twinkle toes

We recently attended the wedding of one of Elliot's cousins in Delaware.

Delaware = plane trip = utter Ada happiness

Besides preparing for the plane trip, Ada also had to prepare for the actual wedding. We had to explain what a wedding was (although she has been to a few other weddings, she was only 2 then and she has simply forgotten the joy associated with such occasions). We also explained that the bride wears a fancy white dress, and the guests dress up in nice dresses and suits. This part was extremely exciting for Ada. She takes any chance to get a new dress VERY seriously. So we spent a couple different nights looking for the perfect dress, and when we finally found the purple dress with shimmery fabric that twirled just so, we knew we'd found 'the one'.

We then spent the next few weeks talking about wedding this and wedding that. The parents of her friends at school asked us (with a hint of joking) why Ada was getting married (that's what she told her friends).

And then the big day finally arrived. You would have thought Ada was actually getting married by the amount of energy she had. She was curious about the ceremony. She watched it very intently. And she was bored at the cocktail hour - can't really blame her, she is not yet of legal drinking age and it wasn't until we hit the dining room that Uncle Paul decided to indulge her in a fruit juice concoction. Of course some of the boredom came from the fact that she knew that the dining room portion included dancing. I must have mentioned it at one point during the prep weeks and Ada clung to this with unfettered abandon.

When the moment finally arrived where we were able to get into the dining room, Ada took a few quick moments to play with her new found second cousin, Ava, and then she landed in the spot she would not leave for the rest of the night - the dance floor.

Ada usually likes music with a beat, something she can really move her little booty to. However, she did not let the mundane almost sedate dinner music stop her. Nope, she did her best to channel the contemporary dancers she has seen on 'So You Think You Can Dance' while she danced the ENTIRE dinner hour. She and her new found cousin Ava entertained all of the wedding guests resting only long enough to hop over to our table to grab a quick bite before heading back out to the dance floor. She worked so hard you would have thought she was getting paid.

Once the rest of the wedding decided it was time to dance she got a little mad because she no longer had the floor all to herself but soon got over it. She then proceeded to meet and dance with EVERYONE at the wedding. If I was ever afraid that Ada had a bit of shyness I need not worry. She worked that party like a polished politician. Dancing with some, chatting up a few others, showing her stuff during the cha cha slide, and basically becoming the second biggest star of the wedding (the blushing bride being the number one).

I think it is safe to say a performer has been born.

healing kisses

I hurt my knee on Halloween evening, playing soccer, not trick-or-treating. That would be a much better story. Ada has a tendency to shy away from me whenever I'm hurt. I don't know if she is afraid she'll hurt me more, or she is scared because she just saw mommy crying and that doesn't happen all that often. Whatever it is, she wouldn't even look at me after I hurt my knee.

But she was taking all of it in.

Once she got in the car with Elliot she was full of questions about what happened, and then was able to talk through it with Papa later on while they were trick-or-treating together.

And then anytime since when she has seen an ambulance, or joined me for one of my doctor's appointments.

She has it down.

And now that she is comfortable with the amount of information she has about this ordeal she is OK talking to me, and looking at me.

I even get a healing kiss on my knee every night.

What a long way she has come in 5 days..