The big slide!

This weekend has been tons of fun. We took Ade to the pool for the first time this season, and she was so excited to hit the water! Here she is all ready to go, and then some pics while we were there:




We hung out at a festival in Wake Forest on Saturday as well. We headed to the pool a second time yesterday with the Franks, and Adelaide was thrilled daddy was there this time. The first time Aunt Jenna and I took her, and she desperately wanted to go down the slide. I had to tell her only daddies and babies can go down the slide, because I knew I was not going to be the one to take her down that water slide for her first time! Sure enough, as soon as we got there yesterday morning, she wanted to go down the slide. Here is a clip of their second (and by far not last) trip down that slide:


I got some mall shopping in during her nap yesterday, and then we went for some Mexican enchiladas! Today Jenna and I took her to the natural history museum while Ryan worked (poor daddy!). She LOVED the dinosaurs and she was so excited for the storytime with live turtles as well. There was another little girl there who was 2, and she was so much bigger than Ade. Our petit fleur truly is a little tiny squirt.

Overall, this has been a really nice, relaxing, fun family weekend. If only Ade was sleeping without pitching a crying fit every night and every nap... Ah, well. Perfect can't always be perfect. ;-)

I leave you with a picture from last weekend of Adelaide and daddy enjoying one of their favorite activities: cooking!

Artichoke, endive, swiss chard, zucchini!

We have an ABC book of fruits and vegetables that had never been a favorite of Adelaide's, but we read it on occasion. She would point at the common ones -apple, banana, etc - but mostly just listened. The other night she wanted to read that book before bedtime and when I opened the first page, before I could start reading, she began naming every item. And I mean *every item*! A's page had artichoke, avocado, asparagus... I began laughing in shock. Sh went through each page telling simply obscure items such as dates and figs, to challenging words like jalapeno and huckleberries. (Except of course the starfruit, which has always, inexplicably, been "Mama!") I guess she had been listening those times we read that book...

Last weekend the Guh's came to visit and spoil the nugget. It was a nice Mother's Day weekend, including a night out for Ryan and I. I really enjoyed hitting the Wake Forest Farmer's Market for some nice produce and steaks, great fresh flowers, and Adelaide even managed to get her first bike - a pink and purple Radio Flyer tricycle.

For my birthday, I booked a spa day and totally disconnected for a few hours. It was a real indulgence. Work has been fairly insane lately, so it was hard to manage the time away but I can say it was well-earned, much-needed, and fully restorative :-)

One more Adelaide story, and then back to playing with the dollhouse. Adelaide announced that Cheyenne and Dakota needed to go potty. I said I didn't think they did, as they were both laying sleeping on the floor. She insisted they did, while pushing and heaving poor Cheyenne toward the bathroom (Chey continued to lay solidly on the floor). I said, " I think they know better than you do if they need to potty or not." Ade considered this, and then lay down level with Chey. She lifted her tail, inspected her butthole, and announced, "Yes she does! Uh huh!" I have no idea what Adelaide was inspecting for, or how she determined her answer, but it was a real moment.<

The past few nights have been a little rough. Ade hit some sort of separation anxiety phase and doesn't want us to leave the room. She struggles to stay away to make sure we are still there, and then howls with rage and sadness if we actually leave. I don't think it is entirely related, but we had been watching Elmo in Grouchland for a while, and then suddenly she became really frightened of Bad Guy. After one rough night with Ryan, she told me the next morning "Bad Guy scared us." Nice that she included daddy, as I am sure Ryan was fairly frightened that Huxley the Bad Guy would steal his blanket too. I am praying Adelaide doesn't relive my overactive imagination, and night terrors as a child.

That's Uh-huh.

I have so much work I should be doing, but I can't. I just can't find a way to turn my brain back on after singing made up song lyrics about the bad guy in Elmo in Grouchland for an hour to get Adelaide to sleep. So, here is a post instead.

You know how people will say "That is a Yes!" when they are answering emphatically? Adelaide has somehow picked up saying "That's Uh-huh" if she is trying to emphasize she is giving a positive response. She will give a simple yes, or uh-huh at first and then follow with a "That's Uh-huh" to make sure you understood.

Also, I have no idea if this is an indication of anything or not, but I swear Adelaide wants to read. She will point at words and say, "That says..." and if she knows the picture she will say what it "says." Otherwise, she will say, "That says... 6hkx92u" - a random assortment of letters and numbers to indicate she realizes there are written symbols there. She is pretty good at the alphabet song, though she needs prompted and can only do it in runs (lmnop... tuvwxyz...). I am pretty sure she is just getting all the sounds together correctly, and less sure she realizes exactly what individual letters she is saying. In any case, it *seems* impressive.

We went to get Mexican for Cinco de Mayo tonight, and Adelaide told the waiter Hola. And she order an "EnchilADA!" on her own. I am trying to capture her doing her ballet on camera, though I haven't gotten a great video yet.

Here she is helping Barbie and Minka get down:


Adelaide's hair is a little longer. In fact, so are her legs. I think she has hit a growth spurt. She feels so heavy lately. I love the little ringlet curls she has in the back now. I could twirl them for hours.

I got my first hardbound blogbook from Blog2Print this weekend, and it is really gorgeous. I am so excited. I am creating volumes per year of Adelaide's life. So, I did pregnancy in one book, June 2007-June 2008 in the next, and in June I can order volume III. This relieves me of some of the guilt I feel that I only have two pages of her first year scrapbook done...