Eager to Read

Lately, Ada has been asking me again and again to teach her how to read certain books.  I think in her head, she has to learn how to read each book separately, and she is trying her best to memorize the ones that we read over and over.  She also uses the pictures to make up her own stories. 

I finally told her that I would teach her to read, but that we would have to start at the very beginning, one letter sound at a time.  I checked out several books at the library, so that I could actually look at the books before buying one to use as Ada's reading curriculum.  I still have a couple that I need to pick up from the library, but I am loving Phonics Pathways so far.  It is very user friendly, and each lesson takes about ten minutes a day.  Plus there are several fun games to play to reinforce what we are learning.  Perfect for not-even-four year old Ada.  We are starting with the vowels. 

Ada knows the sounds of most consonants, and she often puts three consonants together and asks me what it spells, so I am glad we are starting with the vowels.  Plus, the vowels seem the trickiest for her because they have similar sounds.  We are tackling the hardest part first.  She is so cute when she says the sounds because she says the sound so hard, practically shouting it and concentrating so.  It's too cute.  She is doing great with A, I, and O, but she always makes the I sound for E.  We are working on that.  Tomorrow she will learn U.  I think we will probably camp out here for a week or two because the books says her reading the vowel sounds needs to be as automatic as saying her name. 

Again, it only takes about ten minutes a day, and we usually fit it in during John's morning nap, or we just get it done while he plays around us.

Today she learned I and reviewed A and E.  She practices writing them as well as reading them.

We spent the rest of John's nap time playing in the backyard and soaking up this beautiful Spring weather (with plenty of allergy medicine in my system)

The other "exciting" event of our day?  Ada received her first black eye from John.  I say first because I feel like it won't be the last.  I don't know, I didn't have brothers, though Ann and I did pull hair once or twice.  It was a complete accident, obviously, but John wacked Ada in the face with a weight, and I, randomly, caught it on camera.

They were being funny playing together, and I tried to get a picture of that.  Instead I got a picture of Ada right after John wacked her.

Look at John thinking, "what's the problem?" 

It was funny, though, because I was doing Thirty Day Shred, and John was trying his hardest to do it along with me.  Moving his pink weights to the music;)  Ada then wanted to be helpful and explain to John that he was doing the wrong thing, and that is when he "punched" her with the weight.  Sad for Ada, but funny too.

And one last thing to report, which won't make much sense to some of you.  But...

Ever since we moved into this house, there has been an empty lot next to us.  An overgrown, very ugly, empty lot.  When we first moved in, we assumed they would build there, and then, of course, the real estate market took a nose dive, as did our neighborhood, and we have been staring at a big pile of dirt and weeds and trash ever since.  Well...As of today, the lot is leveled!!!!!!  This is a huge praise!!!!  I am not sure what the plan is for the lot, but it looks so much better.  Still dirt, but nice, leveled, no trash, no weeds, dirt.

And last but not least, this weekend, Scott and I are going to buy the rest of the paint for downstairs.  I know paint colors for every room except for the half bath.  I am stumped.  Do I do a gray to blend with the hallway and living room.  Do I do light brown to go with the dining room, or do I do a completely different color to add some fun?  I thought about doing some kind of orangeish-red to match a lot of my pillows and vases in the living room.  I am stumped.  Feedback, please?

A little hair "incident"

So, I accidentally chopped off Ada's hair last night.  It was such a mistake.  I know you are wondering how I could accidentally chop her hair off.  It was wet, and it's curly, and I meant to just give it a trim.  It turns out I can not cut hair evenly, so I kept trying to even it up, until we ended up with a short-haired girl.

The good news is that I really think the length is cute on her.  I have actually wanted to try a short cut on her for a while, but I loved her long, curly hair, and I didn't have the nerve to cut it short, so it's a "happy accident" of sorts.  I was feeling a little sick over it last night, though.

The only problem is that it desperately needs to be "cleaned up" by someone professional, but we are having no luck getting Ada to agree to that.  We made it into a place today, but, again, that resulted in lots of tears from Ada.  Luckily her hair is very curly, so it is forgiving of my mistakes.

