(A few of )Adessa's Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Adessa playing with Great Grandpa Lou. He is adorable with her, very attentive.

Posing with Great Grandma Ruth, we love these shots that show off the generations! Grandma told me that her mother, and her mother's mother were both the oldest girl in their family, too. That makes Adessa a 6th generation oldest girl, maybe more.

Hanging out with Devin Engberg and his mom, Julie, in Los Gatos. All Aboard!

Good driving, Devin!

"Someday," she thinks, "mom won't have to hold me up!"

Here's the fame part:
Calvin goes running with an ecclectic group of people very early in the morning on West Cliff, down by the ocean in Santa Cruz. One of the runners is a reporter for the Sentinel, our local paper. She was writing an article on the current controversy about vaccinating children, and needed someone who vaccinated to interview. Adessa and I took the job.

I tried to sound smart and informed, (though I threw in my lot with the medical establishment and vaccinated mostly because I got tired of trying to figure out if it was the best thing or not.) I did say some articulate things about the benefits of vaccinating outweighing the risks, my trust in our public health system looking out for the greater good, things like that. She didn't use much of my interview, but our pictures are prominently displayed on the front and back pages of today's (Sunday!)paper. Online, we are called the "Top Story"!
Here's the online link.

We received quite a bit of attention at church, and a few people gave their opinions regarding vaccinations. I expect that will be the end of it, but it was a fun few minutes of celebrity status. When the reporter first told me she'd like pictures of us, I (of course, overactive imagination) had visions of this being Adessa's big break. I was sure that someone in the right business would see her cuteness over their morning coffee and sign her up to be their spokesbaby.

The fantasy lasted right up until the photographer arrived at our house and started taking pictures. Unbeknownst to us and the obvious documented evidence otherwise, (like on this blog,) Adessa is camera shy. It wasn't that she froze in front of this stranger's lense, she... freaked out. I'd love to see the pictures he didn't put in the paper. The ones where she is crying or at best, grimacing; the ones where she is turning away from him or climbing me to get away from him; and the ones where she is clawing at me and apparently trying to climb inside my face. Luckily he got a few that worked, and he was very nice about it all. But if you look closely at Adessa's little face, there is no joy there. 8)

Snow!

Adessa's first time in the snow--not so happy about it. (Please note the mini-Ug boots, we're thankful for all the hip hand-me-downs.)

With Daddy and the truck, who is sometimes like part of our family.

Basking bare on the bear skin rug back at the cabin.


Though both Adessa and Calvin were getting over colds, we decided to spend part of my spring break up in the snow. That means Tahoe, around here, and we had a great time. Judith and Stewart and Elizabeth Peterson met us up there, and I got to snowboard for the first time in YEARS while Calvin and Adessa recuperated. (A word for the curious- snowboarding after years is like riding a bike- I could still ride. I am now most preposterously sore.)

It was hard to watch Adessa feel sick, she just wanted to be held and whimpered for a few days. Sad! She is feeling better now, just a remnant cough, and is into everything and moving around more like her normal self. Having a good imagination is a blessing, I'm sure, but mine serves to make me crazy as soon as anything is slightly amiss. Adessa had her first real, sustained fever, and my overactive imagination had us throwing her into a cold bath to lower her temperature, riding to the hospital in the whirl of ambulance lights, crying by her tiny bedside, etc. etc. I've got to get a handle on it. We're in God's hands, baby girl!

I'm 3/4 today!

She finally has enough hair for bed-head!

Adessa is nine months today, an amazing thing to consider on so many levels. We've gotten to hold her and love her and see her grow for nine months. We've gotten to experience parenthood for nine months. We've washed tiny baby clothes with our laundry for nine months, prepared mushy meals for the last few months, and included Adessa in all of our plans for the last nine months. Most impressive to me is that I haven't slept through the night in nine whole months!!! That is a long, long, long time. And I can still formulate complete sentences! (Sometimes.)

I know every parent thinks their kid is precocious, but Adessa really seems to have a flair for language. She has been saying "Hi" and "Bye", with a wave, at the right time, un-prompted, for the last week. She could say it with prompting before that. That's pretty good! Yesterday she was being watched by Grandma and Grandpa Lewis, who have a cocker spaniel named Sunny. When she's at their house, she watches Sunny all day long. (When she's at my parents, she watches Elijah all day long.) So she came home with a new sound: she sticks her tounge out and pants like Sunny. Coincidence??? I think not. She also makes barking sounds, "Raa raa," when she sees her stuffed dogs. (Her dogs are barking, apparently.) She's amazing!

