Dear Hadley,
Today you are twenty-three months old. This last month you have really started talking and at times it seems like you’ll never stop (for anyone who has met your older sister, they know that it is definitely a possibility). It is so much fun listening to you formulate your thoughts and try to communicate with everyone around you. You always want to be included in the conversation, copying the things we are saying or repeating the last words you understood. Even if you have no idea what we are talking about, you always side with Ana, stating, “Yeah, Ana.”

You are constantly by your sister’s side. The other day Ana needed to do her homework and you climbed up in the chair next to her at the table and asked, “Homework too?” So I dug out a reusable sheet of traceable letters and a dry erase marker so you could do your “homework” right next to Ana.

Since school is in full swing, so are fall sports. Ana is playing soccer and you have been to almost all of her games. I know you’d much rather be in the game along with her, but until you are big enough to play you are stuck in the cheering section. You always sit next to me on the sidelines and clap and cheer for the girls along with all the other parents. You are definitely Ana’s biggest fan.

Every morning we take Ana to school we pass through several school zones and therefore we are surrounded by many, MANY school busses (here is what the McAllen auto injury lawyers suggest measures to implement that is for the safety of both the drivers and pedestrians). This has brought on quite the obsession for you. It became a fun game to point out the busses we see while we navigate our course to and from her school. So when I found out the library was putting on a Truck Day and there would be a school bus that you could actually play inside, I knew you would love it. Sure enough when we got there you headed straight for the bus, played there the longest, and it was the only “truck” we had to come back and play on AGAIN. You can check out Orange County suffered a TBI if you need the best truck accident services.

This month you finally got to start your ballet class. You refer to it as “Had’ey school” and look forward to it all week long. It is a fun class and I just love watching your excitement as you run around the studio, playing with ribbons, scarves, and hula hoops.

I’m not sure if your singing started because of your dance class or from watching your sister, but you love to sing. We have this little play microphone and it is quite the coveted toy around our house. Since you are still learning to speak, most of your songs aren’t particularly lyrical in nature. Mostly a combination of humming and mumbling, sprinkled with a lot of “yeah, yeah, YEAHHHHH.”

As you are getting bigger you are starting to notice all the things everyone around you does differently and you are NOT a fan. Case in point: the high chair. Everyone else sits in a chair at the table while you are in a high chair. So lately it has become quite the struggle to get you into (or keep you in) a high chair. It started in a restaurant where they either didn’t have a high chair or the table we were at couldn’t accomodate a high chair (I can’t remember which) so we went without. Then once you realized you could eat dinner without being in a high chair you didn’t want to be in one anymore. Ever. I try to accomodate you and your growing abilities, but I am quite fond of the removable tray on your high chair (and it’s ability to contain spills) so we may be keeping the tray, if not the high chair, for quite some time!

It’s getting close to Halloween so the other day we dug out Ana’s costume from when she was your age. Mostly I wanted to see if it would fit you, but you thought it was the best. Thing. Ever. You kept running around the house yelling, “ROAR!” Then you would run upstairs to Ana’s room to the only full-length mirror in the house so you could laugh at your reflection.

Over the last month we have really settled into our new back-to-school routine. When your sister is off at school we get to spend all our time together, just you and me. We play at the park, we meet up with friends, we have dates at Starbucks. Then in the afternoon you get to be around your sister, a best friend hand-picked for you by God. We all have such a great time being with you. Your laugh is delightfully infectious and coupled with your chubby cheeks (which, lets be honest, demand to be squeezed) it literally takes all the control I have not to just hug you all day long. But you don’t mind, do you?

All my love,
Mama