- Unlike Zara, Adelaide is an easy sleeper. She still sleep through the night most nights yet, but she does take consistent daytime naps (2 right now though I'm thinking of trying to move her to just one long nap) and all I have to do is nurse her, hand her her baby and her blanket, and put her down and she does the rest.
- Also unlike Zara, Adelaide doesn't want to sleep on you. If you put her in her crib, she'll sleep with little fuss, but try to get her to fall asleep in your arms (which I try to do at church) and you've got one cranky little monster on your hands.
- She likes to suck her thumb, mostly her right thumb. Lately, it's started to become hardened and callused. I know I'll need to stop this soon but mostly, I don't mind it.
- She has 4 teeth (two on top, two on bottom) and should be getting two more on top soon.
- She started walking at 9 months and loves to climb on everything. She particularly loves to climb up slides at the park.
- She loves to swing. She hated it at first but now it's the first thing she wants to do when we go to the park.
- She loves to smile and show off her dimples. In fact, Smiley is my father in law's nickname for her. (He has a nickname for each of his children/grandchildren. Zara is Zoomy.) If you smile at her, she will almost always smile back.
- She loves to eat applesauce/baby food pouches, Cheetos, cheese, most fruits (though lately she just likes squishing them between her fingers), and pasta. She loves her pasta. And meat. Girl loves her hot dogs and meatballs.
- She makes the cutest baby noises. She does say what I think she clearly means as "Mama" and "Dada."
- She loves her sister. If we're riding in the car, and Adelaide starts to get a little cranky, all Zara has to do is start laughing, and Adelaide will laugh and clap along with her.
- Adelaide loves water. She loves bathtime and splashing outside in our little wading pool. But when she's done, she just stands up, holds her hands up and waits for you to pick her up.
- For as much as Zara and Adelaide looked identical as newborns, they are very different now, both in looks and temperament. Zara looks more like David but has more of my personality (high strung and over-anxious with a great deal of sensitivity for other people's feelings) whereas Adelaide looks more like me but has a more easy-going, observant personality.
Adelaide loves things. I went to the store to buy wrapping paper for Adelaide's birthday presents and she grabbed the wrapping paper and a stuffed bear and wandered all throughout the store with the two items.
When I took both away from her, she was just like, whatever, Mom and grabbed two new stuffed bears.
I'll tell you this. When I was pregnant with Zara, I had a very real sense of her. I knew certain things about her and had already formed a connection with her. With Adelaide, I had no idea who she would be or what she would be like before she was born. And then, a few days after her birth, I was just slammed with the enormity of who this little person was and how she would change me. I knew she and I would have a very close bond. I think this means that she will be more like me--very quiet, observant, book smart and introverted--where Zara is far more kinesthetic and active.
I have to work very hard to parent Zara in effective and productive ways, but with Adelaide, it comes naturally and effortlessly. I know this will change as she ages, but for now, I marvel at the ease with which she has fit herself into my life. I don't know how I ever did without her. This is not hyperbole. She feels like an extension of myself in so many ways.
The year since Adelaide's birth has been a difficult one for us--moves and unemployment, existential crises (multiple) and fear--but Adelaide has truly been my saving grace. Her smile and presence and very existence got me through one of the hardest periods of my life. I can't look at her and not smile, knowing she is here with me, where she belongs.
