It seems like the boys dominate my blogging moments, so this one is for you, Ada.
I still see her as often as possible, but rarely do I get her all to myself. Plus, her brother has this new trick whereby he puts on the sweetest face he can muster and says, can I please please stay please for a sleepover, Nini, pleeease? I so enjoy having only one child at a time (pick one, any one:) and of course, I cave in to his request. So in comes Jude (happily) and out goes Ada (happily)! No doubt she loves the attention of both parents when Jude pulls the fast one:)
Ada has changed so much in the past couple of months. This shot was taken in August when we were all together at a family party at Aunt Ginny's house in Cannon Beach.
Ada did get to come for a sleepover by herself one weekend. I remember it so well, it was September 8. I can't recall why Jude wasn't here as well, but whatever the reason, we had the most wonderful time together. She wasn't saying real words at the time, but that didn't stop us from chatting it up all weekend.
It was a really warm morning so we took our coffee and the newspaper and went outside in our jammies. Nobody was around to throw balls or sand or rocks at us and we just sat there for the longest time. Ada is the best kind of company.
Ada, sending an email to her "Dat".
Here she is in October, so pretty in her new school clothes.
November: Her hair grew out, she learned to say real words, and in this picture she's actually singing a song she learned at her school.
Here is Ada trying to jump into the kitchen sink for a bath. She loves her baths and will luxuriate for the longest time before she gets the wild and crazies and tries to see what the kitchen will look like under water:)
And here we are last week. She was tricking me and was quite pleased with herself.
Ada is a kick. Plus, she's beautiful and boyant. The boyant part she had to learn, being in the company of her rowdy brother (and dad) most days. But she's so different from the boys. Don't think for a minute I don't love my little boys to pieces. I raised only boys so I'm accustomed to their antics. I enable their soft moments and encourage their active times. While Ada is a combination of both soft and active, she's different because she walks and talks and plays like a little girl.
She wakes up slowly in the mornings and I love listening to her on the monitor.......chatting happily for the longest time. I could coffee up, shower, shave and read the paper before her little party in the crib is over. It's the sweetest thing to listen to her and I hesitate to interrupt before she calls for me.
Ada's communication skills have erupted in the last 6 weeks. She says everything, and I'm not kidding. Everything! She is now doing that "repeating" thing, which can be fun and dangerous at the same time. Her older cousin, Brady, was a great repeater, so I've already had to put the skids to my potty mouth.
Ada doesn't play defense around her all-boy competition. She's right in there scrapping, (when the mood strikes, that is). She has definite ideas about what she likes (or not). I look forward to the day I can catch her long enough to make some little pigtails in that spun gold hair. Clips slip right out, almost before she can rip them out. I look at other little girls in the toy store or at church or in the grocery store and when I get the chance I ask their mothers how did you make that ponytail? I seem to always get the same response: "It's not easy".
Not to worry, Ada. We'll figure this out.
At this writing Ada is 19 months old, well on her way to being two. Her brother, Jude, was hell on wheels as a 2-yr. old and I can only hope Ada wasn't watching!
