{first day}

While we aren't experiencing the big transition {yet} to the first day of Kindergarten, we are definitely having a big first day in our house!

After much discussion, research and, let's be honest, stress, Hadley has moved to a new school this week.  I always called her daycare school, but this is really school.  School calendar, carpool lane, birthday treats for your room, winter break and spring break.  David just called to report a good drop off, but day 1 is always the best.  She is onto us by day 2 :)

She is now at Beth-El Zedeck Early Childhood Center.  She will go 3 days a week and then be home with Brady and the nanny 2 days a week.  We are so thankful for this configuration and know it will help with David's travel schedule to have someone at our house each morning.  And, hopefully will help Hadley to have even more good days each week including better naps, better meals and more one-on-one time!

Here is our sassy, loving, silly and chatty nearly 2 year-old on her first day of the 2013-2014 school year!

{love this little lady}
xoxoxox

shout out to Reaggie for the adorable outfit.  ha!

The Potty Dance

It happened twice this morning!  It's Hadley and David's thing and I need to get it on video. It's adorable.   The dance has only happened three times at home, and TWO of them were this morning!

David has incredible patience for this process.  Me-not so much. It's usually because Brady is needing something too. And because I have little patience. Truth told ;)

Daddy's is off to a soccer game tonight (with the rest of the city) so mommy and the kiddos celebrated Hadley's big morning!  

We played at the playground and went for ice cream!  Hadley chose banana ice cream that was sadly not yellow in color. So we added mango for that yellow color she loves!  Complete with sprinkles and confetti cake. Yet she still stole mine for some chocolate. ;)

Shade and a fence-perfect playground!

Chowing on her pizza in the shade 

With her yummy goodness

Cheese!

Yum!

Chocolate thief

Brady's Orange Leaf excitement. 

We hope her interest and success with potty training continues. We are following her lead so far and she seems excited!!

Wish is luck!

  

entertainer

We like to say that Hadley might be a thespian like Uncle Chris...making him very proud of course. :)

Here is our little entertainer in a few videos.  She now sings almost constantly in the car and does a nice serenade at the dinner table too.  I need to capture her singing her new song.  David and I had to google what we thought she was saying to figure it out.  It's hysterical.  Stay tuned for that video!

I say it all the time, but her vocabulary amazes us.   And her understanding of things often shocks us.  She has a book where the animal is making a sad/pouty face but has no tears.  When she sees this she says "He's crying."  She is just seeing the emotion in his face, knows that it is sad, sad means tears, etc.  I love watching her grow and understand.  amazing....

Hadley is 23 months old today - just one more month until the big 2nd birthday!!  My heart is full thinking about how much fun we've had in just 2 short years and how much she has taught us.  I can't wait for her and Brady to become best buds!

3 weeks go by so fast!!

Brady is soooo close to 8 pounds and doing great!  I'm having fun looking at my notes from Hadley to compare.  He is about a week ahead of her in weight gain after birth - go big B! 

We have been getting out more to run errands, working on customizing the nursery for a boy and even finding a groove with bedtime. We've had several 5 hours stretches at night so now we need to work on growing those and getting him to sleep flat on his back. He is getting too old too fast!

Enjoy the photo dump! ;)

I need to do a Hadley-only post soon.  She's almost two!!

21 months...ok!

Hadley is growing so quickly these days - a little in height, none in weight, but TONS in personality!  The past month has been crazy in our house, keeping us both away at night, relying a lot on Grammy's help, alternating nights during the week for who "gets" to work late, exhaustion and stress.  And the guilt of not being able to "smother hadley with constant love and attention 24/7 while she is still the only child."  oh well....such is life, right?

Hadley will now tell you that I have a baby in my belly, she kisses my belly, but still gets confused looking at her own belly and asking if there is a baby in it.  I am hoping she is young enough to think this is all fun and exciting, not stealing her thunder.

She's busy to say the least, and wows us daily with her vocab and tricks.

This is what is going on in Hadley's world right now:

