Zoom! It’s been a good, erm, 5 weeks since we returned from Budapest and Italy. Since then I have told myself that Ada’s blog is chronological, and the photos from Europe need to go up before anything new. It preserves the integrity of our linear scroll, or something like that. However, the best photos haven’t migrated from Daddy’s camera to any useable format, so we’re going to hop forward with a promise that the best pics from Europe are beautiful. And coming. Someday.
In the meantime, the month back after our incredible, challenging, and never-long-enough trip to a number of beautiful places has found Ada growing in leaps and bounds. We noticed her language and development really blooming while we were away, and knew that in part she was gaining skills and words being around so many family members and doing new and interesting things all the time. She also turned 19 months while we were away, and that window of 18-21 months, as I’ve been reading, is one of a LOT of big changes. It’s also a window of “disequilibrium,” to put it modestly. The little ones can have a hard time getting their arms and minds around all the changes happening in quick succession, and the adjustments can be rough on everyone. It was a relief to come home and read up on toddler development, and to see that the frustrations we’d been having in terms of sleep, big emotions, and tantrums are all… normal.
In any case, the upshot of all this growth is a little girl who is very clear about what she wants (and doesn’t want) and more and more able to communicate it all the time. More often than not, when you speak a full sentence to her, she’ll repeat the very last word back to you, and within a few days, that word will have worked its way into her vocabulary. Just today she came up with “buddha” in reference to a little sculpture we have in a window, and “Brian,” one of our daddy friends. Her favorite phrases of the moment are “Ready, set, go!” and “I do it.” (ahem.)
Since the weather has been autumn-beautiful, we’ve been spending our days at parks, walking to and along the waterfront, and at various art and music classes. We’ve even started bringing home works of art in watercolor with her name in the bottom right corner. You know, like a big kid!
So with no particular method to the madness, here are a bunch of my favorite photos from the last month or so…
(Editor’s note for grandmothers who like to save and/or print photos: since the gallery images are small, be sure to click through and then click AGAIN to get the full size images. We’re happy to help if needed. ;))
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- The only thing to do for a jetlagged family at 5am is to go see the sunrise, then get pancakes.
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- Oh right, the sunrise over Manhattan. That’s the awesome part.
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- Sunrise, pancakes, then a nap…
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- Followed by the Hoboken “Italian” festival. Which looked nothing like Italy.
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- Welcome back kisses from Owen. Aww!
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- Creative play with QTips, and anything else that comes 400 to a box
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- This is what they’re for, right?
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- “I do!” is her bubble-refrain, even when she’s playing with her friend Noni.
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- Seriously, is there anything sweeter than this?
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- Van Vorst park after a music class
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- This was HER idea.
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- One evening we took a trip into Manhattan and had time to kill in Union Square before meeting Daddy. We bought snacks and watched the pigeons.
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- Van Vorst, after music class again…
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- I want this outfit. Yep.
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- That one time Ada declined exactly everything Mama offered to eat. Oh wait, that’s every meal. 😉
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- How did we make a kid this pretty?
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- Ada with her old pal Miller at a festival at a local winery. We had 5 kids and their respective parents, plus wine, pizza and dump trucks: fun for the whole family!
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- Lunch at Borders book store one afternoon, and a chance to try sitting in a big-kid chair. (Note: not really a good idea, it turns out.)
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- An adventure to Manhattan via ferry boat.
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- Where we fed the ducks…
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- and pigeons…
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- and played at a new plaground…
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- and looked seriously cute…
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- and rode an elephant…
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- And the next morning called a meeitng with all of her friends to tell them about her adventure into the city.
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- Checking out the fall foliage at a park in Bloomfield
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- Investigating leaves, rocks, sticks…
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- And finding the BIGGEST STICKS EVER
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- Here we are in art class, wearing the world’s smallest (and cutest) art smock.
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- Painting! Who knew?
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- Someday this will be worth millions, we’re sure.
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- Insisting that she knows how to use that camera. The Nikon is the same as the Canon, just backwards.
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- Gluing dried leaves to a ceramic duck that she painted. (Seriously! I want to go to these art classes.)
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- Toy time at art class while the adults clean up
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- We all love hoodie weather. Sometimes she’ll even wear the hood.
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- “Oweeeeeeeen!”
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- A stop at Newport Green park on our marathon walk on the waterfront
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- Pointing out the helicopters shuttling celebrities and wealthy people into the city
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- Enjoying a post-walk chocolate chip cookie from Basic. Mmmmm.
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- “Swing, swing!”
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- Drives a stick shift while drinking coffee and charging her iPhone. One guess: who does she take after?
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- Mama smooch! (Couldn’t resist.)
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- Sporting this fall’s finest in Hungarian knit wear, courtesy of Grampa TiTi. (You should have seen this ensemble with pink denim jacket and sparkly shoes. RIDICULOUS.)
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- Meeting kittens up for adoption at the 6th Borough Market in Hamilton Park. We asked, but Daddy said N-O spells NO.