will drive her toy cars around the floor the next. One day she might play with each of her toys for a total of 10 seconds each, and then will want to spend the rest of the afternoon looking at books with mama. She loves the sound of her own voice. She knows all her body parts, and loves pointing them out on everyone she meets. She loves "If You're Happy and You Know It", especially when she gets to stomp her feet. She hates having her face wiped. She loves to give kisses, and receiving them even more. Daddy tickles are the best. So are daddy shoulder-rides. She can't get enough of streetcars, buses, and subway trains. She loves shoes. She loves to declare things "Doooone!", such as books and empty bowls. And this post. DoooOOONE!

Chatty girl

2007-11-12T15:38:00.000-05:00

We have temporarily lost the ability to put the pictures from our camera onto the computer. In the flurry of cleaning and de-cluttering our condo in the preparation for selling, we conveniently tidied the cord that connects the camera to the computer into a safe spot which we can no longer remember. So I have a whole bunch of cute pictures and videos that are sitting in the memory card patiently waiting to be shown to the world, but they will have to wait a little longer. I had started to post pictures of the inside of our new house, but I decided against it because it was really just pictures of the past owner's junk and messy lifestyle. They didn't really show what it was really like. I'll wait once we've moved in.

Back when we started taking the Wee Hands course, we had a lot of interest in how it would be. I have to say, it was well worth it. Ada now has about 12 signs that she regularly uses - more, ball, cheese, cracker, milk, dog, cat, bath, music, change (her diaper), finished/all done, and sleep - and she's picking up on new ones all the time. It takes away so much of her frustration - she can usually tell me exactly what she's wanting/needing. And she's learning new words all the time, too. Although, most of the are just part of the word, but she's getting more of it over time. It's so exciting. She loves to babble about everything around her. When I'm pushing her in her stroller she's looking around pointing out things she likes and calling out and/or signing words she knows when she sees them. And looking at books is a favourite activity, especially now that she is able to point at almost anything that I ask her to find on the page. She's the cutest little sponge I know. :)

We went to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair with Chris, Pam and Ethan yesterday (pictures to come), and Ada was so excited about being able to say "baa baa!" to real sheep and "moo!" to real cows. My favourite part: I was asking her to point out the different animals at the petting zoo, and when I asked her to point at the llama, she pointed at me! (llama rhymes with mama, I guess). :) Ada and Ethan had a great time. And we've been trying out a lot of different indoor activities recently (in preparation for the long cold winter) and have found some indoor playgrounds that she has really enjoyed. Her walking has significantly improved, and now she's getting a hang of running, too. But her current favourite activity is shoes. She loves going into the cupboard where all of our shoes are and spreading them around the house. We find high heels on the dining room chairs, running shoes behind the couch, and boots beside the bed. And she tries to put the shoes (or socks she find in the sock drawer) on our feet by carefully balancing them on our feet. She likes when she can convince me to put on two different high heels while I'm still in my pjs. :)

Since I can't post any current pictures of Ada, I'll put up this one of Ada celebrating her 12 months with her last monthly beer. She has a "Growler", which is from the Mill Street Brewery (in the Distillery District here in Toronto) which is basically a mix of all their beers from the bottom of the tanks. Pretty good! Ada liked the bottle! :)

House Owners

2007-10-27T15:17:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how life can change in one short week. Last Friday as I sat in this same chair in this same library, I had no idea how busy my life was about to become. To make a long (and complicated) story short (and simple), in this past week, we have become new home owners, and we have sold our condo. We are very excited. I was getting very close to my wit's end as we lost bidding war after bidding war, so we changed strategies, and were able to close a deal on a charming house in the west end. Here are the details:

It needs much work, but by the time we are moved in it will be more our house than ever. The house is a solid red brick semii, it has a very large living room/dining room area (very open concept, which we love) with beautiful hardwood throughout, and the kitchen is also a very good size. The kitchen needs to be completely re-done since the appliances are ancient, there are no cupboard doors, and besides, we are excited about designing our own kitchen. Beyond the kitchen is a storage room (an addition onto the house) which exits to the backyard porch. The backyard is very low-maintenance - interlocking brick throughout with flowerbeds bordering the sides. Beyond the back fence is a two car parking lane, which we plan on renting one or both out since we don't have a car. Upstairs has three bedrooms, but one bedroom has had one wall taken down, which is a weekend job to one day put back up. The upstairs bathroom needs to be completely re-done as well. The basement is partially finished, dry, and has a bathroom in good condition with a shower stall. All wiring is up-to-date, the roof is in good condition, and the house inspection only revealed a few minor things that are easily fixed.

It is in a fabulous location - five minute walk to Dundas West subway (which has an elevator for stroller access!), two blocks east of Roncesvalles Village, about a ten minute walk east to High Park, a 15 minute walk west to Dufferin Grove Park, a Loblaws just north of us, a No Frills a little further south, and a short street car ride to downtown. We couldn't be happier.

And as for our condo, it is bittersweet to see it go. We have loved living here, and we are both really excited for the new owner - she has bought a fabulous place. We signed the papers last night, selling it for exactly $1 over asking. :) Closing on the house is December 14th, and closing for the condo is January 3rd, so I guess this house is our family's Christmas present. We will have the two weeks over Christmas to paint, clean, re-do the kitchen and bathroom, and more, so we'll be a little too busy to do our usual Christmas activities. Luckily Ada is too young to actually miss Christmas, but she's going to love her new house, I'm sure of it. More room to run around, stairs to climb, her own bedroom, a backyard to play in, and fabulous parks right outside the door. But we are sorry she won't have any memories of our downtown home on the 36th floor.

Since I dedicated this post to giving details on our new home, here are some random pictures of our favourite little Ada.

UPDATE: I'm posting this a week after writing it - technical difficulties. :) We're going to see the house today, so I'll post pictures later this week - I promise!

An explanation...

2007-10-20T21:52:00.000-04:00

I have now found a way to squeeze in some time to sit down and write something for this blog. Our library program has just started up again (it was off for the summer), and I'm really happy to put it back in our weekly schedule. The librarian who runs it is amazing. She has all the patience in the world for the twenty or so babies that are usually crying, babbling, whining, yelling, walking around touching toes (that would be Ada), or some other distracting baby behaviour. Meanwhile, she continues on with her songs, poems, and story books as if all the babies were quietly paying attention to everything she said. And all the babies really do love her - she has this presence that attracts them to her voice. It's quite amazing. On the other hand, she does not have any patience for the adults in the room chatting with each other during her program, such as making plans for coffee later or comparing baby stories. The program is for the babies, and there is plenty of time before and after the program to chat. And even though it can get pretty hectic at times (we all know how the domino effect works with crying babies), I have never been in a group quite like it. The one downfall - there are two programs every Friday, both occurring precisely at Ada's morning nap time. But I have found a way to take advantage of this. I've chosen the 10am group so that, even though that is the time she usually has her nap, she is so entertained by the librarian, other babies, adult's toes, songs and stories, that she forgets that she wants to sleep. Then, when the program is done, I tuck her into her stroller, find a quiet spot on the second floor of the library with a comfy chair, and I can relax for about an hour and half while she sleeps soundly. Normally at home during this nap, I'm half watching The Ellen Degeneres Show (I'm rather addicted - it's a real pick-me-up!) while I run around cleaning up from the night before and breakfast, continuing with laundry (a never-ending task), getting us ready to go out for the afternoon, or other household tasks. At the library, I am forced to sit and relax! Last week I flipped through a couple of old magazines, but I realized I could fully utilize this time by bringing along our extra Mac PowerBook and type out my week's Adventures With Ada. I hope this works!

So it has been so long that I haven't even had the chance to show off the pictures from Ada's birthday. We had a small party in our condo on the Sunday before her birthday (I guess that would be the 2nd), where Ada happily clapped her hands at every opportunity so that she could emphasize the power she had over the rest of us as we all clapped and cheered in return. She wore her flower party dress and hair clip again, and Jonathan and I made a cake in the shape of a fish - one of her first words. And, in first birthday fashion, she happily stuck her hand deep into the icing of the cake while exclaiming "Mmmm!" while licking it off her fingers. She knows how to host a birthday party.

The actual day of her birthday was a Wednesday, so I wanted to find an activity that would include as many of Ada's current favourite things to do as possible. She was pleased with my choice of going to Centre Island. We made friends on the ferry, had many opportunities to crawl around the grass at full speed while "chasing" seagulls, had lunch with a view, played on a swing, and happily spent a full, smiling day together. It was perfect.

