Hi, friends! Wow—it’s been almost a month since I’ve blogged. Bad Mama. No excuses, just been super busy (with a couple stomach bugs in there too). I really want need to get better at documenting things, so I am really going to try! :) We just got home not long ago from H’s 15 month checkup with the pediatrician, so I will jump right into her stats. :)

Weight/Length: Her official 15 month stats are: 22 lbs, 2 oz (37th percentile), 32 1/4 inches long (92nd!! percentile), and her head is 18 inches around (44th percentile). Dr. S looked at her stats and looked at Jon and said “well, it’s clear where she got her height from!”. It appears that she is going to be tall and skinny. Basketball player? Volleyball player? Supermodel? Hehehehe :)

Sleep: No changes with her nightly routine/sleep, still going strong with around 12 hours each night. The only change this month has been that we have officially dropped the morning nap (she dropped it at right around 14.5 months). She just wasn’t tired in the mornings like she used to be, and after about a week of her just playing in the crib instead of sleeping, I decided to just drop it. She now goes down for her one nap at around 1:00 and usually sleeps until 3 or 3:30. It has been more of an adjustment for ME than her, since I now have to figure out how to do everything I need to do in just 2 or 2.5 hours compared to 4 or 5 hours between two naps!

Favorite Foods:  Blueberries, apples, grapes, cantaloupe, cheese, hot dogs, corn, crackers, strawberries, grilled cheese, turkey, blueberry waffles, edamame, black beans, baked beans, green beans, peas, stir fry, spaghetti and meatballs.

Developments:  Jon said this weekend that he is amazed at how much H just “gets things” now. For example, she is getting really good at recognizing and naming things she sees in her books (bears, bunnies, ducks, shoes, socks, all sorts of foods, to name a few!) and just when we are out and about. At the lake this past weekend, she walked right up to a painting of two ducks and said “ducks. quack quack quack!!” without anyone ever telling her or pointing them out to her. And today at the doctor’s office, she pointed straight to this huge circle painted on the wall and said, “bubble!” (close! haha). It usually takes only one or two times of telling her what something is and she will remember it even hours and days later, it amazes me. 

She is using a fork and spoon at every meal these days, and really doesn’t eat much without them (unless it’s something she LOVES in which case she shovels it into her mouth with her hands as fast as she can…). It has been fun to watch her motor skills develop as she has learned to use the fork to pick up the food. It was slow work at first but she has really gotten the hang of it and meal time isn’t taking us an hour + anymore. :)

She still loves to point out (and name) her body parts when we ask (eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, head, hair, ears, belly button, feet, toes, fingers, hands, tongue, elbow, knee). She also is still a big fan of making animal sounds (cow, duck, goose, lion, tiger, bear, dog, cat, bird) and is learning more with her Little People Zoo Talkers (one of her favorite toys!).

The girl is the happiest outside. In fact, most days, that is all I hear while we are inside… “out-siiiide, out-SIIIDE, OUT-SIIIIIIDDDEEEEE!!”. We take tons of wagon rides, stroller rides, and rides in her car.  I am so. ready. for warmer weather (Dear Mother Nature, it is April, get with the program!) and days at the pool and lake. H will think she has died and gone to heaven being outside all the time!

H is already very (VERY) independent. She wants to do everything herself and will often pitch a fit if I try to help her or (heaven forbid) stop her. And yep—the tantrums have definitely started as well. Mostly stemming from me telling her “no” or not letting her do things on her own, she will lay down on the floor on her stomach and flail her arms and legs. I mostly just ignore her, and she usually stops within a minute or so. I know this is only the beginning…….

Favorite Things/Activities: More repeats from previous months. Her bears and bunnies (and any stuffed animals). Giving kisses and hugs. Talking (ALL the time). Spinning around/being dizzy. Being outside/going for walks. Ralph. Dancing. Bath time. Sesame Street. Her “Little People” toys. Books. Juice. Milk. Running from us while we “chase” her around the house. Pulling anything and everything off of every shelf and out of every drawer that she can get her hands on. My iPhone. Being cheered for (she’s a total ham when we clap and cheer). Eating (sometimes). Sleeping (she is her father’s child!). Getting dressed (especially putting on shoes). Refrigerator magnets. Her ball pit. Doing things herself. Throwing and kicking any kind of ball.  

