And then there's this girl

My Adelicious. She certainly keeps me on my toes. Was she supposed to be gorging herself on See's suckers? Of course not. And if I'd asked her what they tasted like, I know she would have replied, "Stawbries." Occasionally, something tastes like mint, or lemonade, but most of the time, it's strawberries. Which fortunately, are, "Too-isus."
Is she supposed to be running wild with rings during gymnastics class? Nope, not that either. But isn't her little leotarded body the cutest?
I have to remind myself how cute she looks and how good the experience is for her because most of the time, I just find it exhausting. She seems to go deaf as soon as we enter the gym and though her Mommy and Me class is very loosely structured, it still seems to be too rigid for her. And she can't jump on the trampoline. She squats and kind of hops, but doesn't really clear any air. Kind of like watching a duck try to jump. So she returns to running around in circles on her tiptoes.

This is her daily uniform. Whatever she happens to be wearing, be it pajamas, jeans or a dress (and she would usually prefer it to be a dress), she always adds princess shoes, a purse on each wrist and a baby under each arm. While she tends to be much more of a bruiser than Chloe was, Addie also loves to dress up, take care of baby dolls and play with Barbies much more than Chloe ever did. For all of her wild child leanings, she really can be very sweet. And a ham.
This was a special day.
She painted the bookshelf, the bins and the books, fortunately with washable paint. I made her stay in timeout the entire time I was cleaning it up, then sent her outside to prevent further indoor destruction. Once outside, she found the paint roller Bracken had partially cleaned and she painted our porch with interior latex. I managed to scrub that off, then went out front to take a look at my flowers. She started climbing the rough wooden wall that separates our driveway from our neighbor's, which for some reason she calls "Lesson Number One" (that's the name of her favorite song from Mulan II, but I don't get the relation). She fell off said wall and ended up with multiple scrapes as well as half a dozen splinters. She was very patient though, making the splinter removal the easiest clean up of the day.

And there's that grin again. It's the only one I can ever capture on camera.
But I love her smile, no matter what kind of trouble she's using it to get out of.
This outfit was a personal favorite. It's her standard uniform, but the dress and the hat with the long beads are such a 20's win. If she'd had her way, she would be wearing the BCBG pumps I found at the thrift store the other day. I couldn't get them away from her for a couple days. Girl knows a quality pair of shoes when she sees 'em.
Another favorite Addie-ism lately is "company." As in "Babies are very soft, warm and company (cuddly)." Every day when she takes her nap, I read her a book in her bed before she goes to sleep. She then cuddles with the book and rereads it until she falls asleep. Because she is my daughter. I'll often take the easy way out and deliberately choose a short book. We've read "Babies" so often that she has the entire text memorized and can recite it with a minimal amount of prompting.

For all her crazy, I sure love this kid. She never stops surprising me and making me laugh.

And I will take full responsibility for this outfit. "Welcome to Music Town" anyone? I know, totally inappropriate, but I couldn't help myself. I guess I know where Addie gets it after all.