ada charlotte {7 years}

Dear Ada, 

How on earth are you seven years old?!?! There is so much that is fun about you growing up. For instance, you listen to a lot of audiobooks, and then you'll use vocabulary and phrases that aren't common around our house, and I'm always surprised because your world is expanding and I'm not the only one giving input these days! Sometimes you'll use a word, and then because I make a face (maybe a face of surprise, maybe a face that lets you know you used the word wrong), you'll immediately say something like "I don't even know what that word means!" Which is funny to me because adult-me wonders why you would use it if you don't know you're using it correctly, but that's just how kid-you learns!

You're also getting good at things that required a lot of training on my part in the beginning -- things like cleaning up your room/playroom, folding/putting away laundry, doing table tasks. You're responsible and do those things so well now!

Of course you have your moments when you and Holly fight like crazy, but you also have moments where you kindly show her how to do something, encourage her to do what needs to be done, and comfort her when she's sad or hurt. You're such a good sister, both to her and to Peter.

You're still feisty! You like things to go your way, and you get upset when they don't. You don't like being told no. You don't like to work when you'd rather play. But of course you're still a kid, and the more you practice, the more I know you'll learn to handle these things with grace.

You are quick to smile and laugh. You are curious about all sorts of things. You are sensitive to any unkindness (aka, if I lose my cool, you usually end up crying). You don't always follow the rules yourself, but you for sure notice and point out if anyone else breaks them! You are sweet and you love to cuddle.

I love you, and I'm so grateful to have you as my daughter!

Love always,

Mama

Stats

• 56.4 pounds (75%) & 47.25" (38%)
• 5T is usually too small, and 6x is sometimes too big, but seeming better these days.

Milestones

• Lost her first tooth (her bottom-left) on 12/23/22 (loose for about a week before we pulled it). 6y3m
• Lost her second tooth about a month later. HYSTERICAL about getting it pulled. By the time we finally got it, we didn't have to pull at all.
• Got the hang of a two-wheeled bike right at the end of summer. We never really tried before this summer; at the start of summer, Russ took her training wheels and pedals off her bike that was really too small for her, and she used it as a strider bike. Then after a while of that, she was ready to try a small (same size as strider) two-wheeled bike, and after a little practice on that, she quickly picked it up on her bigger bike!

Favorite things

• Color: Purple and turquoise
• Animal: Cheetah and cats
• Tv show: Rainbow Rangers and Ridley Jones
• Movie: The Swan Princess and Snow White
• Food: Panda Express and white chicken chili
• Book: American Girl: Molly
• Things to do: draw, color, and listen to books
• Things to do with
• Mom: cuddle
• Dad: cuddle & adventure
• Holly: play blocks and magnatiles
• Peter: make him laugh
• What you want to be when you grow up: artist, ballet dancer, gymnast

Funny things she's said:

• "I don't want to be a police officer when I grow up because I don't want to have people not listen to me." (My thought right after --> then you won't want to be a mom, either! 😅)
• "I want to be a teacher when I grow up so I can help little kids learn to be more kind."
• In a prayer: "Please bless Peter that he won't die in mommy's tummy and that he won't get any germs in mommy's tummy because I love him and we're so excited to have him in our family in just a few short months." 😍
• Some of the cousins were having a "beauty contest" (what the heck??) and Ada said, "The beautifulest part of anyone is when they smile!" Nailed it, baby girl.
• When she had some eczema, we put vaseline on it. She kept asking for "gasoline" for her eczema.
• "Are Google and Siri wife and husband?"

Random tidbits:

• She's been obsessed with Peter since he was born. She loves to help take care of him (even changing diapers) and make him laugh and cuddle with him. She always wants to hug him goodnight.
• This year she's taking gymnastics and she's enjoying it so far. 
• We're homeschooling this year! I hope to homeschool long term, too, but we're playing it by ear for now. We're "unschooling," so my basic goals for every day are read-aloud time, outdoor time, and lots of play time. She also has an online reading class every day, and we often play games that involve math at night. Sometimes I do a short lesson about something that seems important or interesting for her to learn. One day, we went to a creek and I asked her a series of questions to get her to observe. At one point, she threw a leaf off the bridge into the creek. She guessed it would go fast, but it actually went slow. I asked her to think about why it went slow and at first she was fighting me because thinking can be hard, but eventually she came to the conclusion ALL ON HER OWN that the leaf went slowly because it fell on the side of the creak, where the current was a lot slower. It's so fun to hear her make discoveries like that!
• Since she and Holly started sharing a room (about 3 months ago), she gets to stay up later until after Holly falls asleep. We play games, read books, or even watch shows sometimes. This time is nice since it's one-on-one.
• Sleep: I don't monitor her sleep as closely as I used to, so about all I know about it is that she goes to bed between 7:45 and 8:15pm, not sure how long it takes her to fall asleep, and she usually wakes up between 6:30 and 7am. I know that sometimes she falls asleep quickly and sometimes it takes her a long time, but I haven't paid close enough attention to know whether that's due to a particular time she's put to bed or a particular activity that occurs before bed or a particular amount of activity throughout that day. I will note that she gets ready for bed at the same time as Holly, and then when we're ready to send her to bed, we simply sing to her, give her hugs and kisses, and send her upstairs on her own, reminding her to use the bathroom before she goes to bed. She's pretty good to do her bedtime routine all on her own.