Adalyn's List of Lurv

February. The month of lurv. People celebrate this in many ways. Flowers. Chocolate.  Fancy dinners. Candelight…talks. Sweet poems and well-phrased Hallmark cards. We all know the gig. 

Our Valentine’s Day has shifted a little bit since our early days.  When Sheaff and I first started dating (on Valentine’s Day), there were flowers, chocolates, and adorably PG butterflies. I was a month into my first job out of college, was giddily decorating a little townhouse I’d just rented, couldn’t drink legally, and didn’t have to cross my legs when I sneezed. This year, the Feb 14 weekend highlights included sweatpants, consistent pees in the potty (not just by us), giant m&m’s from the grandparents, aisle-walking Ikea, and dance parties to Shake It Off and Disney. And it was great.

Which got me thinking about who we love, what we love, and how the things we love and celebrate at this stage of our life will overwhelmingly be munchkin-driven. But in the great scheme of things, this time is going to fly by, as fast as our first 7 years did.  And when we’re old and have the time, money and overall awake-ness to eat a nice dinner out on February 14^th again, we’ll look back at what our world consisted of when our family was first setting out.   Since our brain cells will indubiously be even more depleted by then, in the spirit of Valentine’s, I compiled a list of what this household (ok, mainly Adalyn) passionately loves these days….

Adalyn’s Love List; February 2015:

·      Painting! I would say finger painting, but it’s more hand/forearm painting. Messily. With every color. Especially purple. All the time. 

·      Taking off clothes (ahem…Sparkle….), pulling clothes out of drawers, trying on new clothes,, mainly basketball shorts and shirts, taking those clothes off, putting them on the floor, trying on new clothes, taking those clothes off, putting those on the floor… etc.  Note – loves summer clothes, and wears these consistently inside when it’s 12 degrees outside. We pick our battles.

·      Bast-ball. (Translation: basketball). She loves watching Lynchburg College, Duke, and Daddy’s Sunday night league. She loves ‘wiggle fingers’ during foul shots, yelling “De-tense!” at random times, and halftime, which is “Addie turn” for running with her mini-basketball. 

·      Granny, Pops, Mor-Mor, Pop-pop, Uncle Ty, Auntie Casey, Uncle Jordan, Tia and the rest of her fairly-kick-ass family. My god she loves them.

·      Friends. From our regular playdate pals and storytime buds to Cocos and Tobin and BLG and Miya and Mar Mar and Anne and Auntie Sarah and a million others, she loves them and talks about them all the time.

·      On a contradictory note: hogging toys. Sharing is super fun to read about, but Adalyn does seem to love throwing her entire body over as many toys as she can when one of said-friends gets near. We’re working on this.

·      “Ses-Teet.” Sesame Street.

·      Matching Daddy. Every night, as soon as he walks in the door, she pulls out Sheaff’s Cameron Crazie shirt and red sweatpants or shorts so they can have matching outfits.

·      Big girl cups – more importantly, Addie picking out which color to use for each meal and “helping” to pour.

·      M&M’s and the pee pee dance, which WE love because it has meant big girl pants for about a month now! I get really excited to be done with diapers until I remember that whole-we’re-having-another-baby-thing.

·      I asked Adalyn what she loved: “puh-ple. Mom too.” Yeeees! I’m up there with purple!

·      Popcorn.

·      Zoom time. This involves Sheaff [or willing male and/or strong relative] zooming Adalyn the Airplane around the house in the laundry basket.

·      Destruction of any sort.

·      Playgrounds. Bubbles. Walks. Things that make me think Spring will be really fun.

·      Singing and Ms. Heather

·      Facetime – whether it’s MorMor and Pop Pop, the Coco’s or Uncle Jordan making fart noises and scooping up Chewy 4892 times

·      Sledding. Daddy is ‘fast!’ Mama and her 6 month pregnant belly only had so many waddles up the hill in her.

·      Cooking. Loves her measuring cup and stirring duty.

·      Pancakes. See above activity.

·      New house (Ty and Casey’s): running all over it, playing Quidditch with Uncle Ty, sitting on Ramset’s stuff, chasing Gladys, and most importantly, playing in “Addie’s House” in the backyard.

·      Tooting. Particularly in the tub. This is both concerning and gross.

·      “Snuggling” with Wallie, who must be the world’s most patient dog.

·      Tattoos, most of which are Frozen ones rejected by Tia at Christmas.

·      Eating lunch at the Caf with Granny and Pops. And by lunch I mean m&m’s and sprinkles.

·      On that note… ice cream. Can’t blame her.

·      Books! Pete the Cat is pretty high on the list these days.

·      Sheaff answer to what Adalyn loves is: “Dangerous situations, like running on the top row of bleachers.”

·      Shake it Off. The child loves this song, and has some pretty tell-tale Eccles dance-moves to show it. This has led to many kitchen dance parties. 

·      Honey.  In May, I’m sure she’ll request that her little sister go back in the tummy, but for now, she’s pretty pumped.

As for us, we love the fact that this list is our world these days! While it may not consist of candlelit dinners or dozens of roses, chances are, we’ll be okay with that.

....I mean, as long as there’s chocolate.