Over the weekend we went to a birthday party at our local amusement park. Adelaide is a thrill seeker, to say the least, so she had a blast. I love seeing her friendships form and strengthen, and hearing her having little conversations and playing games.

For so long I felt like I was the only one who could understand what she was saying. But now she’s having actual conversations (and arguments, ha) with her friends.

She’s incredibly social and outgoing, often surprising me with how she can jump into any social situation. The other night we were out at a pizza place and she made friends with another little girl while we were waiting for our food. The other girl asked if Adelaide wanted to eat with her family, and Adelaide begged to sit with them.

So Jon and I ended up eating dinner alone while Adelaide sat at the table next to ours with her new family.

It was practically a date.

So excited for the temps rising and summer fun with this girl.

Where do I start? I could fill up pages and pages with sappy words about how much this girl means to us. She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met. She’s kind hearted, silly and insanely stubborn.

She asks me countless times a day, “Mommy, are you happy?” Which is so sweet in theory, but sometimes mommy is a little frustrated and it takes some effort to say “Yes, I’m happy.”

To which she’ll respond, “I want you to say you’re happy LIKE THIS!”

She is a people pleaser. An animal lover. She loves babies. We started swim and dance lessons, and it’s been such a joy watching her go from clinging to me in the pool to watching her swim around, splashing and having fun. She’s been potty trained for nearly a year, and cut out her night diapers soon after (all on her own, much to my hesitation). Good thing I had just bought a Costco sized box of Pull-ups when she decided she wanted to start wearing underwear to bed.

We spend every waking minute playing dolls. She would rather play dolls a million times over than watch tv. Which is amazing in theory, but sometimes mama needs a break from playing dolls.

Adelaide, thank you for your spirit. For making me want to be a better person. For your eternal optimism and generous heart.

And for referring to me as “Dora” when we’re in public.

We might have gone to see Santa almost a month ago. Adelaide saw the Amazon wish list I was putting together for her, and immediately became obsessed with one particular toy. I explained that we’d go visit Santa and she’d tell him what she wanted, and on Christmas he’d bring it to our house and leave it under the tree.

She immediately wanted to go see Santa. It was all she could talk about.

So we saw Santa. We wrote him a letter. We talk about him constantly. What a change from last year when she cried and refused to sit on his lap.

Every year the holidays get more and more exciting. I love seeing her experience the Christmas magic and excitement of the season. We’re still working on understanding the actual Christmas story, but it’s a bit harder for a 2 year old to comprehend than “Santa brings me gifts”. We’ll get there.

I can’t wait to see her joy on Christmas morning. I just hope Santa didn’t forget the batteries.

Adelaide is officially closer to 3 than she is to 2, which is just too much for my mama brain to handle. This summer had some ups and downs, but we’re getting into our groove and our good days far outnumber the bad ones.

If there’s one thing I can say about Adelaide, it’s that she’s got an opinion. And I don’t mean in a typical toddler way. I mean in a very specific OCD kind of way. The biggest example of this is with one particular blue dress. She wore it for literally a month straight.

To the playground.

To bed.

Everywhere.

And everyone I talked to said it was just typical toddler behavior, except I knew it wasn’t. She became so obsessed with all the aspects of her outfit- her stick on earrings, the one set of too small gold shoes, her nail polish, her red hair bow and silver bracelet. If one of these things was missing, our day was ruined.

Ruined.

During a particularly rough day, when Jon had been away for 2 weeks, I called my mom in tears.

I have a strong willed child.

I love that about her. I love that she knows what she wants and has strong opinions and convictions. But at the same time, I needed to be able to go about my day without having to stop everything if her manicure was chipped.

(I’m not joking.)

Until one day (with lots of bribery) I convinced her to leave the dress at home. And slowly, the rules changed and the blue dress was only allowed to be worn in the house.

So wore it in the house she did. The second we walked in the door, all night long, until we left the next day.

And then one day she didn’t wear it as soon as we walked in the door. And then she wore it less and less, until it became more of a lovey. She now carries it around, and snuggles with it at bedtime. She also told me she wants to wear it to see Santa, so…

In other news, Adelaide’s been potty trained since the 4th of July weekend. I wanted to do the “pantsless potty training” and you need 3 days where you can commit to being at home, so I decided to just go for it. Jon had been away literally the entire month of June, and we found ourselves with 3 whole days with absolutely no plans. I went into it thinking we’d give it a half hearted attemped, and when it didn’t work, we’d try again later.

But it worked.

What?? We really did not expect that to happen.

She wore diapers at night for another month or so, and then refused to wear them anymore. As long as I’d put her on the potty before I went to bed, she’d make it through the night without any accidents. I recently stopped waking her at night to go, and she has successfully gone a few weeks of sleeping through the night without any accidents.

Half the time we’re still shocked that she’s totally potty trained. She took to it far easier than we’d ever imagined. Proud parents over here!

(For anyone interested, I read this article and followed it to a T.)

Things Adelaide love include play dough (it must be blue), screaming singing the lyrics to “Let It Go” and babysitters. She watched an episode of Daniel Tiger where he had a babysitter, and then was thrilled beyond belief when we had to get a babysitter for a wedding. She talked about it for months.

Without fail, she says “I welcome” instead of “you’re welcome”. She can play with her doll house for hours and is obsessed with horses (with zebras and dogs being close runner ups). She has perfect comedic timing and loves to accessorize.

dress - brass razoo // sandals - zara // hair bow - gigi and max

Being Adelaide’s mom is my greatest responsibility. It’s my greatest struggle and my greatest joy.

And I could definitely use a nap.