Hola! I’m actually writing the monthly update only a few days late this time. I’m patting myself on the back as we speak. ;) In all honesty I have a full weekend coming up with 4 photo sessions and also hopefully squeezing in some birthday celebrations for myself in there, too (it’s Monday, you’re welcome for the reminder)…so I know if I don’t do it now, it will likely be closer to 17 months before I write the 16 month update. ANYWAY….here goes nothing:

Weight/Length: She is around 23ish lbs (she was 23 lbs, 12 oz with clothes on at the doctor last week) and 32 3/4 inches long. Still growing like crazy, and officially in mostly 18 month clothes now (and 12-18 months, too). Most of her 12 month shirts and pants are too short now, especially all of her PJs. Sometimes I look at her and think she looks SO big!!

Sleep: No changes—and I am doubting there will be many for a while, so I will probably drop this category next month. Bed time is around 9-9:30 and she sleeps until 9:30 or 10 at the earliest every day. Naptime is between 1-2 and she usually sleeps around 2.5-3 hours.

Favorite Foods:  Mostly the same as last month, except that she has acted like she doesn’t really like blueberries lately…which is nuts considering for the last 4 months she inhaled as many as I would put in front of her at any given time. Anyway, favorites now are: apples, grapes, cantaloupe, cheese, hot dogs, corn, crackers, strawberries, turkey, freeze dried bananas, strawberries, and mango, edamame, black beans, baked beans, green beans, peas, stir fry, bread, spaghetti and meatballs.

She eats this “organic foursome” from trader joe’s (carrots, peas, green beans, and corn) like it is CANDY and often, it is the only thing I can get her to eat for lunch/dinner. She will turn down chicken nuggets, french fries, grilled cheese, quesadillas, peanut butter & jelly, and any of the “normal” kids meal type foods…but will scarf down the vegetables like they are going to run off her plate. I suppose I shouldn’t complain…but, seriously? We were out to dinner not too long ago and she finally ate TWO french fries, and you would have thought she had just won an Olympic gold medal with the way Jon and I were praising her. Seriously, what parent praises their kid for eating french fries?! HA! Meatballs, hot dogs and turkey are literally the ONLY meat that I can get her to eat, ever, and still sometimes she will reject those. I am not a HUGE meat eater (could definitely do without it, if my husband wouldn’t disown me for not cooking meat, haha), so I can’t say I blame her…but I’m guessing it is just a texture thing, and we will keep trying!

She also drinks whole milk, 8 ounces twice a day—after her nap and before bed. I still heat it just a tad just to take the chill off, because she will straight up refuse it if it is cold. Diva. ;)

Developments:  I am having a hard time thinking of any real completely “new” developments over the past month. Mostly she is just learning more and more and becoming more of a “little person” than a baby. I realize she has probably “technically” been a toddler for a while, but I guess I am just now really realizing it. Tear.

She is getting really good at naming and recognizing shapes—circle, square, triangle, and sometimes oval…and colors, too (her favorite is purple, but she can also name/point out green, red, yellow, and blue). She has several books and also flash cards that reinforce these, and I can tell that she is really “getting it” when she points and yells “CIRCLE!” when we’re out at the grocery store, etc. 

I am SO glad spring is finally here, y’all. Most of our days are spent outside, and she loves to explore anywhere we go. We have had some fun days exploring parks in the area, but she really is just as happy playing in our back yard and sliding/swinging on her new play set (which we found on Craigslist for a SERIOUS bargain). We usually go for several walks a day, usually in her wagon or car…and I just hear giggling behind me because she is just SO happy to be outside. It really is the little things. ;)

This month, she has (finally?) starting singing. Her favorite is “Old McDonald”, which I really need to get on video. When we sing it, she will sing along, and she immediately breaks into a dance when we start singing it. She randomly bursts out with “E-I-E-I-O” whenever the feeling hits her, and she will say “cow, mooo, duck, quaaack, E-I-E-I-O”. The cutest is when I catch her on the monitor singing it as she is going to sleep. 