Ada LOVES her new hair cut, and she is so confident with it.  Scott, who loved her long hair, is still upset over it, I think.  I keep telling him he has to forgive me;) 

And, by the way, that picture you see above was taken at 8:30 this morning.  My house was that messy by 8:30 am.  Oh man.  We were headed out the door to an open house for the Homeschool group we will be joining next year (Classical Conversations), which is super exciting, and I will post more about that later.  Ada did not actually need a backpack this morning, but she insisted that she couldn't go to "school" without it.  Anyway...I just had to post about Ada's big hair cut.

My little ballerina on her first day of class

Big Girl

Three is quickly approaching.  Three years since we began this thing?  I can't believe it.

I had a few goals for three--potty trained and no pacie and the big girl bed.

She is potty trained (except for naps and nights, but we're getting there), and we have big plans to trade that pacie in for something much more appropriate for a big girl (dress up clothes, maybe?).  It's coming.

And today, finally, we put the baby bed away (we have all the parts, Ann, don't worry), and she is officially sleeping in a "big girl bed." 

Her bed room is in process.  Our entire house is in process.  Most days that drives me crazy, but I deal with it.  But we plan to tackle the rest of her room next Saturday.  I want to paint all of her furniture black and distress it and add fun drawer knobs.  And we need bedding.  I am going with white to balance out the black.  I think it will be fun and give her room to grow.

Can you tell that she is thrilled? 

p.s. those steps go with our master bed (a hand-me-down from my parents), but they are perfect for her to get in and out of her bed.  It was her idea.

And success continues

Today marks day two of potty training success.  Without being reminded, Ada is sitting on the potty any time she feels the urge to tee-tee.  Yea, yea, and yea again.

Now, I have two questions for all you who have walked this potty training road ahead of me.

Today, Scott suprised me with lunch out--you know, because tomorrow is Mother's Day.  So, there we sat at a local Mexican restaurant, John all wrapped up, attached to me, and asleep, and Ada announces that she needs to go to the bathroom.  Scott looks at me, and I said that he would have to take her.  So they went, it was a success, and we went on with our lunch.  However, the thought of taking Ada to public restrooms sort of grosses me out.  You know what I mean?

So...how do ya'll deal with the public restroom situation?  Is there a good solution for using the potty outside of the home?

Second question.

Ada now expects to receive a "surprise" each time she uses the potty.  She is going to the potty regularly enough, that it's time to "wean" her off the surprise.  No preschooler needs that much chocolate, you know?  Of course the band-aids and the color wonder markers are okay, I suppose.  Anyway...how do I go from receiving prizes for using the potty to it just being an expected thing? 

Okay, I actually have a third question.  When do I begin letting her sleep in panties? 

This is all so unknown to me, and though it may sound crazy, I keep thinking about how it's our first big milestone.  I mean, of course there was walking and sleeping through the night and table food and things like that, but this has been the first thing that Ada has had to face, to conquer.  She has been afraid because she hates change, and there have been many tears and many prayers as she walked her way through the past two days.  What a huge thing for a two year old, you know?  And then, each time she experienced success, she was on top of the world.  Such confidence.  Such excitement.  Such a preview of all that is to come in her life.

Last night we were walking through Target, and Scott commented on what a great mood she was in.  And I said that I knew exactly how she felt.  Don't you?  That feeling when you dreaded something and then accomplished it--like my first day of teaching or presenting a seminar paper or even labor.  That is how she seemed last night.  Relieved and excited and proud.

Anyway...I know I sound crazy and sentimental, but I would love some feedback on the questions;)  Thanks!!

The first pony tail

I originally started this blog in order to record the milestones of Ada and of motherhood. While this blog has evolved into a bit more than that, don't you think that a little girl's first pony tail is by all means a milestone worth recording. I say that indeed it is, so I record away. Where did my baby go? Obviously my baby is still hanging around as Ada is still quite attached to that pacie. My life is just too crazy at the moment to fight the pacie battle, so she hangs on.

A Motherhood Rite of Passage and other tales from the past two days

Watching a train pass by at the old Train Station in downtown Evergreen, AL.

Sunday morning playing in the yard before church.

Above are two photographs from the weekend visit to Evergreen. My mother took so many pictures, and she will soon be posting them to her blog, so I only stole two to post on here.