New Words: I think it might be time to take this category off, because she is learning so many new words and using them in context now that there is no way I could ever remember them all! The ones I can think of that are new are “Papaw” (Jon’s dad), “cow”, “Abby” (both from Sesame Street and Jon’s parents’ dog), “duck” (her newest obsession), “stop”, “let’s go”, “bubble”, “rock”, and “outside”. 

Firsts This Month: I really should write these down, because I have such a hard time remembering!The ones I can think of are: Hadley went to her first NC State Baseball game a few weeks ago, and loved it! (She went to the NC State landmark Amedeo’s for dinner afterwards for the first time too). 

Nicknames: There are still so many. We like to call her: Ma’am, Ma’amy, Jams (by Daddy), Little Miss, Haddles, Jenks, Jenkins, Jenkers, Stinkins, Stinks, H, Sweet Pea, Sweet Cheeks, Beautiful, Hadley McGee, Sugar, Shug, Honey Bunny, Missy, Shorty (by Pop), Darlin, Baby Doll, etc. etc. etc.!

What I’m Thankful For: My husband. I have had not one but two (though one WAY worse than the other…) stomach bugs this month, and he stepped up and stayed home to take care of not only Hadley but also me! I couldn’t have done it without him and appreciate all he did (and does) for us. :) Love you, Jon!

What I’m Looking Forward To: Our birthday month! Jon’s birthday is the 15th, and mine is the 29th (and Jon’s mom’s is the 15th, Miki’s is the 23rd, Kyle’s is the 24th…) so we will be doing lots of birthday celebrating this month. :) I am also looking forward to some WARMER WEATHER (so hurry up!!!). 

Next Pediatrician Appointment: Her 18 month appointment is July 2nd.

I have done better about taking pictures this month! So here are a ton… however, I am withholding some from Easter because I hope to do a separate post with photos from all of our Easter activities later this week! :)

Hope everyone has a great week! I promise I’ll be back soon with the Easter update. :)

-S

Hi, friends! I’m keeping up with the theme of posting things late, yet again. I’m only about 2 weeks late on this one, ha! Anyway, I won’t make excuses, I’ll just get right into the update. ;)

Weight/Length: According to our scale (which isn’t the most reliable, I admit), she is 22.4 lbs. She is around 31-31.5 inches long, and still wearing 12-18 month clothes…she can still wear some 12 month stuff but has outgrown some of it and moved into 18 months shirts and outfits.

Sleep: Still 9-9:30 bedtime and waking up around 9 or 9:30. The only change here has come in the last two weeks or so, which has been that she is fighting her morning nap some days. I am just not QUITE ready for her to give it up, so I am still putting her down for it. Some days she will just play for the whole 1.5-2 hours, and other days she will go right to sleep. As long as she isn’t fussing/mad about it I am going to still put her down for it for as long as I can! Luckily, the days she doesn’t take the morning nap, it doesn’t seem to affect her mood at all, so that’s a plus. Most people I have asked have told me that their kids dropped the morning nap around 15 months, so I suppose we are getting close! Like I said, I’m not in any hurry for her to give it up, haha!

Favorite Foods:  Blueberries, apples, grapes, cantaloupe, cheese, crackers, strawberries, cherry tomatoes (some days!), grilled cheese, turkey, blueberry waffles, smoothies, edamame, black beans, peas, stir fry, spaghetti and meatballs.

Developments:  Still walking/running and climbing on EVERYTHING. She never, ever slows down. She definitely helps me get my exercise just by running after her!

I’ve said it a million times, but she is such a little sponge. She knows and will point to and name many of her body parts, including: eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, head, hair ears, belly button, feet, hands, and just recently, tongue.

She can make the sounds that a cow, duck (“cack cack cack”), goose (“honk honk”), and lion (a big “raaawr”) make, and she will mimick others (dog, cat, bear) but hasn’t quite mastered those yet. She also knows the name of and will point out lots of different types of fruit if we ask her…apples, blueberries, grapes, bananas, cantaloupe (“caan-low”), and strawberries (“staw-bwee”). She knows that if I tell her something is “hot” to stay away from it (fireplaces and space heaters) and will say “hot” and point to it from across the room. She has a few books called “first words” and “colors” that have just a picture and word on each page, and she can name a lot of things just by looking at the pictures (apple, shoe, sock, blueberry, ball, baby, bear) and it seems like she learns a new one or two to name every day. 

