Sunday, April 27, 2014

hadley fern {eighteen months}

Hadley Fern, you are 18 months old!


At a year and a half you are surprising us every day.  I keep wanting you to be a baby, but am seeing ways all the time that you're growing into toddlerhood.  Haddie, you love to help me in the kitchen by unloading the tupperware drawer and getting out "your" spatulas and serving spoons from the jar I keep low for you.  You also desperately want to use crayons and Play-Doh, but still haven't figured out that they aren't for eating, so for now they're still off limits.



You have started talking more and say a few words that everyone can recognize.  You love to say "Hi!" and "Bye!" to people we see in the store.  If they don't respond you keep saying it louder and louder until they do.  You also say "dada," "baba" (for Asher), "peeeas" (please), "ank oo" (thank you), "mama" (milk, not me - boo), "bath" and a couple others.


So far you still aren't a picky eater (knock on wood!).  You do have some things you don't prefer but that's not too common.  Your favorite foods are cheese, chicken, hummus, any fruit, green beans, carrots, and anything we call a snack.  Sister loves to snack.  In fact, "nack nack" might be your favorite word.  I'm looking for new, healthy snack ideas because you love to graze and I don't want us to get too reliant on animal crackers.


You adore your big brother!  Asher is your favorite person, hands down.  You wake up asking for him and always want to do what he's doing.  He loves you too.  :-)


A couple weeks ago you really figured out walking and haven't looked back.  Hadley, you've gone from walking to running and now I can't keep up at all!  After months and months of crawling I'm still surprised to see you come walking around a corner.


You're a super smart cookie, if I do say so myself.  It's clear that you understand a LOT more than you can say.  Haddie, you love to throw things away and will head straight to the garbage can when we tell you that the fuzzy you found on the floor is trash.


With this understanding comes some responsibility to obey, though, and that's led us to some problems. ha!  You aren't a fan of stopping or coming when I call so we've had a couple talks already about obeying mommy, even when you don't feel like it.  I have a feeling you'll be a bit stubborn and make me work for it.  yikes.


Hadley, you're a pretty good sleeper, but being sick this month hasn't helped us on that front.  You are still taking a morning nap - I tried to cut it out a couple times but when I do you are super cranky and still take a short afternoon nap, so I guess we'll keep it for a bit longer.  Your morning nap is only about 30 minutes, then you take an afternoon nap for about 2 hours.  You go to bed at 7pm and wake up between 6-7am.



Sweet Hadley, your personality is coming out more and more.  As a newborn we nicknamed you Happy Hadley and it's only becoming more true.  You are generally smiling and laid back - you're a joy to be around!  Of course, you also have a feisty and sassy side.  I'm hearing more screams of disapproval from you - like when I say no more snacks - and we are working on being patient.  Asher is quick to remind you that we don't have fits.  ha!


We go to the doctor on Monday, so stats will update then!

Weight:
Height:
Clothing:  12-18mo or 18mo
Diaper:  size 4
Shoes:  size 3 or 4
Walking:  fast
Eating:  faster
Babbling:  frequent
Smiles:  constant


Hadley Fern, you have been such the perfect addition to our family.  Having two kiddos to care for and raise well has thrown me some curve balls as a mommy, but I couldn't ask for a more go-with-the-flow second baby.  Your smiles make everyone around you light up.  God's love is reflected in your sweet nature, lovely girl.  Oh Haddie, we are so blessed to have you here!

Happy year and a half!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

easter treats!

After church on Sunday we gave the kids their Easter baskets!



I had so much fun filling these with goodies.  This was Hadley's first Easter basket (last year didn't happen, oops) so she got something extra special - a new dolly!


She loves her.  :-)


Asher got some new Crocs for the summer and some little toys.  Of most interest to him though were the eggs that I filled with jellybeans.  This kid loves him some jellybeans.  ha!


I filled Hadley's eggs with teddy grahams and she didn't mind the switch a bit.