Yesterday we travelled home, and we stopped in Auburn for lunch with my youngest sister Kate. The thought of Big Blue Bagel and College Street on a beautiful fall day was enough to keep me going through two hours of non-stop fuss coming from the back seat. I will post more about our lunch in Auburn later once Kate sends me the pictures that she took while we were there.

I will say this, the visit ended badly when I was pulled over for the very first time in my life!!!! I turned right at a light where there was a huge sign that said, "Do not turn right on red." I turned right, and pulled out in front of a cop. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And then had to turn in to the police station to pull over. He had mercy on me, though, and let me go without a ticket. He did give me several lectures about driving carefully for the safety of my daughter though. The dollar signs were flashing in my head as I waited on the verdict, so I was more than thankful when he let me go with just a warning.

My second rite of passage happened today in the parking lot of Target. I was deep in thought, not paying attention to the back seat, when I heard a strange liquid-like sound. Sorry for the details, but really, I need to record this. I turned around to find hot pink throw up coming out of Ada's mouth. And it just kept coming. I have never dealt with this, ya'll. Little baby spit up that is cleaned up with a burp cloth yes, great volumes of adult style throw up, no. The hot pink was due to the Crystal Light she drank this morning. We were out of juice, and so I made do with what we had. Oh did that Crystal Light come back to haunt me. It was a cold, gray day, and nevertheless I had to strip her down to her diaper right there in the parking lot, and use her clothes to soak up as much throw up as possible. I put her back in her car seat, still covered in throw up, and we drove home where we headed straight for the bath tub. She seems to feel okay now. But the throw up came after a three hour nap. And after three hours, I woke her up because I was slightly concerned. I am excited when she sleeps for an hour and a half, so I am guessing that she is suffering from some type of virus, and I am praying that it passes quickly and without affecting Scott and me. We'll see, I suppose. So far, so good.

And that is our day. There is always something new and exciting to experience in the land of motherhood.

p.s. Blogger is refusing to let me break this into paragraphs. It is driving me CRAZY, but apparently I just have to let it go. So excuse the run-on post. I hope it is still readable.

My sick little girl

Ada had her very first sick pediatrician appointment today. And she was not too happy about it. If you will recall, our last well visit did not go so well. Ada was terrified of everything. Well, I am convinced that Ada remembered the doctor because as soon as he walked into the room today, Ada began to absolutely flip out. Flip out. She grabbed onto my shirt so tightly, that Scott had to peel her off of me. She needed to lie down on the table for him to check her ears, nose, and throat. In the midst of her screaming, she kept shaking her head saying no, a word that she knows so well. Fairly quickly, I was able to pick her up and hold her for the rest of the examination, but she didn't calm down until we were out of the office. It was not good, and I was so very thankful that today was Scott's work from home day, and he was able to go with us. I needed moral support!

I mentioned that she has had a cold all week, which made for a stressful visit home. She didn't sleep very well at night, and she took very short morning naps. She has stayed in a terrible mood, at times crying for no apparent reason, and I have been unable to comfort her. When this continued this morning, I decided to take her to the doctor for my peace of mind. Sure enough, she has an ear infection, which I think explains the cranky mood. The doctor prescribed ear drops and an antibiotic. Scott and I laughed because the antibiotic had a warning that it would interfere with birth control. I think Ada would have been okay without the warning:) Question for moms out there, will the antibiotic give her a yeast infection? I don't know if it has that affect on 13 month old little girls. I want to be prepared for that, and I wonder if there are ways to prevent that from happening. It will make me so sad if she ends up with a yeast infection. Seriously, mom readers, any advice, previous experience with antibiotics, etc? I will be sure to feed her lots of yogurt just in case.

So...13 months into life, and she is officially sick for the first time. Of course, she has had several colds, but this is the first time she has had to go to the doctor for any reason other than a routine visit. A rite of passage, I suppose.

