Little Acorn

The Fair

Last year's Labour Day weekend trip to the fair was so memorable, but this year's trip was SO VERY FUN. Adeline had a fabulous time and she walked her little legs off in the hot sun for close to two hours. We got there not long after opening and it was lovely and quiet so Adeline could take her time getting to know each and every bunny and talking to all the 4-H kids. Her favourite thing at the fair this year was getting to pat birds, especially this homing pigeon. Adeline spent a long time very gently and sweetly patting the pigeon and talking with her very proud and patient owner.

Patting a chicken was good too, but there was just something special about the pigeon.

Adeline got to ride a carousel for the first time as well, although the carnies were sticklers for the rules this year and almost denied her, even though there were MUCH younger (but taller) children already seated on horses and her Daddy promised to hold on to her the whole time. It's tough being short - by next year she will definitely be tall enough for any of the tiny rides and our girl is going to want to try them ALL. She was so happy when the carousel started and she DID NOT want her Daddy to hold on to her AT ALL. As we were walking away from the Midway Adeline kept pointing to rides (including the biggest and scariest of them) and saying "I ride that one now!". It will be Daddy's job to take her on the rides...I got a little queasy just watching the carousel go around and around.

We ended off our day watching the equestrian competition and once again Adeline was fascinated and rather awed by the size of the horses.

Just for comparison, here's our tiny girl last year when she couldn't walk at all and the only thing she could tell us about the horses was "neigh". Oh how much Adeline has grown and changed in just a year.

The Birthday Party Season

Ever since Adeline's Birthday we've been PARTYING. There has been between one and THREE birthday parties each weekend for the last few weeks. Adeline is LOVING IT!

Sometimes there are sandboxes...

 

 

Sometimes there's a bouncy castle...

 

 

 

There are ALWAYS good things to eat...

 

 

And the most important part - playing with good friends and lots of new people to meet!

 

 

 

And they always wear everybody out. This is Adeline exactly two minutes after leaving the party this afternoon...

 

 

David and I were both quite shy children and we're so happy that Adeline loves to be right in there with all the kids, big and little. She is wary of new grown ups at first but warms up quickly and she loves to play with other children and will always be found right in the middle of the action. Adeline and I are off next to visit Adeline's Nana for eight days while David stays home to go to work (and sleep all night long, sleep in on the weekend, watch television any time he wants, be able to clean up the toys and have them stay cleaned up, eat treats for dinner and be able to go use the bathroom without an audience, amongst other exciting things). Yes. I'm jealous. Verrrrrrrrrrrry jealous. But I'm glad David is having this time to relax and I hope he enjoys every minute of it! He's allowed to miss us a little, but only a little. Hopefully Adeline will do okay without her Daddy. We've been without him for 5 days in a row before but she was home in her own space with her own routines that time, so this could be harder. Hopefully she'll be having so much fun at Nana's house that she'll be happy all day and exhausted at night.

West Coast Weekend

We brought Adeline all the way home from Vietnam without incident, but for some reason I was really dreading last weekends big car ride out to Ucluelet. It was about 5 hours each way with just a brief stop at Nana's house to eat a banana, play a bit and snuggle the world's most kid-friendly cat. The idea of a 5 HOUR road trip gave me the shivers, as it's only quite recently that Adeline stopped crying and thrashing every time she was put in the carseat. Our girl was great though - when she wasn't sleeping she played with her toys, listened to music, practiced her signing, hugged her stuffie, played peekaboo with herself and looked out the window. She only got really crabby once, and passing back a cookie solved that problem pretty quickly. It was only her third cookie ever, so it immediately took all her attention and concentration as she found it VERY delicious and didn't want to waste a crumb. There was no way we weren't going though, because this was the weekend of Adeline's...oh I don't know...second-cousins-but-more-like-aunt-and-uncle's wedding. It was a perfect west coast wedding on a glorious sunny autumn weekend, with a beach fire rehearsal dinner and a barefoot ceremony on the beach complete with the bride being rowed to shore by her father and then rowed away by her new husband. The reception was likely a very good time as well, as it was beautifully decorated, it was a great group of people and the band was just setting up, but unfortunately right after a tasty Mexican dinner we had to go, as Adeline was getting a little freaked out. Every time there was glass clinking and hooting (which was pretty often) she would get a bit panic-y and start to cry. She was already on edge and then well-meaning people tried to touch her and that set off a huge must-hug-Mama cryfest. Once my shoulder was completely wet with my poor girl's tears we knew it was time to go. Adeline hadn't had her regular naps and hadn't eaten well and wasn't having much fun, so we left around 7 for some quiet time back at the cabin and a long sweet sleep for everyone.

Some pictures from the weekend...

Adeline really loved the beach fire on friday night. Here she is having a sand appetizer before she enjoyed her very first hot dog. There were a lot of dogs there that night (canines, not wieners) and Adeline found this VERY exciting. She kept doing the sign and yelling "dog" and saying "woof woof". The dogs were a little less thrilled with her.

