Dear Hadley,
You turn twenty months old today. We are officially out of the “teen” months and edging closer and closer to two. But I’m not too worried about the “terrible two’s” though, because while you can be quite stubborn and rather opinionated (I have no idea where you got these often-misunderstood-but-not-all-together-bad characteristics from), I know your true personality. You are a Little Miss Sunshine. You love to smile and laugh and giggle and when you do, all those other less favorable traits just disappear.

As you get older (and who wouldn’t consider twenty months to be old, anyway?) you get girly-er and girly-er all the time. Right now you are all about the accessories. Everything you find becomes jewelry or something to adorn your little body. You found an old cow-print hair scrunchy of mine buried deep in one of my bathroom drawers and you would have thought Christmas had come early! You wore that thing all day long and refused to let me take it off your wrist. You also discovered that all of Ana’s multi-colored hair bands make perfect bangle bracelets. Between you and the cats, I am constantly finding hair bands scattered all around the house.

While you can be very loud and flamboyant, commanding the attention of everyone in a room, you are also perfectly happy sitting by yourself playing quietly. On one of our recent bike rides the older kiddos were burning off energy, running around like hooligans, and I looked over to see you sitting quietly in the middle of a grassy field.

Summer is in full swing now and one of our favorite activities lately has been berry picking. The first time I took you out I wasn’t sure what to expect. I brought the stroller just in case I needed to contain you but it didn’t end up being necessary. I put a handful of berries to snack on in your bucket, but once you ate those you discovered you could just follow our friends around, politely asking “More? P’eees!” and they handed you more berries to enjoy.

Peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek are very amusing to you right now. Even if you could disappear simply by covering your hands over your eyes, you’d quickly reveal your location with your high-pitch screeches of delight.

Shoes. Does it really need to be said again? Yep. Some things never change.

A couple months back at your 18 month doctor appointment we were discussing your lack of teeth, well we really didn’t need to be concerned because over the course of the last month, during a couple sleepless weeks you got SIX teeth at once. Your lower lateral incisors as well as your upper and lower first molars poked through, literally doubling the number of teeth in your mouth.

Luckily we were able to distract you from the teething pain by keeping your social calendar filled with exciting activities. Like playing in the fountain at Progress Ridge. Since it hadn’t been too warm this year, you had yet to play in any type of water feature since you’ve been mobile. I wasn’t sure what your reaction would be, maybe cautious and curious, slowly building up enough courage to venture in. But I certainly wasn’t expecting you to point, shout, “Gawter!” (Hadley-ese for “water”) and run full boar into the spraying geyser. You LOVED it. Giggling and running back and forth from one stream to the next deliriously excited that water was just shooting out of the ground and you could be there to enjoy it.

We celebrated the Fourth of July this week and you loved it as well. I knew, being the social butterfly that you are, any holiday that centered around seeing our family and friends would be a hit with you, but you add parades with marching bands, beautifully decorated floats, and people throwing candy, then to top it all off with fireworks? How could anything be better! You were very brave with all the chaos and especially enjoyed the sparklers (probably because it was the only one we actually let you hold)!

Well my sweet girl, it has been another amazing month of milestones, memories, and magical moments. You are truly such an amazing child. It is such a pleasure to be able to spend so much time in your presence and watch as you grow and develop such a beautiful personality. You are so considerate and kind, silly and wild, sweet and cuddly.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
You turned nineteen months old yesterday. Wow, what a difference a month makes! I feel like the last few weeks we have really had a break through in communication. You are trying to copy the things we say and if you can’t actually articulate the words yet, you mimicking the cadence of our speech. And what you can’t communicate verbally, you show us. You are constantly grabbing my hand to drag me over to the item you want. Or you say, “Mama!” and then pat the couch next to you to show me that you want me to sit down. No, not in the chair over there. RIGHT HERE. And so I sit. Because I will happily reinforce any communications you are willing to attempt.

Along with your ever expanding vocabulary, you are also increasing your independence. Understandably, you want to try to do things on your own. You can’t say it in so many words yet, but you get very upset and firmly say, “No!” when we try to help you. So whenever time allows, I let you struggle and figure things out for yourself. Sometimes your shoes end up on the wrong feet, or your vest ends up around your legs (or on backwards), but you did it on your own and that is all that really matters.

You are still wildly obsessed with shoes. If anyone has taken off their shoes for any reason you promptly sit down and remove your own shoes (and the majority of the time your socks as well) and immediately put on the unattended shoes. You then proceed to shuffle around like a little old lady in house slippers, lifting your feet as little as possible, doing whatever you can to keep those shoes ON.

The other day Ana was playing with some of her old (and rather small) dress up shoes and it was like Christmas had come early! There were fancy shoes! And they were small! And you could keep them on easily! You did lap after lap around the living room, strutting your stuff in those little play shoes. Tyra would be so proud.