She is currently obsessed with shoes, which is good considering that she has about 92302093852 pairs (thank you, Aunt Jennifer), ha! She knows the difference between “shoes” and “boots” and loves to play in my closet and show me which are shoes and which are boots, and she loves to try them all on!

She has a little purse that has keys, lipstick, a debit card, wallet, lipstick, and a phone in it. She will pull out the phone and say “hello, Lilly!” (any time she plays with a toy phone we tell her that Lilly is calling!). If I ask her if she’s ready to go drive her car, she will pull out the keys…and when I ask her “where’s your lipstick?” she will pull it out and “put it on” flawlessly—my aunts and Granny would be proud! ;)

She still does great with entertaining herself… but I feel like we are starting to get a little repetitive with activities each day. I have been scouring Pinterest for activities for busy toddlers and have found a few things that I want to try…I will report back if I find any good ones, and if anyone has any good ideas for me, please share! I, for one, am surely ready for some warmer weather (after all, March is here…time for Spring!) and time at the pool/lake this summer.

These are the main things I can think of that she has been doing lately, but I’m sure I’ll think of more once I post, as usual!

Favorite Things/Activities: Going to leave some repeats from last month, because many are still the same! Her bears (and any stuffed animals). Giving kisses and hugs. Talking (ALL the time). Spinning around. Being outside/going for walks. Ralph. Dancing (I need to get a pic of the little “shuffle” that she does…adorable). Bath time.  Her “Little People” toys. Books. Juice. Running from us while we “chase” her around the house. Pulling anything and everything off of every shelf and out of every drawer that she can get her hands on. Being cheered for (she’s a total ham when we clap and cheer). Eating. Sleeping (she is her father’s child!). Her Aunt Jennifer (“Compton” to Hadley…and we’re trying to get her to start calling her “Coach” too, haha!). Getting dressed (especially putting on shoes). Refrigerator magnets. Her ball pit. 

New Words: There is no way I will ever be able to list all of these each month, but I think I can name the main new ones this month. Blueberry. Compton. Pop. Kyle (she can finally say it correctly instead of “i-kull” like before). Strawberry. Hot. More. Help, and help please. Hadley.

Something kinda funny she has been saying, she picked up from me. It all started with me bending down to pick her up and saying “ohhh goodness” one day. About 10 or 15 minutes later, I saw her bend over and pick up one of her teddy bears and she said, clear as day, “ohhh goodness”. I couldn’t stop laughing… and now I realize more than ever that I need to watch my mouth! Anyway, now she says it ALL the time, and almost always in context, too. Funny girl.

Firsts This Month: Hadley experienced her first snow!!We were worried that we might not get any this year, but a couple weeks ago, we got a couple of inches (it wasn’t a ton, but enough to go out and run around in)…and Hadley LOVED it! I planned to do a post with photos from that, but let’s be honest I’ll probably never get around to it  I think I’ll just put them in here, so please excuse the photo overload. ;)

I can’t talk about the snow without sharing a collection of photos from H’s first time “eating it” in the snow. I know it shouldn’t be funny…but it is. And she was just fine, and happy again in just a minute. ;)

Nicknames: There are still so many. We like to call her: Ma’am, Ma’amy, Jams (by Daddy), Little Miss, Haddles, Jenks, Jenkins, Jenkers, Stinkins, Stinks, H, Sweet Pea, Sweet Cheeks, Beautiful, Hadley McGee, Sugar, Shug, Honey Bunny, Missy, Shorty (by Pop), Darlin, Baby Doll, etc. etc. etc.!

What I’m Thankful For: It is always so tough to narrow this one down, because there are so many. I think this month I will go with Hadley’s “Aunt” Jennifer, one of my best friends since 6th grade. She loves H so much and spoils her beyond belief… and H loves her, too! We love you “Compton”! :)

What I’m Looking Forward To: A busy but fun month of March! I have a bunch of fun spring photo sessions coming up and we have lots of family time planned. I can’t wait! Also…March Madness, aka ACC/NCAA basketball tourney time (Go State!)!!!

