Ada May 2 Years Old!!

I simply cannot believe that two years has passed since Ada was born! 

It simply doesn't seem possible and I can hardly remember what life was like before she made us a family of 4.

 (What birthday is complete without a trip to Target?)

We had a simple celebration this year. We do every other year party celebrations and we did a party for her first birthday last year so we did the same thing as Cora's 2nd Birthday celebration, family dinner at CiCi's! 

She is pretty obsessed with Hello Kitty so of course I had to make her a special Hello Kitty birthday cake!

You can see a slight dip in Kitty's chin on the left there - that would be where the girls taste tested the cake before I iced it as it was cooling. haha Life is always interesting with kids! Cora told me they had eaten some by walking up to me and holding her mouth open wide and telling me that she had some yummy cake in her tummy! 

 Some fun facts about her that I don't want to forget -

She's wearing 2T clothes but can still fit in 18 month pants and shorts for the most part.

She is solid - this girl feels like she weighs as much as Cora, almost two years older than her!

She is still nursing, I'm pretty ready for her to wean but she doesn't seem interested in that.




She is speaking very well! 2 and 3 word sentences and if we remind her not to whine she will say pretty clearly what she wants or needs.

She says thank you by humming it.

When she drinks out of a bottle, particularly wide mouth, like gatorade etc she puts her whole mouth over it and sticks her tongue in there to lap it up.

She dances by basically liming around in a circle waving her arms in the air.

she says okay as "otay"

She can follow 2 and 3 step directions well but has a defiant streak and gives me a run for my money often!

She will sit on the toilet and occasionally goes potty! Her first time to go potty by herself was when she was with her Papa while I was at a birth. 

She enjoys going to Race Trac with papa to get a "coke"! 

She finally will take a pacifier on occasion, she really just chews on it but if she is getting antsy and wants to nurse and we're out of the house and I can't because of what I'm wearing or we're shopping etc I can usually get her to settle down with the pacifier. 

She can sleep in a shopping cart or stroller! I'm not always sucessful in transfering her to it, but considering I've *never* managed this with Cora, this is a big deal for us! 

She's really hot natured (still) she doesn't want to wear pajams, isn't a cuddler and does not like to sweat. When she is upset by it I can sometimes calm her down by gently blowing on her face. 

I have to trim her bangs once a week it seems! 

Her favorite shows are Sesame Street (Elmo and Abby), she tolerates Daniel Tiger (her sister's current favorite) and loves Doc McStuffins!

Adores Hello Kitty, not sure how this obsession started. She has a pair of Hello Kitty stride rite shoes and she pretty much refuses to wear any others (even though these are really stinky!). 

Her favorite toys are anything to do with dogs and her dolls

She loves swimming and is fearless in the water (as long as she isn't tired, then she's glued to my hip).

She stands up and jumps to me without warning, like out of shopping carts or off of places she shouldn't have climbed up. I haven't missed catching her yet...

She still takes one nap a day around 11:00 and if it's a really busy day she'll take another one in the late afternoon. 

She isn't shy at all. She waves to strangers and says hello. She used to wave really big back and forth but now she has this princess wave where she keeps her fingers together and just slightly moves her hand back and forth. 

She really likes horses.

She loves blueberries and bananas. She prefers salad to pizza and loves italian food, especially spaghetti and "ada ravioli". 

I can't wait to see what my sweet girl is going to grow into. She is so fun and adventurous. Such an absolute blessing from God! 

Kidlet Update

I miss blogging. I think about it often, but sitting down to write just doesn't happen often. Truth be told, there are several things I really aught to be doing right now instead of writing this but #selfcare 

I think I miss the journaling aspect the most. It's one of the main reasons I began blogging, to journal our life for myself and my children when they're grown one day. 

I haven't done an update on Ada since she was 3 months old. I have done a good job keeping up with her baby book calendar though. 

