Dear Hadley,
Today you are sixteen months old. And officially a walker. Like all you do is walk, all the time. Sure, you still fall. A LOT. And the more excited you get, the more you fall, but you practically refuse to crawl anymore. It took you awhile, but now that you can, and more importantly you know you can, you walk everywhere. It’s been so wonderful. On days like today, when it is sunny and warm, it’s so nice to be able to let you walk around outside. It’s like you equated walking with a new found sense of freedom and you know you can do so much more now.

You have such a wonderful, easy-going disposition. You are so mellow and relaxed that when you do occasionally get upset about something people are always commenting, “Wow! I think that’s the first time I have ever heard Hadley cry!” But rather than fussing or throwing a fit, you would much rather make people smile and laugh. You are such a ham and you make me smile a thousand times a day.

You recently started rubbing your hands together and at first I thought you had something on your hands or you discovered you could make a new sound, but we quickly realized you had made your own sign for washing your hands. Anytime anyone washes their hands or even mentions washing you start rubbing your hands together until someone helps you wash your hands too. I’d even dare to say you are a tad obsessed (and hoping your Mama’s mild ODC isn’t hereditary). The other day you discovered the bottle of hand sanitizer I keep on my diaper bag and you have been fascinated with this new form of “washing your hands” when we don’t have a sink handy. I keep catching you pretending to use it, and I gotta admit, I find it pretty hilarious.

Another thing you are obsessed with is dipping your food. You loooove to dip. You will dip everything into anything. Last night you happily dipped apple slices into ketchup. You are not particular. I’ve heard about children like this, but as Ana wasn’t a dipper, I never had to worry about it. But you are a whole different child. If you see us dipping any of our food, we better be prepared to get you some too. STAT.

You have officially reached what I like to refer to as the “copy cat” age. In other words, you like to mimic the things we do. I’ll grab a tissue to wipe your nose and you will quickly grab one to emulate the motion. You also like to reciprocate. If I am brushing your hair or washing your face, you like to return the favor and do the same thing for me. It’s incredibly sweet and gratifying to know you are so aware of all the things we do for you in your day to day life.

I think the copy cat behavior plays a huge role in your love for baby dolls. You are such a wonderful little mama. You are always carrying around a doll, pushing a baby in the stroller/shopping cart, or hugging your stuffed animals. It’s so cute to watching you pretend to spoon feed your babies when you can’t even spoon feed yourself yet!

You are starting to talk quite a bit more lately. You aren’t always easy to understand but there is generally some sort of commentary steadily coming from your vicinity. You have added several words to your vocabulary this last month: momo (more), beebee (baby), baybay (blankie), uh-oh, and sissy. There are few things more precious than when you hear Ana’s voice first thing in the morning. Your eyes light up, you squeal, “Sissy! SEESEEY!” and you take off to find her.

While you can often be a sweet little angel, you are still very much a curious, and often times mischievous, toddler. Case in point: you have recently started emptying your crib. Sometime you do this as a stall tactic before you fall asleep, other times you do it to entertain yourself once you have woken up. You like to toss everything out of your crib: pillows, stuffed animals, dolls, blankets. Once your crib is empty you will even start removing articles of clothing. Namely socks and shoes. For some reason, you like to throw all the items in front of your crib with one exception. You prefer to take your special lovey, your beloved blankie, and drop it behind the crib. The first time you did it, it took us forever to find it. I had no idea a blanket could even FIT down there. Now as soon as we walk in to your room you point to show us it’s back there. You little stinker.

Last week your dad took a quick trip to Bend and since you are quite the daddy’s girl, you were really struggling with having him be gone for two whole days. You kept pointing to the office and asking, “Dada?” Then as if I just wasn’t getting the message, you started pointing to every single picture of him and loudly stating, “DADA!” Finally your dad had a few minutes to chat so we used FaceTime on our iPhones. You could not have been more delighted. You kept squealing with glee and trying to kiss the phone. In fact, you even accidentally hung up on him a couple times in your excitement. But it was adorable and I know it meant the world to your father.

