Happy Halloween!

I wonder what she'll be next year....

Thank You, Sesame Street

It's pretty clear that the beloved morning nap is fading away, so now I'm left with what to do with Hadley until it's time for an afternoon nap. This morning, after playing in ALL the rooms of our condo she was clearly bored. I hadn't eaten breakfast yet, so in hopes that I could actually sit and eat, I turned the TV on and there was Big Bird welcoming Hadley to Sesame Street. She sat and watched the show for about 20 minutes. She only moved when Grover came on to sing a song about a carrot in Spanish. She felt it was appropriate to dance along to the song; especially a song about food. Here are some pictures:

Do I feel at all guilty for setting my daughter in front of the TV while I enjoyed some delicious pumpkin bread? Not a bit. As Joey from "Friends" says, "I grew up watching TV and look at me - I turned out FINE!"

A little later we went to the library to meet one of Hadley's friends and her mommy. Hadley and Emerson played for a bit and then we went to Obee's for lunch. This must have tired Hadley out because she's been sleeping for almost 2 hours.

Waiting for 3:02pm

All day I told myself, "She's not 1 yet." At 5am when I woke up I thought, "Well, last year at this time we were just getting ready to go to the hospital." Then at 11am I thought, "This was the point when my contractions were really starting to get to me." At 2:30 today, when Hadley and I headed off to Barnes and Noble I thought, "This is the point when I looked at the clock and said, 'This baby is going to be born by 3 because I'm not doing this any longer.'" And then at 3:02pm, as we were sitting at the B&N cafe, and I was feeding Hadley her snack I got tears in my eyes because I couldn't hold it off any longer. Hadley is 1.

When Jesse got home we opened presents, played with all the new toys, and had cake. At first, Hadley was pretty grossed out with the cake, but once she tried it she started "mmming" and packing it in faster than we could believe." Here are some pictures:

My very own laptop!!! Thanks, Dad!

Hmmm. I could make a LOT of noise with these bad boys. What was Mom thinking?

Honestly Mom, don't you think you should learn how to feed yourself?

Let's Get Together! Yah! Yah! Yah!

I didn't mean to dress her up like the nerdy camp counselor from Parent Trap. Oh well.

The Week in Review

I am exhausted. Starting Monday, life has been nonstop and full of lots of eventful moments and times for a bit of reflection. Hadley's new trick is to show how old she is. As she holds up one finger it is hard to believe that a year ago this week I was preparing to go into the hospital to be induced. I kept thinking back on this week a year ago and how hard it was to walk or even tie my shoes. And now we have a little munchkin who can tell us how old she is.

Monday we went to Barnes and Noble in Bethesda for storytime. Hadley took it upon herself to be the greeting committee, and crawled her way through the crowd trying to touch each baby. Picture the crowd at an outdoor concert such as Dave Matthews or Peter, Paul, and Mary and then imagine me following Hadley through it as she "welcomes" each confused baby and annoyed mommy while I tread through the crowd. I finally had to put her in her stroller and distract her with food while the story was read (of course, Hadley's "mmming" with each bite didn't help the other babies hear the story). As I was feeding her, a mom asked me if she could get her stroller which was in front of Hadley's. A bit too enthusiastically I obliged and knocked all the rice puffs that I was feeding Hadley on the floor. Needless to say we were not the hit of storytime that day. However, I did manage to make a new friend who has a daughter two months older than Hadley. She and Hadley had the same shoes on and they thought that was pretty neat. Watching them grin at each other and their matching shoes made me remember my friend Sarah and our matching red shoes (one of which I lost on the way home from Kindergarten).

On Tuesday Hadley decided that naps weren't her thing, and I was in charge of bringing the snacks for Bible study the next day. She played on the kitchen floor for awhile and I got some baking done, but at one point she got hungry so I put her in her high chair and fed her some rice crispies. Jesse and I have been trying to give her "real people" food instead of the Gerber baby food, so I also cut up part of banana. Hadley had a few pieces and liked it, so I proceeded to cut up some more. As I was doing this Hadley took the banana from me and bit off an enormous bite. As she chewed it she looked at me as if to say, "What else ya got?" I took a picture of her with some remnants of banana on her chair for proof that I actually picked that mush up with my bare hands and lived to tell about it.
I was actually able to make three batches of muffins for Bible Study the next morning: apple walnut, blueberry, and my personal favorite donut muffins! Here is a picture of the donut muffins:

Wednesday Hadley surprised me by staying in the nursery throughout the entire Bible study. I couldn't believe it. I kept getting up from the study and checking on her (and I got plenty of scolding for doing it), but she was fine. I was very impressed and it was nice to be a part of a grown up discussion. Plus, Hadley is making some friends, too!
And here she is on Wednesday night eating from an apple!