Busy Morning

It is not even noon yet, and we have already had a very full day. I have not been to the grocery store for the week, so we had absolutely nothing for breakfast, which meant that we got to go out for breakfast--yea. I love going out for breakfast on Saturday mornings. I just think it's the best way to start the weekend. So we loaded Ada into her car seat, and off we went to try a new restaurant on the square, Gritz. And it was a hit. The restaurant was packed, which was a good sign, and it is located in a very old building on the square with original floors and ceilings. The walls are lined with old black and white pictures of Atlanta in addition to shots of people and places around McDonough. It was a big morning because the doctor encouraged me to concentrate on giving Ada three meals a day, rather than bottles plus little snacks here and there. So, Ada and I split a plate of eggs, grits, bacon, and biscuits. Yummy. And Ada ate the eggs and grits like they were going out of style. I get really excited about firsts like that--Ada's first real breakfast, her first happy meal, etc. etc. I also ordered her a glass of milk, and I poured it into her bottle, and yea, she drank it without even a second thought. It looks like our days of formula may be over. So exciting. I will take a 4 dollar carton of milk over 25 dollar formula any day.

The food at this restaurant was incredibly fresh and home made. Growing up, we had close family friends in Scottsboro (The Baldwins) that lived in a big blue, very old house on Scott Street. I spent many nights over there, and every morning Beth Baldwin would cook a huge breakfast and Jamie Baldwin (her husband) would whistle up the stairs to signal to us children to come down for breakfast. I still remember how cold the hardwood floors were on fall mornings and the way breakfast smelled so good. I still spend a good bit of time with the Baldwins, and Beth still cooks breakfast from time to time, but something about that old blue house made breakfast taste just a little bit better than normal. This morning I could have been sitting in that old kitchen.
After breakfast, we stopped by a local farmers market to buy some fresh tomatoes, and the owner threw in some free bananas. Apparently Saturdays are free banana day. We'll take it.

And finally, we ended our morning with some play time at a local park. Ada enjoyed the swings and sliding with Scott. And of course, she thought it would be more fun to climb up the slide rather than actually slide down the slide. That is so typically Ada. Our fun came to an abrupt end when the slide shocked her. Poor thing, but Scott and I couldn't help but laugh. Her hair was standing straight up. Ada is now sleeping soundly, worn out from all the morning activity.

And family, as always, you will find more pictures if you go to my photo link.

Little miss independent walking around the playground.

Headed home and still facing backwards. Bless her heart, she has to be one year AND 20 lbs to face forward. She didn't quite make the cut.

The Birthday Post

Well, it happened, I have survived a year of motherhood. Mark it down. And, even better, my marriage survived a year of motherhood. And, to top it ALL off, I am feeling an itch to start this whole thing over again with baby number two. Woo-hoo. There was a time, in all sincerity, that I didn't know how we would ever even consider baby number two. What a life changing year it has been, and I truly cannot remember me without Ada. So clearly, there was reason to celebrate today. And poor, poor Scott--his birthday has become an afterthought in all the excitement of having a child in the home. But come on, what is better than a child's birthday, other than a child at Christmas? Nothing, right? At least not that I remember. I loved all the excitement and attention and feeling special that a birthday brought, and I plan to pass on those same feelings to my offspring. And so it began today. See how it went below.


The star of the show in all of her cupcake, birthday girl gloryThe birthday meal. What better way to celebrate an August birthday than with a cookout. Maybe next year we can add fun in the pool to the mix and have the ideal end of summer setting.
Eating her baked beans--the only part of her birthday meal that she could eat, but oh, did she eat them. She loved them!!
At this point, we stripped her down to her diaper in preparation for her birthday cake. She was getting tired of the highchair as evidenced by her face.

Side note: the following pictures were all Scott's idea. I was not one for letting her "dive" into the cake, but dive she did.

And this is what she thought about my taking her cake away. (Immediately after this we transported her to the bath tub!!)
And mom, the picture at the top of the page is for you. Please note that I am using my silver to cut the cake!! It is being used.

Birthday Hoopla and other happenings

We are gearing up for the big day here at the Moore house. We just returned from Target where we purchased the necessary birthday "gear" including a very cute birthday hat for Ada to wear in pictures. We also made a Brandsmart run to buy a new memory card for our camera to insure plenty of picture taking. Hopefully I will be able to post photos again soon. I am loving this part of being a mom, planning the birthday and all. It makes me feel like a child again. I am already gearing up for Halloween and Christmas. I am so excited for Ada to finally be at an age where she can semi enjoy these things. I will be back tomorrow or the next day with more birthday details, but for now I just have a quick Ada story.