She also loves to talk to herself. Last weekend, Jon went on his fraternity beach trip, and Hadley, Ralph and I headed to the lake. On the way home, Hadley napped for the first hour or so, and when she woke up, I heard something like this coming from the back seat (while pointing to each body part): “Eyes. Ears. Hair. E-I-E-I-O. Cow. Moooooo. Raaaalph! Ruff ruff. Elbow. TOES!! E-I-E-I-O!”. These are the things I NEED to be videoing! ;)

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. Kissing Ralph. Hugging Ralph. Annoying Ralph. Anything involving Ralph. ;) Dancing (any time the music starts, she starts breaking it down). Bath time. Building with blocks. Swinging. Sliding. Bubbles. Sesame Street, at least for the first 5 minutes. Her “Little People” toys. Her water table. Books. Juice. Milk. Running from us while we “chase” her around the house. Making messes. My iPhone. Being cheered for (she’s a total ham when we clap and cheer). Eating (sometimes). Sleeping. Getting dressed. Shoes (if she even SEES a pair of shoes, regardless of if she already has some on, she pitches a fit until I put them on her). Refrigerator magnets. Her ball pit. Doing things herself. Balls. Singing.

Firsts This Month: The main thing is that Little Miss was sick for the FIRST time ever (other than a runny nose that lasted about 24 hours a few months ago). :( I will just say that I don’t think I’m cut out for dealing with a sick kid, y’all. Last Tuesday morning, when I picked H up out of her crib, I noticed immediately that she felt HOT. Not just like hot because she had been sleeping hard, but h-o-t. I immediately took her temperature (the first time I had ever had to do it, actually), and bam—103.7 degrees. WHAT?! I called Jon (I really had no idea what I was supposed to do), and he (of course, duh) told me to call the doctor. When they heard how high the fever was, they told me to go ahead and bring her in.

At the doctor, they did a full exam, and everything looked completely normal—no congestion, no ear infection, nothing— so they decided to do some blood work to check her white blood count. The doctor was concerned that it may be a UTI due to her temp being so high and with no other real symptoms (other than H fighting us during diaper changes and baths, but that really could have been from anything), and she said the white blood count would be elevated and that she would rather see the results of that before going straight to the next step—a cath. Anyway, they pricked H’s finger and took several viles of blood (all while she screamed bloody murder—which KILLED ME. I always make Jon come to the doctor appointments with the shots, so I am not used to being the one having to hold her down. Sigh!). Anyway, I am not sure what her actual count was, but the doctor said it looked “more viral”, aka she likely just had a virus. They sent us home with the normal instructions of alternating ibuprofen and tylenol and said to call back if her fever didn’t lower or if she started acting like she felt worse or stopped eating. 

So, we went home, and H took a 4 hour nap that afternoon. We spent most of the afternoon like this:

Each time I took her temperature, though, it was still very high—never went below 102.5 even after taking the ibuprofen/tylenol…but I tried not to worry too much. She was really still in a remarkably good mood that afternoon, but after dinner, she started fussing/crying and really didn’t stop for several hours. Her temp was back up to the high 103s and she was having violent chills. I took her upstairs and wrapped her in one of her warmest blankets and rocked her, and she fell asleep. That seriously NEVER happens. While she was sleeping, she kept having the violent chills, so much so that I was afraid she may have a seizure. I sat there and rocked her, held her as tight as I could, and bawled. I never realized until that moment just how much my mom meant it when she would say “if I could take it from you, I would” when I was sick growing up. I would have done ANYTHING to take it from her.

Jon stood in H’s doorway, in silent support (I think he really just had no idea what to do, H was shaking violently and I was sobbing), and kept asking “what can I do??”. I told him I didn’t think there was anything that he could do, so he did what made him feel like he was doing something for her—he went outside, at 8:30 p.m., in the dark, flashlight in hand, and put together H’s new play set that he had just picked up that day. To think about it now makes me tear up, and it is just another one of the 29358203582 reasons I love that man. 

She woke up about 30 minutes later and was so pitiful—just a low, painful sounding cry, and still the high temperature. Jon came inside and said “why don’t you just call the doctor so we can at least have piece of mind tonight?”, so I did. I told her all of her symptoms, and without hesitation, she said “you need to go ahead and bring her in now”. SIGH. So, off to the ER we went. 

We waited for about an hour before being seen by the triage nurse (who almost caught the wrath of this protective mama bear when she kept saying to Hadley “I am not listening to that crying, you really should be quiet”…seriously?! I would hate to have to slap someone in the hospital). Her temp was 103 and her heart rate was elevated—around 170 bpm just sitting there, which they were also concerned about), so they sent us back to the waiting room to wait to see the doctor. Another hour and a half passed before we were called back to see the doctor. After asking about a million questions, they decided to go ahead and do the catheter to check for a UTI.

