This is our maternity photoshoot for Ada. It was mid-April so Alexis must have been ~8 months pregnant. It was a beautiful spring day, and we got some great shots at this random estate that was ~20min away from our place in Jamaica Plain.

This was the day that Ada was born and changed our lives forever. Ada was, and continues to be, the most beautiful thing we've ever seen. The story of Ada's birth is a fun one, and one we should write down in more detail, but here's the highlights. Alexis labored at home for most of it, with Greyson and our doula, Sara. We got stuck in a waiting area at the Brigham, and their tub was broken, but Alexis made it work. She used all of her hypno-birthing training and was very couragous and strong. The whole labor was around 13 hours, starting around 8pm and finishing around 9am the next day.

And when Ada was born, she was so alert! She didn't want to sleep at all :) She failed her first hearing test, but thankfully passed the second one. And while one silly doctor thought he heard a heart murmor, we thankfully had a collection of world-class cardiologists stop by and confirm our suspicious that no, there was no murmor.

It's wild how small Ada is in this carseat that, at the time of writing, she just recently outgrew. We love her so much and can't wait to see what she does next.

Once Ada could sit up right and use her hands better, she lovedplaying with her maracas. She'd shake them all the time!

Ada had a phase that lasted for a couple weeks where she thought it was hilarious when things fell onto the floor. It was such a funny and reliable way to get her to laugh.

They had this toy at the Tot Lot that we called the "rollercoaster". It was a car that ran down a plastic track. Ada was obsessed with this toy. Once she could ride it, that's all she'd want to do every time we went to the park. It'd be 20-30 minutes of just riding the rollercoaster. Over time, a lot of the carts started to break until there was only a couple left, which in a way was good, because it helped teach Ada how to share and take turns.

It was also fun watching Ada go from being held the whole time, to holding her for part of it, to giving her a shove and letting her go down by herself, to Ada kicking off on her own.

I loved teaching Ada new noises to make. Often times she would just make a noise, and then I would assign the name. That's how she learned things like "Darth Vader" :) Everyone always loved that one!

Greyson spent a lot of money on a backpack that Ada could ride in. She really liked it. For, like, 5 minutes. Alas,
not all dreams are meant to be :)

Ada started walking in various capacities around 11 months or so. She would always need a hand though. But around 12 months, Ada started building up the courage to take more steps on her own. We would play this game where you'd get Ada to walk towards you, and then slowly back away to keep her walking for as long as possible. It didn't take her
much longer to start running everywhere!

Before this, she went through a phase where she needed you to hold one or both hands for her to walk, which was ok in short bursts, but Ada wanted to walk all the time, so our backs were definitely thankful when Ada stopped requiring assistance :)

One time we took Ada out of the carseat and put the carseat in the middle of the living room. Ada used to have a pacifier
clipped to the carseat to keep her happy during a drive (she never liked being in the car very much), but we had forgotten to take it off. When we weren't looking, Ada found it and promptly put it in her mouth. Of course, it was still attached to the car seat! Hilariously, she wouldn't let it go! It was a self-made teather. She clearly wanted to go do something else, but refused to get rid of the pacifier. We joked that we finally knew how to keep Ada in one place!

It reminded me of the book Where the Red Fern Grows, where they caught a racoon by putting a nickel at the bottom of a narrow hole. When the racoon grabbed the nickel, it'd ball up it's fist, making its hand too large to remove. It
could choose to drop the nickel to pull it's hand out, but it would just stay there because it'd refuse to drop the
nickel. Just like Ada and her pacifier.

Ada finally got to meet her cousin Ashen for the first time when Ashen came up to Pennsylvania to visit for his
first birthday. They were both really sweet together. Ada and Ashen are only a month apart in age, but it's funny because Ashen was so much larger than Ada! Like literally 50% larger, like 30lbs vs 20lbs or something. Uncle Addison and Aunt Natlie were also there, and it was great for everyone to see each other. We almost didn't go because we had just made a trip to Pennsylvania for Ada's first birthday party a month before, and the trip is long and exhausting. But it's great that we were able to make the trip and see everyone.

Not long after her first birthday, Ada went from being a baby who ate almost anything, to a toddler who refused to eat everything. One time we discovered that she loved eating these green noodles from City Feed, a local grocery store. It became the only thing you'd eat. And City Feed was the only store that sold them, and sometimes they didn't have them, so it became this whole thing where we'd panic and worry we'd run out of noodles for her to eat! And they were also like $9 a container -- she had very expensive taste. Also, my god were they messy. Ada would look like Oscar the
Grouch after every meal.

Thankfully Ada eventually moved on to more pedestrian interests, like mac 'n cheese.

When Ada came home from the hospital, Tomlin was the first one to greet her. Tomlin was Ada's big sister, and while their time together was brief, Ada loved seing Tomlin and chasing her around the best she could. Tomlin taught her
how to give pets and treat others with kindness. Tomlin passed away suddenly on 7/25/24, and Ada was there to say goodbye. We all miss her so much.

Ada was out on the ferry with her nanny, Adriana, she Adriana took these beautiful pictures that just make her look like she's in a Wes Anderson film.

This is just one of my favorite videos of Ada. She blows a raspberry, laughs, applauds herself, and then just peaces out. Perfection.

Ada loved putting her animals in the barn, but the barn had a fatal flaw: everything could fit in the pig hole! A recreation of the classic viral video: link

There was a walker in the Tot Lot that was essentially immortal. It played music, and the battery never died. We went to the Tot Lot a lot, and whenever we stopped by, we'd find it and test to make sure that it still worked. It survived the rain, the heat, and the cold. We must have tested it multiple times a week for over 6 months. Always worked. The joke was that it must have worked off of some radioactive power source. You can't hear it very well in the video, but it'd play this jazzy tune.

I always loved teaching Ada new "tricks". So many sounds and motions, all in two languages! Everyone's favorite was always the rooster, which she said as "cockle", featured in the middle of the video :) But she also goes through a bunch of other animals and all of her body parts! Other highlights include Darth Vader and Zombie :)

Ada voted in her very first election! She helped Greyson vote for Kamala Harris for president in 2024. The dream was that Ada could help bring about the first female president. Well, that didn't happen, but it was the thought that counts!

Ada has been really loving stickers lately. Alexis bought her a sticker book, starting the whole craze. Then Greyson bought her another sticker book because she was going through the other one so quickly. She loves to peel the stickers off herself, but she can't quite get it on her own, so you sort of have to bend the book a bit so it peels a bit and she can snag it. She mostly just wants to put the stickers on pieces of paper, but she also loves sticking it on Greyson's bald head, and everyone's forehead.