Julia and Adria Cora

When addressing Adria lately, Ben has been using her middle name a lot, calling her Adria Cora. Adria this morning started calling her sister "Julia Cora" whenever she was talking to her. I tried to explain that Julia's name is Julia Anne, but Adria is quite sure that she is right. I think it's adorable, just like my girls.

Nighttime Wanderings

Adria has developed a deep dislike for her bed this last week. She has been awesome about going to bed until now. All week at bedtime she has begged to sleep in any room but her own. She kept climbing out to sneak into our bed and so we finally put a child lock inside her door to keep her in her room and another one on Julia's door to keep her from going in to wake up her playmate. Two nights ago she figured out how to break them off. It was 3am when I woke up and had a heart attack when I couldn't find her anywhere. Finally, Ben found this:

Julia's head had been under the blanket so I hadn't realized there were two blondes in the bed. I couldn't bring myself to separate them and they slept the rest of the night together. The next day, however, we brought out the ol' crib tent and she is once again sleeping in her own bed.

My name

I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks, but something was always coming up. Julia came into the kitchen about a month ago and she was so excited! She had written her name all by herself. I almost cried, I was so proud of her! It looks so beautiful! She also learned how to draw flowers on her own. She has drawn me a whole garden in the last few weeks. I love it.

The Scariest State Park

Continuing from my last post, we also went with my family to one of Texas' many state park, the Brazos Bend, a.k.a. the Alligator Park. We all thought that it would be totally awesome to see an alligator in the wild. We got their as early as we could to avoid the awful heat and humidity. Do you like the signs? They got us really excited. We started in the visitors' center by petting this cute little baby alligator. Adria LOVED the snakes! (shiver) We asked the rangers what the best trail would be for a family with kids to see lots of alligators. They told us and we eagerly started our hike. We went out on a little pier about half way around the lake. There was a pretty big alligator sitting out in the middle, too far to really get a picture. So we waited a few minutes hoping to see another one. We didn't have to wait long before a 5 to 6 foot alligator popped his head up. We were delighted when he starting to come closer. You can see in this video that we didn't realize until a few minutes later that he was coming straight at us. The scared girl in the background is Heather.

The larger alligator started for us too. and that's when my mom and I realized that they were honestly going to box us in and we would have no way out. I think we freaked out my girls pretty good as we moved really really fast for several hundred yards. My brother was disappointed, he wanted to see them up close...I said, "Yeah Josh, 10 feet away was close enough for me." It wasn't until I got back home that I realized how close we had been to getting into a really bad situation. I had nightmares for the next several nights. Before we left we went to the observation tower and the bigger (safe) pier and got these cool pictures. So, just as a warning, if you want to hike around in Brazos Bend, bring your gun, or a small dog you don't like.

A week in Houston, day 1

We had such a fun week with my family. The girls love being with Grandma and Josh and Heather. The first thing we did was go to NASA's Johnson Space Center. I have wanted to go there for years. It was so cool! My girls didn't appreciate everything the same way the older people did, but they had a really good time. I got some really cute pics!The girls had a fun time flying the space shuttle, even though they crashed every timeSitting in the airlock of the space shuttleYummy suckers with Aunt Heather!They had a full-sized mock-up of the space shuttle and parts of the space station for the astronauts' training. That was my favorite building of the whole tour. Ben really liked mission control.Julia and Adria loved dressing up like astronauts! Cutest pictures ever!

Adria

*Note from Tricia. I was going to post tonight about my week with my family, but Ben asked if he could do the following post instead.

My wife Tricia had a Sharpie in her purse from writting names on water bottles. The thought never occured to me that I needed to explain to Adria the correct place to use a Sharpie. I will tell you how she decided where to write. See this wall? You can see it wasn't a lot of Sharpie, just a test to see if it would work. I think in Adria's mind she thought, "If mommy can write on water bottles with this, where can I write? Look how pretty the Sharpie looks on this wall. But I know I can use chalk or ink pads or crayons for walls, this is boring. Where else can I write? On the bed? Oh yes, it works, but the wood is dark and it's hard to see. Maybe it will work better on the dresser. No, not really, it just blends in. Oh wow! Look at this shiny DVD on the dresser. Does it work on the DVD? Yeah! That's lots of fun. I can color in Harry's face. Ooooh, the other side is shiny. That's even better. Hey, what about Julia's princess shoes? They need some black to offset the pink. That's good, I'll do the other one too. Now this white fleece blanket. That works well, but it's boring like the walls. I know! I've tried chalk and crayon on carpet, but they don't work. I wonder if the marker will work on the carpet. It does!! Yeah! I'll make nice big letters. I'll write Adria and Julia. Hmmm, I'll be this writes really well on my shirt and my tummy and legs."

Obviously I've put words into Adria's mouth, but I don't think it's far off from what she was thinking. She has an insatiable thrist for knowlege and experiences. To be honest, I think it's probably pay back for me as a child. I was often found exploring and getting into trouble just because I wanted to know how things work. Adria is a great blessing in our life. Hopefully this is the only experience she needs with a Sharpie. In case you didn't know, Sharpie on a DVD means the DVD won't play. No need to break the bad CDs anymore, just use a Sharpie.

Adria also has a passion for life. And the biggest heart a little girl could have. She loves everyone and everything. I think her big brown puppy eyes contribute, but I love how her face comes alive when she sees something she cares about like Grandparents, aunts, uncles, her best friend Julia and I could go on forever. I think a story from her nap time today shows it best. Tricia put her in bed with only one of the dolls from a set of twins. She was very upset so mommy went and got the boy doll. After Tricia shut the door, we could hear Adria talking, "Oh Brother! I missed you Brother! Are you tired? Oh Sister! My best friend. Let's take a nap and then go to the park. I love you Brother. I love you sister." She plays this way with all of her toys. Nothing held back. Daddy loves you, little princess.