The beautiful bride being rowed to shore and the ceremony which was so perfect for the couple and brought tears to my eyes and reminded me of how lucky I am to have found my one true love. I don't usually post photos of people without their permission but hopefully they won't mind.

Here's Adeline after the ceremony standing by the driftwood and salal arbour. I'd like one of these beauties for my garden! Adeline can't won't stand by herself yet, but she was leaning just right to give the illusion that she's up on her own two feet. She enjoyed the ceremony a lot and had a great time meeting her big cousin who was so kind to her and walked her all over the beach and took every rock she gave him as if it was a jewel.

Here's Adeline already looking a little tense at the beginning of the reception. At least it distracted her from trying to pull out her hair clips. I'm just not ready to give up on hairdos even if Adeline would rather her hair was always unadorned (and uncombed too, if she really had her way). Soon I'll work up the courage to try pigtails again. She was soooooooooo upset with me the last time I tried that I've been reluctant to put either of us through that again.

Adeline had a fabulous time at the big beach at Wickinninish. The crashing pacific rim surf made her a little wary at first but within a minute she was right at home. I have so many great childhood memories of spending time on these beaches and it was really special to see Adeline enjoying them for the first time. We live just a few blocks from the ocean and go to our civilized city beaches, but they're just not the same as the wild west coast. Della got sandy from top to bottom and explored all sorts of kelp, driftwood and assorted flotsam. The rottener it was the more interesting she found it... Our reluctant walker (she gets jelly legs as soon as you try and put her on her feet) was happy to trot all over the beach holding one of her Nana's hands and with a huge chunk of slimy and sandy bull kelp in her other hand. She was practically running and had a huge grin on her face. Adeline really loved that piece of kelp but her family said NO to bringing it home as a souvenir, even if it was a great motivator to get her to walk.

It was a great weekend...no one wanted to be home on Monday and we all wished we were back at the beach.

 

 

 

 

Fair Fun

I think no matter where you live, you probably have a fair like this one near you at the start of every autumn. It doesn't seem to have changed a bit since I was little. I think that was even the exact same tilt-a-whirl I once almost threw up on.

You know this fair - with the 4H kids and their animals, contests of all sorts including pie eating and sheep shearing, greasy/sugary fair food, preserves and quilts, giant vegetables, a million bees and the sounds of screams from the midway making their way into even the quietest of cow barns. We got up early on Saturday to hopefully beat the worst of the crowds and made our way out to western Canada's oldest agricultural fair (they're very proud of this fact).

 

Adeline can point out all the animals in her books and knows most of the sounds they make, but I wondered how much would cross over into seeing them in the real world. Our first stop was the equestrian events and Adeline pointed and said "Neigh" excitedly as soon as we got there. Then she said "Neigh" about a hundred more times. Horses are very LARGE in person and Adeline was keeping her eye on them.

 
My favourites have always been the sheep. Sheep at the fair are always so perfectly white and clean (nothing at all like sheep in the field) and the sheep barn definitely has the best smell. Plus sheep give us wool, which is one of my favourite things.

 

Adeline is a VERY gentle patter (she's been practicing on ever-patient Zephyr) and while she liked the guinea pigs and bunnies, what she couldn't get enough of were the DONKEYS. 

 

All the other animals, from sweet milk-chocolate-brown bunnies, to placid cud-chewing cows to rather imposing geese were greeted with Adeline's patented "I'm trying to figure you out" question mark eyebrows and a quite serious face (see the horse picture above), but this little group of adult and baby donkeys were the highlight of the day for Adeline. I think we could have watched them alllllll day. Adeline laughed and smiled, clapped and blew kisses, danced and waved and was SO happy to be in the company of such amazing creatures. She kept saying "Neigh" (we're working on hee-haw now) and saying and signing "eat" every time one of the donkeys was at the food dish (which was pretty well always). She also kept looking at us pleadingly and signing "please" because she really wanted to pat the donkeys, but I didn't want the donkeys to mistake Adeline's sweet little hands for a donkey treat so I had to say no. I don't know what it was about the donkeys that appealed so much to Adeline but she positively adored them.

 

It was a great day at the fair and going each Labour Day weekend is sure to be a family tradition. David is looking forward to taking Adeline on some of the gentler rides next year and I'm looking forward to the conversations that 2 year old Adeline and I will be having at the fair. How many years do you think we have left before she rolls her eyes and refuses to dork it up with her parents in the ice cream cone cut-out?

That night Adeline was very restless going to sleep, but she finally stopped wiggling and closed her eyes and just as she was drifting off she said "Mama. Mama. Neigh. Neigh." and then she blew a big kiss and fell asleep.