Hadley, I know I keep saying this, but you are just such a wonderful little girl. You are growing up so quickly and I can’t even believe the things you are able to do that you couldn’t do just one month ago. I love watching you learn and change. These moments in your childhood are so brief that I hope you don’t mind if I just pick you up, hold you close, and savor these fleeting moments.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Today you are fifteen months old. And yesterday you took several steps! These were not your “first steps” (you took two steps back in December…then broke your leg the next day) but they were the first steps since you got that darn cast off! It was very exciting. Daddy was encouraging you to walk and when, much to his surprise, you actually took two steps he squealed like a little girl, scared you, and caused you to promptly sit down. We quickly did the same thing again and you took THREE MORE steps. But after that you were DONE and simply refused to play that game anymore. But you took steps. And we will totally take it.

The other big changes this month are in your ability to communicate. You are surprising us every day with new words or hand gestures to tell us what you want or need. You are very accomplished at pointing to things. You do this to show me things you want to eat or play with but also simply to draw my attention to something you find interesting, like, “Hey Mama! Do you see that dog?!” I love that you are able to show me things that are important to you and am always entertained by the things that fascinate you.

While knowing what you want is helpful, it is equally important to know what you DO NOT want. You have finally figured out how to shake your head “no.” Want another bite? Shake your head “no.”‘ You point to something in the kitchen. Do you want this? “No.” How about this? “Nope.” This? “NO.” THIS?! And then you squeal with delight. BINGO. It can be frustrating, and often time consuming, but it works.

Aside from non-verbal communication you are growing your actual vocabulary as well. You can say Mama (which, thanks to you having a five year old sister, more often than not is simply “Mom”) Dada, Ana (of course!!), Nana, wawa (water), bye-bye, go, up, baby, and you point to yourself and say “me me” which delights you to no end.

A couple weeks ago we had another first occur around here. Not just a first for you, but a first for our whole household. You fell asleep while eating in your high chair! I have never had a child fall asleep while eating before! Ana passed out once while playing on the floor but never while sitting up, with food still dangling from your fingers. In your defense you were a little sick and hadn’t slept well during your nap. Ana was reading a book to us during snack time and while I was helping her sound out the words (and not just guess based on the pictures) you just closed your eyes and went to sleep! I made sure to take pictures from time to time to document this momentous (and hilarious) occasion.

You are totally fascinated by shoes. Or slippers. Or boots. Any type of footwear, really. You love to put them on your feet, on your hands, or even hide things inside them. Once I even found one of your shoes INSIDE one of my shoes. I thought that was pretty sneaky.

You are also obsessed with the little pink “car” your Grandpa Larry gave you for Christmas. In fact, I was a little worried that it was going to keep you from walking because you simply ride anywhere you want to go. You roll from one point to the next, turning and maneuvering with the greatest of ease. You have even tried carrying things around while sitting down, but this proved a bit tricky.

When you realized the seat lifted up, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for you. Once day I caught you stashing your blankie in the trunk. You figured out you could ride around AND still have your blankie safely by your side. Clever, Hadley. Very clever.

Last weekend while Nana was staying with us, we decided to set up a little camp out in the living room. While you didn’t get to sleep in the tent (this time) you certainly had a great time playing in it. We left it set up for a couple days and you and Ana were constantly playing in the tent. The squeals of delight and constantly giggles coming from your little pink canopy let us know you were in pure heaven!

Hadley, it has once again been a wonderful month with you. You are such an amazing addition to my life. You give the very best cuddles and when you wrap your hand around my finger all the troubles in the world simply melt away. I love watching your eyes light up when we snuggle up in the La-Z-Boy to read yet another Blue’s Clues book (you are partial to the lift-the-flap ones). I can’t wait to share all my favorite books with you. Then one of these days you will understand why we have those round Harry Potter glasses you love to wear so much. Until then, I am happy to enjoy all the things that bring joy to you like you bring to me.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Today you are thirteen months old. Thirteen sounds like such a bad, unlucky number, but I have high hopes for you. I am certain there are wonderful and amazing things ahead for us this month. And it’s not only because we have so much going on (ok, when don’t we have lots going on?!) but I just love sharing all the amazing things around us and watching as you delight in each and every new discovery.

