Dear Hadley,
Earlier this week you turned twenty-one months old, or one and three quarters, if you want to simplify the math. Which ever way you look at it, you are far too young to have the amount of attitude you possess. You have the emotional range of a teenager (thanks for that little sneak peak, by the way). You can go from crying to smiling to sullen pouting in the blink of an eye. We treat your attitude just like the weather in Oregon, if you don’t like it just wait a minute.

But baby, when you laugh you can light up a room. And once we get you started it can be hard to get you to stop. And it is so infectious. When I hear that deep belly laugh, even if I am having the worst day, I cannot help but smile. I simply cannot stay in a bad mood when your smiling face is shining at me.

The big milestone of the last month was your first air plane ride! Two weeks ago we went to Salt Lake City, Utah and you had an amazing time on the plane. At your age, everything we do is an adventure and you were more than up for the challenge. You enjoyed all the new things to see and do. Since you are under two, we didn’t have to buy you your own seat and that was probably the only thing that irritated you. When one of us would get up for one reason or another you would happily take over our seat. But upon our return you were less than happy about being relegated back to sitting on someone’s lap and clung to the seat stating, “mine!” You are, after all, a BIG GIRL and you thought you were entitled to your own seat. Soon enough, my dear. And when the time comes that I have to buy four tickets I will mourn the fact that our tiny family will no longer be able to all sit in the same row on most airplanes.

Part of getting bigger is taking on more responsibility in your daily tasks. You have really stepped up when it comes to getting dressed. You are very happy to run into your room, grab a few random things from your drawer and attempt to put them on yourself. More often than not, you are trying to put them on OVER your pajamas and you are usually trying to put your shirt on over your feet, but by God, you are doing in ON YOUR OWN. The other day we were getting ready to go play in the kiddie pool so we let you pick between two swimsuits (both happened to be Little Mermaid). Your dad put on the suit you selected and continued to get things ready to go outside. Little did we know, you were far from done! You went back to your dresser and grabbed a pair of shorts which you actually managed to put on properly, then you found the other Little Mermaid suit and proceeded to try to put it on as well. I was quite impressed because anyone who has ever had to put on a one-piece swim suit knows those things are tricky to get on, especially OVER other articles of clothing.

When you aren’t getting dressed, you are generally keeping yourself busy around the house with lots of other menial tasks you see your dad and I doing, whether that’s cooking in the play kitchen, pushing around the pretend vacuum, or working on the Barbie laptop. I love when I see you copying something you have obviously seen us do over and over but I love watching your interpretation. The things that you find important and complete with painstaking attention to detail is really enlightening and a constant reminder that you see everything and you certainly don’t miss a beat. In this picture I think it’s fairly obvious you were thinking, “What do you need? Can’t you see I’m working?”

While you certainly learn from watching your parents, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the amount of things you learn from watching your big sister. You constantly follow Ana around the house copying every thing she does. I’m sure to her it can seem a little annoying, but one day she will realize what it truly is: the most sincere form of flattery. You idolize her in a way that only a loving little sister can. You don’t always understand why she does the things she is doing, but you follow along because that is what you are suppose to do.

The other day we were shopping at Costco and they happened to have the Halloween costumes out. Your sister will tell you that I am a sucker for Halloween so we stopped to play a little dress up right there in the store. Upon seeing Ana try on the wig, you wanted to be involved in the fun as well. You kept pointing and squealing, “Hat!” so I decided to see what would happen and placed the fake hair onto your head. I fully expected you to yank it off just as quickly but you never fail to surprise me! You loved it! In fact, you kept the wig on for the majority of our shopping trip, totally enjoying all the smiles and stares you got from people in the store. You and Ana were having so much fun with the Merida (from Brave) and Rapunzel (from Tangled) wigs that we just had to buy them.

While you can be sweet and kind, you also have quite the cunning, mischievous streak. We were at a restaurant for breakfast and had ordered one cup of milk for you and Ana to share. You figured out pretty quickly that as soon as you finished your sip we would pass the drink to your sister. So after a few rounds of back and forth you decided you would just stop taking the straw out of your mouth, which would then end your turn, and continued to eat your meal out of the opposite side of your mouth. Well played, Hadley, well played.

We took you bowling for the first time this month. While you had no interest in rolling a ball down the aisle (let me say you really weren’t missing much) you loved the ball return. You enjoyed watching the balls roll up the chute and you were quite entertained by the fan. You stood down there just letting the air blow in your hair and watched the different colored balls come and go as the game progressed.

Can I just take a moment and say something silly and trivial? You have the most amazing hair. Not only is the color unbelievable, golden blond with subtle red undertones, but it can be both perfectly straight and totally taken-over by ringlets. Much like you, I have no idea what it is going to be like from one day to the next. You will do down for a nap with relatively tame smooth hair then wake up with a cloud of curls. As soon as you sweat (like during warm nap times) or get your hair wet, the curls magically appear. Your father was just commenting yesterday about how he feels like we were always having to do Ana’s hair at this age and for the most part, we have yet to have to really do much with yours. I told him that you just have amazing hair and we are just going to enjoy it being like this for as long as we can!

Well my sweet girl, it has been another amazing month. I honestly cannot believe how quickly you are growing up. It feels like a month goes by in the blink of an eye. Sure now the milestones are airplane rides and first time at the bowling alley, but before I know it they will be first day of school, getting ready for prom, and walking you down the aisle on your wedding day. I keep catching little glimpses of your future and I have to remind myself to just slow down. It will all happen soon enough. So for now I will make the time to sit down on the floor with you to dress up the princess Polly Pockets, have tea parties with teddy bears, and play with you on the plasma car. Because these are the moments of today and today is all I have ever wanted and all I could ever ask for rolled into one.

All my love,
Mama