Next Pediatrician Appointment: Her 15 month appointment is April 2nd.

Here are the photos I have taken this month… we did a couple of Valentine’s day quick sessions, so that is what most of them are from…enjoy!

All for now… hope everyone has a great week!

-S

Disclaimer: Yes, I realize it is almost March and I’m just now posting this. We have been BUSY, y’all. Doing what? I’m not sure. But just trust me, we’ve been busy. Also, I haven’t really felt like going through the 2,316 (literally) photos that I took over our 3 day Christmas celebration. And I promised myself I would get this written this week so I can finally order H’s year one blog book. Though on second thought, maybe this should go in her year two book anyway?! Sigh!!

It still feels weird to say that this Christmas was Hadley’s 2nd, but technically it was (even though she was only 3 days old last year!), so we’ll go with it. ;) (Side note: we didn’t even have any Christmas presents for her last year because I wasn’t due until the 30th and didn’t think there was any way that she would come early!). I digress. 

Christmas this year was, as always, a whirlwind. Add in H’s first birthday party just one day before the Christmas festivities started, and that added even more stress fun!

After the birthday party crowd left the lake, my siblings and our respective husbands/wives did our annual gift exchange (we draw names) and all of the grandkids on my side got to open their gifts from the aunts/uncles. Somehow I only have a few photos from this (and none with H in them), but perhaps it is because I had just taken 23958203958230958 at the birthday party. Bad Mama!

The next morning after Hadley’s party, my whole family went to church at UGUMC (my Dad’s last Christmas service there…*tear*). The choir did a gorgeous cantata and H LOVED the music. We let her stay with us in church instead of her going to the nursery like usual, and she was enthralled by the music and loved watching Pop direct the choir. :) Anyway, we took the opportunity to get a full family photo, since we don’t get to do it very often! Isn’t it crazy that this is just my immediate family?! Good looking group, if I do say so myself.

Immediately following church, we headed to Concord to see Jon’s family. His mom’s side of the family all came over for an early Christmas celebration with us, and it was great to see everyone! 

Much like H’s birthday party, she really didn’t care much about opening her gifts, but she did especially love the guitar that her Great-Uncle Heith & Great-Aunt Karen gave her (it is so cute!). 

She got tons of cute clothes and other fun toys. Spoiled little one.

Her favorite thing to do that night was to rock the stuffed reindeer. She had a blast and was loving all the attention she was getting!

The next morning was Christmas Eve, and we woke up early to do Christmas with Jon’s parents and Heather. We pretended it was Christmas morning, and yet again H was spoiled with tons of toys and clothes!

She especially loved her chair that her Mamaw and Papaw gave her.

She got her first Hello Kitty stuffed animal…

Which she immediately had to give a kiss.

She wasn’t interested in the presents opening until she got a new book. She LOVES books!

There was lots more presents opening…

I think she was happy about all of them. ;)

Shortly after we finished with the presents, H took a very short nap and then it was time for us to get ready and head over to Jon’s Aldridge grandparents’ house for their annual Christmas Eve lunch. As usual, the food was delicious and we had a great time with all of the family. 

This is the only family photo we got of the three of us from the whole Christmas vacation…I have GOT to do better about this!!

The tradition is that the presents are opened in order from youngest to oldest, so Jon’s youngest cousin John Wesley ended his long reign of being the youngest and got bumped this year…H got to go first!

I love this, I feel like she is saying “all these are for me?!”

More presents opening…for some reason, this day, she was way more interested in opening them! I guess she got the hang of it after her birthday and the three previous Christmas celebrations!

She was very excited about her 2nd Holiday Barbie! ;)

This toy is SO cute! And H loves it. Thanks to Great-Grandpa and Grandma Aldridge!

H got spoiled even more and Jon and I were wondering how in the HECK we were going to get all that stuff back with us (it ended up filling up our car, Jon’s parent’s car, and my parent’s car…)! 

H had fun playing with family while everyone else opened their presents.

After the gifts were opened, it was time for us to hit the road yet again. We loaded what we could in the car and drove to Conover for the Kirby family (my extended family) Christmas Eve dinner at my Granny and Paw Paw’s house. We got there late, but it was still good to get to see everyone for a little while. H also did surprisingly well for getting almost no sleep all day!

