Tights and Skirts

Tim said to me this morning, "You haven't updated your blog in a while."

"Really? Huh."  It didn't seem like that long.

Tim flew out on Saturday morning to go to a meeting in New York. He got back late Tuesday night but was on call Wednesday so we didn't really see him until Thursday. Ada was so excited to have her daddy back that she's been following him around, begging to be picked up and doing nearly anything sweet she can think of to get his attention. He's gone out of town before but I've never seen this kind of a reaction from her. At one point he flashed me that look that says, "Can you please distract her while I go to the bathroom for 1 minute?" Ha. Welcome to my world, buddy! It's beautiful for sure but sometimes you just need a minute to pee.



Of course, Monday morning I walked down to the car and got in. As I pulled away from the curb the car started shaking and the "service engine" light was flashing. So I turned it around, parked back where I was and walked back home. I forgot that AAA won't tow if you aren't physically with your car. Sigh. Single parenting and 12 hour work days weren't very conducive to getting things like this done so the nanny drove me to work every day this week. I can summarize the most recent experience in one succinct sentence: We're test driving some new cars tomorrow. But the American Classic did her job - we wanted this car to get us through residency and fellowship and it did. We'll throw her a nice funeral and even I will find something nice to say about her.

Sadly, as Monday mornings often do, this most recent one set the cantor for the rest of the week. Every day I watched as my schedule spiral out of control toward a shit-storm of chaos. Everyone at work is asking me if I'm counting down the days? Well, yes, I am. Have been for years. To be honest, it'll be a miracle if I last another 12 days.

The week sailed by with all of the typical distractions and then some. So I didn't hit publish on any of the posts I've partially written. That's OK though. Usually when that happens, it's because in retrospect it's better that I didn't put those memories into any permanent form because they didn't deserve it.

The one really easy part of my week has been Ada. Something interesting happens when it's just me and Ada living alone together. We fall into an easy rhythm of just her and I. It has nothing to do with the absence of Tim. In fact, I far prefer to have our family together. Maybe it's spurred on by my desire to do special things with her like take a bath together for over an hour. Or to go for breakfast together where we sit outside sharing yogurt and fruit:



Whenever I spend time with her like this - totally focused - she responds by being ultra sweet and exceptionally cooperative. She is really changing so fast and growing into this opinionated, head-strong little person. Today she told me that her favorite color is blue, her favorite animal is the giraffe and her favorite book is "Llama". She knows all of her favorite books, and there are quite a few, by heart. She recites them or at least key words of them.

She also picks out her own clothes. Heaven help you if you try to intervene at all. Making a suggestion is the surest, fastest way to a non-matching outfit. Over the past 2 weeks her favorite is to wear tights and a skirt every day. She also wears some combination of this ensemble to bed. With her shoes. One morning I woke her up to go out to the nannys car to take me to work. When I pulled back the covers she had on her Easter white patent leather mary janes. Somewhere in the middle of the night she got up and put them on.




In case you have ever looked at small children before and judged what they were wearing I just want to make it clear that there is no hope of intervention. So she comes up with brilliant combinations all on her own. My personal favorite this weekend was her lavender Dora dress, hot pink stripped tights and red polka dot shoes. Sometimes passers-by giggle a little bit but I tell myself that's because she's a little girl and she can carry off just about anything she wants to. Even this:



What you can't see very well is that under the Elmo jacket is a yellow and white stripped sweater. Because what could possibly go with stripped tights and a stripped skirt any better than a stripped sweater? Nothing.
Similar combinations have shown up at soccer practice:



And while dancing in the aisles of the hardware store:



I kid but don't get me wrong. Mismatched outfits, singing off-key, dancing any time, any place and reciting her favorite stories are just part of why I love her and why I love being her mom. I love watching her turn into the person she's going to be. I think she's going to be pretty awesome.




There is a happy weekend of swim class and Subaru dealers coming our way. It leads into a week where I'll cross into the single-digit countdown to being done with my job. Oh, thank goodness. I can't wait to spend more time with this one. We have our own little countdown. It isn't lost on me that these coming 3 months are the last ones where it will be just her and me. It makes having extra time with her seem even more important.