Once people find out how old you are, the first thing they ask me is if you are walking. And I always tell them, “Nope. But she could if she would just try.” And it is totally true. You are amazing when it comes to standing, a rockstar at cruising around, and even (and it pains me to admit this) awesome at climbing. You are a physical force to be reckoned with. Yet you refuse to walk. As soon as we let go of your hands you drop to the ground and crawl away (with astonishing speed, I might add). I’m not worried, by any means. I know you will walk when you are good and ready. But all this bending over is really killing our backs!

Not walking certainly doesn’t keep you from getting around. You are always ON something. Whether you are driving…

Or riding…

Or rocking…

Or just sitting. You are always content and keeping yourself busy. Over the last month you have finally figured out how to get on and off of the plasma car, trike, and rocker so you are even more inclined to head over and test out your new-found abilities. I am just glad you found things to do that make you so happy!

Your personality has really been coming out lately. And I gotta say, it can be quite mischievous! We will tell you not to do something and you give us this giant smile, bat your eyelashes, and just keep on doing whatever you want. I’m sure some of it is you testing your boundaries, and some of it is you enjoying that you are able to get a reaction out of us (excellent displays of ’cause and effect!’) but I am fairly certain you have a little evil streak that is really going to shine one day!

You still aren’t saying many actual words, but from time to time I feel like I am having full on conversations with you. For example, I swear you and I had this conversation last night:

Me: Hadley where are you going?

Hadley: Down.

Me: But I don’t want you to get down.

Hadley: I do.

Me: YOU do?

Hadley: Yes.

And then you slid off my bed and crawled away! Now I’m pretty sure we didn’t really have that conversation. But just the tone of your “words” and the back and forth of our banter, it feels like you have plenty to say, and it’s just a matter of time before you are chattering away non stop.

You love Ana more than anything. You follow your sister everywhere. To you, there is Ana and then there is the rest of the world. I love the relationship the two of you have. You can get each other giggling in a way that no one else can. I love listening to the two of you play together. Sure, I hear the occasional, “MOM! Hadley is messing up my room again!” But it is almost always followed by, “It’s ok, Hadley. You can play with this.” Or at the very least, “Come on. Let’s go play in YOUR room.” I am so happy that you two enjoy each other as much as you do and I pray it is a relationship that will only strengthen as you get older.

You are such an amazingly happy little girl. You are all smiles (and teeth!) and giggles. You have made such a wonderful addition to our family. It is so hard to imagine a time when you weren’t with us. It seems like it has always been “the four of us.” We have so much fun exploring, going on adventures, and conquering the world around us. It seems like there isn’t anything we can’t do when we are together. We are a family… and you made it complete.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Happy birthday! You are officially ONE YEAR OLD. It is so crazy to think that at this time one year ago my water had broken and I was just hanging around at the hospital waiting for contractions to start so I could just meet you already! It was a long day, but, kiddo, you were worth the wait.

Over the weekend we celebrated your first birthday. Knowing your love for all things with antennae, we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme. I ordered a special birthday hat and a matching shirt from Etsy and we were ready to go.

A couple of my friends own a bakery and they made you a very special cake. Which you thoroughly enjoyed. It was wonderful to be surrounded by our family and friends knowing that we were celebrating you and everything that you are.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons, not only because both my daughters were born in the fall, but because the weather finally cools off, the colors start to pop, and of course, there are all the amazing activities that fall brings. One of those activities is pumpkin patches. I just love everything about them and I was so happy to share them with you for the first time. And you loved every second of it. You were particularly fond of the pumpkins themselves and loved to beat on them like a drum. Since you weren’t yet standing on your own, I propped you up in a big stack of pumpkins and you were just as happy as can be.

Another fabulous thing that happens in the fall is Halloween. There is just something whimsical about the holiday. We attended many Halloween parties, costumed playgroups, and of course, the grand finale of going trick-or-treating. You were a fabulous sport and really enjoyed the costumes. For all our indoor celebrations, we dressed you as a beautiful peacock but in Oregon it is far too cold to wander around our neighborhood in anything other than head to toe fleece, so you sported a warm, fuzzy cow costume.

Your confidence has finally started to show as you try (and succeed!) at more and more things. You are now pretty good at standing (especially when you are distracted and don’t realize you are doing it) and you are SO close to taking those first steps. I can see the gears turning in your head as you really contemplate it, but you are nothing if not cautious so you have decided to hold off a little longer.

But you did finally decide it was time to conquer the stairs. You have been going up them since the day after you figured out how to crawl, but coming down was another matter. For the longest time you would crawl to the edge of the stairs and wait at the top until someone would come and turn you around to help you slide down on your tummy. If we weren’t prompt enough for your liking you would simply smack the ground at the top of the stairs until someone came to your beck and call. It was pretty awesome having a baby who knew to stop at the top of the stairs, so I admit I got a little lax at putting up the safety gate, knowing you would just stop and wait for me at the top. But one day you decided to go for it and as I was heading up the stairs you were coming down. ON YOUR OWN. You had turned yourself around and slid down the stairs like a pro. And it was awesome. Sure, you still prefer for someone to turn you around, but we know you can do it and that is all that matters.

While you are usually all smiles and giggles and delightful, you are still a one year old. You can be quite a beast when you want to be and you have an impressive stubborn streak. Lately you have decided you no longer like to be buckled into your car seat (you don’t mind being buckled in, you just don’t like the process of me harnessing you in). So to prevent me from strapping you in, you fold your entire body in half, prostrating yourself in silent protest. I’m bigger and stronger than you, so I always win, but I could really do without this battle every time we get into the car.

You are also one tough cookie. In fact, your Daddy has nicknamed you “Bumper” in honor of all the tumbles, bumps, and thumps you take on a regular basis. For the most part, you just get back up and shake it off so quickly we don’t realize how hard you hit until the bumps and bruises show up later.

One of your all time favorite things in the world is reading. You simply LOVE books. You giggle with delight as we pull you onto our lap with a book in our hands. And if we happen to be sitting somewhere without a book (gasp!), you have figured out how to slide a book across the floor under one hand as you crawl towards us so we can read it to you.

Hand in hand with reading comes talking. You are starting to chatter and exclaim a steady stream of syllables and some of those are even actual words! You can say “Dada,” “Mama” (and much to my own personal horror, “Mom”), “baby,” and “yep.” You also say “bop” and “gap,” but I am pretty sure those don’t actually mean “bop” or “gap.” It’s fun listening to you practice varying your volume and tone as you speak. You are particularly fond of this deep voice you have and it can be a little disturbing when you utter “Mom” in such a baritone. I mean, you are not yet a teenager. You are still just MY baby and I would like you not to forget it.

I know I have said this a hundred times, but you are just such a happy little girl. I love watching you discover, explore, and just marvel at the world around you. I think in my thirty-some-odd years I have started to take things for granted and I am so happy to have you constantly reminding me how fascinating things can be. We live in a beautiful place, surrounded by amazing things, and we need to celebrate how lucky we are. I am so happy to have spent this last year getting to know you, to celebrate the beautiful person you are, both inside and out. You are truly a blessing and have made our family complete in more ways than I could have ever imagined. I am so happy to have you, to know you, and to spend the rest of my life treasuring you.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Today you are eleven months old. It is such a weird feeling to know you have been with us for almost an entire year, yet it feels like you were just born yesterday. All I know is that you have been the most amazing addition to our family. There is not a single day that goes by that you do not bring a smile to the face of every single person in our household. Not to mention all those poor, defenseless people we run into when we are out and about.

Just like tonight when we were out shopping at REI. I was holding you and talking with your dad about winter coats for you and Ana. While we were discussing water-proof vs water-resistant, you were looking over my shoulder waving at a family across the aisle. The family had a couple little girls who were giggling and waving back at you. It took me a moment to realize that their giggling was because of you. But you were just doing what you do best: bringing happiness to all those around you.

To celebrate you turning 11 months, we followed a tradition we began with your sister: we took you to get your ears pierced. It worked out great when we took Ana at this age. She was aware enough that she didn’t pull on them and as a bonus she stopped pulling on MY earrings. (It would be great if you could do this too.) You did great with the actual piercing. After the lady pierced the first ear you started to fuss, and you got a little louder after the second ear, but as soon as she was finished I popped a grape sucker in your mouth and you instantly quieted. In fact, within a matter of minutes you were giggling and kicking your feet in pure glee. So I am pretty sure we didn’t traumatize you too much.

It takes quite a bit to phase you, but it has been known to happen. September was pretty warm around here and we set up our kiddie pool a few times. One particularly hot day I thought it would be fun to see what you thought of the pool. You love water, splashing around and having a great time, but you are pretty particular about the temperature of the water. Since we had just filled the pool, it was pretty cool (I usually add a few pots of hot water to take the chill off the icy hose water) and when your Daddy plunked you in the pool you were NOT happy about it. So we quickly removed you from the pool and and let you play else where. But you kept crawling back to the pool. You preferred to lean on the edge of the pool and lazily splash in the water with your hands. And I totally get it. You want to have fun, but it’s got to be on YOUR terms.

Speaking of your terms, eating is the same way. If you are going to eat, it is going to be food you can feed yourself. You will tolerate us to feed you the occasional bites of soup or ice cream (things you wouldn’t be able to eat on your own) but only because they are pure bites of delectable deliciousness. Foods that are healthy and nutritious, such as fruits and veggies? Those can only be eaten at your own hand. And now that you have THREE (two on the bottom and one on the top) teeth, there isn’t much you can’t chew through anymore.

You are a pretty tough little cookie. And man do you like to climb! If there is something in the way, you don’t even bother trying to go around it, you go OVER it. You are a little bit fearless and I am really going to have to keep an eye on you. But luckily you are a pretty quick learner. You are already starting to figure out that you need to go backwards down the stairs and get so excited about the prospect of sliding down on your tummy that you start to giggle as you (with a little help) turn yourself around and slide down the stairs.

You really like to “GO” and you are starting to utilize the other toys in the house that will help you get around faster. Since you aren’t walking yet, and crawling can be so mundane, you are trying to figure out our little Radio Flyer. You can go forward occasionally, but as your legs are still pretty short, you mostly go in reverse. But you don’t seem to mind, because you are GOING!

One of your most favorite things to do is ride on the plasma car with Ana. She lets you sit on her lap and she drives as fast as she can around and around our living room. When you see her climb on to the plasma car, you crawl as fast as your little body will go towards her, a deep belly laugh shaking your body the entire time.

But recently you discovered that you could use the plasma car without your sister…as a walker! I think originally you were trying to climb on to it, but as it glides pretty easily, it just stared to roll away, forcing you to “walk” quickly behind it. But now that you know how to use it in this unique way, you have taken to following it around the house. The only problem with using the plasma car as a walker is that it goes really fast and instead of teaching you to walk, I am afraid it is going to teach you how to RUN!!

Another thing you like to use in a less-than-traditional manner is the log holder for our wood stove. You LOVE to climb, stand, or simply sit on it. So much in fact, that I finally gave up keeping the wood there and cleaned it all up so you have a nice sturdy, albeit hard, place to hang out. And if there is ever a time when I can’t find you, all I need to do is look next to the wood stove and there you are….in the best seat in the house.

Hadley, you bring so much joy to my life. I love that you find unique ways to do things, setting yourself apart from those around you. I love the way your eyes light up when I walk into the room. I love how much you like to cuddle. I love the way you wiggle and twist your hands and feet when you are excited. I love that you have entire conversation, complete with changes in fluctuation and tone, using only the word, “bop!” I love when I catch your eye from across the room and you look at me and wave. I love how much you enjoy reading books. But mostly I love watching you grow, getting to know you, and each day discovering another thing to love about you.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Today you are ten months old. So does that mean you are a “tween” of babyhood? If so, you definitely have the attitude to go along with it. You are generally a very happy and content little girl, but if we take something away from you or stop you from doing something you want to do, you go from peaceful and calm to full on MELTDOWN. Your Daddy says you get this from me, but I have no idea what he is talking about.

The biggest development this month has been your mobility. You started crawling on the day I wrote your nine month letter, but your skill level has improved so much in the last 30 days. For one thing, you are now fast. What was once a slow and very deliberate movement is now turbo speed. By the time I turn my head to see what is making you squeal with delight, you are already on the other side of the room and getting into something different. Last weekend you accidentally (I shudder to think you did it on purpose) figured out how to open the sliding screen door and before we knew it you were heading out on the back deck. Kid, are you TRYING to give me an anxiety attack?!

Not one week after you started crawling you were already mastering the stairs. So now my life is a constant state of opening and closing baby gates. As soon as I open one (like to let your sister upstairs to go to the bathroom) you are heading for the stairs and making a break for it! I am very diligent about closing the gate at the top of the stairs, but I am encouraging you to climb up the stairs. You just require a spotter. You like to stop, stand up, and look back to see who is following you (or see if anyone noticed you were fleeing!) and you aren’t always the most sturdy when you do so. And until you learn to go down the stairs safely (preferably sliding, feet first, on your tummy) I’ll be hovering right behind you every move you make.

Your constant movement doesn’t even cease when you go to bed. We find you in the strangest positions because you wiggle, roll, and crawl all over in your crib. But I have to admit the strangest was when I walked in to find you sitting up, one foot dangling out of the crib, totally passed out. You had apparently sat up in bed and couldn’t figure out how to lay back down so you just went to sleep right there.

My once wonderful eater, who would open her mouth like a little bird to every spoonful of food is no longer. You now refuse to eat anything pureed. In fact, if we come at you with a spoon you turn your head to the side and clamp your mouth shut. Instead, you insist upon feeding yourself. I have been chopping up every thing we eat into tiny, gummable bites just for you and you could not be happier about it. Sure, it makes a huge mess and you pretty much need a bath (or at the very least a washcloth or several baby wipes) after each meal, but I am kind of happy to be done with baby food. I love sharing with you foods I love and watching your trepidation and then excitement as you try something new.

To my surprise, one of your favorite foods is chicken. Well, any meat, really. I will cover your high chair tray with everything from sliced olives, to blueberries, to spiral veggie pasta, and you will deliberately seek out the little chunks of chicken hidden within the array of finger foods. It’s almost comical to see you scanning the tray to see if you missed any of those tasty morsels before settling for a less tantalizing fruit or veggie to gum.

Speaking of gums, just yesterday I saw something in your mouth and upon closer inspection, I noticed the very first signs of a TOOTH. That’s right, my little girl isn’t going to be toothless forever! I was pretty surprised too because you haven’t been unnecessarily grumpy, excessively drooly, or any of the other tell tale signs of teething. And that is just fine with me! I’d be happy if those sharp, little teeth came in with as little disruption as possible. (I haven’t been able to get a picture of the new tooth yet. Partially because it has barely broken the surface and partially because lately it takes the jaws of life to get you to open your mouth on command. So instead here is an adorable picture of you laughing hysterically at a wiggling, giggling stuffed cow.)

Your hair is another thing that has shown up all of a sudden. What was once fine little wisps of strawberry blond fuzz, is now looking like actual locks of golden hair. It’s still to early to tell, but it looks like it might even be curly! When you get out of the bath, or wake up sweaty after a nap, your hair frames your face in a chaos of curly cowlicks.

I know it’s not new information, but it demands to be said: Ana is your favorite person in the entire world. You spend the majority of your day just trying to find her. This has been made especially tricky since school started again. Every day after we drop her off you stare longingly at her empty car seat. Then once she returns you are so giddy you look at her and just smile and laugh. I promise I will do my best to entertain you in her absence, but those size 12 Twinkle Toes are surprisingly large shoes to fill!

As you get older and are more interested in things around you (besides your sister) we are able to take you to more exciting places. We recently took at trip to Newport to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium and you had a great time. You simply loved the shark tunnel. You were mesmerized by the sharks swimming, literally, all around us.

Oh Hadley, you are so amazing. I am having so much fun watching you discover the world around you. Whether that is tasting your Daddy’s latest BBQ chicken recipe, watching tiger sharks swim over your head, or simply seeing your sister first thing each morning. You are such a delight to be around that I find myself always wanting to be near you. Sometimes at night I walk past your bedroom and an invisible force pulls me in and I cannot bring myself to do anything but stand over you and watch you sleep. You are simultaneously breathtakingly beautiful and adorable, sweet and mischievous, cuddly and independent. You are a force to be reckoned with and I could not be more proud to call myself your Mama.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Today you are nine months old. And what a busy month this has been! You are learning so much so fast, I’m having a hard time keeping track of all your accomplishments. But the big news of the month happened only this afternoon: you are officially crawling.

Crawling was such an exciting milestone, simply because you have been working on it for SO LONG. You’ve had the physical ability for awhile now, but you just didn’t know you could do it. Then you were actually doing it, but I don’t think you even realized it. You would crawl forward a few inches, but would get frustrated (or distracted) and stop to sit down, putting you further back than where you started. So today I saw you going for it and I managed to get out my phone and recorded you crawling across the hall to your sister… and the unicorn pillow pet she was using as bait.

Another thing you mastered this month was learning to use a straw. You are obsessed with water bottles and so it was only a matter of time before you finally figured out how to use one. You started by chewing on my Camelbak and once I realized you were figuring out the bite valve, I bought you your own learn-to-drink-from-a-straw sippy cup. It has a cool feature where a parent can gently squeeze the cup and brings the liquid to the top of the straw so you can taste what is inside. And that was all it took. You sucked on the straw, your eyes got really wide with glee, and that was it. You were hooked.

Another thing that makes you exceptionally happy is reading books with Daddy. Every night after bath time, you two curl up on our bed and read a few books. You get so excited, listening to your Dad reading, and touching all the textures on the pages, you can hardly contain your enthusiasm as he turns each page.

One of the things that has NOT been fun this month is teething. I still cannot see, or even feel, a single tooth, but the symptoms are certainly there. You are biting every thing you can fit in your mouth, drooling all over, and you have even spiked a few unexplained high fevers. I feel so bad when you look up at me with those sad, pleading eyes. Don’t worry, sweet girl, it will all be over soon enough.

Involving your mouth, but with much more entertainment and less pain, is you learned to stick out your tongue. It all started when we were at the Wings and Waves water park. I think you discovered the taste of chlorine on your lips and you kept darting your tongue in and out. But once we were back home (and chlorine free) you did it again while you were eating and discovered you could lick your lips. It was the cutest thing, but as it is hard to feed you with your tongue sticking out, it’s probably not the best skill to practice during meal time.

Speaking of meal time, you use to be our very predictable eater, everything we gave you you simply accepted and gobbled up. But things have changed recently. I’m sure some of it has to do with teething and some of it was the hot weather we have had, but most of it has to do with finger foods. Once you discovered you could actually feed yourself, you are less and less inclined to eat the purees we feed you on a spoon. I’m having to start getting creative with your meals to keep you happy…and fed! But as you are still a champion nurser, there isn’t any risk of you going hungry any time soon!

Aside from the teething frustration and the eating complications, you are such a happy little girl. I just love this age because every little thing is new and exciting. All we have to do is show you something you haven’t seen before and any fussing or crying screeches to a halt as you happily examine the new object. You are so content to explore the world around you and discover every little thing that it brings a smile to my face just thinking about it.

One of your favorite discoveries happened just the other day. You had woken up from your nap, and I could hear you happily chatting away in your crib, so I didn’t come pick you up right away. Then I heard a loud bang and, thinking you had somehow fallen out of your crib, I ran up the stairs to your room only to find you smiling up at me. You were having so much fun you kicked your legs and discovered you could donkey kick the wall of the crib. You kept doing it over and over and you thought it was just the funniest thing ever. In the future, I’d appreciate it if the things you get so much joy out of were things less likely to give your mama a heart attack. Thanks.

As you get bigger and stronger, your Daddy (who is in charge of the nightly bath time) has been letting you and Ana take baths together more and more. This delights you both to no end. There is very little that your sister does that does not just make you shriek with delight. And it goes both way too. It gets to the point where you are both in the tub just giggling and laughing so much I often have to come up and see just what is so funny! I am so happy that you and your sister can share these special times together…and that you occasionally let your father and I just sit back and observe.

Since you have obviously been getting quite the control over your physical abilities, we decided that you were finally ready for your very first Gymboree class. Ana, as a Gymboree “graduate,” was so excited to share it all with you and she didn’t want to miss watching you experience it all for the first time. So Daddy, Ana and I all went with you and it was every bit as amazing as we remembered. I loved watching your eyes light up with each new discovery and seeing you giggle as we sang and danced to the silly songs. I am so happy that we are able to do these fabulous things with you and help you enrich your life in ways that you can’t even begin to imagine yet.

Oh, Hadley, we have been having so much fun together, it’s hard to tie it up with a nice pretty bow. It would take a myriad of ribbons of different textures and colors to even begin to describe all the things that make you so special. All I know is that you are one amazing child and I just love that I am able to stay home with you so I don’t have to miss one single moment of watching you become the person you are going to be. Because I know that you are going to be spectacular.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Yesterday you turned eight months old. As I write this letter, you are currently upstairs taking a nap. Moments ago you looked up at me, gave me a smile that melted my heart, and then closed your eyes and drifted off to sleep. And that pretty much sums you up right now. You are a very easy baby and an incredibly happy child.

You love nothing more than being surrounded by your family. Literally. You love being in the center of everything that is going on. Whenever we are sitting on the couch just hanging out you twist, scoot, and wriggle yourself into the middle so you can be touching as many of us as possible. And from what I’ve witnessed, there isn’t a single person in this family complaining about that! You have such a happy personality that everyone is just drawn to you.

Mobility, or your lack there of, is your biggest irritation at this time. You are trying SO hard to crawl. It’s actually pretty entertaining to watch. First you get into “plank” position…

Then you get up on your knees and rock for a bit…

Then after you have scooted around backwards for a bit, you finally give up in frustration. But don’t worry. You will figure it out eventually and when that time comes, there won’t be anything holding you back!

During the last month we took a little mini vacation up to Seattle and to Great Wolf Lodge. This was your very first time to leave the state! Wahoo for Washington! We had a great time visiting our friends and then playing at the water park. While you typically love water (bath water, drinking water, you aren’t picky) you were more impressed with the wristbands than playing in the water. Having a chew toy literally attached to your body was the best entertainment ever. I’d consider picking up some for every day, if it weren’t for all the drool that came with it.

Over the 4th of July weekend, we visited our family in Seaside and you finally got to meet your Uncle Greg and his family. It took them so long to meet you because they live in Arizona, so we were ecstatic that they came up here to visit. You were very happy to see him because you have a great fondness for big guys with a beard and glasses.

Since you are pretty dedicated to your 8pm bedtime, we opted out of going and watching fireworks this year. But we did do a few of our own at home. You weren’t exactly sure what was going on. There was a lot of noise and smoke and occasionally some pretty lights. All you knew was that your sister was happy, so that made you happy.

The other big news this month is that we recently introduced you to finger foods. This pleased you immensely. We figured since eating came so naturally to you, you would probably do pretty well with some food you could feed yourself. And we could not have been more right. You have been desperately trying to grab food off our plates, with little success, so you were quite shocked when we handed you a teething biscuit. As with everything else you come into contact with these days, it went straight to your mouth. Then your eyes lit up with delight when you realized it was something you could EAT! You sucked, chewed, and gummed it all up, only gagging a couple times, until there was nothing left. Pretty impressive for a first try!

As I’m sure is the case with most younger siblings, you want to be wherever your big sister is, doing whatever she is doing. I can already tell that you two are going to be thick as thieves when you grow up. Ana tells me on a regular basis how much she loves being your big sister and I can tell by the way you light up when she walks in the room that you love being her little sister.

Hadley, I just love you so much. I feel like saying those words is going to start to lose it’s meaning because I can’t help but tell you all the time. There are just so many things I love about you. I love the way you lay your head on my chest when you get tired. I love the way you stretch and stick your little belly out every time I set you on the changing table. I love the way your hair tickles my chin when you sit on my lap. I love the way you lunge forward, like a striking cobra, when you try to grab something. I love the way you wiggle from side to side in your car seat when you get excited. I love the way you laugh and the magical effect it has on our entire family. I love the way you rest your hand on my face when you look into my eyes. And these are just a few of the things I love about you. I could go on and on listing all the little things you do that make you amazing and special and absolutely perfect in every way, but that’s what the rest of our lives are for. I will spend every moment loving you and all that you are with all of my heart.

All my love,
Mama