Y’all. A catheter + a 16 month old who already feels terrible = the hardest thing I have had to deal with thus far. She was PITIFUL. The nurses insisted that it didn’t hurt her, that it was just uncomfortable, but H’s screams suggested otherwise. It didn’t last for too long, thank goodness, and they sent the urine off to the lab to test. While we waited, H perked up some and even ate some snacks—a big improvement from earlier in the evening. Despite the fact that it was around 11:30 p.m. and way past her bedtime, she was in a great mood.

The results finally came back, and… no UTI. SIGH. I felt terrible that we had just put H through all that agony for seemingly no reason, but I guess there was some peace of mind at least that it wasn’t a UTI and was likely just a virus. Long story short, we spent several hours at the ER, forced a tube up H’s unmentionables while she screamed bloody murder, and kept her up way past her bedtime for them to send us home with the same instructions the doctor had given us earlier that morning—motrin and tylenol and to call if anything changed. SIGH.

Whew. That was long, but several people have asked me what all happened, so that is the story. The first time H had ever been sick, and we ended up spending the morning at the doctor’s office and the night at the emergency room. Sheesh. I realize that it probably sounds like we totally overreacted, but in our defense, we just did what the doctors/nurses told us to do! ;) The rest of the story is that she had a fever for several days after that, and also developed a cough/chest congestion about 4 days after all this went down, but I can finally say with full certainty that my sweet Little Miss is, barring a tiny bit of congestion, back to normal. Thank God. And thanks to all of you for your prayers, because I know they helped. 

Nicknames: There are still so many. We like to call her: Ma’am, Ma’amy, Jams (by Daddy), Little Miss, Haddles, Jenks, Miss 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: Our family. This has been one of those months where I have felt extremely homesick and just a little bit lonely in my little SAHM world, as my friends here have all just been busy with life and such (it happens, I get it)… but the weekends we have spent at home have made it so much better; they help me regroup and realize what is really important. I’m ready to move home when you are, Jon…. ;) Ahem.

What I’m Looking Forward To: A fun birthday weekend. We are heading home (yes, again, did I mention I’m ready to move back?!) to the lake and don’t have any real plans, but Jon is taking off work for my birthday on Monday, so I am excited for a long weekend! :)

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

Without further ado (I know, I have already written a book), here are the pics I took this month. Highlights: first picnic, fun with bubbles, squirrel/bird watching out of the kitchen window, water table fun, a playdate, an impromptu photo shoot at Duke Gardens while I was there shooting for another project, making memories with Mamaw and Papaw at Pullen Park/the Farmers’ Market, and lunch with Daddy on his 32nd birthday! 

That’s all for now, folks. Yet another eventful month! Hope everyone has a great weekend…it’s almost here!

-S

Howdy, y’all. I am finally getting around to part two of the Easter photos (see part one here if you missed it). The last week has been a little crazy as Little Miss has been pretty sick (I will try to give the details when I write her 16 month update, hopefully this week). Luckily, she seems to be on the road to recovery, and I am using her naptime to blog even though there are 289357982372 other things I should be doing (aren’t there always? Sigh!). 

After leaving Concord on the Saturday before Easter, we headed to Lake Norman to spend some time with my family. We laid low all afternoon, but that evening the kids (and Bek, Kyle & Miki) dyed some eggs. Aunt Bekah helped H dye a few before she went to bed and she loved it (again)!

I forgot to take a pic of the finished product, but trust me when I say they were beautiful. ;)

The next morning was Easter, and church was an hour earlier than usual, so we (of course) had to wake Hadley up. She was still pretty sleepy when she saw her Easter basket, but she loved her bunny, which we weren’t too surprised at since her stuffed animal obsession is still going strong.

Did I mention she was still half asleep?! ;)

We headed off to church at UGUMC, and after a great service (which just so happened to be Daddy’s last Easter service at UG…*tear*), we went back to the lake for a yummy lunch and more fun with the family. Of course before they changed out of their pretty Easter dresses, I had to snap a few photos of the girls.

Take two of H with her Easter basket:

I had been collecting things for her Easter basket since Christmas… she got: some play clothes, several animals for her Little People Zoo Talkers toy (have I mentioned how much we love this toy?!), a few (classic) Disney movies, a beach towel, a basketball hoop for the tub, and of course, a stuffed bunny.

After H’s nap, the kiddos decided to do a little Easter egg hunt. H was a pro since it was her 3rd hunt…she loved it!

