Well Here's An Unexpected First!

"Um, yeah, I broke my arm." Showing off the new cast.


Napping with the first cast on.

Her first broken bone. That's right, friends, sometime last week the little miss broke her arm and neglected to tell us about it. Saturday she was whiny and clingy, but also had a fever, so I wasn't sure what was what. She wanted me to feed her and even hold her juice for her, which was weird, and I noticed she wasn't climbing into her tower, she asked to be put in. We talked about going to Urgent Care on Sunday, but Sunday she seemed mostly fine... climbing all furniture as normal except for a slight overuse of her right hand and underuse of her left. The babying of her left hand continued, until finally, on Tuesday, Calvin took her in. After wiggling her arm and hand all around and thinking it was fine, the doctor said, "Well, since you're here, we might as well do an x-ray." And lo and behold: broken. A bulge? fracture right by her wrist.

She was a champ and got a cast on, (bribed by daddy's promise of a lolipop,) and then... got home, got her little cast signed by mommy,... and took her cast off. Just like that, easy as you please, she's suddenly holding her cast in her good hand. Whoops. So we quickly try to cram it back on, hoping that the 10-second rule applies to casts, and wondering if she's going to need x-rays and everything all over again. Taking her sweater off today the cast came off again, with her sleeve, so we went back to Urgent Care and got her right fixed up. She now has a space-age material, waterproof, very snug, smaller cast that seems just great. Sheesh! All throughout, she's complained barely at all, and even the initial break was unnoticeable, which means no one can figure out how she broke it. She's either incredibly fragile or terribly good at pain management. 8)

Oh! Calvin's parents got a new puppy, in these next shots you can see both the cast AND Carson, the cutest cocker spaniel puppy, ever. We've been playing up how Sunny (their older cocker spaniel) has a new baby brother. Adessa loves the puppy, wants to "Hold you" all the time and belly laughs at all his antics. Fun!

She talks... In her sleep.

She's talking a ton during the day, that's been happening for a while. She gives a running commentary on things she sees, (insistently, until I acknowledge what she's observed.) And now, she's having vivid dreams and talking in her sleep.

About two weeks ago she woke up in the morning holding her hands out to me: "Wash hands, wash hands." When I asked her why her hands were dirty, she said, "Pizza." Its nice that she's worried about cleanliness even in her dreams. In the middle of a recent night, she didn't wake up, but was plainly tormented: "MINE, not yours. MIIIIIINE. Share." Crying... then wailing, "Ouuuuch." Such subtleties the subconscious conjures, whatever could she be processing? During the worst one, she must have been dreaming about a tantrum. She woke up in the middle of a full blown, thrashing display of toddler discontent and it took several laps around the house to calm her down. Since I barely remember my dreams, all the credit for the night life in her head goes to Calvin's side of the family. There, she is in good company, as pretty much everyone has sleep walking/talking stories. We'll have to keep a good eye on her, even when she's asleep.

The Exploratorium

Adessa accompanied me on a school field trip to the Exploratorium on Friday. It was the second time in her short life. (Really, what a lucky gal!) She got a lot more out of it this time, I'm sure, and was able to interact with a lot of the exhibits and do many of the hands on things. Not pictured were some spining sand exhibits, where she could have stayed and played in the sand all day. Pictured are...

A spinny disc physics table.


Fun with water.


Playing a marimba/xylophone thingy (without the pacifier!)


Climbing in the kid's area.


Her 21 month birth-day. (The day before the Exploratorium.)

Ms. Adessa Faye

This beaut of a picture is the only one taken on her 20 months, 8/12ths birthday. (February 12th) Not her best look.

That's better! Valentines Day, 2009.

Dog sitting. Sugar has a tiny leash, so as long as Daddy held on to Adessa, she could hold onto Sugar.

Tiny Dancer! (Thank you, Madrina Romina!)

"Own bed, big girl!"

Accessorizing, with attitude. (That's her new funny face, which she practices in the mirror.)

Sprinkling the topping on apple pies, in her tower.

Adessa:
In the spirit of this being Adessa's baby book as well as family and friend update place, I'm going to record milestones and more in this post. She's 20 1/2 months. She can now run and jump with both feet coming off of the ground at the same time. She says phrases like "Where Mommy go?" "There it is." and lots and lots of words. I think we've over-used some adjectives,as the other day she described someone's (admittedly very attractive) mantel clock as "beautiful". She likes to help out, which is nice, on her terms 8). She will fetch things, wipe down her high chair tray, mini-sweep with her mini-broom, (not actually very helpful when I'm actually trying to sweep, but cute). She loves to put things away: she'll hang up her sweaters, put food back in the fridge or cupboards, put away laundry, and put my shoes in my closet. These would be very helpful, though for most of them she likes to do it while being held, which is getting harder on my back. We got a "Kitchen Tower" contraption which allows Adessa to be safely at counter level. We've already experienced some very happy cheese grating, baking, toast-making, dish washing, and counter-wiping. She has ventured into her own bed and sleeps there for some naps and some nights until the wee hours. She plays, actually interacting, with her friends. She has for the last few weeks been incredibly weepy and demanding. She's wanting to be held all the time, crying about any hesitation in getting her way, frustrated easily, and hard to predict. We are all working on patience and distraction and trusting that it will pass. She loves her music class, and has started paying attention to what the teacher is doing and following some directions, which is adorable and fun to see. She likes letters, and whenever there's a sign or book or anything printed, she starts singing the ABC song.

