A Pretty Nice Little Saturday

Hadley, the dogs, and I always look forward to the weekends when we get to spend lots of quality time with Brett. It's amazing how excited the dogs get when they realize daddy isn't heading off to work. And of course, Hadley loves the extra cuddle time with daddy in the morning. 

Last Saturday was rainy, so we went to an end-of-summer reading party at the library and got to hear Disney princesses read stories. Daddy was a trooper and sat with Hadley, then took her to meet all the princesses. She did enjoy it, contrary to what her expression in this picture shows! 

Hadley spent the afternoon napping, and by that evening was ready to party. We met up with one of her friends at an indoor play place. Both girls got to play in the ball pit, crawl over obstacles, and watch lots of big kids play. 

We spent the next day resting and hoping for some sunny weather to come back soon! 

Hadley is Seven Months Old!

Look out, world! This little munchkin is mobile and her curiosity knows no bounds. Hadley is comfortable crawling now, but is much more interested in pulling up. Coffee tables with interesting things sitting on them like cell phones, remote controls, and magazines are a favorite place to pull up. Hadley will also pull up on the couches, especially if there is a dog sleeping within arm's reach. She's mastered standing while holding on with one hand and is beginning to cruise from place to place.

 This has resulted in A LOT of bumped heads. Bless her heart, she never learns her lesson and as soon as she's had a cry and cuddle in my arms, she goes right back to what she was doing. Her newfound mobility has also caused a major sleep regression. Who needs sleep when you can walk around the crib and get caught in the rails at 3am? Although this new stage is challenging, I'm loving every moment of it. Hadley's excitement for life is contagious and daddy and I are enjoying the adventure!

Hadley's 7 Month Stats:

New Developments: Crawling, pulling up, cruising, chewing on bites of food, reaching for the stray cat, Chauncy that lives in our front yard

Height: About 27.5 inches...in the 61%
Weight: 17 pounds, 2 oz....in the 47%
Sleeps: Sometimes we get a nice stretch from 8pm-4am, but when teething's bad she's up every two hours.
Naps: 3 naps a day, about 45 mins to an hour each
Favorite foods: chicken, turkey, carrots, puffs, cheerios

Likes:
balloons
pop-up books (When a book is not "pop up" she tries to pick the pictures up off the page.)
blocks
paper products
eating cheerios in her high chair
dumping her toy box onto the floor
grabbing things off the coffee table and throwing them on the ground



Dislikes:
napping
grocery shopping
diaper changes (Who has the time?!)
being spoon-fed
sitting still (see pictures below of what she does when strapped into her bouncy seat)

Even when I strap her in as tight as I can, she still finds a way to crawl while dragging the seat behind her. 

Here she is with her early-morning bead-head:

She's also continuing to work on her manifesto:

And last but not least,  her 1, 3, 5 and 7 month pictures!

Model Behavior

The night before Hadley's 6 month portraits, I decided to have a little practice photo session to see which outfits photographed best. I know, I know...I'm that mom. But, we were bored and I thought,  'Who knows, maybe she'll be a model like Daddy was."

The practice session was a disaster. Hadley crawled and rolled all over, acting like the lovable clown she is while I tried to get her to sit still. The pictures I took turned out so funny/blurry/terrible that I wanted to share them with you all.

And the next day, when Hadley was out of her comfort zone, she had perfect behavior for the photographer. She was actually shy and subdued and the photographer and I had to put on a show to get her to smile and show personality. I have a whole new level of respect for children's photographers now...that is not an easy job!

If you want to see her real six month portraits, use the link at the below and the password "hadley."

http://lesleyveronikaphotography.pixieset.com/hadleys6monthportraits/

Story Time

We are lucky to live less than five minutes from a small public library. Every Wednesday and Thursday they have baby lap-sit story hour, so we try to make it once every week. It's been neat to watch Hadley transform from a shy baby who stayed in my lap to one of the mobile babies crawling around, being chased by their mommy.

Here are a few pictures I snapped today:

Playing the drums during music time. We usually use the maracas but we switched it up today:

Playing parachute:

Playing with puppets and popping bubbles:

She's a bit intimidated by the bigger babies who walk, but she loves to watch them! Today she crawled over to some babies nearby, sat down, and babbled to them. I love watching her interact with other kids! 

After every visit we go to the children's section and pick out some books to borrow for the week. Hadley always falls asleep on the ride home! 

Crawling Cutie

After many months of practice, Hadley is crawling!

 She is mobile and loving it. Mommy and Daddy are doing their best to keep up!

Grocery Store Shenanigans

I always write about how sweet and smart Hadley is, so it's only fair that once in awhile I share her mischievous side. I know it's hard to believe that a face this angelic could possibly be naughty, but it does happen from time to time!

Hadley started off her Friday eating some sweet potatoes. Ever the independent woman, she insisted on feeding herself, so we ended up with a bit of a mess!

Then she and Bode played with blocks until it was time to go to the grocery store.

We got through most of the trip with only a few snags (such as a screaming fit when she wasn't allowed to eat my grocery list.) We were in line to leave, when before I knew what had happened, she grabbed a coupon from my hand, gagged a little and swallowed the entire thing! I'm hoping a little bit of paper won't hurt her!

The pièce de résistance of the trip came when Hadley reached up with both hands and grabbed the cashier's chest. Luckily she had a sense of humor, but Mommy was embarrassed!

Thankfully, when we got home, she took a long nap and gave me chance to calm down and remind myself to NEVER go grocery shopping with her again....until next week when we run out of milk and I forget what this little angel is capable of!