To: Adelaide Love: Mommy

Dear Adelaide,

Now that you are almost 18 months old, I thought I would take over your blog and write an entry to you about how much you mean to me. When you were born, our lives changed forever! We had no idea if you were going to be a boy or a girl, but we were so excited for you to arrive. We couldn't wait for Oliver to have a sibling, and we knew that regardless of if his sibling was a boy or a girl, that little person would bring us joy. When the doctor held you up in the delivery room and told us you were a girl we were OVERJOYED. We could not believe that you had arrived in this world and that you were a girl. We already had a name picked out for you: Adelaide Cheryl. The name Adelaide came to me one day when Oliver was about six months old. It popped into my head and I mentioned it to your daddy that day. We decided that if we ever had a girl, we would name her Adelaide. We also decided on Cheryl after your Grammi. Because we were using Sweatman for your last name, we decided that your middle name would be after mommy's side of the family.

From the moment you were born, you've made your presence known. When you were a little baby, I would spend endless hours holding you and cuddling you! You were such a cuddly baby. I loved spending time with you. Your brother was so happy to have a little sister. From a very early age, you had an alertness about you that was just captivating. Your eyes were so engaging. It was as though you were taking everything in, just waiting patiently for the day you could talk back to us! You were such a great little baby. We took you everywhere with us! A few weeks after you were born, we all went down to the Cape for Thanksgiving and the adventures have continued since then. You have spent lots of time at the Cape and in Maine. You are surrounded by so many people who love you...your Nonna and Papa, Grammi and Dzia Dzia, all your aunts and uncles. You are so fortunate to have all of these people in your life.

You are a little chatterbox at 18 months of age and you were talking at 9 months. You had words like hi, dada, bye. You love to be able to communicate with all of us. You are learning how to count...you even counted to 12 a few weeks ago. You love the song Twinkle Twinkle. You answer yes and no to questions and you put 3-4 words together when articulating what you want. You didn't walk until 14 months but the day you did it was like you'd been walking forever. You never looked back!

You have such an adventurous spirit already. Nothing scares you! You love to go down the slide all by yourself. You will be our little independent soul. I hope that you take this adventurous spirit and make the most out of life doing whatever it is that will make you incredibly happy because you have already made our family so happy. You are so funny! We just laugh and laugh at you because you like to make us smile. Some of the faces you make and things you say just crack us up!

Adelaide, you are such a neat little girl. We feel so lucky to have you as a part of our family. You've added to our lives in more ways than I could ever possibly express. You've brought endless amounts of joy to us in the short, almost 18 months that you've been a part of our lives!!! We love you.