So Ada has woken up earlier that I wanted, but she's well rested and ready to go. We're going to go to King's Cafe now where we will share a plate of curry vermicelli, and Ada will be spoiled rotten by the lovely staff there. It's handy having a cute little girl with you wherever you go.

I think we should be worried...

2007-08-31T10:59:00.000-04:00

I have heard that after you take a baby out of its normal environment for a period of time (say, for a vacation or a visit to the grandparent's house for a few days), there is usually a new significant skill accomplished shortly after. Now don't quote me on this, since I can't remember where I heard it (probably from a mother in one of our groups). But so far, I have definitely noticed this phenomenon. For example, the day after we got home after Ada spent almost a week at my parents when Jonathan and I went on our camping trip, Ada started crawling. This time, after a wonderful one week trip to British Columbia to attend Jonathan's cousin's wedding, Ada appears to have great improvements on her language skills, both understanding, signing, and verbal. It's been really exciting. Even while fighting a horrible case of the runs (probably some strange BC strain she's never been exposed to), something has "clicked" with the language part of her brain. And we can actually say with assurance that Ada has a first word. Now this is where I think we should be worried. Most babies start off with "dada" or "mama", but not our Ada. Instead, she has figured out the word "shoe", which I'm hoping is not an indication of future obsessions. I may have to start a savings account for shoes along with her education account. :)

Along with "shoe", she is pretty consistent with referring to her favourite teddy bear with a "teddy", and will occassionally point to Calvin or Max with a solid "cat". Of course, I can't ask her to say it on demand, but that's to be expected. She also has picked up on a couple more signs. Along with "dog", she will sign for "more" (it's not a perfect "more" sign, but really close), and she will enthusiastically do the sign for "bath" while she is doing her favourite activity.

And now that she has learned how fun learning words are, her favourite books are now the ones with simple pictures of objects for learning words. Goodbye nice stories with fuzzy ears or rhyming texts, hello to spending looooong periods of time watching me point at objects on the page as I say the name of the object. Not as exciting for me, but Ada loves it. She also loves her flash cards, and can now pick out the card that I ask her to find. When she's in the right mood, of course.

Here are some pictures from our trip out West. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera when we were at Adrian and Meaghan's wedding (which was absolutely beautiful), but I've borrowed a picture from another guest at the wedding, and the video from Jonathan's cousin Chris. The video is of Ada with her handsome second-cousin, Ethan, "dancing" on the dance floor. More like running in circles and using up their baby enengy, but it's cute, regardless. The rest are pictures of around Vancouver, but again, we always regret how few pictures we actually take, and missed quite a few important shots, but them's the breaks. :)

Ada and I at the wedding ceremony, while Ada claps at something she likes...

Ada and Ethan video - thanks Chris!

Ada after the wedding, when we got back to the hotel. I took her out of the wrap and she just flopped, exhausted, and refused to wake up.

Out and about beautiful Vancouver:

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

2007-08-14T10:40:00.000-04:00

After three long years of growing my hair, the last year especially difficult because of a certain cute but very hair-grabby baby, I have finally cut my hair! The organization I chose, Angel Hair for Kids, required a minimum of 10" of non-coloured, non-grey hair, and it took much longer than I anticipated. I had hoped for a new Christmas haircut, but no, not yet. Perhaps a new birthday haircut in April? Not quite. I guess this is almost a celebration of one year of being a mother haircut. (Three weeks today and Jonathan and I have a one year old daughter! Crazy!) I sure won't miss Ada using my hair has a way to pull herself up, or as something to play with while nursing. If anything, it may have strengthened my roots (or so the hairdresser said), but it sure made a mess of the hair that I ended up chopping off for donation. Oh well, I'm sure they'll still be able to use it. Here are the before and after pictures:

Before:

And after:

Okay - enough pictures of me! Here is Ada celebrating her eleven month birthday:

And here she is (in the pink dress) with her friends as they celebrate their first year together. They all turn one within 3 weeks of each other, so we had a picnic to celebrate in High Park.

And we had a nice day on Centre Island with our friend Amber. Here she is showing off her new t-shirt from her Aunt Sharon...

And going for a splash in a wading pool at Centreville...

And, although it's rather fuzzy, here she is laughing at her silly mommy:

You know you're a mother when...

2007-08-03T15:50:00.000-04:00

Wondering what was causing a scratchy sensation on my skin, I found a Cheerio stuck in the band of my brassiere. I wasn't even surprised.

Now there's no doubt that I'm a true mother to an eleven month old. :)

Ada... Simpson?

2007-07-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks to this fun website:

The Simpson Movie website

I made a character for each member of our family so that we look like we belong in a Simpsons episode. Unfortunately, they do not have an option for babies, so I had to make Ada look like a young girl. And there were no baby hair options, so I had to have Ada wear a bandana. The next day I was out shopping with some of my friends and their babies, hitting the sales in The PATH, and I found a lovely little outfit (cheap! $10!) that looked very much like the outfit we put Ada in for her Simpsons avatar the day before - including a bandana! Here are the results, including ones for me and Jonathan.

On The Move

2007-07-27T12:44:00.000-04:00

Well it's been two whole months since my last entry, but I guess that's what these lovely summer days can do to a mother and daughter. She is like a completely different baby from two months ago, and I'm loving every minute of it. One of the other reasons why I haven't found the time to make an entry is because we have been putting our extra time and effort into preparing our condo for selling, and going to open houses and putting bids onto houses to buy. This child of ours has made living in our lovely (albeit tiny) condo more and more difficult. Especially now that she's crawling (full speed ahead!), and one of her favourite activities is to spread all of her toys around the house as much as possible. Now when I walk through the house it feels like an obstacle course, especially now that we have an annoying baby gate put in place to keep her from the kitchen and all those fun sharp things, poisonous bottles, and very fun cat dishes. The cats haven't figured out how to get over the gate, so now Max sits on one side with a sad face, and occasionally meOWs pathetically. Calvin just sees it as a good excuse to go onto the counter where he knows he's not allowed to go. Some days I feel like I have three kids - two of them orange and furry.

We've had no luck finding a house, thanks to Toronto's bidding wars and the frantic buyers bidding up to $100,000 more than the asking price. We're going to try again in the fall, and we'll have to survive in our increasingly shrinking condo until then.

Ada is becoming quite the little character these days. She is happy now that she is mobile, but usually doesn't find crawling quite.... thrilling enough. She still wants to be running around with the toddlers, but she gets so excited when she's on her feet that she will go head first into wherever she's going, resulting with an unhappy baby on the floor again. She is so impatient in her need to walk, I fear it's slowing her down. To be honest, I'm in no hurry for her to be walking - I will never be able to relax. She'll be running around non-stop. At least now I can (somewhat) control where she goes.

Our recent main activites have generally been involving the outdoors. Even with 60SPF sunscreen, Ada is sporting a lovely tan (including a sandle tan!). We have had many trips to Centre Island, found many exciting public parks with baby swings and wading pools, regularly go to the beach, take trips to the farm, go to Blue Jays games, and when it's raining we go to the mall, coffee shops, or our condo's pool to splash about. Well, in Ada's case, SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH about. We're getting really close with a group of friends that we've gotten to know through the Toronto City New and Expecting Moms Meetup group. It's great having a bunch of moms with babies all around the same age to share our summer with.

I think the quickest way to update everyone on Ada's current status is by list form. Here is The Ada Update:

Age: almost 11 months.

Height: I'll have to get back to you on that, but VERY TALL for her age.

Weight: Again, I don't know the exact number. I'll know that after her 1 year doctor's appointment.

Number of teeth: Two on her bottom, and two on the top left just coming through, and I'm pretty sure the other two on the right are right behind. Let's just say it's been a tough few days for Ada.

Words: Nothing official, but baby babbles non-stop. I'm pretty sure she's said "mama", "dada", "dog", and "cat", but only a couple of time each.

Signs: She definitely recognizes the signs for food, more, milk, and bath, and she does the sign for dog most times she sees a dog. Very exciting!

Foods: She will eat just about anything I offer her, except when her teething is really bad. She loves her grub! Especailly fruits. She's enjoying her finger foods right now, like blueberries, grapes, cooked apples,tofu cubes, cheese cubes, crackers... She's a good eater.