 

 

Family

We had a great long weekend visiting with my cousin, his wonderful soon-to-be wife and their awesome little guy who is exactly the same age as Adeline. If the Dad and I are cousins that makes the son and Adeline...second cousins? I don't know, I just know that it was so much fun to watch the babies play together. They had a really good time together and it was fascinating to watch the games that 12 month olds could invent! The two of them were super insanely cute together in the bathtub, but I'm afraid those pictures just aren't appropriate for the internet. Adeline also loved, loved, loved meeting their calm and happy dog and patting him very gently.

Mostly we just hung out at home, but we did make a trip to visit the petting farm. Here Adeline is pointing to the Vietnamese pot belly pig. Adeline is really into animals and the noises they make lately, so the petting farm was a great outing. She pointed to everything and was so excited that she just had to jump and wiggle and grin and hug her Daddy over and over again.

 

Next time Adeline sees her cousin will be at his parents beach wedding in October - we can't wait!

Sunday

Even though we have a list as long as our arm of things that we wanted to get done around the house and garden this summer, we've decided that our priority has to be family fun, having great experiences and making wonderful memories with Adeline. It's still hot today (but not hot like it was Thursday and Friday) so we decided to go to a shady beach just a few minutes from home. Yes, everyone else in town was part of the sweaty, summery, sunburned crowd at one of the sunny beaches, but we sought out a quiet little beach where it was cool and shady.

First you walk through the green forest to get there...Adeline sang quietly to herself almost the whole way. Maybe she was communicating with all the birds...

Then you emerge on a little pebbly beach. We had the place all to ourselves!

We climbed on the rocks and looked for whales, seals and otters (number spotted = zero).

 

Adeline loved watching the tiny fish in the tidepools. She really thought we should let her sit in there so that she could touch them.

 

When we got home Adeline went for a long happy sleep, David did laundry and I mowed the lawn and did some weeding. For some reason the chores seemed less onerous when I had the happy memory of our time at the beach as company.

Big City!

On Saturday we packed up the family early in the morning to take the ferry to Vancouver so that we could get together with lots of families that have children who were born in Vietnam and so that Adeline could be reunited with two of the babies who were in our travel group and who were her roommates at the orphanage and have the same early history and adoption story as Adeline. It was so wonderful to see these little ones after almost three months of being home. Everyone had grown and changed so much and it was the culmination of a dream to see them all at home in Canada, playing together while the adoring parents grinned and snapped pictures. Adeline was a little too "huggy" for the wee guy on her left and she did try and steal the other little girl's bottle just like old times. The babies really did seem to recognize each other and were so comfortable playing. It was worth the early morning, expensive ferry ride and long day just to have my heart warmed seeing these three hanging out with each other on a blanket playing with their toys. 

 

And I just have to say it again - Adeline was one of the best behaved little ones at the picnic. She was happy to play, she ate a big lunch and then when she got tired instead of falling apart and crying she just put her head down on my shoulder and fell asleep. We are lucky, lucky parents to have such an easy going girl! Adeline was even okay in her carseat, because she had her new best friend forever, her puppy Coal to travel with. She LOVES this puppy and she talks to him, hugs  and kisses and pats him all day long. 

 

We luckily didn't have much of a wait for the ferry on the way home and Adeline had her first taste of BC Ferries fries and gravy (a family tradition when traveling) and she enjoyed browsing the brochure racks, watching the boats, reading books and hanging out with our neighbours who were also traveling over for the picnic.

We were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home, but it was a great day!

Butterfly Gardens

Saturday we strapped Adeline into her barely tolerated car seat and headed out for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and a visit to Butterfly Gardens. Lunch was tasty and Adeline noshed off everyone's plate, ending up with a huge meal of spring rolls, rice vermicelli, two different kinds of barbecued pork, lemongrass chicken, rice, lettuce, cucumber and even a few sips of jasmine tea. After lunch it was back in the car seat for a snooze while we drove aimlessly and enjoyed some grown-up chatting until Adeline woke up. Butterfly Gardens was one of the places we dreamed of taking the small person before we even knew who she was and a butterfly features in our adoption story, so they have an even more special place in my heart now.

We saw lots of butterflies and birds (including an ibis who was really INTO David's foot, if you know what I mean) and our little scientist studied everything very very carefully.

 

But the most fun? Watching Adeline's hair get crazier and crazier in the tropical heat and humidity. This is how it looked when we arrived...

 

And this is how it looked when our visit was finished...

Big and curly, just like Mama's hair gets in the humidity. 

Richmond Night Market

From top:
- The huge crowd, which just kept getting bigger as the night went on
- Scallion pancakes, just like I ate at the train stations in China
- Che, a sweet Vietnamese dessert/drink with sweet beans, fruit, jelly blobs and coconut milk
- Korean fish shaped waffles, filled with bean paste, custard or chocolate
- Colourful pens and stationery

Yes, we did eat scallion pancakes, che and fish waffles along with some barbecued tasty bits on sticks, lobster balls (also on a stick), a twisty fried potato (on a stick, of course), some oh-so-good puffy tofu squares (you got it - on a stick) and dragon's beard candy (not on a stick). There were many more things I wanted to try - next time, I guess.