If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, Ana should be incredibly proud because you like to copy every little thing she does. You are like her mini blond haired, blue eyed shadow. If Ana picks up two sticks and starts banging them together, you quickly find two items to clank right along side her. If Ana is singing at the top of her lungs in the backseat of the car, you better believe you are chiming in as well. When Ana heads outside to ride her bike, you quickly come up to me, patting your head, saying, “he-mit?” I love to watch you two interact. From the moment when your eyes light up when you first hear her voice in the morning to the end of the day when you give her good-night kisses. I treasure the hundred heart-warming moments I have the pleasure of witnessing between you each day.

You are obsessed with animal. Real animals, animals in books, animal songs, pictures of animals, you name it. If it doesn’t have “moo” “quack” or “meow” sprinkled in there, we may as well just forget about it. We drive through farm land every weekend on the way to our favorite breakfast place, South Store Cafe. As soon as we round a certain corner, before you have even spotted a cow, you start mooo-ing in the backseat. I love that these things resonate with you, but I also love that we live in such an amazing place that so many varieties of animals are so accessible.

You are quite the little busy body. You are always quickly rushing off to do something, very rarely lingering in one place or sitting still. Whenever I am cooking dinner or putting away groceries you follow me around the kitchen closing each cabinet or drawer that I open. Sometimes, for example, when my hands are full, this can be very helpful. But the majority of the time you don’t even wait for me to be out of the fridge before you start trying to close the door on me. Apparently I don’t always move quick enough for your liking.

As the weather changes, we have been spending more and more time outdoors. You just love playing outside: riding bikes, swinging, coasting on the scooter, jumping on the trampoline, drawing with sidewalk chalk, or any number of the things we do during our precious sun breaks. I love watching you hold your own as you squeeze in between the “big kids” and just start playing. You aren’t afraid to try new things, and while my heart may not be ready to watch you hop on a skateboard and coast through the cul-de-sac, I have to admit that you stayed on longer than I could have!

Hadley, it has been such a wonderful month with you. I can’t even believe that we are on the downhill slide to you being two years old already. I just can’t say enough how quickly time passes and how I just want to find a way to bottle you up and keep you tiny forever. I love the way you waddle like a little duck, leaning back and leading with your round tummy. I love how you bring baby dolls, dangling limply from your tiny hand, with you where ever you go. I love that you alternate between calling me “Mama,” “Mommy,” and simply “Mom” when you are bored because you think it’s funny. I love the way you scrunch up your little nose and squint your eyes when you think I am taking your picture. I even love that despite that fact that you are going to stop doing every one of these things one day, that these are the things that make you who you are at this very moment and I wouldn’t change a thing.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Today you are eighteen months old. Or one and a half! It’s so hard to believe how big you are getting. There isn’t a day that goes by that you don’t do something new or figure something out. You are currently obsessed with animals and you love to mimic the noises they make. Since you aren’t always sure what kind of animal something is or what sound they make, you sometimes have to guess. For example, while we were in Sunriver recently we kept running into this small herd of about six deer. When you would see them or go looking for them, you’d point out the window and say, “Mooo!”

A couple weeks ago we took you to the Wooden Shoes Tulip Festival in Woodburn. It was adorable to watch you waddle around in your little rubber boots, so excited to see and touch everything. Being the shoe lover that you are, you were quite entertained by the giant wooden shoes and were very excited to get to climb right up into them. We didn’t even have to coax a smile out of you for the camera, you were grinning from ear to ear!

I’m not sure where you got the idea, but as we wandered through the tulip fields you kept having to stop and smell the tulips. Now while they are a beautiful flower (and my personal favorite) tulips do not have much of a fragrance, but you were determined to keep checking… just to be sure!

Despite the fact that you broke your leg on a slide, it hasn’t diminished your love for them. You are my little thrill seeker! In fact, you barely even wait for me to hold your hand or get to the bottom to catch you anymore. You just climb right up and before I know it you are at the bottom, standing up to do it all over again!

The great thing about having a big sister is there is always someone around to play with. And she comes with a lot of really cool toys. You love going into Ana’s room and playing with her pretend make-up (you tend to prefer the lipstick and nail polish varieties), checking out her collection of Barbies, and even digging through her stash of costumes (you gravitate toward the sunglasses, wands, and crowns). I never know what you are going to emerge from her room holding, but chances are it’s going to be good!

It seems like overnight you just started getting hair. It’s coming in all thick and shiny with lovely little curls that spring up in the back when your hair is wet. And just last week I was able to successfully pull your hair back into pigtails. That’s TWO ponies! It was adorable. But since you have such well-behaved hair that lays perfectly, I tend to just leave it alone. Besides, I’m in no rush because I am relatively certain we have YEARS of fighting with your hair ahead of us.

Ana has recently started wanting to play with blocks, which means you have recently become very interested in tearing apart block structures. It can sometimes be a race to see how long it takes Ana to build something before you have disassembled it. The other game you like to play is “empty the box which contains all the blocks.” It’s not that you were looking for something or needed one special piece. No. You just needed every single block out of the box. Lovely.