The bunny ears. :)

Aunt Jennifer came over later that night and brought H yet another Easter basket full of goodies. (Side note: example # 350892305982309582 of how just having a nice camera does not guarantee good photos… I really should teach Jon how to use it!)

We finished off the night with a good old fashioned game of family Twister. Just lol. :)

I would say that Easter weekend was a real “slam dunk”! (Ba-dum-chh!) (How do you even spell that?!)

Seriously though, we had a very happy and blessed Easter full of family time and fun. We are so lucky to be making such wonderful memories!

-S

Yep, you read that right. Part one. As in, I took way too many photos over Easter weekend, so I have to share them in not one but two posts. I know, I have a problem. Sorry ‘bout it.

On the Thursday before Easter, we headed to Concord to spend a few days with Jon’s family. I must note that I was on day 2 of a terrible stomach bug, and in fact still had a pretty high fever, but I knew that it would kill Jon’s mom if we waited to go until the next day (maybe it was the email she sent me that said “deep down it would kill me if you don’t come tonight”? haha…she was dying to see Hadley!), so I sucked it up, threw on some sweatpants and a hoodie and off to Concord we went. I went straight to bed when we got there, but I started feeling better later on that night, and was finally feeling back to 100% by Saturday. I digress.

First off, Hadley is a huge fan of being at Jon’s parents’ house, partly because she gets to see the cows! She practically begs to go outside any time she gets a glimpse of the cows, and luckily her Papaw is happy to take her to see them.

Jon’s parents had several fun Easter activities planned for us Hadley, the first of which was dying Easter eggs…H’s first time! I was nervous that she would make a big mess and dirty up Kim & Tim’s immaculate house, but shockingly, she did great! Of course her Mamaw was armed with lots of paper towels, and they covered the table up, so no mess was made that wasn’t easily cleaned up! H had a BALL, dropping the eggs into the cups and stirring all the cups one by one (she would go up the row and back down, and up and back down…it was quite cute). Anyway, I took a zillion photos of the event but here are way too many of my favorites.

Jon’s face in the next one makes me laugh out loud. He and Heather like to tell stories about them growing up and dying eggs…and their mom “helping”, aka doing it for them because she wanted them to be perfect. I was secretly a little scared that Jon would be the same way (he is an engineer and likes things to be “just so”), but surprisingly he let H do her thing and I was very proud of him. You will notice in quite a few of the photos, however, that it wasn’t necessarily easy for him to do. ;)

The finished product:

And the finished product along with the finished mess. Not too bad for a 15 month old!

H went down for her nap shortly after the egg dying, and when she woke up, it was time for an Easter egg hunt! She was a pro at finding the eggs and putting them in her basket, especially after her first hunt with Lilly. Yet again, I took tons of photos of this…

Something about a baby in blue jeans. And the little bootie? Forget it.

Even Ralphie had to get in on the Easter egg action. ;)

To say the least, she had a ball “finding” the eggs and putting them in her basket. I am sure all the cheering and “YAY HADLEY”s definitely encouraged her. ;) We ended up the afternoon with a ride on H’s car, one of her favorite pastimes!

Finally, the next morning before we left, H got an Easter basket from her Mamaw and Papaw…complete with peeps! (Yuck!)

First taste of a peep… she was a fan! I love how Ralph is creeping, hoping to get a taste of the peep too!

We had a great time in Concord, as always, and H loved spending time with her grandparents and having fun making new Easter traditions. 

All for tonight…part 2 of the Easter weekend coming soon!

-S

Warning: This is about to be some serious photo overload. Luckily, I think that the photos are the reason most people look at my blog anyway….;)

Our Easter activities started the weekend before Easter, when we went over to Sarah & Dan’s neighborhood Easter egg hunt! Last year we skipped the hunt and just went for the Easter bunny, but Sarah and I were excited that the girls were big enough to actually pick up eggs right in front of them hunt for eggs this year. The rain luckily held off, but it was COLD. The girls didn’t seem to mind the cold too much, though!

The girls had a blast picking up the eggs and it didn’t take long before they got the hang of it—before long they were picking them up and putting them right in their baskets. :)

Hadley decided to keep looking for eggs….