She loved cousin Lala’s necklace. ;)

Santa Claus made a stop by Granny and Paw Paw’s house and left H a teddy bear for her Christmas Eve gift!

The fam, minus Miki & Zack and families…we missed y’all!

I wanted to get a pic with H and her great-grandparents, but at this point it was late and she was finished with pics…so this is as good as we got! Haha

Next, we headed back to the lake for the night. The next morning was Christmas! H slept in as usual, but Bekah and Kyle weren’t there yet, so we went ahead and ate breakfast while we waited on them to arrive. This was taken when we told her there were even MORE presents for her to open…;)

I would say that Santa definitely found us even though we were at the lake and not at home! :)

She really loved her gifts from Santa!

And there was even MORE gift opening…(at this point we were thinking we really probably just need a bigger house!)

The next gift was one technically “for” Hadley, but Bekah had Jon and me open it. It was a total surprise to us!

It is a personalized, custom (to match her nursery) growth chart for H! Kyle’s awesome, talented mom Kathy made it and we love it! :) It was probably my favorite gift of all this year.

After the final presents were opened, we headed over to my Uncle Mike’s for Christmas brunch with the Kirbys, (so. much. food. and SOOOO delicious!!) which was good since we didn’t get to spend much time with them on Christmas Eve. H was a big fan of the pancakes and biscuits and gravy! ;)

Our family tradition is for Paw Paw to read the Christmas story. I am so glad Hadley got to be there for that this year!

The other family tradition is that we sit and sing Christmas carols. For those who may not know, to say that the Kirby family can sing is a huge understatement. It makes me cry every year that our family is so blessed with such beautiful instruments!

H loved all the singing. She didn’t chime in just yet, but I can’t wait to see if she inherited the Kirby pipes! ;)

We got the chance to snap a couple quick pics, the first is 4 generations: my Granny and Paw Paw, my Dad, me, and H!

This picture would be perfect, but we were missing Natalie! This is all of the family whose middle names are “Jo”, (except for Nat!): Laura Jo, Stephanie Jo, Kristen Jo, Betty Jo (who we are all named after!), Kelli Jo, and of course Hadley Jo!

Whew. Like I said, Christmas 2012 was a whirlwind! :) We are so blessed to have such close families and that we were able to go and celebrate Christmas and get some much needed family QT. All of the presents were nice, but none of the “stuff” compares to the memories made and the good times spent with family.

Next year, we will switch where we are which days (Christmas Eve/morning with Jon’s family, Christmas day with mine)…and then after that we will figure out what “our” family tradition will be. Anyway, we had a great Christmas to say the least and are MORE than blessed.

On that note…Merry Christmas! (Only 2 months late…) :)

-S

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends! To be honest, I have never cared too much about Valentine’s Day…I usually just pick up a card for Jon and make sure to tell him how special he is to me on the day. But since Jon and I very first started dating, he has always gone all out for it (always flowers, a sweet card, and nice dinner). Have I mentioned how sweet he is?

This morning, I walked downstairs to this:

Yep, that is flowers (and 2 roses for H for her 2nd Valentine’s Day…remember her first?), jewelry (a bracelet), an edible arrangement (my favorite), AND a sweet note via fridge magnets. Over the top? Absolutely. However, the words written in the cards were sweeter than any of the gifts, and that is what this day is all about.

H was a BIG fan of the edible arrangement:

(Sorry for the terrible iphone photos… I should do better.)

We finished off the morning with heart shaped pancakes, which H was a big fan of. ;)

On tonight’s agenda: cooking dinner together (chicken carbonara, yum) and hanging out with our littlest Valentine. ;)

Anyway, without getting too mushy, I just wanted to wish Jon and H a very Happy Valentine’s Day today. I can’t imagine my world without either of them in it. xoxoxo

-S

Hi, friends! Hope everyone is staying warm and safe on this icy, freezing day! I am secretly hoping that there is at least SOME accumulation of snow so that H can play it in a little, but so far it just looks like it’s going to be ice. Oh, well. :)

Now that little miss is 13 months old, I think it’s time to change up the “updates” a little. For starters, I’m going to go to trying to do monthly updates in an effort to force myself to write them to have some sort of consistency. Also, I’m going to try to change up/add/get rid of some of the categories in the update to change with our growing girl! So, without further ado… her 13 month update!