Favourite activities: All of the things I listed above, especially water related activities. She also loves books. She will go to her book shelf, pull out her favourite books, and go through them while babbling to herself. And balls. Anything round, and Ada is a fan. Recently she has been enjoying a lemon and a lime which she rolls around and chases. She loves clacking toys together, clapping her hands, blowing raspberries, wrestling with mama and dada, pointing at things that interest her (usually lights, dogs, birds, other babies), and generally getting into no good.

Sleeping: She was officially sleeping though the night until recently, but I think it's her teeth. Hopefully that changes soon. :)

I think that covers most of it. Hopefully I can keep up with these posts so I don't have so much to update, and I can concentrate on stories. Please check out my Flickr page (on the left) for recent birthday beer photos and other pictures of her out and about. Next time I'll add some vidoes of her crawling around at full speed and reading books to herself in her very cute way.

gDiapers, Day 1

2007-05-28T13:01:00.000-04:00

Ada and I have been out every day enjoying this wonderful spring weather which limits the time available for any blogging. We've been having a great time going on picnics, finding parks with swings, chasing birds near the waterfront, taking long walks in the stroller, kicking legs at the sight of dogs, birthday parties, trips to Ottawa, going to giant garage sales and on and on. This summer is going to be so much fun.

I have been using disposable diapers since the day Ada was born, and I've been feeling guilty all along. I just know that I would not have the patience, energy, or time to clean diapers, and I know that diaper services are guilty of using really harsh chemicals that are bad for the environment anyways. I have been researching diapers, and last fall I found an amazing product called gDiapers, which are flushable diapers. They have a washable outer pant called "little g's", and a breathable, environmentally friendly inner core which is very absorbant and will biodegrade very easily. Unfortunately, they are only available in the United States. But through the help of some wonderful family members I finally got a starter kit and Ada is now on day 1 of our trial run. So far, I've flushed one down the toilet, and it worked just like they said. And she looks very cute in them, if I do say so myself. I'll keep everyone up to date on how Ada and I enjoy them.

And since Ada and I need to go out and enjoy this beautiful day, here is a smattering of photos from the last few weeks.

Calendar Girl

2007-05-04T15:24:00.001-04:00

Ada and I have been really enjoying this wonderful weather. Isn't it fabulous? We've been out every day enjoying the fresh air and the sun on our faces. We've been walking along the harbourfront every chance we can get, chasing ducks and seagulls and laughing at the dogs prancing around in the sun. We went to Centre Island a couple of weeks ago to celebrate my birthday with a fun bunch of friends, and Ada enjoyed her first picnic lunch (of pureed mangoes and squash) and played on picnic blankets watching us running around with kites and frisbees.

And for her teeth count: She now has two adorable teeth coming up on her bottom gums. Her new nickname: Chompers.

She's really been getting active, rolling around easily now, and insisting on marching around chasing animals and toddlers. And she's talking up a storm these days. Here's a cute video of her helping me sing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm":

And on to some exciting news! We all know that our little Ada is an adorable girl. Well a couple of months ago we had the opportunity to have Ada take part in a photo shoot for a calendar to raise funds for the SickKids Foundation. We didn't know for sure if she would definitely be a part of the calendar, especially since she spent most of the photo shoot chewing on her mittens or toes. I found out this morning that she has indeed been chosen to be part of the calendar! The photographer, Elaine Tran, hasn't told me which picture will be used or which month she will be in, but I will find out soon enough. During the photo shoot she said that Ada will likely be in the winter months (probably January, February, or March), but I'll keep everyone posted! We're really excited to be part of such a great project for this important foundation. So make sure you all get the 2008 SickKids Calendar!

Dear Future Babysitter,

2007-04-18T12:32:00.000-04:00

For your convenience, I have compiled a list of things to assist anyone who is lucky enough to babysit our lovely Ada. This should give you many options for activites and methods for Ada's daily life, including play, eating, diaper changes, and sleeping. That pretty much covers everything that Ada does in a day, except for being adoringly cute, but she has that covered. :)

PLAY:

Standing and/or walking. Now that she has figured out how to put one foot in front of the other, Ada now demands that the majority of her waking hours are standing, or preferably walking to explore her current environment. I tell people about this, and they smile and nod, but as soon as they have her on their lap they usually say "She really does prefer to stand, doesn't she!" She doesn't want her lovely legs to go to waste.

Ada will rarely say no to Sophie. Sophie is her absolute favourite toy, she comes with us everywhere we go, and she is best to be at arms reach at all times. Who is Sophie? Her chewable giraffe, of course. Apparently, this giraffe has been the most popular toy in France for the past 40 years and is very difficult to get here in Canada. But thanks to her favourite Andrew and his cousin's store Cheeky Monkey, we are a proud owner of this beloved toy and Ada can fully attest to her popularity.

Her Jolly Jumper. She now recognizes the sight of her Jolly Jumper, so we need to keep it hidden until we want her go in it. Once she sees it, her legs start pumping in anticipation, or perhaps she is warming up for some serious jump-jump-jumping. Recently I have had to tuck in the tag on the front of the harness so as not to distract the president of the Society of Taking Things Off of Other Things and she can concentrate on her jumping.

Ada hasn't figure out that her bath is not actually meant for play, but don't tell her. She also is starting to recognize it when I start to set up her bath, and will pump her legs to warm up for some serious leg splashing. She has no concerns about having water being splashed on her face, or even having water poured over her head to rinse off the soap. She stops her splashing (briefly), blinks a few times, looks up to see who poured water over her head, then continues on Splashing Duty. Recently her splashing has gone to a new level, and I now where a top that I don't mind getting thoroughly splashed on while giving Ada her bath. Taking her out of her bath can be of concern for Ada, but a few songs and a happy voice during the drying process, and she'll soon forget that there is water still in the tub to be splashed. Besides, by this point Calvin is busy dipping his paws in it and trying to drink it without falling in.

Anything involving going out. Either strapped in her Baby Bjorn or snuggled in her stroller, anywhere that involves people to smile at, other babies to play with, or just general excitement to watch. This includes the mall, chinatown and Kensington market, playgroups, the TTC... Anywhere, really.

EATING:

Well, she loves her milk of course, but anyone but me has to use her Playtex Orthodontic Nipple on a bottle. :)

So far any solids are all homemade, except for her rice cereal. She will usually eat about 2 Tbsp at a time, and she has 2 to 3 meals a day. She would also like to eat the spoon (or make awful squeaky noises on her gums with it) and make a huge mess all over her hands and face, but I try not to let this happen.

For breakfast, we usually do rice cereal mixed with a fruit, usually apples, but more recently and something she really likes is pears.

Right now lunch and/or dinner usually involves two or more mixed vegetables, her current favourites being peas and carrots, and anything mixed with sweet potatoes (especially apples). Another favourite, especially while we are out is banana since it comes with its own packaging and Ada really likes it.

She has recently taken to drinking water from her sippy cup. There isn't a brand name on it (strangely enough) but it's the kind that has the soft straw so she can suck the water. Just expect the 1 foot radius around her to get very wet since she manages to defeat the "leak-proof" feature as she swings it around between sips.

DIAPER CHANGES

Ada is probably the best baby her age that I know of for getting her diaper changed. Not only does she adore her change table (with the ever-exciting elephant mobile and her yellow box of wipes and ONE for Baby Bums to pick up and rearrange), but it is yet another opportunity for toe grabbing and toe sucking. She has been known to twist around to look at her beautiful diaper holder (made lovingly by her Great-Grandma Howard), but she prefers to play with her feet until I bring the new diaper up between her legs and say "Legs down", and then she throws her legs down onto her change pad with a thwap! so I can put the tabs on. Smart girl. :)

SLEEPING:

I'll start with napping, which is a different routine than at her bedtime. She usually wakes around 7:00-7:30am, so her first nap is at 9:00am and usually goes until 10:30-11:00am. Although she is very tired and ready for a nap (with giant yawns and eye rubbing involved), she won't admit that a nap is a good thing to do when there are cats to follow around the house and giraffes to chew. In order to convince her, I need to slow down her non-stop arms and legs to a degree so that she can't think of anything else to do but sleep. Hence my current love of swaddling. I have no idea what I will do when that ceases to work. Wrap one blanket around her arms, then another tucked tightly over her, pop in the soother, and away into dreamland she goes. If that doesn't immediately work, a little jiggling of the bed to rock her to sleep works as a back-up. I try to have her go down for a nap during the day after being awake for about 2 hours or I find that she gets rather fussy and nothing interests her for more that a few seconds. Life is better with a well-rested Ada, that's for sure.

