Adeline

This girl...This girl has completely stolen our hearts!

She turned 22 months old on Saturday and keeps us laughing, playing and generally feeling incredibly blessed to have her in our lives.

She:

* loves blueberries.

* loves her ducks and usually carries one down from her crib in the morning and after naps.

* loves her blankets (thankfully she has three, so we can actually wash them)

* has decided that she is the "director" and that we are the actors in her play - and we need to sit, eat, lay down wherever she tells us. She's not upset about it when we want to do something else, just very persistent. Since she can't talk much yet, this is done by pointing, hand guiding, grunting, head shakes and simple words. Like today at REI: Adeline goes into a tent. Curt squats down by the door. Addie points to the middle inside the tent and says "Dada". Curt tells her he's right here. Addie shakes her head no and says "Dada!" while pointing to the middle of the tent. So... Curt goes in. And we do this all day long... it's fun until we have to do it differently and then do the tears pour down her face!!

* likes to read as much as McKinley does! Every night, there are tears when books are over. It used to be that eventually, she would hit her limit, head to her crib for her blanket and we'd move on to lights out. Now, we go back and forth negotiating. We really try to follow her lead about how many books to read, but lately, she just never wants to stop and then then time dictates stopping. But it's funny, when books are over, I'll get her blanket, she's crying and saying and signing "book! book!" over and over as if I don't understand, and she'll be so sad, but then after a couple minutes of crying, she'll point to her crib, snuggle in and be completely calm and usually asleep within minutes.

* bath has become loooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg. She went through a phase of not liking her bath, and now she's swung the other way. She loves it. She plays on her belly. She washes her baby. She fills up all the bottle with water and dumps them out. She tries to blow bubbles. Sometimes Mac is with her, but it really doesn't matter. Tonight, she tooted in the tub, laughed and then looked really upset and wanted out. She immediately got out her little potty (she's been showing interest without results for months) sat down on the potty, tooted again and then freaked out when I thought she was done with her bath and tried to dry her off. No way. She only wanted to sit on the potty and then she got back into the bath for round two. Hilarious!

* She is an outside girl. We moved the little play house to "the woods" (as McKinley calls the trees at the back of our yard, much to my heart's delight) and Adeline can't get enough. I am usually messy and trying to keep them both safe, but somehow I need to get a picture of our sweet little rugrat after she's been playing in the sand box, hiking through the trees, hanging on the trapeze, splashing in the dirty rain water in the swimming pool and digging in the garden - all while wearing a pretty pink dress with ruffles. It is so cute!

* facial hair is scary. Yup. Not so sure about those men with facial hair. She has made strides in realizing that not all men with facial hair are scary because we have numerous friends who currently have facial hair. She is in love with McKinley's buddy Garen, and Garen's dad (Alan) has a beard. But Addie really likes Garen and Garen really likes his dad... so Adeline warmed up to Alan and even went for a short walk with both of them when we were out with them the other night, then wanted Alan to pick her up. At some point I told Adeline that we could ask Alan if it would be okay to touch his beard. Alan said yes, and Adeline stuck out one finger and touched it. Then she realized he was wearing a puffy down jacket and she really liked that too! Ahh... sweet moments of progress!

* have I mentioned that she likes purple? oh, yeah... getting dressed in the morning is a chore because most of the choices are "blah!" (seriously... she says "blah!" if she doesn't like it and there is no way to convince her to put it on. none.) so we go through the choices. Purple is usually the winner. Thank you to The Children's Place for selling lovely plain purple girls clothes. oh... and shoes are a big deal (atta girl!)

* I could go on and on all night! She is a delight and brightens our days. To watch she and McKinley exploring the world is difficult to describe. How amazing.

Happy 22 month birthday Sweet Adeline!