wordless wednesday

in the now

i admit it. hadley is a second child.

and by that i mean, a complete second child.

i'm talking not as many pictures, gets away everything, wearer of hand-me-downs, and already compared to her sister kind of a second child.  i am doing a horrible job of keeping up with her baby book still. so i am doing a post on hadley and what she is like now in her 19th month of life. just to give me something to look back on.

• is super full of personality
• has a mouth full of teeth, including molars
• weighs 23 lbs
• started talking quite a bit at 17 months but as of today, is even putting two words together. "hi sissy" for example
• knows her body parts
• has cough variant asthma which is set off by everything, so she has a constant cough. she uses an inhaler daily
• still has reflux issues but so much better than they were as a baby
• loves her sister and copies EVERYTHING she does. sometimes it can be cute. other times, a bit dangerous
• can eat with a fork or spoon
• does not drink her almond milk out of a sippy cup yet. this one drives me crazy
• had the bottle taken away last month
• is eating dairy and soy if baked into the product
• loves black olives and eats them by putting her pointer finger into the middle of the olive and lifting it to her mouth. half olives get ignored 
• sleeps in her crib from 7:30pm-6am and never naps for more than 1.5 hours during the day
• is super stubborn
• loves the color blue and is working on learning all the other colors that aren't blue
• has used the potty twice. the first time really freaked her out. she jumped off and continued peeing on the floor
• has a healthy appetite, eats a wide variety of food, so long as it doesn't feel slimy to the touch
• though it's been offered to her thanks to the advent calendar,  still hasn't tried chocolate
• loves dumdums
• loves all things music and is quite the dancer
• sleeps with two puppies and a pillow in her crib
• plays hopscotch and is getting pretty good at jumping
• throws a ball
• pretty sure she is going to be a LEFTY
• likes turning lights on and off
• still uses sign language even though she can say the word
• enjoys watching elmo videos on youtube
• has had a life without cheese. what kind of life is that!
• likes to write with a pen and play with stickers
• loves to chase bubbles
• gives actual kisses now, lips puckered and all
• had a great first trip to disney land
• has a lot of hair that is in need of a third haircut
• enjoys brushing her teeth by herself and even tries to spit
• loves to play with all of her cousins
• always says "hi" to you as soon as you walk into her room first thing in the morning

i know i am missing some other fun facts but this is hadley in a nutshell at 19 months old. officially a toddler, no longer a baby. time is flying by.

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we were all ears

over the thanksgiving weekend we had caroline's third trip and hadley's first trip to disney. things were a lot different this time around with a toddler but all in all, it was another amazing trip. and i got to eat several cream cheese filled pretzels! what more could you ask for.

i think caroline's favorite part of the trip was riding all the big roller coasters with phil. she is a brave one. if you asked her what her least favorite part was, she would say hadley waking her up in the morning. that is the negative to hotel rooms for sure.  i would say hadley's favorite part was riding the bus everywhere. it was a ride in itself not being in her car seat.  we walked so much, ate a lot of food (mostly of the unhealthy variety, but hey it's disney!), and had a lot of laughs.

i have so, so many pictures to share of our family adventure. it was hard to number it down!

day 1- our first ride on the bus to the universal studios. can't you just see the excitement in hadley's eyes! ok, not so much. but you can see it in caroline's eyes for sure.

lb getting her face painted. always a hit no matter where you are

lb and i posing w/ the lego german shepherd (made me miss bodi!)

just walked in to the magic kingom. that castle just makes you smile. 

the sun was shining right in our eyes, hence hads looking away

it's a small world

after all.

that song can stay in your head forever.

caroline and her mouse ears on the carousel

 the girls and their shades. we were so lucky that the weather 

was sunny and in the 70's every day for us

hadley patiently waiting to ride dumbo

caroline rode dumbo on her own. she's growing up too fast for me

caroline on barnstormer

the moment we all anticipated.... hadley meeting minnie

for the first time. it went just as expected, ending in

many, many tears. glad we caught this moment though

they have parades galore here. hadley is waving to minnie

one of our favorite rides, the people mover. so relaxing

on our boat ride to dinner

hadley on a bridge seeing the water below

a lot of this happened at disney- bus waiting

on a ride at epcot. this was the only day that hadley

had to go back to the room mid-day for a nap. she was exhausted.

epcot at night. the christmas lights here were amazing

hadley walking on concrete tiles w/ lights built in

once again, we attempted to let hadley meet a character.

once again, it ended in tears.

this is her kind of characters. they didn't try to hug her

once and remained at a safe distance

phil and caroline on a car ride

even at disney, caroline brings her style

lunch with tiger at the crystal palace. food wasn't good but

getting to see all the characters was fun for caroline

there you have it. a quick glimpse into our wonderfully fun family adventure to disney. can't wait for next year!

and thanks, mom, for making all those amazing matching shirts for the girls (and me!). you're terrific!

we prefer sunday turkeys

we had an early thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. great idea, mom!

my parents were there. my sister, her husband, and their two kids were there. we were there. yummy food was there. it was a great sunday.

you know the kids all had a great time playing together. always so fun to watch.

dear santa

caroline wrote her letter to santa. she was sweet enough to tack on a letter for her baby sister too!

i think she gave jolly st nick something he and the elves can easily work with.

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

day three

just a quick update on the dairy re-introduction for haddie.

so far she has had one blueberry muffin and two blueberry waffles over the course of 3 days, and she seems to be doing well. definitely better than anticipated.

though she has had a bit of interrupted sleep, it isn't to the extreme that she had with previous dairy issues. so i am hoping maybe it is either coincidence, her tummy getting used to it, or just normal sleep issues due to the time change. her poop, i am happy to report, is still mucous free!

at this point we are going to keep with one dairy cooked item for week at least, then maybe move on to trying yogurt. still crossing my fingers tightly. don't want to get too excited too soon either though.

dear diary... i mean dairy

today was a big day for hads. for all of us.

today, after being dairy free for 6 mos, we let hadley make her third attempt at dairy. her first was at birth. fail. second attempt was at a year. fail. and oh my gosh how I pray the girl has finally outgrown the intolerances and passes today's test.

she ate a blueberry muffin at breakfast.

a little ole sweet muffin.

i'd always heard to let attempts with dairy re-introduction to be with foods that have dairy baked in them. Then, should she do well with it, we'd move onto yogurts, then cheeses, then actual milk.

at first the idea of dairy & soy allergy/intolerances really intimidated and scared me. i had no idea what we were going to feed hads. dairy and soy are in everything. so it felt. plus, i hated the idea of her not being able to eat what we ate. in all honesty, it hasn't been that bad once used to the diet and knowing where to shop. in fact, i'd go so far as to say we all ate much healthier because of it.

i really just didn't want her to feel like she was different or strange. i didn't want her to know what it felt like to be excluded or left out. I wanted her to be able to participate in normal sleep over foods, like pizza, cake, and ice cream.
none of these reasons amount to much when it comes to her health, i know, but i still hope she outgrows it.

we will know more for certain tomorrow. we will see if she is a) able to sleep tonight b) has normal poop tomorrow and c) does not act totally crazy and in pain. all easy things to pick up on.

now we wait with fingers crossed, hoping that she will be able to enjoy dairy again tomorrow.

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday