Hadley: Eleven Months!

ELEVEN months old..I can hardly believe it!
This year has flown by!

People always say the years fly by with kiddos. Shelby's first year didn't seem to go by quickly for me, but I think that's b/c I was so caught up in worrying if I was doing everything just right since I was a brand-new mom. But Shelby's 2nd year did go by super quickly! But this first year with Hadley--I don't even know where it went. It seems like she's almost a year old in the blink of an eye. She has just been the sweetest, easiest little baby & has made our transition to life as a family of four incredibly easy. And we love her immensely! It's hard to believe we will be celebrating her first birthday next month!

Here's what Miss Hadley is up to these days....

--You've got three teeth! You have your two bottom teeth & your top left lateral incisor...you look like a vampire baby! ;)  Hopefully you'll get your top front teeth soon, so it won't look quite so funny!

--Still sleeping great from 7-8 pm to 7-8am with 2 naps a day. You usually sleep for an hour in the morning & 1.5-2hrs in the afternoon.

--Still a great eater! Your favorite foods this month are mandarin oranges, scrambled eggs, goldfish, soup, & yogurt.

--Your eyes are still blue, but your hair is starting to lighten up a bit. We think you might be more of a strawberry blonde!

--You LOVE bathtime with your big sister & swinging in the baby swings at the playground.

--You love to drink milk out of Shelby's cups! If you are near us when I'm giving Shelby her cup of milk in the morning when she wakes up or after her nap, I HAVE to have a cup for you too or you will go crazy until Shelby will share her cup with you! It's a little ridiculous. We're hoping your infatuation with drinking Shelby's milk means we'll have an easy transition next month when we switch you to whole milk & get you off the bottle. ;)
--You are obsessed with feeding yourself with a fork. You love for me to poke your food with the fork, and then you put the fork in your mouth. You will try & try to poke the food with the fork by yourself..it's so cute to see you try so hard! Every now & again, you are successful!
--Your newest tricks this month are blowing kisses & saying a version of "hi" and "bye" when we're waving.
--Much to my dismay, you love to take things out of baskets/containers & then put them back in. Why is this so fun?!

Here you are making your "silly stink face" while taking all of your
socks out of the sock basket.

--You used to make a mean stink face, but now it's a silly stink face.

--You babble all the time and love to interject your opinions when we're having conversations.
--You are wearing size 4 diapers & mostly 12-18 or 18 month clothes.
 --And sadly, we think your days of your hair sticking straight up are coming to an end. At the crown of your head, your hair would always stick straight up! But now when we get you out of your crib in the mornings, more & more often your hair is all laying down. We're sad to see your spiky, crazy hair go!

Here's a pic of the girls from the end of January where you can clearly see
Miss Hadley's spiky hair ;)

--Not mobile yet. Shelby started her "army crawl" at 10.5 months, so we were kind of anxious to see if you would get moving around that time frame. But no such luck! You easily go from sitting to your tummy and then back to sitting again. You get on all fours every now again, but you don't really seem to realize there's anywhere to go from that position. Not pulling up yet either, although you are trying more & more! You can get to your knees a good bit now, so maybe that will happen soon! When we had your 9 month appt, the doctor seemed a bit concerned about your lack of mobility until we shared Shelby's gross motor development. We'll see what the pediatrician has to see at Hadley's 12 month appointment in a couple of weeks. I worried a lot about Shelby's delayed mobility, but I'm so much more laid back about it this time around! I know Hadley will start moving whenever she's ready!

You LOVE to sit with books & turn the pages by yourself!

Desperately trying to figure out how to grab another
book from the basket ;)

Until next month when we'll have a ONE YEAR OLD on our hands!

Pictures & Purging!

Here's a few more pictures from our trip to GA last week that I wanted to include for our blog book:

Shelby trying out Grampy's walker ;)

Shelby always insists on eating apples only if they've been peeled & sliced.
But she saw Auntie Em eating a whole apple this week, so now she's all about it!

Hadley's first slide with Mommy at Kids Up

Shelby's favorite thing to do at Grammy & Grampy's house--play piano!

Hadley trying out the ball pit with Shelby at Kids Up...
not quite sure what to think of it at first.

And then just like that, she was OVER it! Ha! ;)

This was her favorite thing at Kids Up--playing
with the plastic balls & checking herself out in the mirror ;)

Shelby snuggling with Grampy :)

We had great trip & we're SO glad we were able to be there for my dad's surgery and to help them at home once he got discharged from the hospital. But just like after every trip we take, it's so good to be back in our own house again! Although I slept better at my parents' house than I did in my own bed last night! When we're not in our house, I don't worry about my to-do list as much so I slept like a baby while we were there! But of course last night, my head was spinning with my to-do list & it took me for-ev-er to fall asleep..ugh!

While we were at my parents' house, I read Organized Simplicity & now we're ready to purge & declutter EVERYTHING now that we're back home. Here's Derek going through his most prized possessions of his youth--baseball cards! I had NO idea this is what little boys did with their time!

And to think this is only like one hundredth of his collection--and I'm seriously
not kidding! I was literally blown away!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!!

{front of 2014 Valentine's card}

{back of 2014 Valentine's card}

I forgot to scan our Valentine's Day card before our trip, so today I took a couple quick pictures of the card we mailed to Grammy & Grampy since we've been here at their house this week.

The girls were thrilled when they woke up on Valentine's Day b/c Grammy & Grampy had a package of yogurt melts waiting for each of them. That is something we never buy & our girls think they are better than candy! ;)  It was such a treat them for them! Derek & I had planned to get a couple of V-Day goodies for them once we got here but with all the weather, we weren't able to get to the store. Thankfully, we had ordered Shelby's Level C readers {seen HERE--if you have a beginning reader, I highly recommend these books!} a while back and brought them from Biloxi to give to her on V-Day. She was SO excited to get the next level! ;)  She's already read through all 25 books, ha!

On Valentine's Day, most of the snow was beginning to melt around here & the roads were clear so we were finally able to get out! We loved the snow while it lasted, but the cabin fever had started to set in--so we were ready for an outing! My mom & I took the girls to Kids Up {an indoor play  gym}, and both girls had a blast! It was a fun first Valentine's Day for Miss Hadley!

Tomorrow we head back to Biloxi!

Shelby's First Snow!

Today, Shelby got to experience her first real snow here at my parents' house!

Shelby's first look at the snow.
When we asked her what she saw outside, she replied: "Snow!"
Then she immediately said in the most dramatic voice ever:
"Oh no, traffic! Now we can't go to the hospital!" Ha! ;) After the debacle
with my parents stranded on the roads with the ice storm a couple of
weeks ago, Shelby associates winter weather the traffic. ;)

It was such a fun day in the snow with our big girl! We were just missing Grammy & Grampy. Every time we sat down for a meal at the table, Shelby would ask why G&G weren't sitting in their chairs. She was more than ready for them to get back home!

Here's a few videos of us sledding down the hill in my parents' backyard. Shelby loved it!

 

Thankfully this afternoon the roads had cleared up enough & the doctor cleared Grampy for discharge. So Derek headed down to Piedmont to bring G&G home! Here's a shot of Grampy & Shelby this evening. :)

We're so thankful we're able to be here this week!