At night, she is used to nursing to sleep, which is primarily my job. But, as a babysitter, you will have to use her Playtex Orthodontic Nipple on her bottle. But first, into her pyjamas (usually around 7:30pm), then around 8:00pm when the yawns and eye rubs are pretty non-stop and she's fussing more than usual, then it's definitely bedtime. I take her into the room onto the bed, put her into her growbag while I sing a soft song (usually Hush Little Baby), and at this point she knows what is going on and will protest. But she'll settle down into a deep sleep after a few minutes of milk. She doesn't require swaddling at night unless she's really wound up and can't get herself to sleep.

*Note: I started this entry a couple of days ago, but got distracted by Ada's first tooth that had appeared, but was unfortunately preceded by Ada's first fever. The whole family then shared some sort of horrid flu which put us all in bed for a day, but we are now faring better and Ada's tooth is happily coming through. Hooray!

One of a Kind

2007-04-09T17:22:00.000-04:00

Ada and I became Experts of the One of a Kind Show after spending 4 of the 5 days there. Pam successfully ran her booth with her fabulous display of the prettiest purses of the show, in my opinion. I became known as "the one with the cute babies and the cool stroller" since I had the honour of caring for Ada's favourite Liam for two of our visits and I got to use our Phil & Teds stoller to the max. It is a great stroller, for anyone that knows someone researching strollers. I know quite a few other mothers that also have this stroller and love it since it can easily be converted from single (either infant mode or toddler mode) to double (either infant-toddler mode or toddler-toddler mode) very easily, and doesn't take up the room that other double strollers do. And it is very easy to move around the city. After that, I should be expecting a cheque in the mail from Phil & Teds for promoting their product. :)

Ada is now onto yet another new phase of babyhood. She is tired of this sitting around in one place, and lying around rolling does not interest her in the least. You would think she would be interested in crawling, but she has decided she is done with all this baby stuff and is determined to be a toddler as soon as possible. At playgroups I have her seated with the other babies her age and younger that are happily lying down or sitting playing with their toys. Ada has grown bored with these babies, and excitedly watched the older babies that are starting to walk around, and she will often squeal in delight wanting to join them in their games. A week and half ago she was standing (with me holding her, of course) and she was so anxious to join these older babies that she figured out that she could put one foot in front of the other to get to them. (I have been trying to get a video on YouTube to post on here, but I've run into a few problems. Hopefully I'll get it figure out soon.) Now there is no turning back, and I spend most of her waking hours helping her "walk" around exploring the house, the playgroup, or wherever we happen to be. No more sitting around for her. In fact, her "bald spot" on the back of her head is pretty much grown in now that she refuses to be on her back when not sleeping. Speaking of hair - it may not look like much now, but her lovely blonde head is definitely starting to thicken up. Hooray!

And she celebrated her seven month birthday over the weekend, this time with her Aunt Sharon and a Corona.

We had a nice weekend in London for Easter, and had lots of visiting of family. Considering the change in environment and routine that she is used to, she did quite well. As soon as we got home, though, she was so happy to see her play blanket, her change table, her cats, her mirror, and her toys and books that we didn't bring to London with us. She had me walk her around the whole house chasing the cats before she would go to bed.

The Society of Taking Things Off Of Other Things

2007-03-24T09:10:00.001-04:00

Ada is currently the president of The Society of Taking Things Off Of Other Things, and she takes her role quite seriously. DVDs on shelves, toys on the floor, spoons on the table, parents in their bed on Saturday morning, shoes on her feet, the list goes on. Any item that can be removed from a surface and that is within reaching distance will be removed, and then will be required to do one or both of the following: put elsewhere, or put in her mouth. As I said, this must be done very seriously and in a very business like manner. In fact, if a Thing is not within reaching distance, Ada will then call out for mommy to give her said Thing so that she can do her job. Her most recent realization: Some Things cannot come off of Other Things. For example, the design on daddy's t-shirt, even with insistant and serious work, will not come off of the t-shirt. The Baby Bjorn tag on the strap of her carrier will not come off of the strap. Mommy's freckle will not come off of her skin. But, as president of Taking Things Off Of Other Things, Ada will comply to her duty, and will try for as long as possible (or until I distract her) to use her lovely chubby fingers to take these things off so that she can explore them with her mouth, or put in their proper place (ie anywhere else).

In other (non-Ada) news, Ada's favourite Pamela has a booth at the One of a Kind Show! So this means that everyone has to run there as fast as they can to buy her fabulous purses. The show is at Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place, here in Toronto and runs from Wednesday, March 28 to Sunday, April 1. Pam is at booth D-31, and she is called Pink Pamplemousse, and you should check out her website to get a glimpse of some of her wares. Ada and I will be going almost every day that the show is running, so if you want to go and don't already have plans with me, let me know and we can meet up! Congratulations and good luck Pammy!

And, although we are coming up to Ada's seven month birthday, here she is happily reaching for her six month birthday beer so that she can put it elsewhere. Well, preferably in her mouth, but she's got a few years to go. :)

Ada, the new St-Hubert

2007-03-22T22:22:00.000-04:00

Swaddled with love

2007-03-13T09:13:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to say that the whole existence of swaddling has changed my life. And Ada's. I sense tiredness, I swaddle, Ada yells out once while her arms are being swaddled, then, as I lay her down in her bed she immediately flings her head the the side as if saying "Well, I give up. Since I can't do anything else, I may as well sleep", I leave the room, and silence. I do a quick check 2 minutes later and she's sleeping like a baby. A very cute one at that.

Swaddling: I bow to you.

Always a first time...

2007-03-06T18:45:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm mad at myself. I didn't want this blog to be just "This is what we've been doing lately", but more about my thoughts and ideas about motherhood and Ada being Ada. But in order to do that, I need to be more on top of things and make a point of putting out more posts. We have been keeping ourselves so busy with all of our mother-baby groups and running errands, that finding 20 minutes to write out my recent thoughts is a lot more difficult than I thought. So, after all that, here's some more of "this is what we've been doing lately".

I have to say, we have been doing lots of exciting things lately. Lots of "firsts" in the world of babies. For example, she has now had her first taste of sweet potatoes (she's not too sure on them yet), and her first taste of carrots (better than sweet potatoes, but still concerning), and her first taste of rice cereal (getting better, but the spoon is preferred over the actual food). It's been fun, and very messy. Good times.

Ada also had her first swim in a pool. She was an immediate fan of this. It was just like her bath - which she really loves - only BIGGER! Only more chances for splashing! We had a chance to visit a heated pool with some other moms that I've met through the New and Expecting Toronto City Moms Meetup Group, and we had a fabulous time. I'm looking forward to going again.

We got to share Ada's first Chinese New Year with a dragon dance at the Eaton Centre.

And then there's the ever-exciting first time in an Ikea highchair. Ada was a big fan.

And who can miss out on the first pacifier-share? Even as a baby, the grass is always greener on the other side.

And yesterday we celebrated her first half-year. Six months! Can you believe it? Unfortunately for her, she celebrated it by going to her six month check up at the doctor's, including her shots. She is doing really well! And when she was being weighed, she literally broke the scale! Well, it may have been broken before she went on it, but we had to estimate her weight by weighing me, and weighing us together and finding out the difference. So she is approximately 18 pounds, 70cm long, and as healthy as you would want a lovely six month old. Congrats Ada! And for those of you looking for her 6 month birthday picture with a beer, we had to postpone it since she was a little out of sorts from her shots, and was too tired for a photo. Coming soon! You will have to settle with this lovely picture.

A fun list

2007-02-17T12:50:00.000-05:00

I present to you a list of fun activities which Ada (and I) have recently taken part of, in no particular order:

1) Valentine's Day - Ada got to wear her new "Baby's 1st Valentine" shirt, and Jonathan and I got a night out to the movies courtesy of Heather Ann and Chris. (Thank you!) We came home to a happy sleeping baby and a video of our babysitters swinging our daughter around in her Jolly Jumper harness as she laughs hysterically. I'm pretty sure she's going to share her parent's love of rollercoasters.

2) Speaking of Jolly Jumper - Ada can't get enough of this new toy, and believes that her life is now complete now that she can bouncebouncebouncebounce....

3) Aidan's birthday party- Ada's first attendance to another baby's birthday party. Aidan just turned one, and he invited all his baby friends over to his house to run havoc and play with all his toys. Ada particularly enjoyed his UltraSaucer. Please excuse the fuzzy photo, but it's a really cute one of Ada.

