• What’s going on in the first 5 seconds?
  • Yes, she’s crying at the start of the track. Let me set the stage. All three of us are in the car this evening after picking Daddy up from the PATH train so that he didn’t have to walk home in the rain. Daddy is driving; Ada is in her car seat (hence the crying) and Mama is in the back seat trying anything to distract her from the fact that she’s in the car seat. So the first seconds are Ada crying, Mama trying to make her laugh, and Daddy laughing at how abrupt the change is.
• What is mama doing?
  • Introducing Ada to slapstick humor. I figured, well, it worked for the three stooges. So I’m bonking myself on the head over and over with an empty water bottle. Neither of us had ever heard Ada laugh this hard.
• “Son of a what?”
  • Son of a MONKEY. I said “son of a monkey.” Yes, I use that kind of language around our baby.

This week Nicette is headed to Montreal to visit family, and some folks there haven’t had a chance to meet Ada nor have they been able to access videos online. So Nicette asked if we could burn a short DVD of videos to share with them. “No problem!” said we Apple nerds, with an eye towards iMovie. Here’s what we created. If you’ve been following Ada on the blog you’ll see that these are all repeat videos and photos, but we figured it was worth a share.

For Grandma Nikki’s first full day “back East,” and in accommodation of her Mama’s weeks of petitioning, Ada took her first trip out to the country to go apple picking!

It was the perfect autumn day for our jaunt out to New Hope, Pennsylvania, a funky small town across the Delaware River from Lambertville, New Jersey, another funky small town that specializes in antiques. We went to Solebury Orchards, a small farm with pick-your-own apples, pumpkins, and other in-season fruits and veggies. They are also well known for their cider doughnuts, fresh apple cider and peach butter. (“Well, I mean, it would be simply irresponsible to pass up any of their house specialties, given that we’re already here and we’ve come this far and they’re in season… am I right?”)

We picked apples and wildflowers, then went for dinner at a place right on the river, complete with 2 roasty-toasty fireplaces. After dinner we took a walk through New Hope and stopped in a small independent bookshop that used to be the town’s general store in the 1800’s. Mama snagged a half-dozen board books for Ada’s library. [Footnote: apparently some of our new books are also on Daddy’s reading list: I’m looking at you, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?]

“Dad! Who needs wildflowers? I want some of your doughnut! Doughnut!”

Grandma Nikki loves Ada so much she’ll even share her first-ever cider doughnut.

It was Ada’s first, too! Nom nom nom.

Monkey mama climbing all the way to the top to get the good ones.

What’cha got, pops?

Who needs teeth? The juice is the best part anyway.

Keep doing what you’re doing, dad. I’ve got this down.

We’re smiling because we know how many pies we can make with the 20 pounds of apples in our trunk.

She knows you’re coveting her pink bear hat.

“That’s the wrong kind of Apple, Daddy. We’re here for the fruit.”

We picked wildflowers to take home. A is for apples, Z is for zinnias.

The short ride to dinner: Grandma Nikki escorting the wildflowers, Ada catching a cat nap.

Helping herself to Grandma Nikki’s french fries. And also her hamburger, her water, her cabernet, the baby food pouch we brought for her, and pretty much anything within reach.

Who is happy to support local and independent book sellers? THIS BABY!

I think those might actually be tears of joy in her eyes. Winners of the Publishers Clearing House have never been this happy.

I mentioned that she likes pancakes? Check out the pancake debris all over Daddy.

This was Ada’s first Rosh Hashanah! Grandma Nikki, Grandpa T and Auntie Lisa came all the way from Los Angeles (and New Zealand!) to celebrate the new year with us. We went to the local temple where Seth & Carly were married for Ada’s first celebration. Through the rest of the week we had lots of time to visit, go to the park and play on the swings, show off our new crawling skills and, of course, eat Grandma Nikki’s delicious food. L’shana tova to everyone from Ada!

Auntie Lisa brought Ada a new friend from New Zealand! He was a gift from Lisa & Matt’s friend Judy, and he’s almost as big as Ada. She loves her KiwiBear!

Ada loves to swing with Daddy at the park!

She loves swinging with Daddy’s daddy too!

So. Much. Fun!

Tabletop crawling is where it’s at. Thanks for helping me stay topside, Grandma & Grandpa!

Snuggle time with Auntie Lisa!

Whose idea was it to schedule high holy day services in the middle of naptime? 😉
Once she woke up, she was really excited to look around the pews and make new friends.

Entirely convinced that the orange will fit.

Hard to see here, but she’s rocking her Wagamama baby tee. So cool we can’t stand it. Thanks to the South Pacific Juki contingency for the great duds!

And just one more to grow on…

Introducing solid foods through the past 8 weeks has been so much fun! You won’t be surprised to hear that Ada will eat off of a spoon, but would much prefer to hold her own food and feed herself. She’s very clear about what she wants to eat and when. And the things she enjoys aren’t always what you’d expect. We’ve steamed and pureed any number of fruit/veggie combinations, and sometimes she’ll humor us by munching on them for a bit. But what she really likes? Trader Joe’s seasoned and prepared lentils. Garlic hummus. White bean hummus with basil. Ratatouille. Pancakes. Whitefish salad. Spicy black beans with garlic and cilantro. Pizza.

But most of all?

Crackers. This kid would eat multigrain crackers all day if we let her.