Second Child

A couple of weeks ago, Ada and I went over to a sick friend's house to take her some Gatorade. I told Ada what we were doing, but she was absorbed in putting on her beloved rain coat ("Coke! Coke!") and then in her current car book, an interactive board book about John Deere tractors.

When I lifted her out of the van in my friend's driveway, she looked up, saw where we were, and said, "Hey, Elizabeth's house." It wasn't that clear, of course, but have I mentioned that she's 14 months old?

The other night, at bedtime, as she lay on the changing table and I was removing her clothes, she gave me a critical warning before I got to her diaper. "Poopy," she said. And, indeed, she was.

She's had some success on the potty lately, actually. I'm not planning on eliminating the Pampers line item from our budget any time soon, but I do sometimes sit Ada on the potty when Ellie's going, if she seems interested. At least she's unafraid of it and seems to have some awareness of the process, so we're in great shape there.

Parenting is a little like riding Space Mountain at Walt Disney World. It's a wild and unpredictable experience, undertaken completely in the dark so that there's no hint of what's coming up.

Ada and Ellie both love playing doctor. This game involves slinging a stethoscope around your neck - both can do this expertly - and running around the house busily, tending to doll, stuffed animal, and parent patients. "Make you feel better" involves draping ribbons across the patients, oddly enough. Ellie invented the game, but Ada's all into it.

She loves our music games, too. In one, we "make soup." And when it's Ada's turn to contribute an item to go into the soup, she always gets this sweet, hopeful little look on her face and says, "Paz Pocka?" That's pizza pocket, for those not up on their Ada-lingo. Sounds like a yummy soup to me.

Ada wants upease-upease-upease on my lap at my writing desk so that she can see outside to watch for any possible school buses that might be driving down our street. "Bus? Bus?"

She's so good with pictures, too. She recognizes herself and the rest of us, and by "the rest of us," I mean that she gets excited by pictures of Grandma "mah-mah," cousin Ahb-bee, and cousin Arr-ah (Arria) as well as her parents. Surprisingly, she doesn't say Ellie's name very often, though she's obviously enamoured with her big sister. Lately, the two of them have been playing nicely and independently together for short periods of time, a development that thrills me.

Ada only drinks water, but calls every drink "mulk." She loves pizza and pumpkin loaf and broccoli and mashed potatoes. Her new favorite game is to make the Jaws sound (bum-bum, bum-bum, BUM-BUM etc.) while moving her little pinchers in to "get" us, laughing hysterically all the while.

Her eyes are a beautiful, dark hazel, though I bet they'll turn brown in another year or so (like mine did at that age). She is currently obsessed with shoes, and is starting to reject her little leather Robeez in favor of hard-soles. She'd still love to wear underpants over her pants every single day, and I've never seen such a child for clutching onto security items, though fortunately she's not attached to one specific lovey.

This is amazing. I wouldn't change a thing. Well, except maybe if she'd sleep in more. And let me leave her from time to time, like in the nursery during church, for instance.

But really. She's perfect and this stage is a wonderful gift.