Singing to sleep

At night, I sing a collection of songs to Adelaide to get her drowsy, and she participates in each one, as follows:
- Itsy Bitsy Spider: wrings her hands together in spider motion
- You Are My Sunshine: whispers "deer" when I say "dear" in the song
- Personal Penguin: whispers "please?" about 4 words before that part of the song
- Shoo, Fly: makes puckering sound for an instrumental part of the song
- Blue Moon: this is the cincher to put her to sleep - she just gazes up quietly watching your mouth

I also think Adelaide has gotten bigger. This past week she feels SO much heavier to me. Check her out in her new boots playing in her tree and leaves:

The Ten Year Nap

Delicious, witty, thought-provoking, and so carefully crafted. All mothers should read this book... all women who have mothers should read this book... all men married or related to women should read this book... basically, all people should read this book. More than anything, Meg Wolitzer is a genius writer. Her prose is so intentional, she makes word selection a form of high art. A quote from the New York Times describes it best, "The tartly funny Wolitzer is a miniaturist who can nail a contemporary type, scene, or artifact with deadeye accuracy."

I have been listening to The Ten Year Nap on audiobook during my drives to work and evening class, and I almost can't wait for a reason to get into the car.

Though I will not be getting this right, let me share a short paraphrased excerpt:
One of the characters was watching her daughter play with a toy horse, and brush its long blonde woman-head of hair. She explains the toy horse is a normal horse, but also has a long mane of hair and long female eyelashes. The character imagines the advertising for the toy, "Does your daughter dream about riding horses, and also about being a slut?

That one made me snort outloud. Why are girls' toys all so hypersexual? Even the horses? Though not entirely related, this does remind me of the first time I got Ade a Happy Meal and was asked at the drive through window, "Girl or boy?" - a question that totally caught me off-guard until I realized they were asking so they knew which toy to give me. I wanted to say, "I'll take the gender neutral toy," and see what happened. Really, though, just give me the toy choices, and I will pick the one my child will like best. Do not assign a toy based on their down-belows.

And no post is complete without a few good pictures...

Adelaide loves technology and iChatting with her grandparents:


Mommy remembered how Big Grandma used to make bubbles from dish detergent and rolled up paper:

Elmo, Elmo, Elmo!!!

Adelaide has grown more and more insistent lately, and also more obsessed. She fell in love with a Sesame Street segment with Elmo wanting a pet dinosaur. As soon as she hears the line that is near the end of the segment, she begins shouting MORE! If you do not respond quickly enough, she will bring you the remote and manually take your hand to press it into your palm. She attempts to rewind the DVRed show herself, but hasn't yet figured out which buttons make the magic happen. At Colleen's suggestion, we also got Elmo's potty DVD, and we watch that downstairs every morning after breakfast before school.

Ade also now knows nearly every animal and sound they make and/or how they walk. She learns new words every day and becomes more and more proficient in communicating. She learns things I don't even notice, like that the lint roller is meant for taking pet hair off the furniture. She really enjoys drawing with crayons, and her bath crayons as well. Ade still loves books far more than the other kids in her class. She reads ALL the time, even ignoring their other activities to continue reading. She is still really engaged though - one day I picked her up, and observed her singing and dancing along with the teacher to Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes, while none of the other kids imitated the movements.

Ade gives the best hugs and kisses, and loves to play coy at night giving Daddy a goodnight kiss. She will pucker up, and when he comes near, she turns away and laughs. Repeat. Then, finally, she will give in let him nab a kiss.

Today I took a vacation day to organize my office closet and all of the past 3 years of photos and scrapbook nonsense I had shoved in there. I had intended to start Ade's scrapbook, which I didn't get to, but I got everything in shape and ready to go. I had a really nice day categorizing memories, and putting together a system I can maintain even as hundreds more photos of Adelaide pour in each month.

Ade, I hope you appreciate all the time Mommy puts into collecting special memories for you. By the way, Daddy says hi. ;-)

Grandmas, Ninos, and hats

The great grandmas:

And, count the Nino's in this picture:


Check out Colleen's girls in the hats I brought them, and then Ade also trying one on:

Pumpkins everywhere!

Today we headed to the famous Raleigh Farmer's Market for the first time, and we hung out with Aunt Jenna and the Franks. We had such a fun time playing with the pumpkins, and looking at all the goodies for sale.

I posted a bunch of pics to dotPhoto from our fun day, and I also took some time to grab still shots from the Flip from our trip to Pgh. Note that I updated that entry with a slide show of the images.

I will have to blog more later, because my Mac battery is about to die, and I am too tired to get the power cord. ;-)