An Ada update

I keep telling myself I need to write about my Ada girl but haven't made the time to do it in months. Like babies always do she's changing and growing and learning so rapidly that I'm already forgetting the sound of her saying, "Lo-fee" (lotion) or "Agn" (Ali) as she has replaced them with closer adaptations ("lo-she" and "A-wee"). She's needing to rely on me less and less and an interpreter, which is magical and heartbreaking all at once.

She knows about half of the letters in the alphabet and can sort of sing the alphabet song with me if we trade off lines. (I start off "A B C D" and she says, "E E E," "H I J K," "L me me me me," "Q R S," "T V V," "W X," "Z Z Z.""Now I know my," "A B Cs," "Next time won't you," "E E E".) Same thing—trading off numbers—goes with counting to 12, though for some reason 7 has recently reverted to a 4 . . .

She's still as active as ever. She'll often say ". . .Set, GO!" to herself and take off doing laps around the kitchen table. She climbs everything and has a proclivity for balancing on the edges of things and teetering while saying, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" She loves wrestling and chasing and getting tickled (Dad is the best at all of these).

She is still equally enthralled with cars and necklaces alike and loves to paint, draw and play with play dough. Some of her other fascinations include fans, water, mermaids, dogs, ties, and puzzles.

Most mornings she'll wake up and begin talking about various friends from church, "Eden is fun. Rupert is fun. Sasha is fun . . ." She's fairly outgoing, often walking up to strangers and giving them a love and a kiss (awkward alert). When riding our bike she likes to sing songs together and often initiates Freight Train  or You Are my Sunshine. I'll never tire of our bike rides.

She loves to be understood and often repeats phrases until I repeat them back, letting her know that I've understood. Some days I can't believe I understand my baby talking to me. When did she get big enough to form words and sentences and independent thoughts?

When it comes to sharing, she'll freely share with inanimate objects (cars, trees, strollers, lights) or things that couldn't be less interested (squirrels, birds flying 20 yards overhead, dogs we pass while riding our bikes), but with other kids—that's another story completely. Something to work hard at, I suppose.

Basically, Ada is a completely normal toddler doing very normal toddler things, but because she's mine I think she's just remarkable.