Baby:
The new baby (yet to be named) comes in about two months, which means I have just two more months of being able to focus all my mommy attention on Adessa, and get some preparative things done. I am feeling more tired and achey, and I have less lap for her to sit on. Sometimes I think the girls are kicking each other through my belly; they have practically already touched when Adessa's elbow meets with some poking out baby part in a thin-skinned section of my expanding stomach. Sometimes it's painful. I haven't yet "prepared" for the birth as much as I did for Adessa, but I'm hoping to resume practicing my breathing and focusing, and that it will be easier going into labor knowing what to expect.

Me:
I found my long lost library card. And figured out how to search for and request books online. My eyes are too big for my... brain? as now I have a zillion books to read, and more coming in all the time. I've loved it, though! It started with a survival kick, "The Unthinkable: Who Survives when Disaster Strikes, and Why." Awesome. "Deep Survival" was also good, and Malcolm Gladwell's kind of related book "Blink." Now it's "The Gift of Fear." by Gavin de Becker. So intruiging. I highly recommend them, all applicable to our lives and what I mostly learned was: trust your intuition. And participate in safety drills and read all safety instructions! When something crazy happens, we fall back on the essence of whatever training we have had, and can't be relied upon to think rationally. Emergency services won't be there for a while, so act. Put the oxygen mask on yourself, first, then people near you! 8) I think all this is notable because I haven't been this stimulated by a subject for a long time, besides labor and baby and kid books, and I like seeing the overlap of my new learning throughout the different books. For those of you who thought I was a know-it-all, random fact dropper to talk to before, get ready for more.

The Aquarium!

We took an impromtu family trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today. It was a splendid day, all around! While it's always lovely to look at the fish, it is such sheer delight to watch Adessa react to all the sights and sounds. We spent ages watching the otters, doing the toddler interactive play area and slide, and going up and down the elevator and escalator. It was nice to go at her speed and see the wonder reflected in her face. Since she's pretty verbal, she also vocalized her amazement, with: "Beautiful" when we saw the ocean, "Cute" about the otters, and "Fun" in the play area. We think she's all three of those things, maybe that's where she's heard those words before. A most enjoyable day!

Gawking at the fishies.




The touch tank, though she only wanted to touch the water, none of the critters.


Playing on the "water bed". In the first one she's trying to jump (still hasn't figured it out).




Daddy and Adessa in the wind. We had a memorable picnic lunch huddled in a corner of the upper deck area trying to stay warm out of the blustering wind. Exhilerating!


Anchovies in the midst.

Catching up.

We've been busy! Here are a bunch of pictures to show you what we've been up to:

Taking care of baby dolls.


Adessa is an earthy-crunchy mom, and exclusively breastfeeds her baby.


We've been going to birthday parties!! Here's Gwen, Danny, and Adessa at Danny's first birthday party. Adessa can say "Hap-birthday" and sing most of the song, and loves to play birthdays, with imaginary cake and candles to blow out. Fun, since we've a plethera more birthdays coming this season.


Cooking!
Sporting our Grandma-Beck-Made matching bumble bee aprons, we are cooking now! (Yes, yes, I know, it's baking!) Cookies!


Measuring. Most of the ingredients made it mostly into the bowl.


Stirring. (She now stirs everything, her Cheerios, yogurt, soup, whatever)


Tasting the batter, the best part.


Adessa also helped make and taste smoothies. Lots of messy yumminess.


...And her winning grin. It's rare to photograph her giant smile. I'm convinced that digital cameras are the worst thing for photo albums ever, as I always capture the moment right before or right after she gives a dazzling smile. She smiles when she hears her favorite songs, when there's anything sweet to eat, and especially when she sees herself dressed up in the mirror, like...


...when trying on my earings.

Time for more pictures!

And... it's a girl! Baby #2, night-kicker, daytime-thumper, belly-stretcher, heartburn-contributer... is a girl. 8) The hunt for a name begins, and after "Adessa" and the instant yes-ness of the name, we're having more trouble with a second girl's name. We're trying out A names, with three syllables to go with Adessa, and trying out fancy unique names, and trying out saints names and biblical ones, maybe to tweak like we did with Adessa. We'll keep you posted and alert all when we land on the right one. Meanwhile, my belly grows and here's Adessa:

"Hold you!? Hold you!?" is both how she asks to be held and how she asked to hold baby Alex. He seemed more pleased with the arrangement than she, in the end.

Daddy and Adessa checking out what's cooking on the stove.

Admiring herself with glasses on. It's become difficult to get a picture of Adessa smiling. I'll work on it for blogland, and for posterity, but she'll say "smile!" when she sees a camera without smiling at all.

At the beach. (Kind of obvious, I guess. I think those may be Jesus's footprints)