Every now and then we like to go into the city with our friends Lucie and Benito for a baby dance class. “Dance” might be a bit of an overstatement; mostly we play on our tummies and on balls with toys, scarves, and rattles. Sometimes mommies and babies stand up and dance together, and we always get to touch toes with other cute babies.

We went yesterday, along with another mama and baby pair, Lori and Eve.

In this photo Benito looks like the baby version of Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World.

The class very often sells out, so we have to get there early. There are typically somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 other babies in class, all 8 weeks to pre-crawling.

Lots of mommies and lots of nannies. This is, after all, Manhattan.

Probably the highlight of yesterday’s class for Ada was the squishy and shaky green ball. She was so sad to leave it behind.

Nope, nothing sweeter than this.

She’s so proud of herself. =)

We finished our holiday weekend with a picnic-BBQ in Hamilton Park. With us were 5 other babies and 10 other parents. Ada was right in the middle of all the babies age-wise, and one of 2 girls. (She’s usually the only girl among her cohort.) We had so much fun in the park that we stayed for more than 4 hours, and by the end of the day we were all knackered. Even the next day she spent a lot of time napping to catch up!

While Daddy worked at home on Friday we took a walk with our friends Caitlyn and Owen back to Van Vorst park. On the way we stopped for brownies and iced tea and then stayed at the park all the way through 2 feedings and 2 diaper changes. That’s a luxurious day around here!

And this weekend Grandma Barb agreed to spend Memorial Day with us! We’ve walked to the Farmer’s Market, around Liberty State Park and Ada stayed with Barb while Mama and Daddy had dinner out. So much fun!

Today we went to visit our friends Apryl and Harrison. Jess was lucky to be Apryl’s doula when Harrison was born last April. He’s such a big guy already!

…Though not quite as ginormous as this photo would make it seem. Not sure what’s going on with perspective in this photo.

Aww, Ada has such handsome friends!

And so willing to share their toys!

In case you’re wondering, no, this isn’t a playdate turned Baby Girls Gone Wild.

Ada has a cute purple long sleeve shirt that went perfectly with her white capris. It was a tastefully hippy-dippy outfit, it would have been perfect – had the temperatures in New Jersey not reached the mid-80s today. Shortly after we got to Harrison’s, Ada had a fit that neither bouncing, nor boob, nor binky could assuage. These were desperate times, friend. In desperate times, the clothes come off. And voila! We had a shvitzy, but much happier and now-topless baby. She stayed that way for the rest of our afternoon with Harrison.

At least until it was time to go home. Rather than ride home in the car seat with no shirt, she got a loaner from Harrison.

The mamas agreed that it looked like she had borrowed a t-shirt from her boyfriend to wear back to her college dorm.

Well, if her boyfriend was a supporter of the Cincinnati Zoo, anyway.

Building core strength is no easy job. We’ve been spending a bit of time with Ada on her tummy each day, and she is not shy about letting us know that it’s still hard work.

Here she is on Friday chillin’ on her safari mat, telling that baby in the mirror all about her day.

Whew! That was hard work. Time for a breather.