Ada Larson, my baby girl, turned six yesterday.  She makes us laugh every day, and she usually doesn’t think it’s funny.  She’s the most quick-witted child I know, and ridiculously smart.  Her world is very black and white, which makes it very difficult to reason with her.  Choices are her greatest currency, so most of the time her choices are things like, “You can have this or nothing” or “You can listen or you can have a spanking”.  She tends to reply with, “I don’t like those choices.”

She could yell at her brother before she could sit up.  She came home from the hospital only getting up once at night to eat!  She’s our night owl, which is why we cut out her nap before the other two kids’.  She knows what she wants when she wants it, and she’s not afraid to tell you.

Something really cool about Ada is that she befriends the bullies in her class, and she has since she was 3.  They can’t bully her, so they’re friends with her, and she works with them to be nicer to others.  She tells me story after story of something mean a boy will say to another boy, and she says, “That’s not what friends say.”  Then she just keeps playing.  It doesn’t change their friendship, she continues loving the person, just not the behavior.

She is honest at all times, even when it might benefit her fudge the truth a bit.  She is stubborn and independent, and if you ever want her to do something just tell her it’s probably too hard for her.

And let me be perfectly clear – I love each and every one of these qualities about Ada.  She is confident in who she is.  We joke that someday she will rule the world.  She can do anything she decides to do, despite the fact that at six she only weighs 37 pounds!  Ada Larson – I can’t wait to see the woman you will become, and what God has planned for you!  I love you, woman!