Let it be Hereby Noted:

She's crawling! Today is the day, I'm recording it here in her online baby-book. Her arms and legs work together, coordinated and pretty fast. The only thing slightly imperfect about her otherwise perfect and wonderful crawl, is that she stays on her elbows. Elbows and knees isn't so bad, in perfect cadence and flow across the fuzzy carpet. She started today at Grandma Beck's, beelining for the toys until she got distracted, scooting around. (Grandma Beck got a new carpet in the living room, which is very fuzzy and Adessa has been caught eating the fuzz balls.) She seems unaware of her accomplishment, she keeps her mind on her goals and crawls to them. She's very humble about all this, and would like to thank God, her parents, and the fuzzy carpet. We'll get some pics/maybe a video if I figure it out. Cute!

Adessa Brings A Whole New Level...

That's right. I am getting used to a new phenomenon in my life, a new feeling going on in me all the time. It took a while to recognize it and name it, but its ...love. More love. Adessa love, really. I have so much more love floating around, I am more aware of bigger love. This is difficult to articulate. Even for Calvin I have more love, seeing him as a great daddy, watching him love Adessa. I wonder if it grows even more with more kids. Probably does. It's just so crazy. I didn't even see it coming, Adessa love just snuck right up on me. Pretty cool.

I don't know how to do captions, so a word on the pics.
1. A bee costume for our bumble bee baby girl, how appropriate!
2. Adessa does the jazz splits-- we're so proud, she's so happy.
3. Adessa shows her new-found love for dollies.
4. Uh-oh- the dolly was naughty? It hurts Adessa more than it hurts the doll!

She Crawls!

She doesn't look smooth, she doesn't move fast, but she is crawling! And pulling herself up on whatever she can reach. And she is such soft, chubby goodness. Just had to post about it.

Movin' and Shakin'

So what if Adessa's just moving backwards and shaking her hands around a lot? She's a mover and a shaker these days! Adessa scoots backwards into and under things, has started trying to pull herself up to standing, and twists her wrists like a flamenco dancer when she's excited. The wrist wriggling is her trademark. With her arms out or flapping, she twists faster the more excited she is. When music comes on or she hears singing (or even a phone ring), Adessa will bounce her head and shoulders-- early dancing! No white-man's overbite to report, yet. She is also turning into a dedicated waver, waving indescriminately but with great technique. She has a whole host of facial expressions--new ones pop onto her face all the time-- and still is very, very smiley. She has a lot to talk about, too. When she wakes up, she starts softly with "Bwah, bwah" sounds. She gets loud when chewing on things, (still only two teeth, though,) more like: "Aaa Aaaagghhhhhhhh AAaaaa AAAAaaa AAAAgh". She seems most talkative in quiet places, like church. I'm pretty sure nobody minds, though. Because she's darn cute.

Days will go by where I get used to having her around, and then it will dawn again: this precious, sweet, tiny person is part of me, is partly mine. Oh my goodness. What lovely wake up calls. Her little dimpled hands are mine to kiss. When she is sad she wants me. Calvin and I know her best in all the world. It is such an amazing, marvelous thing--to parent, to be a family, to watch her from so close.

Loving Adessa so much and seeing her change and grow and develop into her personality have brought up a new emotion for me, one I was kind of late in naming. It is fear. I have voiced fears, of course, about her falling off the changing table, or not getting enough to eat in a certain sitting, or being too cold. But I've also noticed some new fears. I suddenly understand the horror of kidnapping in a whole different way. Car accidents and potential disasters run through my over-grown imagination. Some of my fears I can directly relate to movies, like worrying about her getting stalked, or tortured, or having bad experiences in a war, or even teased. It seems like I let my mind meander just a little too long down the path of sadness and fright with each scenario I allowed myself. The last straw was when I had all the emotions involved as if she had been bitten by a robot bug and taken over by an evil machine/alien. That's when I knew it was getting a little out of hand. A friend has noticed that when kids reach about two years old, moms go through a stage of being really worried about what if they, the parent, were to die and leave the little toddler without a mom. Maybe I'm reaching one of those parenting stages, where we ward off the horrible possibilities by imagining them and standing up to the boogey man by shaking the ideas off one by one. Who knows. Not sure how my theory stands up next to Christian theology, I just know any fear is a good reminder to turn and pray and trust.