4) Video games - Ada enjoys watching her daddy playing video games, or rather, watching the video game itself. Lots of pretty colours and movements. She is destined to be a gamer.

5) Toe sucking - Look out world! Ada's mouth has found her toes! I don't have a photo of it yet, but it sure is fun!

6) Exploring in general - She has mastered the skill of reaching for anything that interests her (in other words, everything), with intentions of putting it in her mouth. I have recently tried having her watch a Baby Einstein video, but she can only take it for about 5-10 minutes before getting frustrated because she can't touch the fun things on the screen and then put them in her mouth. She prefers exploring the world hands-on. Fine with me!

Videos galore!

2007-02-06T09:50:00.000-05:00

Alright, I promised videos, so you shall have videos. I have so many other stories to tell, but they will have to wait for the videos. We have had a busy week, which involved another train ride to London, a first time in a jolly jumper, a visit to every classroom at Byron Woods Montessori, some quality time with Granny, Papa, Aunt Sharon, Grandma, Grandpa, Great-Grandma Buchanan, and Great-Grandma Howard and Great-Grandpa, and so much more. And last night we celebrated Ada's five month birthday with yet another beer. This month, however, Ada is showing much more interest in her monthly beer, as can be seen here:

And onto the videos. The first one was taken a month ago now, but it shows how much Ada enjoys her new gymini. I would say quite a lot.

The next video is Ada showing off her motor boatin' skills, although she has lessened the amount of time spent on this fun activity recently. The sound is a little out of sync from the video, but you'll get the idea.

Next: Ada and I playing peek with a scarf. Warning: A very cute but very naked baby is shown in this video.

This one was taken at Chris and Heather Ann's place and it shows Ada playing tug of war with one of their cats, Dune. I call this one Ada vs. Dune.

This next one is pretty exciting. It shows Ada sitting up on her own (for a short time, granted). My mum just happened to be making a video of her just as she first succeeded, but you'll see her get distracted from smiling at my mum talking to her. Timber!

Okay. This last one is my absolute favourite. I guarantee that you will be watching this video many many times. I'm singing "When You're Smiling" to her (yet another 1920s song I regularly sing to her), and, well, you just have to see it. So - enjoy!

With or without her socks

2007-01-29T18:14:00.000-05:00

I have to say - Ada and I have the most generous friends and family! I had set my goal for the Manulife Walk for Memories for $250, and not only did I surpass that goal, but I more than doubled it - $585! I'm really excited about it since it's my first time doing this walk, and it's for such a worthy cause. I'm so glad that I was able to continue to be involved with those affected by Alzhiemer's disease and other related dementias through this event, even while caring for Ada. It only took a few emails and a morning walking through the PATH (something I do regularly, anyway), but it makes a difference for so many people. A huge thank you to those who pledged me! This year the Walk for Memories managed to raise over $369,000!

The above picture is of me and Ada just before starting the walk. Ada was very excited because she had made many new friends while waiting for the walk to begin. One walker had her in fits of giggles, and her legs were kicking pretty much non-stop at the excitement of looking at all the smiling faces all around her. They had set up entertainment along the PATH, including a classical 'cellist, a skipping troupe, a country-western singer, and even Japanese drummers (Ada was already familiar with this). By the time we got to the half-way point of the walk, Ada was worn out. Here is a picture of me and Ada at the end of the walk:

You will notice that she was wearing a pair of pink socks in the first picture, but her left sock was only half way on. Well, that was the last time seeing that sock, since she managed to kick it off at some point through the walk, so she finished the walk sleeping and sockless. Still, a successful day. :)

Well, Ada and I are heading for London on Wednesday for a couple of days since Jonathan is in Florida for work this week. Yes, we should all be envious as we think of him soaking up the sun as we trudge through the snow. I'll write again next weekend with reports on Wee Hands. Also included will be multiple videos of Ada doing cute things. It's easily done - she's a natural!

City life is never dull

2007-01-22T12:12:00.000-05:00

There are so many reasons that I love living in Toronto, and now that I am on maternity leave, I have been able to take advantage of even more great reasons to live in Toronto. Ada and I have had a very cultured couple of weeks. No, we have not been cultivating bacteria or tissue cells (to my knowledge), but we have been exploiting many cultural opportunities available to us.

A couple of Thursdays ago Ada and I met up with some new friends, Grace and Aidan, that we have gotten to know through our Moms & Babies group here in my building. After coffee and a short wait in the cold, we were treated to a free concert at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts as part of a world music series. Performing were five talented women from U of T who call themselves OnanoKo Taiko Ensemble. They have studied traditional Japanese drumming techniques, but added some Western influences to create an amazing perfomance. When Grace and I walked in with our babies, we had a few people ask us if we thought it was a good idea bringing them to a drumming concert. We told them we wouldn't know until it started. Here is how Grace and Aidan spent most of the concert:

Aidan, being 11 months old, thought the drumming was fine, but not quite entertaining enough, and so he had his lunch during the performance.

And this is how Ada spent most of the concert:

At first, she was awake and happily looking around at all the people arriving, but she started to act sleepy so I put her down, and she fell asleep, during the first song, loud Japanese drums and all. What woke her up? The applause for the second-to-last song. She then happily kicked her legs in my arms during the last song. The answer to those people inquiring about bringing babies to a drum concert? It was a great idea. :)

Later that week, Ada and I met up with Pam and Liam for a trip to the ROM. We stayed on the second floor which was specificially designed for children so that there were plenty of flaps and buttons to push for Liam. We spent most of our time there following Liam from room to room since he was convinced that the next room was so much more exciting than this boring one. And instead of playing in the sandbox digging for dinosaur bones, Liam prefered to use the large broom to sweep the extra sand on the floor. Here is Liam showing off his flap-lifting skills:

Along with these outings, we also attended another Salsa Babies class, Story Time at the library, a visit to Desa and Luka's place (more new friends from Moms & Tots), a trip to the movies (thanks to Stars & Strollers) to see The Pursuit of Happyness (a great movie!), a trip to Aurora with Amber to see Tanya and Chris' new house, and another visit to the ADP to see my seniors. And Jonathan and I got an afternoon out to see a movie thanks to Grandma and Grandpa. A win-win situation there - we went out as just the two of us, and Jonathan's parents got to play with Ada for a few hours!

I want to thank all those that have pledged me and Ada for the Manulife Walk for Memories. I had set a goal for $250, but due to the overwhelming generosity of my wonderful friends and family, not only have a surpassed my goal, but I have almost doubled it! Only 5 more days until the walk!

And onto exciting Ada News: Ada has discovered something that she finds very amusing and fun to play with - her feet! You can't underestimate a good toe-grab. Or a good giraffe-chew, either.

...And wearing ducks on her feet

2007-01-09T18:08:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how much Ada is changing every day - I can barely keep up with her!

For example, she has finally figured out what to do with all of the extra saliva she is producing - make motor boat sounds! I now have a face cloth within reaching distance at all times so that I can wipe up the goobers from her smiling face that her new skill is producing. Either she is imitating a motor boat (which would be very impressive considering she has yet to see one), or she is practicing to be a trumpet player. Either way, it's very cute and messy. She has also found the upper octaves of her vocal chords, and enjoys practicing her range when especially excited and happy. Her turning abilities are getting better every day - my doctor thinks she'll be regularly flipping over any day now. And anything and everything is required to go in her mouth, according to Ada. She is really into reaching out for things she is interested in and then putting them directly in her mouth. Now I have to make sure anything within Ada's reaching distance is putting-in-her-mouth friendly. And she has become increasingly impressed with my singing skills (it's always nice to have a fan, even if she slobbers), and I can almost always get her to smile, regardless of mood, by giving her my rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" or "Daisy, Daisy". Since the majority of my sing-a-long song knowledge is based on my work at the day program, she is going to be the most educated four month old in songs from the 20s, 30s, and 40s.

