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.