ada charlotte {8 years}

Dear Ada, 

You are 8 years old! You've been anxiously awaiting this birthday, both because you're excited for presents, and because you're excited to get baptized! You frequently talk about how much you love Jesus and how you want to follow Him. You say the most lovely and heartfelt prayers for specific things and specific people. You love primary songs, and you sing them beautifully.

You are so creative and imaginative. I love that you are still little, and you still love to play pretend. You still play Barbies and house, and lately you're very into creating what you need out of paper and/or cardboard -- a small backpack, a notebook, a room for your Barbies, you name it! My favorite thing is to see you and Holly playing together happily and creatively.

You LOVE to read. You've been in an online reading class for about a year now, and your skills in and love for reading have both grown so much. You're reading chapter books now, sometimes passing hours doing so. You also love to learn, though not so much with worksheets. Luckily we don't do worksheets much in homeschooling!

You just started piano lessons and you're enjoying them. It's fun to see you so dedicated to practicing!

You're not always willing or excited to do anything cleaning-related, but once you get going, you're a good little worker! I love to see the ways you have grown and improved over the years in this regard.

You are the sweetest girl. You are just so thoughtful and considerate of others. When I felt sick recently and was just lying on the floor, you came over and sweetly rubbed my back. Every time I get mad and am having a hard time bouncing back, you ask me what you can do to help me feel better. If we mention that someone is sick or hurt or having a hard time, you'll usually ask about how that person is doing at a later time. Now just to get you to be this loving, sweet girl with your siblings all the time 🙃😘

I'm grateful you're my daughter, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to watch you grow up. You're such a wonderful person and I'm so glad I get to have you in my life forever!

Love always,

Mama

Stats

• 63.0 pounds (72%) & 50.5" (54%)
• Wears size 7/8

Milestones

• She has lost 8 teeth so far.
• She's getting much better at reading and writing, but she still writes several of her numbers and letters backward. It's something we'll have to focus on in homeschool this year!
• She's getting better at doing hard things, like hiking even when she's tired! She often chooses to walk with me in the mornings, rather than ride her bike while I walk. Getting her to walk such a long distance used to be such a chore for her, but she's happy to do it now (she loves to chat with me 😊).

Favorite things

• Color: Light purple
• Animal: Cheetah
• Tv show: Bluey (though we don't do screen time anymore!)
• Movie: Descendants movies
• Food: Panda Express
• Book: Magic Treehouse series
• Things to do: jump (at a trampoline park), color and draw, gymnastics
• Things to do with
• Mom: do nails
• Dad: do shady hikes in fall weather
• Holly: play
• Peter: make silly faces or tickle him
• What you want to be when you grow up: gymnast, cook, waitress, artist, writer (she frequently says she wants to be "so many things!" when she grows up, and that she doesn't know how she'll do it all)

Funny things she's said:

• "I think we have those red, white, and blue popsicles the day that everyone puts out their American flags. What's that day called? Repentance day?"
• The family was all talking about the possibility of Russ shaving his mustache and beard. I asked the kids if they thought he should, and they said no. I said to Russ, "I don't want you to shave your mustache and beard; I think they're sexy!" and Ada said, "Me too!" 🤣
• The other day, we were walking to the park along the path we walk nearly every day. When we came close to a bench, Ada said, "When I'm 16 and in love (if we still live here), my first kiss will be on that bench!" I was shocked because she never says stuff like that! 
• After getting separated from Granny for about half an hour one evening (kids left for the park ahead of Granny and Pete, but the kids were supposed to show Granny where the park was), Ada told Granny that when she would tell me about the experience the next morning, she would say, "It's a very long story with many frightening chapters!"*

Random tidbits:

• I've learned that she really needs physical touch -- hugs, cuddles, hand holding, and letting her sit in our laps occasionally even though she's definitely getting too big for that! 
• She's also still very much a kid, which I need to remember. She can be SO level-headed and helpful and considerate, that when she has big meltdowns they often feel unreasonable. But she's still a kid and still learning, so we just keep loving her and teaching her.
• She likes to be the biggest kid, and it can be hard for her when Holly gets an upgrade in privileges that previously only Ada had (for instance, seemingly silly things like graduating from plastic silverware to metal silverware).
• She wears her hair in braids every single day because she hates to brush her hair and braids keep things less tangly. I even let her do braids in family pics this year because she literally never wears her hair down. (I did ask her to wear her hair down for some baptism pics though 🤣) 
• She's still loving gymnastics and finally (somehow, seemingly overnight) figured out how to do a cartwheel with straight legs!
• *Also cool about this story is that it gave Ada a chance to problem-solve, and I'm so proud of all the ideas she came up with! She went to my best friend's house to ask for help (she wasn't home), tried to call my phone from my computer, and went a few doors down to ask a neighbor to call me. Yes, she was scared, but she was also brave and proactive, which makes me so proud!
• Ada will be getting baptized in just a few weeks, and she's SO excited. She's also scared/nervous though. She specifically said (to Granny) that she's "terrified it won't work," which prompted a sweet conversation between the two. I'm sad she feels this way, because I know it's my fault -- I get after her all the time about the things she's doing wrong, and she has started to internalize that she just does things wrong, and she doesn't think getting baptized will "fix" her (because it won't -- it doesn't work that way!). I want to do better at focusing on all the good in her, and softening anything I have to say about the bad. She is so good and wonderful, I want her always to know that!!
• Sleep: We send her to bed at 8:00pm, and then she listens to her Yoto until it turns off at 8:30pm. She seems to fall asleep pretty quickly after that, and then wakes around 7am. She gets ready for bed at the same time as Holly, and then when we're ready to send her to bed, we give her hugs and kisses and send her upstairs on her own. Occasionally she'll come back down at 8:30pm to ask for more Yoto time or another hug, but not very often, as that results in an earlier bedtime the next day as a consequence!