Weight/Length: She had her official 12 month checkup with the pediatrician about 3 weeks ago (I know, total slacker on posting about that), but her official stats are: 20 lbs, 4.5 oz (33rd percentile), 30.5 inches long (86th percentile), and head circumference 17 3/4 inches (48th percentile). No big changes in her percentiles, except that she is getting longer and leaner (supermodel?! haha). Her checkup was great, and I got a lot of answers to questions I had. She did have to have some shots (4 sticks plus a finger prick!), which was, as always, tougher on me than it was on her…but it wasn’t TOO bad. Anyway, the basic gist of the appointment was that she is right on track with her growth and development. We couldn’t be more happy or proud. :) 

Sleep: No changes here. Still bedtime of 9-9:30 and sleeping until 9:30 or 10. And still two naps (usually), each around 2ish hours. She definitely fights them some days, and I don’t push it too much if she just isn’t sleepy…we kind of just go with the flow around here. :) I think this category can probably be dropped from now on unless there are any major changes.

Feeding: This is another category that I think I can probably drop…or maybe I will just change it to “favorite foods”? Anyway, no big changes, she is still eating whatever we eat (with some extra fruits/veggies added in when we don’t have the healthiest of meals) and doing great. She has started trying to feed herself some with a spoon, but so far, more of it gets ON her than IN her, but she is enjoying learning. :) 

We officially weaned on December 31 (a little over a week after her first birthday), and while it was super hard on me emotionally, it really couldn’t have gone smoother. H didn’t miss a beat, and only really tried to nurse just a few times after that. It was hands down the best experience for me in our whole first year together. I feel so lucky and blessed to have been able to be here and exclusively nurse the whole year. I can only hope that my experience with our future children will go as great as it did with Hadley. :)

We introduced cow’s milk shortly before weaning, and H wasn’t really a fan of it at first (I don’t blame her…yuck!). But, I found that if I warm it a little, she will drink it…so that is still what we are doing, before her afternoon nap and before bed. Some days she will drink it (from her sippy cup) no problem, and others she wants nothing to do with it. I talked to H’s pediatrician about it, and she said, and I quote: “cow’s milk is for cows. I don’t care if she drinks it or not…there are plenty of other ways for her to get the vitamins and calcium she needs.” (Have I mentioned how much I love this doctor?!) Anyway, she calmed my worries and on days that H wants nothing to do with the milk, I just make sure she gets some foods with extra vitamins and calcium in them.

Her favorite foods right now are: blueberries (hands down favorite), cantaloupe, bananas, cheese, crackers, pizza, and chicken pie!

Developments:  H is a pro at walking now… even running some, too! Probably right around New Year’s is when she began exclusively walking, or walking more than crawling. She is all over the place and loves to explore everything around her. She is also an expert climber…in the last few weeks she has mastered climbing to the top of the steps in about 5 seconds…and she climbs on our kitchen chairs, tries to climb onto the couch, into her toy box…etc. Monkey!

She is talking more and more, too. (See new category, “words” below!). For the last few months, she has been repeating tons of words we say…but just in the last 6 or 7 weeks have I noticed that she is actually understanding the meaning of words and will point at things and say what they are, rather than just repeating what we say. It’s crazy how fast she picks up on things. It took only about two days for her to learn to point to the various parts of her face when I ask her “where’s your ___?” (nose, head, teeth, mouth, and ears, so far). And just the other day, she stumbled and fell down and immediately said “ouch” (emphasis on the “ch”)…which I haven’t necessarily taught her, but I have definitely said in front of her several times. She is a little sponge!

She loves to give kisses, to anyone and anything (seriously—the floor, her high chair, the couch…but especially to Ralph and to me!). I don’t ever want her to stop wanting to give me kisses!! Hugs, too… she is great at throwing those little arms around my neck and squeezing with all she has. Cue heart melting. :)

She has been teething in FULL effect this month. She got 6 teeth (4 molars, and 2 more on the bottom front) in 10 days…and handled it like a CHAMP. She woke up two nights crying, but went right back down after I went in and soothed her a little (and gave her some tylenol). She may have been a little fussy for a couple of days, but definitely nothing too bad. She is a trooper!