While Lilly was a little more interested in what was IN the eggs. ;)

ONE DAY we will get a photo of them both looking at the camera and smiling. One day. Until then… these are still super cute of them checking out their eggs (and each other). :)

Next, it was time to go see the Easter bunny. I was nervous that H would hate him (remember her first time meeting Santa?!), but luckily she and Lilly both didn’t think he was that big of a deal. I love the next few pics, they first looked at each other, like “what are they making us do?”…then they check out the bunny “hmmm should we be scared of him?”…then “just look at the camera and maybe they’ll let us eat the rest of the candy in the eggs”. ;) I love them. 

As always, we had a blast with the besties. I love making these memories that I know the girls will love to look back on for many years to come! We love y’all, Baum family!

I’ll be back soon with the Easter Weekend update/pics…just have to go through the 290682096820962 photos I took first. ;)

Happy weekend!

-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

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

Two posts in the same day, WHAT?! I finally got a chance to sit down and upload the photos from Hadley’s first birthday party, so while she is still sleeping, I’m going to try to get the whole post written!

When we first started brainstorming ideas for what we wanted to do for Hadley’s first birthday, I had three thoughts. 1-I did not want a “huge to-do” over it all because while we were super excited that she was turning one, I realize that not everyone else really cared (which is fine, I totally understand!). ;) 2- I wanted it to be just family (along with a couple close friends who are like family). 3-I did not want to spend a ton of money, because she will definitely not remember this and she would not care one thing about having a party! 

Since Hadley’s birthday is so close to Christmas (December 22), I knew that it was a super busy time of year for everyone, and also that there would be no avoiding the fact that it was so close to Christmas. So when deciding on a theme, I determined to just embrace that and go with a winter theme—it started off as “winter ONEderland” but kind of became more like “winter candyland” once I got more into the details. Anyway, I decided on a cute little penguin theme after finding the cutest “print it yourself” package on Etsy…and I just ran with it from there. It all started with the invitation:

For the favors for the kiddos in attendance, I kept it pretty simple. There were 3 other babies there, all near H’s age, and I found the cutest little stuffed penguins for them since they were obviously all a little too small for candy. My 6 nieces/nephews were also there, and for them I found some adorable little tic tac toe sets at Target, along with (what else?) tons of candy. ;)

Hadley woke up in a great mood for her nap and I’d say she was ready to party! ;)

Of course Ralphie was ready to party, too. 

A family member of Jon’s made the cupcakes, and she did an awesome job…they were delicious!

I heard from several friends in Statesville that Karen Pharr of Karen’s Cakes was the person to go to for H’s smash cake, and I could not have been more THRILLED with the way it turned out. All I did was send her a copy of the invitation, and she created the most perfect little cake for H to dive into. :)

The decorations luckily all came together exactly the way I had pictured them to in my head. We didn’t go too overboard, but I love the way our little “winter candyland” turned out!

Finally, it was party time. The girls had a blast playing with my old trolls and My Little Ponies… :)

Hadley did great getting passed around from family member to family member. She is one lucky girl to have so many people who love her so much!

Once everyone arrived, we played Hadley’s “365 Days of Hadley” video that Jon worked so hard on. It showed a photo of her from every day of her first year. It is still nuts to me how fast it all went by!

Next, it was time for everyone to eat! I made homemade chili and chicken noodle soup a couple weeks before the party and froze it, so that I didn’t have the stress of having to cook that day while trying to get everything else ready, too. Everyone said that they loved the food, and Hadley and her BFF Lilly certainly enjoyed the chicken noodle soup! ;)

After everyone finished eating, it was time to sing happy birthday and to give Hadley a shot at her much-anticipated smash cake. Before this, she had never had any sweets (other than a taste of ice cream a time or two), so this was all new to her!

Side note: there was an unfortunate incident where H tried to grab the candle immediately after I blew it out for her. There were tears, but luckily they didn’t last too long and she wasn’t burned—I think her reaction was mostly due to everyone else’s reaction to her grabbing at it. Anyway, I was able to distract her by giving her her first taste of cake. 

She was immediately a fan. I love the next series of photos. Pure bliss!

Then, my brother and sister thought that she wasn’t getting quite messy enough, so they asked Hadley “where’s your [hair] bow?”…which she knows is usually on her head. They thought they were funny… ;)

I would say the smash cake was a big hit, for sure. Sweet, sweet birthday girl!

After a quick wardrobe change, it was time to open presents. Hadley could not have cared less loved all her presents! ;) Kidding, kind of. She wasn’t too interested in the unwrapping of the presents, but since we have gotten home she has LOVED playing with everything…especially reading all her new books!

