This picture just kills me. Look how tall she looks!! And her hair is getting so long.

Addy is getting so big in so many ways, I am reminded many times a day that she is not a baby anymore. I miss my baby, a lot! But I also love how self-assured my big girl is, how determined, how curious and steadfast and fearless and confident.

One crazy thing I will never get used to about Houston is the storms. They roll in out of nowhere and then are gone in a heartbeat. I think I can count on one hand the number of times it rained for more than a few minutes! But it rains hard enough that we have not had to turn on our sprinkers at all this year!

Once we were all swimming in the pool, the sun was out, hardly a cloud in the sky and the few clouds we had were big and puffy. And suddenly it starts to pour. And pour. And the sun is still out, the only cloud in sight is still big and white and puffy. Its so fun - often the kind of rain the kids can really play in and enjoy - devoid of any thunder or lightening. Plus its COLD rain and its always HOT here. Bonus!

But sometimes it doesn’t just rain but it STORMS. Most of the time it seems like they still come out of nowhere, last a few minutes, blow through hard and the sun is back. It is the weirdest thing. I’ve long since learned not to bother looking at the weather because a prediction of storms is inconsequential. It doesn’t stop or ruin plans, it rarely even happens and when it does it’s over in a heartbeat.

Addy, though, she’s still getting used to the thunder. She hates loud noises and thunder is no exception. Today I distracted her from a hard-hitting storm that tore through by letting her watch the river that formed on our drive and the rainwater that came rushing out of the neighbor’s gutter. She’s lived here long enough to know that rain, more often than not, means rainbows. So she looked and looked but this storm didn’t bring any rainbows.

I love the way she handles her fears. Often she determines she is afraid of something and rather than avoid it, she plows steadily through, finding opportunities to expose herself to her fears and eventually they are a thing of the past. Its like fear is an emotion she refuses to let settle within herself. Now I know that if she is afraid of something, the way to handle it is to bring in her for a closer look, a more detailed examination, and suddenly she’s no longer afraid at all. I could learn a thing or two from this girl.

Today, as I type, Miss Mai is going off to the Big Gym for the first time and I want to throw up. We’ve been talking about it for a few days now…you know…”You are going to go to Gym ALL BY YOURSELF, but with Coach Carla, but WITHOUT Daddy or Mommy except we’ll be there watching!”. If you think she gets any of this you would be mistaken. I really thought we’d have until the fall to wait for the Big Gym classes but her coach is not doing a baby class this summer so our options were to switch coaches or move up. And since she’s extremely attached to her coach and also since she’s been recommended for the move for five months I could put it off no longer.

I just don’t think she’ll do well. In terms of her skills and abilities she won’t be doing anything new and she has a good handle on all the skills. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that she is used to the one-on-one interaction, guidance and assistance that her class with Daddy offered and I just am not sure she is capable of sitting on the side, watching her instructor and then waiting her turn to preform the same skill when called. That seems so…well…big.

And also I’ve watched the Big Gym classes and those kids are BIG! Yes yes I know her class is limited to 2.5-3 year olds but Addison won’t be 2.5 until fall. So those kids ARE big. And they are more vocal and more worldly and more BIG. I am afraid my girl will latch on to Coach Carla and never let go! Or worse, she will march on out of the gym and refuse to go back.

I am just not good at this little-to-big transition business. I’m so not good that the transition INTO Gym in the first place was rough (for me). I thought she was too little, I wanted to pull her, I wanted to quit. Instead I just let Tony take her in my place. He enjoyed it, he didn’t think she was too little at all. They loved it, together while I fretted at home about pushing my baby too far, too fast. Here we are again, deja vu. Of course I’m at home while Tony, all laid back, is taking her to Big Gym. I sent him with the camera and her with a kiss.

Here we were last fall when she first started gymnastics:

Look how itty-bitty! She doesn’t even fit into that leotard anymore! I know she’s big but still sooo small.

**update**
She I survived! She did really good, had no issues with the separation, listening, following directions, etc. She is VERY proud of herself and had a very good time. Sigh. I guess she really IS that big.

Here’s a pic from today on her way out the door:

Today my Mom, Dad & brothers took me berry picking. I don’t remember going last year so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Usually Mom tells me I can’t pick or eat the berries I find on bushes so this was new and exciting! Dad explained to me that I should only pick the ripe ones and then he showed me what a ripe one looked like, gave me my own big bucket and off I went!

At first I ate a blueberry after I picked it. It was good but I wanted to save all my berries and bring them home. I refused to eat another berry after that until we got home. Instead I focused on finding the perfect berries, cleaning them up and placing them in my bucket.

Not everyone had this same strategy. After all our hard work, this was my brother’s berry bucket:

The purple lips were a dead giveaway. Once he even stole a berry from MY bucket and there was hell to pay, let me tell you. I made him spit that berry right back out and then I picked it up off the ground and put it back in my bucket. That’ll show him!

I did a very good job at picking the most purple berries. Some slackers in my family were just throwing anything with a blue hue in their bucket but I went through everyone’s berries and took out the ones that weren’t perfect. I examined each one.

And I picked out leaves and pulled off stems. Every berry must be perfect or why bother at all? I gave all the little nasty bits to Mom.

Suddenly we spotted something much more interesting than blueberries. Can you guess what it is? No? Ok, I”ll tell you! It was a DUNG BEATLE!

He was working harder than all of us! He was moving this pile of, um, dung to somewhere far away. Watching him work was very entertaining! Only MY Mom would take pictures of beatles and poop!

Finally Mom declared it was time to go home. One look at me and you’ll know why:

It was so so hot and my unorganized parents forgot to bring drinks. So we headed out but I was not so easily convinced. I wanted to stop at every bush along the way and check for stray berries that called my name.

At the end of the day, I was so so hot and sweaty but very proud of all I had picked. See how perfect and purple my berries are? That is dedication, I tell ya!

My family picked a lot too. Don’t let my brother fool you - he didn’t pick all of these berries himself! Everyone but me combined their berries but he did pick about half that bucket! He told me his secret is not to eat them until we get home JUST LIKE ME! When I grow up to be big like him I’m going to fill my bucket that big!

We sure had a fun morning picking berries! I love blueberries - they are DELICIOUS!