She does great at entertaining herself… She goes from toy to toy and room to room just exploring and discovering new things! And when she wants my attention, she will bring me a book or a toy and we will play together. :)

I’m going to stop there with the “developments” and move on to another new category… her favorite things!

Favorite Things/Activities: Her bears (and any stuffed animals)—she is obsessed and carries them around everywhere. Giving kisses and hugs. Being outside/going for walks. Ralph. Bath time. The Sesame Street theme song. Her “Little People” toys. Books. Running with Daddy (I HAVE to get a video of this soon). Being silly in general (mostly with Daddy). Running from us while we “chase” her around the house. Pulling anything and everything off of every shelf and out of every drawer that she can get her hands on. Being cheered for (she’s a total ham when we clap and cheer). Eating. Sleeping (she is her father’s child!). Her grandmas and aunts. Talking/singing/babbling to herself and others. Getting dressed (especially putting on shoes—“soos”). Her ball popper. Refrigerator magnets. Rocking in Meemaw and Pop’s little rocking chair. Rocking her bears in any rocking chair. :)

Words: Like I said, she will repeat pretty much anything, but the ones I know that she really knows are: Bear (she uses this for pretty much any stuffed animal). Ralph. Dada/Daddy. Mama (still only sometimes). Bekah. Kyle (“i-kull”). Heather. All done. Thank you. Cracker. Bye bye. Hello (especially when she is playing with a toy phone or one of our phones—she will hold it up to her ear and say “hello!”). Hey. Cantaloupe (“canlo”). Bunny. Quack quack quack (when she sees her duck book). Nose. Head. Water. Drink. Read. Book. Cheese. Ouch. Whoa. Wow. Those are the ones I can think of right now!

Firsts This Month: Hmm. I know there have probably been a ton, but I am drawing a blank! I guess I will say that this month is when she started really using words and knowing what they mean… does that count? :)

Also, on a sad note, H got her first black eye this week. :( She slipped in the tub and hit her eye right on the side of the tub… bless her little heart! She was fine after just a few minutes, and I am positive that it hurt her Daddy (who was bathing her) more than it hurt her…though she did (still does) look pitiful!! The swelling is all gone now, and people who have seen her say it looks like she is wearing eye shadow on that eye, haha!

The black eye did give us a chance to use our boo boo bunny, which is so cute, but H did NOT want anything anywhere near her eye, so trying to use it was kind of a fail! Hopefully we won’t have too many more incidents where we NEED to use it, though! ;) 

Nicknames: There are still so many. We like to call her: Ma’am, Ma’amy, Jams (by Daddy), Little Miss, Haddles, Jenks, Jenkins, Jenkers, Stinkins, Stinks, H, Sweet Pea, Sweet Cheeks, Beautiful, Hadley McGee, Sugar, Shug, Honey Bunny, Missy, Shorty (by Pop), Darlin, Baby Doll, etc. etc. etc.!

What I’m Thankful For: I have probably said this at least 359082305823 times in these updates, but I am so very thankful that I get to be here every day with our girl. I cherish every single minute and am loving getting to be here for everything—small and big. I have just been feeling extremely blessed lately. (When did I become such a sap, seriously?)

What I’m Looking Forward To: Lilly’s (Hadley’s BFF) first birthday party tomorrow! Some fun photo sessions coming up (and hopefully squeezing in a 13 month session of H sometime when it’s not so COLD!). 

Next Pediatrician Appointment: Her 15 month appointment is April 2nd.

So…I have a confession. Ever since our “365 days of Hadley” project has been over, I have been a TOTAL slacker as far as taking pictures of H. I promise to get better about it, I’m not sure what has happened to me! I will say, though, that I have approximately 236509826 videos of her on my phone, because it is nearly impossible to get her to stay still enough to get an in-focus photo these days! Anyway, here are the pics that I do have from this month. :)

That last one makes me laugh…she was squealing at the top of her lungs. ;)

On that note, I’m going to play with my sweet girl and wait for Jon to get home. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

-S