The latest on the smaller kid

Ada has a really sweet little voice. Thanks to Aaron for giving her a chance in that department. (Poor Aaron runs in the other direction when I answer my phone in public because I'm SO loud. I like to claim it's completely genetic because you should hear my dad's booming voice. WOW.) At 22 months, Ada's in that stage where everything she says (when she isn't fussing) is completely adorable. I realize parents tend to worship their own children, but I'm convinced that she could melt the heart of anyone who could hear her say "fluffy" or "wuv you". I could listen to it all day. I love how she calls our wagon the "waggie" and pronounces "blanket": "buh bet". She can't contain her excitement when I carry her around the house looking for buh-bet and we finally find it--she kicks her legs and hugs it with such adoration.

Ada's current obsessions are Elmo, baggies, Bohemian Rhapsody, my mole, and her best friend (and second cousin) Lucy.

I'm not sure how she got into Elmo since we don't have TV, but his image is on the face of every one of her pampers, so I guess those two have been close for a while. I'll show her clips on youtube sometimes, and I must say this one is my favorite.

As far as baggies ("bah-ggies"), she likes all kinds: sandwich bags with snacks in them, my purse, grocery bags, gift bags, etc. I recently took dinner to a friend who had a baby, and handed over the dinner in a brown paper grocery bag. Ada went nuts and made a huge scene as I was trying to walk away, because in her mind, we had foolishly given away a perfectly good bah-ggie. She lost a lot of respect for my judgment that night.

She's crazy about Bohemian Rhapsody, and calls it "ah-go"--a reference to "let me go". She requests it in the car every time there's a break between songs on the stereo. She'll quietly say from the back seat "ah-go". She doesn't demand it, she just inserts the idea into our minds every time she feels there's a chance. Her humble pleas win us over quite frequently. She likes to play air drums to it, chant "no. no. no. no. no. no. no.", and reaches as far down into her vocal capacity as possible to sing the last word "me"--which is rather amusing to watch. (The muppets version of Bohemian Rhapsody has Miss Piggy singing the final line "nothing really matters pour moi" in a low voice, and that's what Ada's trying to imitate).

The mole. I have this big ugly mole on my upper chest that Ada is unfortunately in love with. It's pretty disgusting. She often keeps one hand just inside the collar of my shirt whenever I'm holding her so she can touch it. The other day, she wanted me to give her baby doll some love. She handed me her doll so I could rock it and kiss it. Just so the doll and I could completely bond, Ada took the doll's hand and put in on my mole. She must think every kid takes comfort in squishy moles.

Ada calls her best friend Lucy-- "E". She talks about her all the time, tries to head out the door on her own to see her, hugs and loves on her even when E repeatedly squirms away. I was telling Seth stories in the car the other day, and he likes to choose the topic (example: "I want a story about two best buddy Vikings named Seth and Sam in their Viking ship that's actually a wagon"). Then for the first time, Ada requested a story of her own. Her topic of choice: E and bah-ggies. She thoroughly enjoyed her first custom made story about her and her BFF putting stuff in baggies.

Now that Ada's hair is getting longer, it's unfortunately losing a lot of its curl. It's platinum blonde, thin and wispy, with enough wave still in it that it doesn't lie down reverently. It's kind of a mess, and for the life of me, I can't manage to make symmetrical pigtails. Sorry Ada. I still think she's pretty cute though, especially in her new skinny jeans. Did you know they make skinny jeans for one year olds? Ada totally pulls the look off, even with a diaper.