Yesterday was Ada's four month appointment at the doctors. She gets another A+! She is in the 50th percentile for head circumference, 75th percentile for weight (she's 15 pounds now!), and has continued on the line of 95th percentile for length! My doctor used this fancy program on her computer to compare her to her 2 month measurements, and she is right on target. She said she couldn't have been more on track. If you're wondering what the "percentile" stuff means, it basically means that only 5 percent of babies her age are taller than her, 25 percent are heavier, and she's right in the middle for head circumference. Unfortunately, Ada had a rough reaction to the immunizations a number of hours after. She wanted to sleep, but I think she had a slight fever and the injection sites were sore, because she wouldn't stop crying for about 45 minutes. The first three people I tried calling were not home/available (that being Jonathan, my parents, and Jonathan's parents), but my lovely Pamela saved the day by being home and helping me calm down. A trip to the drug store, a dose of Tempra drops, and an early night to bed later, and Ada is back to normal. She woke up at 5am happily cooing and making motor boat sounds wanting to play since she went to bed so early. I happily obliged.

And today Ada and I officially started our Salsa Babies class - great fun! And Jonathan and I are now registered for Wee Hands, starting on January 20th. I'll keep you all posted!

And onto something separate but very important to me: I have signed up to participate in the Manulife Walk for Memories, which is a fundraising event for the Alzheimer Society of Toronto. I hope to raise at least $250, so any help would be greatly appreciated! You can either go to my Personal Page to pledge online, or you can contact me if you prefer to donate in person. For those of you in London, I plan on being there for a few days the week after the event (January 31 - February 2), so I can collect pledges then. I plan to take Ada with me in her Baby Bjorn for the walk!

Good-Bye Christmas Carols, Hello Rocky Theme

2007-01-06T09:40:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday morning, and everyone is asleep in the house except me. I would love to join them, but Ada woke me so that she could have a diaper change and some playtime, but now she has played herself back to sleep but I'm too awake now to sleep. Even the cats are sleeping - Calvin in the bathroom sink and Max under a dining room chair (the change table shift isn't until the afternoon). I would consider this peaceful except for the loud drilling going on in the construction site across the street.

We have had a whirlwind of a Christmas season, and it was all wonderful. The most exciting part was being able to see Melissa and Tom again, still smelling of England and excited to finally meet our little Ada. As you can see, Melissa took to being an aunt very easily...

...and Tom enjoyed the Baby Bjorn. Maybe a little too much...

Ada was a little gem throughout the whole Christmas week. It started off with a trip to London on Christmas Eve after picking up Melissa and Tom from the airport. We had Christmas with the Howards on Christmas Day, where Ada had at least half the presents under the tree with her name on them, then Christmas with my family on Boxing Day, then back to Toronto to check on the cats. Back to London on the 28th for Christmas with the Fuerths and a birthday celebration for Jonathan's dad, a day of recovery, then back to Toronto on the 30th. We spent New Year's Eve at Andrew's new condo for an evening of yummy food and lots of Wii playing. Meanwhile, Ada slept in three different beds, stayed out past her bedtime, and was passed from one smiling relative to another for a full week. Considering the changes to her usual schedule, she did very well, but we paid for it this past week. She must have wondered where all the smiling faces and new environments went to, and why should she go back to her normal routine now? It took me a couple of fussy days, but she has finally realized how much she needed her old routine.

The potential for a peaceful Saturday morning is definitely gone now - a large marching band has just started practicing right outside the Skydome... er.. Roger's Centre. The brass is blaring the Rocky theme (there is one trumpet player who should be considering an alternate career), while the percussion and bass section are randomly tooting and thumping to who knows what. Ah, the joys of living downtown. :)

Here is Ada is with her favourite second cousin, Ethan. Ethan couldn't get enough of Ada - he is going to be a real people person. And it was the first time I've seen Ada take interest in another baby.

Ada received an abundance of lovely gifts from everyone, and I want to thank everyone again for everything. Jonathan and I looked at our collection of photos from Christmas last night and were shocked to see how few we took. I guess with all the other cameras flashing (and there were a lot of cameras flashing!), we didn't think to take many of our own. I will try harder at taking more pictures so that I will have more to post! But to finish off, here is a picture of Ada celebrating her four month birthday, this time with a Belgian beer. She has good taste!

Well, the marching band has come to a climax, and Ada has decided she can't sleep through it, so that means I get to play with Ada some more! Lucky me!

Happy This-Time-of-Year!

2006-12-22T19:55:00.000-05:00

Ada and I have been keeping ourselves out of trouble this holiday season. Perhaps that is why the media has created this necessity to run around like our hair is on fire while attempting to buy just the right present for everyone we know - to keep us on Santa's Good List.

Last weekend we rented a car to go to a Christmas party in Brampton, so we took advantage of the wheels and headed to Newmarket to visit Jonathan's cousin Chris, his wife Pam, and Ada's adorable second-cousin, Ethan. It's fun watching Ethan and knowing we're seeing what Ada will be doing in a few short months. After our visit, we dolled ourselves up (see above picture) and drove our rental (an SUV - fitting since we were driving around the 'burbs) to Brampton to Mashaal and Melissa's annual Christmas party. Mashaal is a friend of Jonathan's from university, and when we entered the house, Mashaal immediately took Ada and played with her for a good part of the first hour. He said hello to the arriving guests, but then explained that he wouldn't be able to socialize since there was a baby to play with right now. He won her smiles by giving her "zerberts", and she loved every minute of it. Here is a photo of Ada and her new best friend:

We spent a hectic few days avoiding malls, so we visited my seniors and I ran a Christmas sing-a-long while Ada dazzled everyone with her presence. One of my gentlemen was so moved by seeing Ada, and so happy about her being my baby, it actually brought him to tears, and he is not usually an emotional man. It is amazing what emotions a baby can induce in people. Young or old, male or female, she affects people in a way that I would often not predict.

Ada has been reacting and interacting with her environment a lot more this past week, and even laughs at stuff she finds funny. She has been reaching out to touch her toys, and likes to watch and smile at the people we meet when we're out. She believes the sole purpose of the subway is to smile at strangers. I love watching people light up when she smiles back at them. We attended our Moms & Tots Christmas party yesterday, where Ada wore her new Christmas onesy from our friend Cat. Here she is looking all casual as she looks over her shoulder to see the other babies playing. It won't be long before she'll be on the floor crawling around with them!

Happy Holidays everyone! I'm looking forward to seeing the family and friends that we haven't seen for a while. It's my favourite part of the holidays!

These chubby thighs can control the world!

2006-12-13T18:11:00.000-05:00

Ada's bouncy chair has an attachment which is an arch that goes in front of her. There are little bouncy animals and hanging toys, as well as a feature where music plays and lights flash when she kicks her feet. There are large buttons underneath the material which, when properly pushed by a baby's kicking feet, will start the sound and light show. Ada quickly figured out this cause and effect, and since she loves flashing lights, she was eager to put it into practice. The problem is, she now thinks that in order to have something done that she wants, all she has to do is kick her legs! While on her change table she wants her elephant mobile to dance, so kick your legs! After filling her diaper she wouldn't mind a diaper change, so kick your legs! Mommy or daddy was singing a song she likes and wants them to keep singing, so kick your legs! She believes that she can control the universe by kicking her legs! In the following video, you can see that as soon as she sees her arch, her legs get going. I deliberately dressed her so that her lovely pudgy legs were visible for those fans of Ada's thighs. :) Can you imagine how incredible chubby those legs would be if she wasn't getting all this exercise?

Ada had yet another breakthrough yesterday, but noone got to witness it in person. While going into the kitchen to put something away in the fridge, I had put Ada down on her front to get some more tummy-time. When I got back 10 seconds later, she was lying on her back(!) upset because she had rolled herself under her chair and she couldn't see anything above her. Later that day she was desperately trying to go from her back on to her front, but only got as far as her side. After watching her get progressively madder I eventually tipped her onto her front, and she gave me a HUGE SMILE in gratitude. I didn't want to tell her that I had made it possible since she looked so proud of herself. My little girl is growing up! :)

Happy Birthday Aunt Melissa!

2006-12-11T16:18:00.000-05:00

Today is Ada's Aunt Melissa's birthday, but Ada will have to give birthday kisses to her in 2 more weeks when we see her since she's not in the country right now. :) Happy Birthday Melissa!

Ada had her own birthday celebration last week, celebrating her 3 month birthday with a beer, as usual.

Jonathan and I had our first night out just the two of us on December 2nd. It was Jonathan's work Christmas Party, and my lovely friend Pamela offered to babysit for the night. You know you have a good friend when she offers to babysit your 3 month old for the first time while simultaneously putting her 17 month old to bed on her own. And since Ada recently went funny about taking her milk from a bottle, Pam couldn't even use milk to keep her happy. But Ada was (thankfully!) a good girl and didn't make it too hard on Pam. And Jonathan maintains that I was also a good girl and managed to have a nice night out. I didn't realize how much we needed a night to ourselves until we went out, even though we missed her like crazy the whole time. And to prove that Ada didn't scream the whole time we were gone, Pam made a video of Ada happily kicking away on the floor to show us when we got back. Thanks to Pam for being such a wonderful babysitter!