On Thursday we went to the Washingtonian Center to hang out and as I was putting Hadley in the stroller I smelled a poopy diaper. I can usually anticipate these things so I can change Hadley in my sanitary home but Hadley pulled a fast one on me. I changed her in the restroom of the Barnes and Noble and as we were finishing up a little girl and her mom walked in. I heard her say, "Mommy, poo poo!" Her mom said, "I know, I know. Mommy forgot her diaper bag." I swung open the stall door and asked, "Do you need a diaper?" The mom, who looked as exhausted, as me said, "Yes!" I said, "Come on in!" and opened the stall door open as if to welcome her into my home. "What else do you need?" I asked offering her sanitizer and wipes. As she was getting ready to change a dirty diaper, I took a look at her daughter and said, "You have very pretty hair!" She looked at me and said, "Poo! Poo!" I shrugged my shoulders, pointed at Hadley and said, "I know, so did she. It happens to the best of us." Hadley and I left the bathroom and went to the cafe to have some coffee and a snack.

Look What I Did Mom!

I put one load of laundry in the machine and turned around to find this:

Hadley was extremely proud of herself. As she should be.
This afternoon Hadley and I went over to a friends house in the Kentlands for a playdate. We both had a great time. Hadley played with the other two babies - one is 7 months old and the other is about 2 weeks younger than Hadley - for almost 2 hours! I couldn't believe it. It gave me a chance to relax and talk with the girls.

Lose Yourself in the Music

Today was "Lap Sit and Ryhme Time" at the library. Hadley as always, had a great time, although she'd prefer to sit in the CENTER of the circle instead of on mommy's lap. Here she is getting ready to perform:

Note how close the other babies are to their mothers. About two minutes after I took this picture, the storytime lady got the musical eggs out and Hadley lost her mind. She was so excited. The lady put the music on and Hadley shook her egg with one hand, and waved the other one up and down. Some other moms starting chanting "Go Hadley! Go Hadley!" I wanted to take a picture, but I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold the camera. My girl is not shy, and she loves music. I wonder what would've happened if the lady had any Justin Timberlake...

Here is Hadley after her performance:

Hadley also made a few friends this morning once she realized that it was OK to share the eggs with other friendly babies. After the storytime was over, the lady said we could hang out for a bit so Hadley went directly to the basket of eggs. Several mothers commented on Hadley's "organizational skills" because she would take each egg out of the basket and line them up nice and straight. Here are some pictures of her playing with some friends:

She must have worn herself out at the library today because she's been asleep now for over two hours!

It's Good!

This past weekend Hadley showed us that she is a football fan. Not only is she a fan, but she likes to referee the games. She throws her arms way up in the air everytime the ref calls a touchdown. Granted, she may be telling him that she is "so big" but we like to think she's learning the game.

Hadley is also learning to nod her head "no" and "yes" and has used it quite frequently these past few days to tell us what she wants to do. For example, when we shake our heads "no" in reference to her climbing up the bookshelves or turning the DVD player on and off (while we're watching a show), she'll look at us and shake her head "yes" and then proceed to act.

Today Hadley and I went to the Washingtonian Center to walk around. We found a bench to sit down on while I had some coffee and Hadley drank her juice. After awhile the geese started swimming our way in hopes we would have some food for them, then the sparrows came around. At that point I decided to continue our walk because I knew it was only a matter of time before the bees showed up. I'm really not an outdoors person. Or, as I once said after a seagull pooped on my water bottle at the beach, "I hate nature." I guess I better put that attitude in check so I don't pass it on to my little munchkin.

No pictures from today, but here's a couple of the family at Hadley's baptism:

Brunch in Baltimore

Today we went to Baltimore to see our friends Tim and Angela (these were our friends in South Bend who moved out this way the same time we did). We ate at The World Cafe which was delicious - there are several tasty places to eat in Baltimore that Tim and Angela have taken us to. My top two are: The West Egg and The Wharf Rat. Today we had brunch at The World Cafe and it was fun. As you can see from this picture Hadley is enjoying her straw and her new friends Tim and Angela:

Hadley also enjoyed their two dogs Tommie and Hudson. This was the first time she not only showed interest in animals, but she wasn't afraid of them either. Her mommy was very proud of her since she herself is terrified of dogs. Here are some pictures:

I've learned that Hadley reaching out and touching a nose means she is saying, "Hi!" That's what she's doing here with Hudson and Tommie. They were both very nice to her. We had a great visit. Needless to say, Hadley was exhausted after all the excitement. She conked out as soon as we got home.

Baby Wise

Nothing in any of the books that we have on how to get a baby to sleep worked for us, so we just let Hadley show us what works best. She loves her musical mobile in her crib, she has to have her OG, and Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" is her favorite lullaby.

This week at naptime this is what I walked into every afternoon:

About five minutes after this picture was taken, she was sound asleep.

And then this morning I was drinking an Odwalla juice and Hadley liked the cap, so I gave it to her to play with (don't worry, I washed it off first). She was so enthralled with it, I let her play with it in the crib, and here is what happened:

I think that the authors of the book Baby Wise ought to let me write an "alternative plan" for when their crazy strict plans don't work out (or parents who read it have a nervous breakdown because they think it's cruel and unusual punishment to put their baby through that).