If I had to describe you with one word this month, it would be the word, “book.” I hear that word more times in one day that any one person ever should. And that is coming from an avid book lover! More often than not, the first word you say to me in the morning is “book” and it is also the last word your dad, who is in charge of the bedtime routine, hears at the end of the day. Last week I made the mistake of telling you we were going to the library and the entire way there all I heard was, “Book? Book. BOOOK!!”

You are very excited about the world around you. You are inquisitive and love to explore. I love watching you figure things out and start to understand the way things work. I love when you get that look in your eyes that means you really GET IT and then seeing the sense of pride wash over you (and probably me!) in realizing your latest accomplishment.

It has been another fantastic month with you. You are such a joy in my life. There are very few things that make me happier than when you climb up onto my lap to snuggle, or wrap your arms around my neck in a huge hug. You are such a sweet and caring little girl and I cannot wait to see what life has in store for you. I can guarantee it’s going to be an amazing journey and I am so thankful that I get to come along for the ride.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Hadley,
Today you are seventeen months old. And today also happens to be Easter so it was a very busy day at the Bateman household! We hosted Easter Brunch and some of our family and friends came to spend the day with us. It was funny because a few people who don’t see you very often kept commenting on what a little person you are becoming, what with all the walking and talking (or rather, attempting to talk) you are doing. It just seems like you are growing up so fast all of a sudden.

This weekend you went on your very first Easter egg hunt. You and Ana have been hiding plastic eggs around our house and collecting them in baskets since we got the Easter decorations out, so your Dad and I were pretty confident you had this whole thing figured out. Sure enough, we set you down at the park and you beelined for an egg, picked it up, and put it in your basket. You were a natural.

This month your language has really taken off. I think you are up to about 25 words now. Since you have been attempting to communicated more and more we decided it was time to start working on your manners. You picked up on it right away and (with some mild prompting) you happily say “pees” and “tay oo.”

As your language is expanding, it’s interesting to see which words you are able to learn. You can now say “poop” and “butt” which your sister (and, who are we kidding, your father) find hilarious. One day you started saying them with such intensity, I thought maybe you wanted to do something about it. I asked if you wanted to go potty, you nodded, and headed for the bathroom. I was thinking “could potty training the second child really be THIS easy?” I took you in and you sat…and sat…and sat. Eventually I’m sure your bottom started to hurt, so I finally took you off. But that began your obsession with the potty. So I dug out the Baby Bjorn potty chair and you LOVE to sit on it. And rip off toilet paper and put it directly into the bowl. I am pretty sure all you think we do on the toilet is fill it with toilet paper.

Near the end of March, just before Spring Break, we had some crazy weather and it actually snowed enough here that school was canceled. We dressed you girls in your snow clothes and headed outside to play before it all melted away. You have been in the snow before, but this time you were mobile and got to walk around and really check it out. I handed you a little snow ball to play with and you instantly started to eat it (don’t worry! It was clean!). You made a series of silly faces… and then WENT BACK FOR MORE. You were hooked.

A day after the snow melted, the sun came out and it got warm, so as Oregonians we were obligated to get outside and play! Our driveway is a little steep and you weren’t sure how to get down to the flat cul-de-sac where your sister was busy learning to ride her bike. You couldn’t walk down without falling, but it wasn’t such a drop off that you’d need to go backwards on your tummy (like you do on the stairs). So, being the little thinker you are, you compromised, and scooted down the driveway on your butt! You were quite proud of yourself too.

You are still wildly obsessed with shoes. You are always trying on our shoes and walking around in any shoes you can step into. Boots are your new favorite because you can actually get them on your feet by yourself. Ironically enough, you spend most of the time we are at home trying to put on shoes, yet the second we get in the car (or the stroller) the first thing you do is pull off your socks and shoes. You, Hadley, are quite the enigma.

Your mobility is a blessing but it can also be a curse. Now that you know you can get around on your own you always want to get down and GO. Sometimes it’s not safe or convenient for you to be down so you are constantly telling me, “Walk! Walk!” and trying to wriggle out of my arms. I understand that you want to get down, so whenever I can, I let you walk on your own and explore the world around you.

As your coordination is progressing, we have started letting you use utensils with your meals. You love when we hand you a spoon or a fork with your food. You always give us this look of excited trepidation like, “Really? Are you going to let me use this? COOL.” Sure, it makes meal exponentially messier, but I figure you have to learn somehow.

Dolls are, hands down, your favorite thing to play with right now. You are such a little mama. I love seeing you cuddle and feed your babies. Whenever I see you going near the dolls I often find myself stopping whatever I am doing to see what you are going to do next. I see you cover them with blankets, give them bottles, and feed them. And it just warms my heart.

I often find myself hovering a step away as you bravely explore new parks or play structures. I know it can be frustrating for both of us having to be in such close proximity to one another, but I know that in no time at all you won’t need me to be so close. So for now, I will just treasure those amazing moments when you reach out and put your hand in mine.

All my love,
Mama