This afternoon before we left to go to Target, I was sitting in the living room just hanging out with Scott and his parents, and Ada was playing with her toys on the floor. Well apparently she decided she was bored with that set up because all of a sudden she brought one flip flop over to me and tried to put in on my foot, then she went back, picked up the other one and brought it to me, and then once I had them on my feet, she said "bye-bye" as she waved. I guess she was ready for an outing. It was so funny. And of course, we catered to her wishes, and off we went. Really I needed to go to the places mentioned above, but she just hurried the trip along. I guess she gets tired of being inside the house as much as I do.

Soon she will be a baby no more

This is how I know that Ada is transitioning from baby to little girl right before my eyes--she no longer wears footie pajamas.

For a few weeks now we have had to nightly search and scramble to find pajamas that fit when it was time for Ada to go to bed. Today, I finally loaded Ada into her car seat and we headed to Old Navy in search of new pajamas. And what do you know, they don't make 12-18 month footie pajamas at Old Navy. Instead, tonight, Ada wears pajama pants and a top, like her older cousins. Her older cousins that are no longer babies. Where did this first year go? I am not a sentimental person, but, I kid you not, today as I cut the tags off of her new pajamas, I had tears in my eyes. I don't know if my hormones were overreacting or what the problem was, but I felt emotional over her new pajamas. However, that same girl still hasn't graduated to a front facing car seat, so there are remnants of newborn Ada scattered throughout the day. I want to hold onto those little things.

Sleep Update

Things are really looking up in the sleep department. For almost two weeks now, I think, Ada has been sleeping all night!! As in, we put her down at 7:30 pm and she wakes up at 6:30 am. Every once in a while we hear her around 11pm, but she settles herself back down. I can't believe it worked so quickly. The two nights that we had to let her cry it out were horrible!!! But I am so glad it only took two nights. The weird thing is, I still feel very tired all the time. I continue to take two naps a day along with her. I have started taking a vitamin in hopes that my energy level would increase. Which, by the way, once she started sleeping through the night, the nap situation worked itself out. She is now going back down for a nap at 8:30 am and again at 2ish. And that is how I am sometimes getting two naps a day. I also think if I become more consistent with exercise I might have more energy. I am so affected by things like diet and exercise. I always have been. And I really can't eat any simple carbs without it affecting my energy level. I maybe have just slacked off and need to start paying more attention to what I am eating. So the new plan is vitamins, protein and complex carbs, and consistent exercise. Anyway...just wanted to update since I blogged about our sleep problems for so long. Thanks for all the advice on letting her cry it out!

And one more first, Ada held and drank from her bottle all by herself tonight. I have been trying to get her to do this for a long time, but she has never understood that she has to tilt the bottle up to get anything out of it. Tonight she was sitting in her highchair eating cheerios and drinking pear juice (she's still having bathroom issues--bless her heart, it's always something), and she took the bottle from me. Next thing I knew, she had the bottle tilted up, and she was drinking as if she had been doing it since day one. She's getting to be such a big girl:( But it's so much fun to watch all her little developments.

A Day of Firsts

It's official, at around 10:30 this morning, Ada took two steps. I was so excited!! She has been standing on her own for longer periods of time lately, and I have tried to encourage to walk, but usually she squats or lunges forward into a crawl. Today, she took two real steps before squatting into a crawl. She did it twice more throughout the day, but she never took more than two steps at a time. She is getting more confident about letting go of things as she "cruises" around the room, so I suspect that before we know it little Ada will be toddling all over the place.

Now, I felt like the event was worth celebrating, so we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and Ada had her first kid's meal. Scott and I had coupons, so the location was decided for us, but I was so excited to get her her first real kid's meal. And she ate a grand total of one chicken nugget broken into tiny pieces and a few bites of fry. Plus she couldn't figure out how to suck the apple juice out of the juice box, so maybe it's still too early for the kid's meal. I guess I was just an over eager first time mom. But, ya'll, the "prize" in the kid's meal was so great--a little hard book with a great moral--being friends with people who are different from us. And it even had little discussion questions in the back. So cute. I just love Chick-fil-a!!

So, a big day for little Ada!