Ada is walking!

Ada has figured out how to walk. She started taking steps on Feb. 10, and as of this week, she is taking about 7-10 steps at a time before plopping down. On the same day we received Julia and Emma's diagnosis, Ada took 15 steps on her own, and it was the most I've ever seen her do. It was incredible to watch and just the glimmer of hope I needed after all the recent bad news.

At one point, my dad said, "Look behind you - look who's coming your way!" and there was Ada walking over to me all by herself. With wide open, outstretched arms, I saw her last few steps before she fell into my arms, and then I realized she had walked about 4 yards total.

After that, she repeated her stunt a few times. She can't seem to get enough of this walking thing! She is one very determined child. Ada seems to be cruising more than her sisters did when they started walking. She walks along walls, holds onto furniture, and in general just wants to be upright more than she wants to crawl.

She's fast as lightning now with crawling, which has also been surprising given how many months she avoided crawling altogether. This child has surprised me at every turn. I just love seeing her progress on her own timeline, and I love her zest. She is so very different from her sisters. They tend to move in a little pack, but she often chooses to do her own thing. She flips toys over, takes them apart, investigates things, finds buttons and switches, points things out others are oblivious to, and wants to page through books herself rather than listen to me read. She is very social, makes great eye contact, smiles for the camera, and is a very bubbly and outgoing child in general, but she can also totally tune out the world and lose herself in something that interests her.

It happens more and more frequently now that Ada will be "reading" her own book, but answer whatever question I ask of Julia and Emma while we're reading a different book. Ada will be paging through a book about colors and shapes, for example, and stopping at specific pages to look rather intently at a particularly pleasing shape. Without looking up, she'll then say, "hoo hoo" in response to me asking Julia and Emma about the sound an owl makes. Ada is just seems so bored - she has to multitask! ha ha.

Physically, she seems to be getting stronger and sturdier by the day. Today she managed to bend down and pick something up before continuing her walk. She is pushing up from a quad position to standing, without holding onto other objects. Rather remarkable progress given her diagnosis.

Her legs are still pretty wobbly, but she is managing to regain her balance more often rather than falling down, which is incredibly encouraging. Given her progression until now, I wasn't expecting her to start wanting to walk for many months, but she has blown me away by walking at 15 months.

Ada has been having the toughest time with her eyeteeth coming in. Julia and Emma cut theirs ages ago, but Ada is getting them one at a time and it's been excruciatingly slow and painful. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I was up with all 3 kids. Julia and Emma are battling a tummy bug, but they eventually settled down again. Ada, however, would have none of it. So I pulled out duvets and pillows, and laid down beside her on the playroom foam floor.

We played like that for about 90 minutes, then she started settling down when she saw I was starting to doze off. Next thing I know, she leans over and gently gives me a kiss! Complete with smacking lips. Mwah! Totally unprompted. It was the sweetest moment ever. I still get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about how adorable that was.

She then allowed me to snuggle her, and we slept like that until daybreak. In triplet land, these precious one-on-one moments are extraordinarily hard to come by. I cherish them - even when they come at the cost of sleep.