Celebrating Ady

Next Saturday is Ady's birthday. (She will turn 2). ToysRus is having a special Thomas the Train day tomorrow. It is free and Ady was sent an invitation via email. (Everyone on Oahu was invited, but we told Ady it was special just for her, don't tell her). They will have coloring activities, games and prizes. Ady loves her train set. It is not Thomas, it is Imaginarium-the cheaper brand of the same thing. So we thought we'd take her and let her play with other kids at the activity. She loves coloring, playing trains, and hanging out with other kids-so it should be fun for her. I will probably only last a little while with all that noise and chaos of other children and will probably have to run out of the store screaming at some point. No worries, there is a miniature golf course next door and maybe I will sneak off and let Kasey deal with all the noise. Anyway, since this is going on this week and Kasey and Ady have birthdays back to back we decided to just celebrate Ady's Tomorrow and Kasey's next weekend. So after we get done there, we're taking Ady to the zoo. Hopefully she has a great day and is so tired that she sleeps the whole way home when we are done. I can't believe Ady is already turning 2! She is getting pretty big. She was measured this week at 34 inches long! She is getting much better about talking and is already frustrating me at times. Her favorite way of being a nuisance is tilting her head and leaning forward just a bit while saying "what?" every time you say something. Caught me off guard the first time, but now I expect it. Then after I repeat what I said, she then asks "why?". Finally, usually she disagrees with the explanation and then says "no" and wanders off. Even so the increased communication has been nice.
Sometimes I am fairly surprised at what she knows. She seems to be a quick learner and since I just finished a semester I thought that we should give Ady a report card for her last semester also. Being that she is so young I figured A's, B's, and so forth weren't needed, just pass or fail. Ady passed math, health, science, history, yet failed art. For mathematics we've been focusing on numbers and their relationships to other things. She does okay. She knows that you count to three before you say go, get an underdog push on the swing or jump in the water. However, like any brilliant mind she has come up with her own theory. She no longer counts "1,2,3", instead she just says "one, three-go!" and takes off running. Pretty smart if you ask me, the one is for starting, the three is right before go and the two doesn't really serve a purpose so she skips it. As for health, Ady has learned that you should drink plenty of water, I taught her to get a drink every time you pass a drinking fountain. She understands this well and now gets really upset whenever we pass a drinking fountain. I was in grade school before I knew that darker colors absorb heat and lighter colors reflect heat. Ady has already learned this because she almost never wears shoes and she knows that the black asphalt is much hotter than the sidewalk. The only problem is that when she does wear shoes she loves to run in the road. As for history, Ady knows that roads and sidewalks aren't natural and that a sure fire way to become famous and attract attention is to explore unchartered territory. She definitely catches people's attention when I have to go chasing her through a set of bushes, into someone's yard, running into a classroom or office during a lecture or dashing into a women's bathroom and then laughing at me as I stand there in the doorway calling for her. She always loves going somewhere that she hasn't been. As for the art, well Ady has really started to enjoy coloring and all. We don't expect her stay within the lines or to have perfect color schemes. She'd have received a passing grade for art if it hadn't been for a little experience last week. Kasey had a coupon for a little restaurant and we went during a Jazz game. It is one of those places where they give kids a couple of crayons and a paper to color and play games on. I was watching the game intently with my back to Ady who was sitting next to me. I thought she was just rubbing my back and shoulder. Little did I know that she liked coloring my white t-shirt more than the paper. And of all the colors why purple?!