Ada and I have joined another moms group through the internet, called the New and Expecting Toronto City Moms Meetup Group. So far we have went to two demos - Salsa Babies and Wee Hands. The Salsa Babies was a lot of fun. I strapped Ada into her Baby Bjorn and I learned Salsa steps for about 45 minutes. I'm hoping to join up to a 6 week course in January. The Wee Hands demo was also very interesting. Jonathan and I are planning on going to an 8 week course starting in January where we learn some signs to do with Ada so that she can communicate with us before she is able to talk. Signs such as more, please, milk, change, all done, etc. The demo was great, so hopefully the classes are good too.

And we've had a breakthrough today - Ada has finally accepted a bottle and nipple combination to take her milk! Hooray for Playtex Orthodontic Nipples! Cross your fingers that she continues to like them! It just goes to show that she can go from beer bottle to milk bottle. That's my girl!

Ada Skills

2006-11-28T13:55:00.000-05:00

Although she has yet to get a sweet bike or acquire nunchuck skills, Ada has developed many new skills in her first 12 weeks of life. And now that I think of it, I have also developed many new skills in her first 12 weeks of life. Her skills are much more impressive.

Quite a few of my new skills involve doing a task while nursing. I am getting much quicker at typing with one hand, and I have managed crocheting, reading, talking on the phone, and even eating while nursing. I have learned, however, that it is best if Ada either wears a hat or has a blanket over her during my eating-while-nursing performance, just so she doesn't end up with cracker crumbs littering her hair.

Breastfeeding on it's own is a skill that both Ada and I have mastered. It's not the "It's natural, so it must be easy" skill that I had a tendency toward believing before being a mother. Luckily Ada caught on pretty quickly. We sure have had a lot of practice in the past 12 weeks. Another thing that we've had plenty of practice on is diaper changing. Although we've undertaken many a diaper change in a variety of places, Ada can attest to the fact that the best place for it is on her changing table with her elephants. Ada's absolute favourite place is on her changing table where she can watch her elephant mobile dance above her head, and she can have HUGE SMILES and kick her legs frantically so that it makes it more difficult (and therefore longer) for the diaper change to happen. We named the three elephants on remembrance Day after listening to God Save the Queen, so now the elephants are Longto, Ray, and Noverus. If you don't get it, say the three names one after the other and think of the words to the song... Let me know if you still don't get it...

A few of my other new skill include: attaching the BabyBjörn to me while holding a fidgety/sleeping/crying/etc baby; jiggling the stroller at just the right frequency for baby pleasure; using a breast pump; dressing a baby that is excited about her dancing elephants; getting through the day on minimal sleep; taking pictures of the cutest baby ever; and that's just to name a few.

Ada's skills are much more impressive. For example, she can now hold her head with minimal jiggling. She can survive tummy time for at least 30 seconds without getting mad. And let's not forget regularly losing socks, pooping 5 minutes after a diaper change, marathon hiccups, kicking her feet to make her arch light up and sing (I'll post videos of that soon), and the cutest goos, aahs, and coos imaginable. She's been talking up a storm these days. And she is also very skilled at stopping strangers on the street almost every day just to tell me that she is an adorable baby. I think that's the greatest skill of all - making people smile.

She's going to hate me for doing this when she's 15...

2006-11-23T20:40:00.000-05:00

The following is a video that I made when I was visiting my family in London. My mum and sister were playing with Ada, and I was enjoying watching my mum interact with Ada and didn't think a picture would be enough, so I switched the camera to video but didn't tell my mum and sister. It's all cute and cuddly until the near the end, when Ada decided to put in her own two cents worth. I put this on YouTube yesterday, and already there have been over 300 hits. All I have to say is that, you may not believe it (and my sister didn't, as you will see), but it honestly was the baby.

I've been to London to visit the Queen...

2006-11-22T12:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I wasn't in London England, but I did go to visit my sister in London Ontario for a couple of days. The above picture is Ada with my sister, Sharon, and my dad. Ada and I have been keeping busy lately. This post will attempt to summarize our past week's events.

We have become regulars at our building's Moms & Tots group on Thursdays, and I'm actually remembering names beyond "Aidan's mom" and "Luca's mom". One of the moms is permanently moving to Texas in a couple of weeks, so we arranged a moms night out at a local club this past Friday night. We were all nervous for a variety of reasons, but the biggest two were leaving our little ones at home, and what in the world will I wear?? We've all become accustomed to wearing clothes that we don't mind being spat up on. And for me, anyway, my body still doesn't quite fit into my pre-pregnancy fancy clothes (mainly due to the effects of nursing on my upper half...). We had a good time, though. I thought I would be the most nervous about leaving Ada for the first time since I'm the newest mother in the group, but it turned out that we were all just about as nervous as each other, so I felt okay.

I also joined another mom and baby group - at the local library. Every Friday at either 10am or 11am (we're signed up for the 10am group, but we can attend the 11am group if we can't make it on time), a group of about 20 parents and their babies are lead by a friendly librarian. There are 2 bins filled with toys and books for playtime, which are then put away for about 30 minutes of singing and story reading. The songs are mostly interactive, and all the parents know all the words and actions, so I have some work to do to catch up. Then the books and toys are brought back out as the parents pack up and the children interact with each other. It should be fun!

Over the weekend we had a lovely visit from our friends Dave and Jill who were in town getting Christmas presents at MEC. Yes, they are much more organized that Jonathan and I. We just talk about starting our Christmas shopping before December, but we don't actually do it. But we still have time this year! Anyways, we went for dinner at Tortilla Flats, and Dave and Jill were able to meet Ada. We already have plans in the works for taking her on a canoe trip. I hope she likes portaging. :)

Jonathan also snagged the 294th of 300 available Wii consoles from Best Buy on Sunday morning, so that was the highlight of Jonathan's weekend.

Ada and I took a train back from London last night, so it was Ada's first train trip. My mum thought this was significant enough to take many pictures at the train station, so a woman offered to take a picture of the group of us. Anyone watching would have thought that Ada and I were leaving for some distant location for an extended period of time. Ada did enjoy her train trip, and one of the passengers told me that he thought Ada was the cutest baby he had ever seen. He didn't need to convince me of that. :)

The reason I went to London was to provide Ada Cuddles for my sister. Last Thursday, her lovely little cat, Scarlett, became suddenly ill and unexpectedly died. She was only a couple of years old, and was Sharon's first cat after she moved out of our parent's place. Ada Cuddles are magical, and can help a person going through the grieving process. If anyone is need of Ada Cuddles, please let me know. Ada Smiles are also known to have healing powers, but may tear a mother's heart strings.

For Scarlett - you brought a lot of happiness to Sharon's life, and you will be greatly missed.

What do Ada and Dweezil Zappa have in common?

2006-11-15T15:42:00.000-05:00

Since the most famous person that I share my birthday (April 20) with is a person who is widely known to be synonymous with evil (that being Adolf Hitler), I was interested in who Ada shares a birthday with. I found out that she shares it with quite an interesting collection of people. Included are an infamous outlaw, a legendary comic, a 60s blonde bombshell, the ex-girlfriend of both Marilyn Manson and Howard Stern, the lead singer of a famous English rock band, as well as a guy named Dweezil. As I said, quite a collection.

Another reason that my interest in famous birthdays piqued was the result of Ada provoking strangers to talk to me. Her extreme cuteness is too irresistible, you see. I love it - you get to meet the most interesting people. I ended up having an extended conversation with a gentleman on the subway about his collections, which included autographs. He organizes them by birth date, which now means that he has the impressive ability to tell most people which famous person you share your birthday with. I stumped him with Ada's birthday. Apparently he doesn't have the autograph of Dweezil Zappa.

I've been playing more with YouTube, and I now have a couple more videos available. If you're interested, you can see the first time I captured Ada's beautiful smile on video. I took me 2 weeks to finally get, and has resulted in way too many videos of Ada frowning at me as I talk in a way-too-high-pitched voice saying "Hello Ada! Let's see your smile! That's a good girl!" It's amazing how quickly "motherese" sets in once you have your own baby. Scary, but true. The following also contains annoying mother-blabber, but if you want to see Ada dancing (aka kicking her feet) and giving cheeky smiles, then you will have to suffer through it.