Aunt Jennifer got Hadley a new (huge) basketball goal so that H can continue working on her basketball skills. The next few photos show that H really was excited about it!! ;)

Finally, it was time for Hadley to get her gift from us—a Radio Flyer wagon. To say she loved it is a huge understatement—we couldn’t get her out of it for the rest of the night and people took turns pulling her (and some friends, too) around the house in it! 

These are Hadley’s friends Hayden (just 2 days older than H) and JJ (just a few months younger than H). Their parents were our next door neighbors at the lake and some of our best friends growing up, so I am so excited that our kids will get to grow up playing at the lake like we did!

Whew. If you’re still reading, thank you! I want to thank our sweet family and friends for making Hadley’s first birthday party a huge success. It was a day we will never forget and we are so blessed to have you all in our lives!

Hope everyone has had a fantastic Tuesday and has a great rest of the week!

-S

As promised here are the rest of the “update” pics…these are from December. And if you happened to read part 1 of the update yesterday, you might want to check back because I added in some more things that I had forgotten to include. ;)

Crazy to think that this is the last update I will write before she is one, ahh! Enjoy! ;)

With that, I am FINALLY caught up! Now, off to finish some last-minute birthday party things!

-S

First off, I want to wish my bestie Sarah a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today! Loved spending the weekend with you and hope you have a fabulous day today! xoxoxo

I have been needing/wanting/meaning to write a weekly update for WEEKS… bad mama! Life has just been so. crazy. lately. I feel like I barely have any time to stop and sit down at the computer and when I do, I need to be editing photos (the new photography business is definitely keeping me busy and I am l-o-v-i-n-g it!). Anyway, excuses, excuses. This really should probably be called H’s “one year update”, however I am currently still in denial that my baby turns one on Saturday… so 51 weeks it is! ;)

Sit back and relax, because this is gonna be a long one, folks. In fact, I think I will just break it into two posts because that seems easier for me to tackle than one gigantic one. So, I’ll head straight to the stats. 

Weight/Length: I’m gonna hold off on her official one year stats until her doctor appointment, but my guess is around 20 lbs and 30ish inches long. She is getting longer and longer and is continuing to slim down—she is long and skinny! She is wearing all 12 month or 12-18 month clothes now, and still in size 3 diapers.

Sleep: The only real change here is that recently, we have transitioned to one 3 or 3.5 hour nap a day for most days, unless she just seems really tired and then she will take two shorter ones. She is back to sleeping late again…bed time is around 9:30 or so and she sleeps until somewhere around 9:30 or 10. 

One sleep-related thing to note is that just a few days after my last update, (I think at around 10.5 months?), H decided she no longer wanted her paci to sleep. Up until that point, she used it only at bed time…but she took it upon herself to get rid of it, which was fine with me because I was planning to take it away at a year old anyway. ;) Anyway, for a couple weeks after she gave it up, she would fuss and sometimes cry a little bit (sometimes for 10-15 minutes) when going down for naps and bed time, but she got over that pretty quick and now will just play in her crib until she is tired and then she’ll lay down and go to sleep. Couldn’t have asked for an easier transition as far as that goes… I was nervous about it, though!

Feeding: I sure do miss the days when she would just eat anything and everything I put in front of her. She is still a pretty good eater in that she loves pretty much all veggies and definitely ALL fruits, but she is weird with some textures, and she is just very moody about it! I can give her the same thing 3 days in a row and she will gobble it up…then try to give it to her the next day and she acts like she is gagging and throws it all on the floor which is part of the reason Ralph has gotten so fat. It is sometimes a struggle, but I am trying to be persistent in making her try things a lot of times (I read somewhere that it takes 7 times of trying foods to develop a taste for them?) even if she just spits it right back out. 

One thing to note is that I am AMAZED at how much the child can eat for breakfast. I suppose it is because she goes so long between meals from bed time to breakfast, but she seriously eats more than I ever could for breakfast! A typical morning meal for her is: a banana, blueberries or cantaloupe, oatmeal or multigrain cereal with fruit mixed in, a mini bagel or piece of toast, one egg with or without cheese, and a cereal bar (she LOVES Trader Joe’s cereal bars). Seriously. I don’t know where she puts it. Or how she doesn’t weigh 40 pounds. Guess she inherited my metabolism, ha!