• moved to her big girl room TONIGHT! (still in a crib)
• She is great with her manners, saying please, thank you, more please, etc.  (yesterday in the car she said "thank you mommy" and I about drove off the road with pride)
• We must say "ok" all the time, because now it's her word.  It goes something like this - more please, ok!, wagon, ok!, more oranges, ok!, tubbie time, ok!
• I am waiting for her to ask to juggle knives and say it so sweetly "knives please mama, ok!" 
• We are still in the "no" phase.  Which I know I will prefer to the "why" phase so I'm not really complaining
• She sings her ABCs, and actually does really well!
• She can count to 12, sometimes skipping a few and sometimes nailing it
• She still loves colors and everything is associated with it's color
• Yellow and orange rule.  She can spy a yellow car or truck on the highway miles away.  And lets everyone know!
• Hadley loves to play outside, often asking as we are pulling into the driveway and will say "ParkerChase" as if it's one word for 20 minutes straight if she can hear them or wants to go see them.  Thankfully Bill & Megan don't care that we pop over most evenings to play for a bit
• She is still incredibly independent in her play - she will sit and color, paint, read, play with puzzles, stack blocks, etc. by herself.  We are spoiled.
• She has started to love having a blankie at night.  It doesn't have to be the same one, thankfully, but is always a soft muslin one.  No other real attachments though.
• The cups with the soft lids are still her fav.
• She says milk just fine, but will still prefer to say "bocky" when she wants milk in a cup (we don't even try to figure it out!)
• She's started to wake up and say "breakfast? ok!" 
• Smoothies and yogurt are still breakfast on most days
• "Brushie Brushie" is still a struggle.  David does a great job pinning her down and getting to those back teeth
• Meals are still our biggest challenge. We often end with fruit of some sort so she will eat something (read-anything!)  I am a little envious of our friends whose kiddos just chow down at dinner.  Oh well...
• We are in mostly 18-24 month or 24 month clothes.  Most 2T tops are fine, but the pants fall off her little waist.  Thank goodness for short and capri weather so she can wear a smaller size without it being so obvious!

I love having conversations with Hadley, talking to her like an adult and trying to reason with her.  Her knowledge grows before our eyes, she still mimics anything we say and can learn a new idea/color/word in no time.  

Our hearts swell with both love and pride at this age.  A good reminder when she is challenging - which happens!  

I am so excited for Hadley to be a big sister - but don't ask her if she is having a brother or sister. The answer is no.

And because this post is already so long...a photo dump. Enjoy!

yogurt in the morning 

cheesing and me and her mirror all the way home 

patachou on mother's day

sheep.  baaaaa.  teaching matt and jenny about animals after her overnight with Quincy 

outdoor snack time.  humid curls kind of day 

 cozy in her new glider in her big girl room

Enjoy this video of our little comedian.  this was the first time she really did this stoic face on purpose...knowing it would get a laugh. excuse my giggles in the background.

Hopefully I have 1-2 more posts before baby #2.  Due in a month and 20% there!

Easter Weekend

I have some other blog catching up to do (trip to NC, Hadley is 19 months, we are 29 weeks pregnant, etc. etc.) but since the photos from this weekend were at my finger tips...I am posting!

We started our weekend with the neighborhood egg hunt.  Hads was dressed for the occasion - clearly!  She is loving her sunglasses right now! 

Her age group is released - holding daddy's hand

getting the hang of it!

Then off to Conner Prairie for opening week! We are excited about this membership this year and can't wait to take her often!

Maybe the baby goat wants to wear her sunglasses too?  Our first trip to Conner Prairie with lots of new baby animals this weekend!

Hads and Daddy showing off the ribbon prize for completing the Prairietown Easter egg hunt

Sunday started with early (8:30!) church service and then a quiet brunch at home . We did a small egg hunt for Hads indoors.  And she even ate egg casserole!  Now she is snoozing after her busy morning.

Family pic

lots of Easter goodies - spoiled as usual.  And several new books about going potty like a big girl.  hint hint, Hadley!

You can view all of the pictures here.

Hadley loves eggs.  We have a set to help with colors and the alphabet that we have been playing with for over a month now.  So, imagine her amazement when we stopped by Hobby Lobby last week to get some to hide and hunt.  EGGS EGGS EGGS! The aisle was her heaven!  So, needless to say she was a rockstar at egg hunts!

Happy Easter!

totally tubular

it feels like every single other toddler has been there - now it's our turn! Hadley had tubes put in her ears on Friday. The anticipation was awful, the part that I thought would be bad was just fine and the part I didn't think would be bad was pretty painful.  Go figure!

We had an early arrival time so that was nice - and with surprise survived no milk in the morning!  Dr. Youkulis at Northside ENT is awesome...and this surgery center was great.  It was small, not too "hospitally" and friendly staff.

reading books in one area while mommy completed paperwork 

eggs  eggs  eggs  thank goodness we brought these!   

 this was her hospital bed for surgery.  she thought it was great and it contained the eggs nicely!

hospital bracelet 

more time with the eggs.  the Dr., anesthesiologist and nurses cracked up and this toy 

she really does know which one is orange...

All done and back at home! Cuddling and reading books 

 playing peek-a-boo and acting pretty normal!

books books and more books 

eating part of a donut as a treat for being brave! 

checking out her fancy flowers from Liz & Lu

Now we just do drops for three days, and monitor the bleeding and seeping.  Not sure if it's related but now she is super snotty and froggy in her throat.  Maybe it's just an entire clean out of her system!  

She handled it great - only freaked out afterward when we couldn't give her milk.  And watching her come out of anesthesia was awful.  But, we are so happy it is over and we hope we have a new baby in a few weeks that has no fluid living behind those ear drums!!

and I am pretty sure I promised a post about baby #2.  Maybe in a couple of weeks after a 28 week appt. and ultrasound :)