So sorry!

2006-11-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

I have just discovered that only registered blogger users were able to post comments, which was not my intention. I apologize to those of you who have attempted to post a comment and were not able to.

To reward you for your patience, here is an animation that Jonathan created of a 4 day old Ada.

Shake, rattle and roll!

2006-11-09T19:02:00.000-05:00

Here is my first attempt at attaching a video. This is Ada showing off her new rattling skills. She has a cow rattle in her hand, and the little ducks on her feet have rattles in them too. As you can see, Ada takes this rattling business very seriously.

Enjoy!

As fit as a fiddle

2006-11-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Ada's two month doctor appointment, which went very well. She is now 11lb 9oz and 61 cm long! At least I know that all this breastfeeding is going somewhere! She enjoyed having the first half of the checkup, which included getting naked, listening to her heart and lungs, getting measured, checking her fontanelle, her eyes, and reflexes. All good! And Ada was happy to show of her healthiness. What she did not enjoy was getting her shots, which my doctor warned me repeatedly is quite common. I asked to feed her during the shots so that she would have something comforting during the trauma. After each poke, she yelled, got purple in the face, and then realized that there was milk to be had and continued happily sucking. Oh, the power of the boob.

Sunday was Ada's 2 month birthday. I can't believe it. It's funny how the time seems to have flown by, but at the same time I feel as if Ada has always been in my life. I couldn't imagine it any other way now. Ada decided that the best way to celebrate each month birthday is with a beer. She is truly her father's daughter.

My goal this week is to figure out how to put videos onto this blog. I have some great ones of her smiling, dancing, playing with rattles, and more, so I would love to share them with everyone. I'll try my best to have it figured by the end of the week, but that will totally depend on my boss, Ada. She runs a tight shift. :)

no, I'm not planning on sautéing her for dinner...

2006-11-03T18:37:00.000-05:00

I finally learned how to add some links on the sidebar there, so now there is a direct link to my Flickr page, a few links to blogs of my friends, as well as few of my favourite links. I'll add more as I think of them. I'm feeling rather chuffed with myself, with these new skill of adding links to my blog. You would think being with Jonathan for almost 10 years that some geekiness would rub off on me, but apparently not.

Speaking of rubbing, I gave Ada an olive oil massage today. It was recommended by my midwife, as well as in a book that was given to me from Pam, written by William and Martha Sears, called The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby From Birth to Age Two. I got her all cute and naked, laid her out on a nice soft blanket in the sun, and massaged olive oil into her skin from her feet all the way up to her lovely little face. I didn't know what she would think of it. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it, since she spent the time waving her arms and legs around and cooing, and then I got a HUGE SMILE when I was all done. What better payment is that?

Happy Hallowe'en!

2006-10-31T18:15:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Ada's second Hallowe'en party - she's a busy girl. This one was with the Moms & Babies group in my building. This was my third time going to the group. It consists of a collection of lovely mothers of young children that live in the CityPlace buildings. There have been anywhere from 8 to about 15 mothers in attendance, and they are a wide variety of ages, ethnicities, lifestyles, etc., so it is really interesting and a lot of fun. It is actually called "Moms and Tots", but Jonathan and I don't enjoy referring to our child as a "Tot" because it reminds us of Tater Tots. Ada is not a deep fried potato. She is, however, the cutest Little Red Riding Hood that ever was. I have pictures to prove it.

And here is a picture of a select group of the mothers at the party with their children all dressed up for Hallowe'en. And the great part was, since they are all too young to eat sugar, the energy in the room was created totally on babies having fun with each other. How fun is that?

Adanames

2006-10-30T17:57:00.000-05:00

While I was pregnant I would often wonder about the little nicknames I would end up giving our baby. They are never planned - they just happen. I am not a person to regularly hand out nicknames to people, in fact I don't even have a pet name for Jonathan. But I have a good collection for Calvin and Max (Calvinator, Maxwellian, Little Man, Fuzz Face, just to name a few), but I think that is because they are dependent on me. In these past 8 weeks we have a small collection for Ada, usually dependent on her mood or clothing attire. Here are a few of her Adanames:

Milk Monster: This one comes about when Ada is demanding milk NOW, in fact, 10 seconds ago would have been better. It is usually used in the form of "Uh, oh. The Milk Monser is here!"

Hiccup Queen: Ada is an expert at hiccups. She used to get the about 3-4 times a day, but now it is only about 1-2 times a day. They usually start up after a more vigorous feed, and she's usually okay with them unless they last a longer than usual time, then she may get frustrated with them.

Orange Ada: A play on the drink orangeade. This name only appears while Ada is dressed in orange attire, which she looks very dashing in.

Sneezy Face: Usually after a collection of the cutest sneezes a baby could produce.

Smiley Face: This is a new name to the collection, due to the more recent appearances of HUGE SMILES!!! I have been anxiously awaiting these smiles, quite aware that they usually don't appear until the 6th week or so. Right on schedule, but only at certain times of the day, Ada will make the whole world light up and cause my heart to burst with a multitude of glorious smiles. But as soon as the camera comes out, Ada tucks her smiles away for safe keeping. She prefers to save her smiles for live performances. I managed to get a couple of pictures this morning, but they don't do the live performance justice, as Ada is fully aware. Enjoy!

For those of you looking for the Little Red Riding Hood pictures that I promised, I will put them up tomorrow. She wasn't in the mood for photos on Saturday, so I'm hoping to get some good ones tomorrow for her Hallowe'en Party.

No time for time...

2006-10-27T18:02:00.000-04:00

I have discovered the Number One Rule of being a Mother To An Infant. Once the realization of this Number One Rule struck me, life became a million times easier. I have accepted this rule, and I believe it allows me to be a much calmer, sane woman. The Number One Rule is: Everything Takes Longer. Hot food will be eaten cold. My walk to Kensington Market may take an extra 20 minutes because Ada wants to eat. Getting dressed to go out can take up to an hour. Getting anywhere with a stroller can sometimes double in time by the constant need to find a stroller-accessible route. The list can go on and on.

I no longer wear I watch since time doesn't matter any more. I know this is a mother thing because I was recently at a mother and baby group I joined and someone asked for the time. We all just looked at each other until we realized - it's a mother and baby group! No one wears a watch! And I made a point of changing the message on my voicemail to point out that I am likely not answering the phone because I am with Ada, that way I'm not rushing to the phone every time it rings. Although, I have to admit, this has been a difficult habit to break. It's amazing how much power a ringing phone has over a person! Must..... answer.... ring.....

The wonderful part about this rule (other than the zen-like ability to ignore the power of the clock), is that it is worth losing my watch tan-line for the opportunity to be the mother of Ada. If the laundry still isn't done because Ada is hungry again, it's okay because I get to watch her one arm stretch out behind her and relax as she enjoys her milk. If writing an email is taking ten times longer due to typing with one hand because Ada requires a cuddle, that's fine with me if it means that Ada is content. Ada makes being a mother the best job in the world.

For Hallowe'en Ada is dressing up as Little Red Riding Hood. I will be the wolf dressed as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother. The pictures will likely be posted at some point this weekend since we are going to a Hallowe'en party tomorrow. I must warn you - Ada will be the cutest Little Red Riding Hood in history.

And now I am going to attempt to put some more pictures on Flickr. Once I get some more help from the Fabulous Heather Ann, I will have a link on this site to go straight to our Flickr pictures. Wish me luck!

Finally!

2006-10-23T09:41:00.000-04:00

Ada
Originally uploaded by jfuerth.

As promised, I am going to keep this blog for all of our wonderful family and friends, so you can keep updated on the life and times of Ada Helen Fuerth. My plan is to write stories about Ada, motherhood, and life in general, as well as to post updated pictures of our new family. I want to use this as an opportunity to share my experiences and images of my new life with Ada, and so that our families and friends that live too far away to see regularly can follow along.

Special thanks to Heather Ann who designed this page and has been helping me (and will continue to help!) with creating this blog.

Enjoy!

Welcome Baby Ada!

2006-09-30T20:39:00.000-04:00

Ada Helen Fuerth was born on Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 at 2:00am. More posts to come!

Ultrasound Pictures!

2006-08-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

We got these pictures of our ultrafœtus from our first and only ultrasound. This was back on April 7.