Hadley's First Soccer Practice

Hadley's new favorite activity is running. Just for the fun of it, she will run laps around the house until she literally falls on the floor dizzy.

A friend mentioned our YMCA was having a free day of soccer practice for two to four year olds, so we jumped at the opportunity. I've been looking forward to it all week because I knew it would be hilarious to watch.


Hadley started off listening to the coaches and kicking the ball with her feet.

 

Then she spent the rest of the practice sprinting. She ran up and down that field for 40 minutes straight.

She only took a few short breaks to examine cones, 

Brush her hands off after falling, 

Or to play an impromptu game of ring around the rosie.

When we got home she devoured a HUGE plate of meatballs. Can you see how tired she is?

We put her down for a nap. I went in to check on her and she was out of bed using the single ounce of energy she had left playing the xylophone. I put our exhausted little girl down in our bed and she took a good, long, snooze. 

Happy Time Time's Day!

One of my favorite things about having a child is seeing all the fun and magic of each holiday through her eyes. We had a fun and busy week stretching Valentine's day into more like 7 days of celebration. And you can bet the day the Valentine's decorations came down, the Easter decorations were put up!

Back to Valentine's day week: We started a few weeks ago by going to a little photo shoot at the Wilmington Arboretum. The photographer that did all of Hadley's baby pictures held a free 'Friends and Family Day' with fun Valentine's Day props. As soon as we arrived, Hadley spotted a table with boxes of candy hearts, and a nice woman gave her not one, but two boxes....and that was all she wrote. We got a few pictures of Hadley with a smug smile, and her boxes of candy. We took the candy away, and she screamed. We compromised by giving her two little pieces so the box wouldn't be in the picture. The rest of the pictures involved Hadley frolicking around with her candy, looking for fish in the stream, photo bombing other photo shoots, etc.

The picture we chose for our free image was the one of her pouting with a sad little tear rolling down her cheek. This picture captures the life of a toddler...the highs are so high and the lows are so low. I'll always treasure this sweet picture just like I treasure all the gorgeous ones of Hads smiling and laughing.

Hadley also had a Valentine's Day party at school. The kids had a special snack and exchanged  Valentines. When Hadley brought her bag of Valentine's home, we sorted through it. She picked each of the 8 Valentines up and told me which child it came from...and when I looked at the names on the cards, she was correct. I have no idea how she memorized all of them! I have noticed that the past few weeks she's taken to memorizing names and information and reciting it. She's a smart, wild cookie!

Happy belated "Time Time's Day!" 

Oh Two-dles! Happy Second Birthday, Hadley!

It took me awhile to work up the mental fortitude to write this blog entry. Weeks of cutting out perfect little black circles for Mickey Mouse heads, coming up with Disney-inspired puns for food, and planning every detail of this Minnie Mouse-themed extravaganza earned this Momma a few weeks of Disney Detox. Now I'm back, and as Hadley watches Mickey Mouse Club on TV, I am ready to share the experience.

Hadley's birthday theme was Minnie Mouse, after her obsession with the Disney cartoon, Mickey Mouse Club. For those who have not had the pleasure of watching this show every single day for the past year, the show centers around the Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, and Mickey cast solving problems with some tools called "Toodles." We made it into "Two-dles" in honor of Miss Hads turning two, and put together a special day.

Mommy made the invitations:

And Daddy made a sign for the beverage table:

We had home-made decorations around the house.

We set up with a ball pit, a tunnel, and borrowed a slide from our neighbors.

We had lots of fun Mickey Mouse themed food...

Hot Diggity Dogs:

Donad's Cheese and Quackers:

Daisy's Garden Veggies:

Mickey and Minnie Ears:

Clarabelle's Cupcakes:

A Bow-tique Birthday Cake:

...and Handy Helpers to help us eat all of the yummy snacks.

 The kids had a blast in the ball pit....

 ...and fought mercilessly over the slide. 

The sound of toddler laughter and toddler tantrums filled the air!

Hadley kissed two boys. I have no further comment on this.

And ingested tons of sugar....

We sang happy birthday....

And later that night after all her friends went home and things calmed down, Hadley opened her presents.

A good time was had by all! Happy second birthday to our little Minnie Mouse!

Our Big Two Year Old

Almost two weeks ago,  Miss Hadley turned two years old! She got to be the special birthday girl at preschool which involves wearing the birthday hat, being the line leader, and bringing in a special treat for her classmates. After school, we took Hadley out to lunch. She had macaroni and cheese, and got a free dessert, a brownie sundae. She liked it so much she tried to scoop up the melted ice cream and whipped cream with her spoon.




When we got home, she opened her presents. Mommy and Daddy sang Happy Birthday to Hadley and gave her a mini cake so she could practice blowing out a candle. Hads did manage to burn herself, but she recovered enough to eat lots of icing from her little cake.

Hadley's Two Year Stats:

• Height: 35 inches...in the 79th percentile
• Weight: 24 pounds...in the 20th percentile
• Head: in the 92nd percentile....filled with a big, busy brain and covered with long, wavy hair!
• Sleeps: 7pm-6:45am, plus a nap from 12pm-1:30pm

Likes:

• All animals...lately she is obsessed with frogs
• Watching Japanese youtube videos of bouncy, colored eggs that's narrated by a robot/alien voice saying "amazing" "many many many eggs" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGjZ0csXL64
• Watching weird youtube videos of baby dolls sitting in bath tub and having colorful gumballs poured over them. She unlocks Brett's phone, clicks the youtube icon, and somehow finds these videos. She would sit quietly and watch them for hours if we let her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voztlFGsLdg
• Reading books 
• Slides
• Climbing
• Going to drop in day care...she only gets to go every few weeks, but she gets so excited to spend a few hours there. 
• All things Minnie Mouse.

Dislikes:

• Sun in her eyes...she screams, "GO AWAY!" when the sun is in her eyes on the way to school each morning. Sometimes she will put her coat completely over her head so the sun is blocked. 
• Sleeping all night in her own bed. She likes to "check in" with mommy every night around midnight.
• Brushing her teeth

New Skills:

• Naming colors including red, yellow, green, blue, black, pink, and orange (with about 70% accuracy)
• Counting: two, free, four, six, eight, nine, ten, eleven, thirty
• Using tweezers and tongs to pick up small objects like cotton balls and transfer them to a container
• Using language to be very clear about what she wants. Here are some examples:
• The other day I asked her what she wanted as a healthy snack and she said, "I want cookies and coffee."
• Another time she said "I want yellow cheese." I told her it would be a minute and she grabbed my face in her hands, leaned in close, and said, "Do you understand me? I want cheese in my mouth!" That earned her a little time out, and afterwards she gave me a nice apology. It's so hard not to laugh when she does things like that. 

Here are some photos of some of the fun things we've done this January! 

We went to a friend's birthday party, and Hadley got to ride a pony named Bernadette!

Over a week later, Hadley is still talking about Cheyenne the horse!

Hadley also helped Mommy and Daddy announce that baby #2 is on the way! We can't wait for this summer. We know Hads is going to be a great big sister!