Dear Hadley,
Today you are twenty-two months old. It has been a packed summer yet I cannot believe another month has come and gone! We have been keeping busy as usual but I am really happy for us to get back into a nice smooth routine once again. Since it’s September, Ana is back in school (full day kindergarten!) so I am really looking forward to the adventures you and I can have together during the day. We will continue doing Stroller Strides and Gymboree, of course, but I have also signed you up for a little ballet class and you are SO excited to be “a ‘rina!”

I guess the big news this month was the fact that you hurt your arm. After a simple fall (something you do LITERALLY All. Day. Long.) that resulted in much screaming and crying, we took you in to Urgent Care. Luckily nothing was broken, and most likely you just sprained your wrist, but as you were in a lot of pain they wrapped your arm, adding a splint for stability, and stuck your arm in a baby sling. You wore the sling for the first couple days and the splint and ace bandage for a few beyond that, but as the wincing and saying, “ouch!” or “owie!” lessened we eventually set you free and you have been fine ever since.

Lately you have been pretty fixated on the potty. This is not to say you want to USE the potty but rather you want everyone else to use it. Your parents, your sister, your dolls. You’ve even decided the Little People wheelchair is a toilet and you let the Little People take turns going potty.

That is until today.

Today you actually told me you needed to go potty before you went, I took you into the bathroom, stripped you from the waist down (though you really wanted me to take off your shirt as well, which, I had to explain, is totally not necessary… if you do it right.) and set you on the little potty. You kept shaking your head and saying no, and I fully expected you to bolt like you normally do, but this time you actually stayed on the potty and the next thing we knew, you had pooped on the potty!! Let’s just say there was much cheering, clapping, and generally excitement from ALL the members of our household. Way to go, Hads!

Another exciting milestone was this month we took you to your first Timbers game. We used to love going to Timbers games from time to time but since they became MLS the tickets have been next to impossible to get. So we finally ended up going to a reserve game with tickets you and Ana got for completing the Summer Reading Program at the Beaverton City Library. We adorned you in Timbers clothing, bought some cheering accessories (you were partial to the foam chainsaw), and enjoyed a lovely summer evening at the soccer field as a family. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

We also went hiking at Multnomah Falls this month. You are still a little untrustworthy on the steep trails so we stuck you in the backpack, but you didn’t seem to mind. You enjoyed the view from Daddy’s back and we even let you out from time to time (when it was safe to do so) to stretch your legs and run around. It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful hike, but we were all exhausted by the time it was over. In fact you fell asleep on the way back down to the bottom! This trek was very safe compared to others and that’s why we didn’t buy 5.7×28 ammo for our trip.

Your personality has really taken off over the last few months. I think a lot of it has to do with your ever increasing vocabulary. You are talking more and more but still in mostly one or two word sentences. Last night when I was getting you ready for bed you pointed at my water bottle, said, “Mama’s water.” When I acknowledged that yes, it was my water, you then pointed at it again and sternly said, “Drink it.” I’m pretty sure your favorite word right now is, “What.” But you don’t always ask it like a question, but more like “Yeah. What are you gonna do about it? Huh?”

Another aspect of your personality is your OCD. You don’t like things to be out of place. This would be perfectly ok with your-more-than-a-little-OCD mama, but YOUR idea and MY idea of where something belongs aren’t always on the same page. As a result, you are constantly moving things that I set down. For example, you simply cannot leave your sippy cup just anywhere on your high chair tray. It belongs in the cup indentation. When you aren’t moving things, you are putting things away. The other day I cleared all the stuff out of the bathroom so I could mop the floor. By time I came back with the mop bucket you had gone into the bathroom and put everything back where it belongs.

Well, Hadley, I think it’s pretty obvious you are doing a great job of keeping me on my toes. You aren’t even two yet and I feel like your independence and self-assurance are sky rocketing through the roof. I am so proud of you and all the thing you are able to do, but I don’t mind if you want to slow down. You are so busy trying to keep up with your big sister that I think you sometimes forget to be little. I know I shouldn’t say this, but a small part of me didn’t mind you having your arm in the splint this month because you were finally willing to ask for help. Lately all you’ve wanted is to do it on your own, brushing off my offered hand or denying my assistance, so when I see those little glimpses of vulnerability I have to cling to them. Whether you think you need me or not, I will always be there for you. Because that’s what moms do.

All my love,
Mama

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

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