We are down to nursing once or sometimes twice a day, still aiming toward weaning at a year old. (Which is only 5 days away. WHAT?!) I have not had any problem saying that I am planning to wean at a year… but now that it is so soon, I am definitely starting to feel sad about it. I find myself enjoying every second of our nursing sessions now, and I am trying to take it all in and remember just how precious those moments are. It is just so hard for me to admit that H really isn’t a baby anymore. I will say that nursing her for this year has been one of the most fulfilling, amazing parts of her first year for me. It hasn’t always been easy… but it is one of the best decisions that I made. Now… who has advice for me on weaning completely/introducing cow’s milk? I am not really sure how to go about any of that!

Developments: Whew. I don’t know where to start with this. It seems like EVERYTHING has changed since my last post, which was only 6 weeks ago! 

I guess the biggest development is that H is officially walking (I think the most I have counted is about 17 or 18 steps)! She took her first steps just last week, but it is crazy to me how fast she is learning! She is still wobbly and learning to catch her balance…and usually once she loses her balance and topples over, she will just crawl to wherever she is trying to go to. It won’t be long though, I know, before walking is her main means of getting from place to place. Just in the last few days, she is walking from place to place on her own (without encouragement from us, which is the only way she would do it for the first week). This makes me very nervous, because like I said, she is still very wobbly and susceptible to hitting her head/face on so many things! Now more than ever, I feel like she can’t be out of my sight for a second!

Hadley still loves books. ANY books. She especially loves to turn the pages. I am excited about her getting some new books for Christmas/her birthday…and I know she will be, too!

She is repeating more and more sounds/words that we say. She says “dall done” (all done), “walllph” (Ralph), “byyyeeee”, “hi”, “hey”, “da da”, “yaaay”, “yuckkkkk” (emphasis on the kkk), and drumroll…….FINALLY “mama”! It took her long enough! And she normally really just says it when she is crying and/or fussing, but at least she is saying it, and I know that she knows what it means. ;) I think I have remembered most of the words, but I’m sure I will think of more after I post this.

Pretty much her favorite activity of late is finding any cabinet, shelf, or drawer that she can get to and completely clearing its contents. This keeps her entertained for hours each day… it also keeps me extremely busy, making sure that she isn’t getting into things that she shouldn’t and of course, cleaning it all up! She just loves to explore and to examine new things…I can see her wheels turning as she checks everything out.

She loves to go for walks in her stroller, or rides in her car. She generally just loves being outside, so we try to go for at least one walk or trip out a day. She LOVES grocery shopping (lots of things/people to look at), especially at Trader Joe’s, where many of the cashiers know her by name. :)

A seriously cute/sweet development is that H loves to give hugs and sloppy, wet kisses now. Mostly to me, but sometimes to Jon, too, if she is feeling particularly sweet. There is no better feeling in the world than her wrapping those little arms around my neck and then slobbering all over my face.

The last “development” I can think of is that my sweet girl unfortunately now realizes when bows are in her hair, and she is not having it. :( She pulls them out immediately…and if I try to distract her and/or force her arms down so she can’t take them out, it only takes a few minutes before she pulls it right out. :( Whoever told me that if you start them young with wearing the bows, then they will be more likely to keep them in when they get older…you lied! ;) We will keep trying, though!

Firsts This Month: First trip to cut down our Christmas tree! First steps. First time in big girl bathtub. First time meeting Santa Claus (fail). This is all I can remember for now, but I will come back and update if I think of more later.:)

Nicknames: The nicknames are really out of control lately. I don’t know if she even knows her real name! We like to call her: Ma’am, Ma’amy, Jams (by Daddy), Little Miss, Haddles, Jenks, Jenkins, Jenkers, Stinkins, Stinks, Chunkster or Chunks, 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: One year of perfect health for Hadley. (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!) We haven’t even had a runny/stuffy nose. Praying this continues and thanking God every day for our happy, healthy girl!

What I’m Looking Forward To: The holidays (3.5 days until Jon is off work until after the new year)! And H’s first birthday party with our family this weekend. I love this time of year!!

Next Pediatrician Appointment: Her 12 month (!!!!!!!) appointment is January 3rd.

So, I started going through all the photos from the last 6 weeks. There are a LOT (shocking, I know). So, here are the photos from November… I will post the ones from December either tonight or tomorrow. :) Without further ado, here’s what my sweet pea has been up to!

Whew. That was a lot. More to come soon, I hope! ;)

Happy week before Christmas!! 

-S