Year and a half

In honor of Hadley turning 18 months last Wednesday, we got her a cash register and a Cabbage Patch Doll (it's technically a "newborn," and after feeding it a bottle her diaper gets wet. I haven't showed Hadley this feature yet).

Here she is counting the money:

Who says you can't take care of your baby at the workplace? Hadley's doing a fine job feeding her baby the bottle (nevermind that the baby is quite close to the edge of the table.....)

Looks like the baby needs a nap.

I guess the baby goes to sleep in the grocery bag.On Friday, Hadley met up with her friend at the park and they had a good time together on the swings. Hadley likes to sit in the swing, but she does not like to be pushed - FYI.

I scream, you scream!

On Friday Hadley and I were planning on going to the National Cathedral, but I decided not to because of the colds we've all had a hard time recovering from. (It would've been a long drive with little or no nap for Hadley.) So instead, we hung out around the neighborhood. In the morning, Hadley and I took a nice walk around the Washingtonian Center where she loved looking at the ducks. She counted them several times (1, 8, 9!) and gave them several quacks.

At one point in our walk, Hadley began pulling on my arm and saying, "Lion! Lion!" I couldn't figure out what she was talking about until she lead me over to a bench with what I guess is a fake lion sitting on it. She promptly gave him a hug and a pat, then wanted to sit next to him for awhile.

I told her later that she must get her willingness to hug and kiss these types of things from her uncle.

It certainly couldn't be from me. I would never do something so silly.

In the afternoon, because it was a whopping 84 degrees out, I decided it was time for Hadley to have some ice cream. We went to Maggie Moos in the Kentlands and I ordered her a scoop of vanilla. Here's the first face she made after her very first bite:

"Too cold, Mommy!"
But after the second bite, she decided it was pretty good.

But what was really fun was using the spoon and ice cream to paint her stroller.

And here's one last picture of her walking around outside. Isn't this outfit so cute?

First Boo-Boo

On Thursday Hadley and I went to the park to play for awhile. Hadley likes to first scope the place out looking at all the kids, checking the equipment, etc. Then she heads for the slide. She loves the slide. Every time she goes down she says, "Weeeee!" and when she gets off she starts clapping for herself encouraging those around her to join in the fun. Yesterday she thought it'd be more efficient to go up the slide.

You can see the other little girl off to the left thinking, "Hey, my Mommy tells me I'm not supposed to do that? How come she can?"

Hadley also loves to sit on all the park benches.

But her favorite thing of all to do is go play with in the soccer games that are going on around the park. There were three going on yesterday morning, and I was able to distract her from them for awhile, but at one point she saw two boys playing with about 14 soccer balls and she took off screaming with delight, "Boy! Ball! Boy! Ball!"

Hadley also had her first skinned knee yesterday. I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. She was walking around with Jesse and I at the train station and she fell down. Surprisingly, she was not upset at all. She was more intrigued with the new color of her skin. For the rest of the day she was pointing to her knee and saying, "Boo Boo."

Look at those cute little legs.

More!

"More!" is one of Hadley's favorite words, especially when referring to getting "more!" books off the shelf and "more!" cooking spices out of the cupboards. So in the enthusiasm of Hadley when she says "MORE!" here are a few more pictures of our weekend.





We got a chance to visit Cole and Chase, Hadley's cousins on the Ayanoglou side. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of that, but I can say Hadley had a very good time. She can't say their names yet, but she can point to them and say, "Boy." something she loves doing to any boy she sees. She also gave Cole and Chase lots of hugs and kisses.





On Monday, Shani was very kind to drive us to Detroit so we could stay in a hotel the night before our flight. (We thought this would be easier then driving at 6am for 2 and a half hours the next day. We were right). We stopped in Lansing again to give Hadley a chance to get the wiggles out. MSU has a very cute children's garden that Hadley loved.

As you can see, she is very fond of boys. Even though the one below is not real, Hadley still had to give him a little pat and a hello.

Our Trip to Michigan

Warning - this entry might be picture heavy. I know that fans of Hadley will be thoroughly disappointed.

We had a great time in ol' GR this weekend. Hadley did a great job on the plane, and after how easy the flight was and how much fun she had running around the airport, I don't think we'll ever drive again.

We flew into Detroit where Shani picked us up and drove us to her place in Lansing so Hadley could have a nap before the rest of our trip to Grand Rapids. Hadley found some beads in the back of Shani's car and decided that these were the greatest.

The excitement of the weekend was seeing Mallory perform in Dance Guild at Calvin. Jesse went on Friday night.

While he was at Dance Guild, Hadley had fun playing with all the toys Grandma and Grandpa Feyen had for her.

On Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast at one of the greatest restaurants of all time - Marie Catrib's. Anyone who is near the Grand Rapids area - even you Chicago folks - NEED to visit this place. You will not be disappointed. Forget Russ'. Forget Jody's. This is where you need to be. Hadley liked it, too.

On Saturday night, it was my turn to go see Mallory. I was so excited that I was the first in line in the FAC! My mother-in-law and sister-in-law told me to calm down, there would be PLENTY of seating but I said, "Listen here, ladies. I want a seat front and center to see Mallory. If that means I need to be there at 6pm for an 8 o'clock performance, than by golly that's what I'll do!"

I wasn't allowed to take pictures during the performances, but here we are with the Dancin' Queen after the show.

Mallory did a great job, and it was fun to watch her dance. It was also a treat to be back at Calvin 10 years after I graduated. The dorms smell exactly the same. As soon as I walked into BHT, I was right back to my pop tart eating, Diet Coke drinking, 90210 watching self. Of course, I wasn't a resident of BHT, but you get the idea.

That's all for now. Sesame Street is over and it is time to go to the park. I'll put the rest of the pictures up later.

Compromise

Hadley was pretty ticked off with me this morning because I insisted on changing her diaper in the middle of Sesame Street. The horror! So I told her I would change her diaper and then put her clothes on in the living room while she continued to watch Elmo and Co.

And then twenty minutes and a lot of screaming later.....
"Thanks for putting clothes on me, Mom! You're the greatest! I'm sorry I put up such a fight." I swear that's what she said. Hadley is an extremely advanced 1 and 1/2 year old.

At the Cherry Blossoms

Hadley took a trip to see the Cherry Blossoms with her Grandma and Grandpa Lewis over the weekend. She had a good time exploring the Mall and seeing what there is to see. Here are some pictures:


Every Dutch girl needs to find herself some nice tulips to stand by. I'm pretty sure it's the law and also, on the Calvin College application.



I think in this picture she's trying to find ol' George "doubya" to ask him a few questions about the way he's running things.

"So Grandpa, can you explain to me why we can't climb over this fence?"