nineteen months

It feels like Hadley has gone from baby to toddler overnight.. literally, in her new big girl bed! She now has a few hundred words in her vocabulary.

Some of her favorites:

yep- still working on getting her to say "yes", but i suppose it is a step up from "yeah"

more

milk

plea

shoes

no no no

shirt

chair

nana, papa, gramma, poppy, uncle

car! "hi car! hi car!" as we are driving along

ewww -if something is messy, or gross to her, she will let you know. the other say she pointed at chris' elbow and said "ewww" it is cute, but brutally honest.

dirty- goes along with "eww" most of the time.

any sesame street character- elm, ernie(said with the most enthusiasm. i think she appreciates his sarcastic sense of humor), big bird, cookie!!

any animal- goat, horse, bird, butterfly, cat, dog, plus many more and the coordinating sounds to go along with :)

baby, momma (when she sees one big animal with one small one)

sister (she points at my belly, says "sister" "aww" and gives her a hug and a kiss! last night, she put a blanket on my belly and said "night night sister")

any facial feature/body part (hadley loves to talk, so if she doesn't know what to say, she will remind you of your nose, eyes, ears, cheeks, mouth, teeth, hair etc.)

I love when she gets very close and say "hi!" with a huge smile on her face.

she is even forming short sentences. i love having conversations with her!

the most common phrase is hear from hadely is "ju ju ha" we think she is saying "thank you hadley" because I have always told her "say thank you hadley" oops.

we hear a lot of "love you, dada" "love you, mamma". those never get old.

the other day, hadley was eating cheerios out of a cup and my mom was encouraging her by eating one herself. hadley said "no no no. say plea!" we couldn't believe it!

hadley has been playing so well by herself lately; reading books, playing with puzzles, organizing her babies. I am getting very hopeful that her new independence is a sign that she is getting ready to share chris and i with her sister.
we love you so much, hadley. every new month brings new discovery, adventure, and fun.

about the pig roast

We had lots of fun at the pig roast this year! Chris had been trapping pigs like crazy over the last few months. He kept one to fatten up for the roast, and it turned out pretty good! Hadley had a great time playing with all our crazy friends.

a year and a half!

We had so much fun celebrating Hadley's year-and-a-half Birthday! First, we went to the Doctor for Hadley's 18month check-up. This will be our last appointment with our pediatrician, as she is retiring at the end of the month... just as I was starting to like her! All went well at the appointment, Hadley gained back the weight she had lost, he head, and height measurements were right on track, and she was well behaved! When we walked into the waiting room, there was a long line of people waiting to check in. Right as we got in line, a nurse popped her head out asking for a "Hadley Walden". We were escorted in ;) and told the Dr. wanted to see Hadley early because her appointment was in the middle of a family with three kids. Yay!

That evening, Gramma met us at Gott's/Taylors for burgers and fries. Hadley does not do well at resturaunts these days, so this is the perfect place to bring her, plus she loves to dip the fries in ranch dressing. Next, we headed to the oxbow market for some cupcakes at cara's. Hadley promptly dropped her mini cupcake on the ground. She made friends with some little girls... meaning she just walked up to them, smiled her huge smile, and stared.

This little lady of ours gets more amazing by the minute. She is constantly picking up new words- she had about 100 in her vocabulary right now. She is so tender and loving. She is polite, saying plea and ju ju (thank you). She is SO dainty and girly. She is also very finicky. We love you to the moon and back, Hadley Mae. We are so proud of who you are becoming, and can't wait to see what the next hours, days, weeks, months, and years hold.

the napa town and country fair..

was not so great.

chris and i had not been to the fair in ages.. ages!! maybe high school?

chris claims he had never enjoyed the fair.

i remember loving it as a kid.

i wanted to take hadley to see the animals, maybe ride a pony, and eat some questionable fried food.

we decided to give it a try, but first budgeted on $40 for the evening.

cost to get in- $26.00

we check out the 4-h animals, and watch some animal race, hadley is not too impressed.

sierra nevada (chris claims was not actually sierra nevada)- $5.00

lemonade for me (more like sugar water, but whatever) -$3.25

ohh look, only $5.75 left for dinner.

take out a little more money and buy some fried food- $12.oo

eat the food and wish we would have gotten the spaghetti and meatballs instead.

about to spend the $5.00 for a pony ride, but chris decides the ponies look much to depressed.

total time spent at the fair- 2 hours.

hadley did enjoy the live music, the cute little girl trying to share her popcorn, and all the attention she got from admiring strangers.

4 years and a sick baby

After a long (amazing, but long) week at Young Life camp, Chris and I were SO excited to get away for our four year anniversary! We were planning a weekend at our friend's adorable beach house in Bodega Bay. Hadley was scheduled to stay at Gramma and Poppy's. We even had dinner reservations!! That Thursday, Hadley was not acting herself at all. She had the flu for the first time. We felt so awful for our little baby. The weekend getaway was cancelled, and we stayed home to take temperatures every few hours, administer tylenol, follow the "brat" diet, and do a whole lot of cuddling and consoling. On Saturday, Hadley's spits were up a bit, so we went out for a mini celebration at Frieda's for some delicious Mexican food that never fails. Even though we did not have the celebration we had planned, we were remind how blessed we are to have one (most of the time) healthy child, another little lady on the way, and love for each other. If someone told me on our wedding day what my life would be like after just four years, I don't think I would believe them. Chris went all out, completely surprised men, and gave me an additional wedding band to add to my ring finger, and I got a fig tree for him, for the year of fruit.

young life camp 7.23.2011

Woodleaf is one of the most amazing places on earth. It is where I have come to know God- many times, built very special relationships, made many life changing decisions, had FUN, and taken amazing girls to share the love. I was so blessed to have my friends; Natalia, Lindsay, and Jackie leading the girls with me. Jackie brought along tiny baby Della, and Hadley came along too. They were both angles the whole time! Chris and Dave were leaders to the men-folk. Twenty-seven high school students joined us for the best week of their lives. Thank you to those who support us in this ministry. We are blessed.

oh look, a pregnant fairy. how cute. -__-

pretty!

Being pregnant, it is not so easy to paint your own toes. If you are lucky like me, and have a steady-handed husband, these things are not really an issue ;)

Hadley saw that my toes were painted, and she immediately took her shoes off and grabbed a bottle of polish. Begging, "pea pea pea" Chris thought it would be fun to paint her little toesies too! I looked away for one second, then discovered the interesting color choice... not sure I would have gone so "bold" with a 17-month-old. She makes it work.


What lucky girls in the family to have such a cute dad/husband!