A and H also got some bubbles (and a literal ton of candy - hellllllo grandparents, ha!) from their Grammy and PopPop and, if you can't tell, they were pretty excited.


Hadley was completely obsessed with her basket's " 'nack 'nack " This lady will snack all day long if we'd let her.



I really love that even at his age Asher wasn't expecting a basket of goodies on Easter morning.  We try hard to emphasize the true meaning of Easter with the kiddos, but love having these fun treats as well.  Easter is a celebration - we need fun foods, toys, books, and clothes to go with it!


At the last minute we dyed some Easter eggs!  Asher did the dipping and he was so great - didn't make a mess and enjoyed it.


I love Easter so very much.  The flowers, the candy, the celebration of salvation - what's not to love?  Happy Easter, friends!


Monday, April 21, 2014

happy easter {2014}

Well, friends, it happened again.  We are sick.  Predictably, whatever cold I had and passed to Asher for Palm Sunday he passed to Hadley for Easter.  Bleh.  The poor dear was sick with a high fever all last week and had a yucky cough by Sunday so we knew we couldn't bring her to church.  But, also just like on Palm Sunday I got everyone dressed and took some pictures.  :-)


I ordered this dress for Hadley in January and (darn it!) she was going to wear it and look darling.  ha!



And she did.  Of course.  



She was actually feeling quite a bit better so H didn't mind sitting with her brother for a few pics for me.



Especially once he started giving out the kisses.



Oh my - the kisses!  This girl loves getting her some sugar.




My Mom was away waiting with my sister to have her much anticipated baby (c'mon Aunt Erin, let's get him out soon please.  We are dying to see his sweet face!) but Dad came over and went to church with Asher and I.  These kids love their Pop Pop!


After church we made our traditional Easter ham lunch.  The kids drove us crazy because, apparently, by 11:00 they are hungry to the point of starvation.  Seriously, I had to laugh when I looked over from cooking and saw Asher sitting in his seat scarfing down the applesauce I'd set out.  This boy knows that he doesn't eat until we're all ready but he was JUST. TOO. HUNGRY Mommy!  Oh well - haha.  We may have given them a few snacks to stem the tide.


I've been doing the Resurrection eggs with the kids for the past 12 days and talked to Asher often about the meaning of Easter.  It's a lot for a little kid to take in so I kept it simple.  Even then there was a bit of confusion since we went to the store last week to buy a cake for Sunday and in Asher's mind cake = birthday.  On Easter morning we had a convo that went something like this…

me:  Happy Easter, Asher!

Ash:  Happy Easter, Mommy!  It's your birthday!

me:  No, buddy, remember, Easter is when we remember that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but then he rose from the dead after 3 days.  He's not dead, he's alive!

Ash:  oh yes!  And I'm alive as well!  Yay!

The children know what's up.  Jesus is alive and, as Asher said, because of Jesus we're all alive as well.  Halleluia!

Happy Easter everyone!


{It would be complete picture overload for me to include our Easter baskets in this post so I'll save that for tomorrow.  Let's just say it went well.  ha!}

Sunday, April 13, 2014

palm sunday

This Palm Sunday wasn't exactly how I hoped it would be.  On our last day in Florida I got pretty sick again - with a head cold this time - and I'm still not feeling back to normal.  Asher came down with it yesterday, so we kept him home from church this morning.  Drew was scheduled to set up chairs at church and I was working in the preschool room so we both went to church - only at different times.  ha!  Even though the kids didn't go to church I decided to dress them up in their cute outfits and take some pictures anyway.

Hadley was up before Asher so she got to go first by herself.




Bless her sweet heart she just wanted to run away from me and my pesky camera.



She really is too cute though.  Love her!




Once Asher got up and around he was a trooper and agreed to sit for silly mom.


We got a couple fake smile pics.


And some outtakes, of course.


This one cracks me up - looks like he's blessing her or something.  ha!


Ah well, can't win them all.  :-)


We hope you all had a joyful day celebrating Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  I can't believe next Sunday is Easter already!  Love it!
Related Posts with Thumbnails