We have a new favorite phrase in our house: “I sure do!”

“Ada, do you need help getting down from your chair?” -Mom

“I sure do!” -Ada

or

“Wow! You like playing the piano, huh?” -Dad

“I sure do!” -Ada

I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

I’m back. Told you.

Although we didn’t actually go trick-or-treating last night, Ada had great fun helping Bapa hand out candy to all the kids who came to our door. Even this morning she was pointing to the door and telling me, “Kids, hat, candy, thank you!” She uses lots of single words to tell stories these days. Clearly that story means that kids wearing hats came to the door to get candy and they said thank you before leaving. Good going, child.

She did dress up for the occasion. Actually, I think Ada would wear her pirate costume all day every day.

She will never stop moving

Arrrrrggghhh!

Pumpkin-bearing pirate

A rare moment of rest

Checking for “toe jam”

We did manage to get Steve to carve one pumpkin. The rest remained intact decorating the front step.

I’m hoping to produce handmade costumes for the whole family next year! Check in on November 1, 2017 to see if I succeeded.

Steve is gently tending to a clew (or bed or bunch or clat) of worms right now. A science experiment. Don’t ask me for more details.

Anyway, Ada is really interested in them and spent a lot of time yesterday helping “feed” them. Once in a while, she’d have to tickle a worm. Just for fun, you know? Enjoy the pictorial evidence:

Looking

Tickling

Feeding

There area  lot of other updates, but I’m really hoping to snag a Halloween costume picture tonight. THEN I’ll have some real content!

EDIT: Hi, Steve here to clarify – Ada is helping me raise waxworms to trade for fish next summer and also because learning about the life cycle of Lepidopterans shouldn’t have to wait until she can read about it in a book. We are starting with 12 larvae but by next fishing opener we should have thousands. Neat, huh?

We’ve been a busy lot lately, but we had a little down time with Oma and Opa this weekend. It was lovely! Sunday was the perfect day for a trip to the orchard which, it turns out, has a little petting zoo as well. It took Ada a few minutes to warm up to the animals, but once she did, we couldn’t stop the laughs and animal imitations.

Pigs!

Hesitant about the sheep

Finally brave enough to feed

Though the pictures don’t show it, we also got to see some alpacas, ducks, and chickens. Our daughter has a definite preference for avian friends. (Ask her to tell you the story of her favorite crow sometime.)

I’m also working with Ada on becoming a master of faces-in-wooden-and-cardboard-cutouts. So far, she’s been a good pupil. We’re still working on directing her eye contact appropriately for photos.

Just and alpaca and a goat

Cutest sheep on the block

More soon. (Probably. Maybe.)

We did it again. And we succeeded again. Turns out Ada actually really likes camping! Can’t you tell from her smile?

The thing Steve and I were most struck by was the fact that Ada never once tried to leave the boundary of the campsite on her own. Since she’s into EVERYTHING at home, I figured she’d make a break for someone else’s site (or the water spigot or the woods or…) immediately. She didn’t. Not once. She was perfectly content collecting acorns in her stainless steel pot and then transferring them to a hole in a very large rock in our site. Excellent!

Much like her parents, Ada’s favorite thing to do while camping is eat. (Followed closely by hike [which sounds like “IKE!” for the time being.])

Roasted broccoli!

Shoving every last bit in

In fact, she found eating so much fun that she had to help Steve eat his trail mix. What a great helper.

We’re hoping to get out for at least one more weekend this fall–hopefully to the prairie this time since it’s a terrain Ada doesn’t have much experience with. Another post to follow that adventure, I’m sure.

I haven’t told the entire story of our new living situation (and I’m not going to right now), but it has us living in SW Minneapolis. A big change for a bunch of St. Paulites. We’re not letting the relocation stop the fun, though! We’ve been spending all of our free time exploring the new neighborhood and making the most of living very close to several parks and the beach.

We got a a new-to-us bike trailer so we can easily haul Ada over to Lake Harriet. She’s been great about wearing her helmet, and only complains a little when the ride gets rough.

Ada is content just sitting in the shallow water and filling (and refilling and refilling and refilling) a bucket with sand and water. Do we have the easiest child of all time? Likely.

When we don’t manage to leave our property, we keep her plenty entertained with a pool and a slide in the yard. So far, no complaints.

Splashing is the best!

Mastering both feet first.

The most recent excitement came after an excursion to the greenhouse with Grandma. Ada got her very own pot of impatiens that she’s responsible for watering. You can see how well that’s going. (Sometimes, it seems, one accidentally waters oneself.)

Watering the flowers…

… And watering herself.

In an attempt to wear her out everyday, we’ve started assigning Ada tasks. Last night her challenge was to help Steve pot some geraniums. I think it was a success!

See? See this petal?

Dirt is the best.

Dirt! Yeah!

Moving dirt is even better!

I’ve been a delinquent blogger. Here is a list of excuses for not keeping you updated:

• Ada is on the go ALL. THE. TIME. It’s hard to chase a little monster and write simultaneously.
• Tuesday night is trivia night, and our team (The Quizzly Bears) needs to keep raking in those Nina’s gift cards!
• When there actually is down time (during a nap or the late evening hours), there is always a pile of little person laundry 8 miles high waiting for me. No one told me a tiny being could produce twice the volume of dirty clothes as an adult.
• Once in a while it’s nice to just hang out with Steve.
• We’ve been spending enormous amount of time trying to sort out our next living situation. A 1-bedroom apartment can no longer contain all of our awesomeness.
• Property Brothers. Many episodes of Property Brothers.

Enough with excuses, though.

Things are good. Really good. It’s just fascinating to watch Ada learn new things at an unreasonable pace. I’ll do my best to capture some videos of her current favorite things soon. The list includes: drumming (she has her very own set of sticks now), reading books, playing “spot the dog” from the bedroom window, testing gravity, trying to make friends with every child she sees, grocery shopping, and tickling everyone’s belly.

Here are a few photos of Ada’s birthday celebrations. Almost a month ago. Oops.

We just passed the official 11 month mark. How has (almost) a year gone by so quickly?!

Ada celebrated with some very serious poses.

After a 45-minute bus ride downtown (yeah), Ada and I were able to meet up with Aunt T at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Hooray for culture!

Ada, it turns out, was more interested in walking all over the gallery than actually looking at the artwork. I suppose we’ll let it slide since she is only 11 months old.

Though the art was great, the highlight of the day happened when we went up to the skyway and made friends with the chocolatiers. Truffles and Mexican chocolate brownies and peek-a-boo! Doesn’t get much better.