• Ada will be 2 in July, she is 1 year 9 months old.
• She is a big kid! She's tall for her age and I'm frequently asked in stores if the girls are twins or "how close are they?" - Cora is small, Ada is big. They can wear each others clothing except long pants. 
• Ada goes by Ada-May, Ada-gator, pterodactyl (not so much anymore but she still has a shrill cry), sissy.
• Ada eats like a champ. She loves her vegetables, particularly broccoli. She will steal bites of our salads. Zuchini, squash, asaparagus and green beans are a few of her other favorites. 
• We still co-sleep and she nurses herself to sleep. She sleeps a lot better when John puts her down & doesn't really come searching for milkies during the night. She hates pajamas, hates being covered up or being touched while she sleeps. 
• She is a great napper! She will come tell me she's ready for a nap between 11 and 1 each day depending on what time she woke up and how busy we've been that day. She will take a second nap in later afternoon if we've had an early, busy day. 

Napping at the Birth Center while Mommy cleans after births

• She doesn't seem ready to potty train. She will sit on her sister's potty chair and pretend, but she doesn't show any other signs of readiness. She has to wear hypoalergenic diapers, size 5. I have started and stopped using cloth several times, I'm just too busy to keep up with it. 
• Her favorite TV shows are Doc McStuffins, Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street. 
• She is pretty verbal! She's definitely more verbal than Cora was at this age, so I'm just comparing between the two of them. She can say Mama, Daddy, Cora "corwawa", papa, dog, ball, no (she's really good at this one...), uh huh, uh oh, hot dog, just to name a few. There are so many more but it's hard to keep track. 

• Coralie is 3 years & 8 months old and will be 4 in October
• She's pretty small for her age. She wears 3T dresses, but needs 2T pants for length most of the time. 
• Cora goes by Cora-lizzard, lizzy, sister, turkey
• She is really good at playing "possum" (pretending to sleep). She has fooled us many times, but on the bright side, she's quiet when she pretends to sleep! 
• She hates us brushing her hair, it is a frequent fight. 
• She loves the idea of swimming but then freaks out when we actually want her in the water. It makes her nervous if she sees me swimming off into water away from the side of the pool. We're going to need to do swim lessons soon.
  
• She loves reading books and identifying different things in the pictures.
  
   
• She can count to ten, but refuses to say the number three. She can, she just thinks it's funny that it bothers us so much that she won't.
• She will repeat the alphabet with us and can say the next letter if I start with A, she'll say B, then I say C etc. but she won't just recite it.
• When I'm leaving for work, particularly in a hurry for a birth she will come up and give me a hug and ask if I'm "going to help a lady have a baby?"
• She frequently pretends to go to work. She'll come up to me with her purse and keys and give me hugs and kisses. Sometimes I can understand the word "baby" in what she says she's going to work to do. 
• She is potty trained... mostly! She will use the potty chair at home, but refuses to use our toilet. She uses the toilet with a child seat at my dad's house. She is terrified of public toilets so we drive around with potty chairs in the cars so we can escape to the van/car if she needs to potty. We're working with her on recognizing needing to go before we go in & trying verses telling me when there's not much time to do something about it. She still wears pull ups to church or any time she's in someone else care. She usually won't talk to her teachers/babysitters etc to tell them she needs to go to the bathroom so she has accidents. She has gotten to where she can make it through church without needing to potty until she's with us.


• I'm dreading vacation this summer. We will have long stretches in the car & quick outings so for all of that she can just use her potty chair but while we're in Washington DC she's going to have to just go in her pull up if she hasn't gotten over the toilet thing. She'll tell me she needs a "diaper change" after she makes a mess... 
• Her anxieties about being left somewhere are much better. There are still usually some tears, but she settles down quickly and is fine. 
• Both girls love going to RaceTrac and getting a taquito and coke (Ada can say "coke" well!). This is a typical grandpa outing for them while I'm at work. 
• The car wash is another favorite outing. She will ask to be unbuckled from her car seat & climb up to the front to sit in our laps while the car is washed. 

Oh my goodness I could keep going, but I'll just have to remember to include other things in future posts! 

Ada Mayme - 3 Months

Health
Ada is healthy as a horse! She had a bit of allergies or maybe a slight cold through weeks 9 and 10 but she's doing great now. Looks like she has psoriasis just like Mommy and Cora, the allergies really made it flare up behind her ears.

