Little Block & Her Blocks

I finally got a video of Hadley testing out her sea legs. She looks like a little drunken sailor tearing across the living room. She's still wobbly but she's getting sturdier each day and this video only barely captures how much she's done so far! (Finally got the camera out after about ten rounds of her going over to knock down Robin & Chris' block towers). I think in this one she winds up head butting it over. And check out her "clapping" at the end - priceless!

She walks!

I mentioned that Hadley took her first big series of steps on Christmas day. Well she took most of the 26th to warm up to the concept again but yesterday and today we kept seeing little spurts of walking (we've now seen up to 7 consecutive steps). Occasionally we'll look up and notice she's half way across the living room and still standing there so we think she's done more than we've really seen. She's still sticking to a lot of crawling and holding on but it's so amazing to watch her crack at "real walking". I don't know what this means - like how long it will be until she's a bonafide walker - but it is so cute! We will try to get a video...though the problem with our flip video recorder is the second we pull it out she comes tearing across the room to try and eat it, so we're not promising anything!

Monkey

 

Hadley's First Christmas

We had such a busy and festive first Christmas for Hadley and she made out like a bandit in the gift department. We started on the 23rd - Hadley slept in her Baby's First Christmas PJ's and woke up to a big surprise from Daddy. Andy had found an old Sticks mirror (Sticks is a fancy furniture company that makes beautiful hand carved pieces and though we could not afford a new one, Andy found an awesome deal on Craigslist and surprised us both).



In the afternoon we drove out to Woodinville to my Dad & Allison's and had a delicious prime rib dinner and more christmas cookies than we could shake a stick at. We woke up Christmas Eve morning and had a nice relaxing day, opened a couple of presents that evening and Andy & I were able to continue our tradition of fondue on Christmas Eve which was so fun for us to be able to do! We played one of our new board games and laughed and laughed while Santa delivered the presents. Christmas day was more presents and more presents, some fabulous pumpkin pancakes and off we went to Anacortes for part two.



We were greeted in Anacortes by my mom & Loren & aunt Joan and dug into even more presents (Hadley's first car) and my favorite honey baked ham & scalloped potatoes. At the moment we're gearing up for lunch and a walk around sunny Anacortes.



It was the perfect 1st Christmas for our little pumpkin - who surprised us all by taking five consecutive (unassisted) steps on three different occassions! How exciting to see your kid take their first steps on Christmas! We haven't been able to get her to do it today - she's taking the cautious road and crawling like a little monster but I think we'll see it again some time soon.

In the mean time, here is a picture of my 19 week profile...definitely sticking out a little more than last time at this point. It is so fun to imagine that next Christmas Hadley will be almost 2 and we'll have a little 7 month old bundle as well. That is going to be chaos I am sure - the best kind of chaos!

Merry Christmas to everyone and we hope your new year brings good things!

Andy, Shannon, Hadley & Baby Dos

It's a BOY!!

It's no secret that we said over and over that we weren't going to find out what we're having...we went from having every intention of being surprised at delivery, to toying with finding out and keeping it to the two of us...to heck with it all - we're finding out and shouting it from the rooftops! We decided it is much better to share our complete JOY in announcing that come May, Hadley will be a big sister to her new little BROTHER! We are absolutely thrilled - I can say now, that I've had a deep down gut feeling all along that this baby was a boy...and I wanted it to be SO BADLY that I kept telling anyone who asked that I was certain it was a girl. A part of me didn't want to jinx it, be wrong, and then have everyone think I was disappointed if we'd had a second girl - that wouldn't have been true at all! I really hoped for Andy to have a boy, and I thought a girl / boy combination of 15 months apart would be better all around for both siblings rather than two girls battling it out in the teenage years. Really, either way becoming a parent again would've been such an awesome gift - but knowing today that we are having a boy, was just a huge and wonderful surprise. To heck with everyone that says waiting until delivery day is the only way to go! We will never forget the day we sat down on our couch and opened our little envelope that told us about our son.

December photo catch-up

Some fun things I hadn't had time to post (our free internet has been down :)

Ange & Deven, Me & Hadley tailgating for the last UW game of the season:
Bennett & Hadley having a little date:Hadley ridin' shotgun on Mel's baby belly:Hadley blending in with all her cousins:Ridin' her new rocking horse from Grandma & Grandpa Maughan:Rummaging through her very own kitchen drawer:Hadley having a ball with identical twins Tristan & Jameson Bradford (kids of my dear friend Morgan - whom I've been friends with since 7th grade!). The boys were sooo sweet with her (they are 20 months old) and the 3 of them were buddies all day truckin' around the house and playing so well together!

The Family Christmas party

The stockings & lights are hung, the wreath is decorated (no tree for us...small crawling babies and cats and all :), our 84 Christmas cards are off and mailed...and this weekend we attended our first Christmas party of the season! Yep, the holidays are in full swing. Hadley had so much fun at her first ever family Christmas party in Walla Walla. In perfect Christmasey fashion, we got a few inches of snow prior to the party which was just the icing on the cake to Bruce & Vicki's beautifully decorated house, all the sugar cookies and sweets we could ask for, a secret santa gift exchange, the traditional family card game "31", Hadley opening her very first Christmas gifts and getting to play with all her big cousins!

10 months, the time flies

December 12, 2009
Height & Weight: Somewhere around 17 lbs and 28 or 29 inches (no appointment until her 1 year check up)

Latest words: I know this is early, but I'm starting to wonder if she's actually putting "dada" with Andy now...I've noticed she saves the dada babble for when he gets home. This could be me thinking my child is advanced though :)

Favorite Things: Puzzles (mostly chews on them), books (same as puzzles :), wine corks - this is hilarious. We have a huge tub of wine corks from our time in Europe and Hadley loves to dig through these and put them in her mouth and at most times of the day, our living room is covered in wine corks. She also recently got her own tupperware drawer in the kitchen and she loves digging through this and dumping it out all over the kitchen floor! In my tiny kitchen I didn't really have a drawer to spare but it's so cute to watch, it was definitely worth it.

Favorite Foods: Newest food is cheerios, she's a big fan!

Dislikes: Being in a stroller or carseat or basically sitting anywhere for too long - she's a mover, that's for sure.

Accomplishments: Stands on her own (can also get into standing position without holding on), dances when music comes on (seriously, so cute!), walks pushing almost anything…the bucket we keep our corks in is her favorite, she’ll walk this all over the house now, waves bye bye and hello, clicks her tongue at Grandpa Bruce (we used to be able to get her to do it for us but she seems to save it for him as he’s always clicking at her), drinks from a sippy cup (the kind with the straw), and still sleeps like a little angel (except when she’s teething), speaking of teething, she now has 4 teeth on the bottom and her 2 front teeth!

Highlight of the month: The family Christmas party in Walla Walla and opening her very first Christmas present!