Height/Weight
Last time we had her at the doctor, she weighed in at about 15 lbs! She was 90% for all her measurements! She is a big girl!!

Teething
Thankfully, no actual teething so far, but she's very drooly. I remember Cora having that stage of all the drool too but this seems worse. As soon as I locate Cora's Amber Teething necklace I will put it on Ada to see if that will help some with it.

Nicknames
"Ada-May" seems to be the only consistent one.

Clothing
Well, she kind of runs the gammot here. She can still fit in a very few of her 0-3 month outfits and a fair bit of her 3 month stuff but shes definitely moving into her 3-6 month clothes. She got to this size a lot quicker than I expected her too and we're probably going to have to do some shopping soon!

Diapers
I jammed her in size one for as long as I could to finish out the open packages but we have officially moved her into size 2. I'm ready to put her in cloth, and she should officially start fitting into them. I need to spend some dedicated time repairing some of the diapers we have with loose elastic to have plenty of them. Since I'm the one that changes her diapers at Mothers Day Out (where I work) I am probably going to start having her in cloth there to save money and only do disposables for longer outings that I just don't want to deal with cloth.

Eating
She's nursing like a champ! Her latch isn't and never is particularly deep but she's clearly just fine & growing great. What isn't so fantastic is that we cannot get her to take a bottle. We've tried 4 different types and I just broke down and bought the highly recommended Medela Calma nipples that are supposed to be "Just like the breast" (and are almost $20/bottle!!!!) and she's rejecting those too. She also refuses pacifiers. :( We're continuing to work with her on the bottles because as of now I can't leave her at all (we tried and epically failed).

Sleeping
She sleeps so well! I'm so grateful! She is very particular about her 8:00 bedtime, is pretty fussy from 6:30 until she goes down for the night. She'll wake and nurse about Midnight (I'm still awake dealing with the house/school work etc) then she'll wake one more time some nights (I'm not sure what time exactly, between 2 & 4 am) but she will occasionally make it from midnight until about 6:30 am!

She's beginning to be awake more during the days, but I don't keep up with her sleeping/wake times exactly.

Fun things we did
Dinner with the whole family when Aunt M and Uncle B were in town visiting. We went to Yesterland Farms in Canton the first weekend in October to spend some family time with her Uncle Jacob and Aunt Stephanie. UNT Homecoming tailgating. Pumpkin patch trip with MDO (that there are no pictures of because she slept through the entire thing in her Ergo carrier). She's also tagged along with Mommy for a girls night at Auntie Lauren's house and for a Murder Mystery Dinner at Ms. Angela's house.

Likes
Her swing! It's about to be quite the issue that she has nearly outgrown all the swings! She likes hanging out in her highchair, it gives her head good support and she can see what we're all doing. She does enjoy her bumbo seat but doesn't have enough head strength to last very long. She's started enjoying her pink seahorse rattle and monkey lovey toy. She loves her big Sissy! She smiles and coos at her when Cora "plays" with her. She still loves being swaddled!

Dislikes
The carseat, riding in the car. This is getting a little better. We're about 50/50 on whether or not she'll have an epic meltdown on a trip to "town" for everyday errands. This is a huge improvement but we still have a long ways to go. My right arm muscles are literally stronger than left because I'll reach back and rock her carseat as I drive down the street trying to calm her. We're getting a convertible car seat to see if that will help matters some. Not a big fan of tummy time but she's getting better about that, no signs of rolling over yet.

What's New?
We're moving out of the infant stage and into baby. This is making mommys life a little easier! These 3 months have flown by!

Mommy & Postpartum 
I'm doing pretty well physically. I just went clothes shopping since it seems my weight loss after baby has plateaued. It's so nice to own clothes that fit, even if they aren't the size I'd like them to be.
Emotionally I'm doing pretty well. I'm very tired. She's sleeping well but being in training as a Doula and working to start that business from the ground up is very time consuming. When Ada is a bit older I'm going to have to work out some "office hours" a couple of days a week to do things but right now my "office hours" and study time is from about 10:00 pm until I can't stay awake any longer, usually between Midnight and 2:00 am. That on top of working 2 - 3 days a week, it just seems like I can't keep up.