Better late than never, right?

Woops, that two weeks went by fast. SO MANY NEW THINGS.

First off, we had a LOVELY holiday in Wisconsin as usual. We left Tuesday right after work and didn't get home until Sunday mid-afternoon. We saw everyone at least a little bit, some more than others, and just had overall wonderfulness. I got some much needed time away on Black Friday which of course was made even more stellar b/c I was shopping my socks off and getting good deals to boot. We're always sad to leave but thankful for our own beds, house, toys (girls' input) and routine.

The new things!
Morgan - not much new here, continues to be her sassy, smart, silly, wonderful self. She has been testing patience lately with this mad whining/fist pumping up/down nonsense when she's mad, but we're working on it and I hope it's a phase (b/c if it's not, I might lose it a little on her like I did this morning when she wanted to watch her show OVER THERE instead of over HERE where I could do her hair while Mickey was still in plain (better, really) view). Whatever. On a funny note, she says the best things and has the greatest giggle when she gets Hadley laughing. It's a sight to see when those two feed off of each other with giggles. We can't get enough of it and we just sit back and giggle, too.

Hadley! Many new things! List time!

• Sheeeeeeeee's walkin! She's been taking a few steps here and there and really took her first step about a month ago (you know, the kind you call a first step even though it's more of a reaction to her falling? Yeah, that one). However, (see video on facebook) she's a walker now and will walk between things. I caught her taking 4 real steps at one point but I know for sure that she can take more as evidenced by the video in which I couldn't move b/c I had to catch her but she clearly could have gone further had I chosen to catch the baby rather than move my big dairy air. Anyway, a whole new world awaits this kid...
• Seven. That would be how many teeth she has as of this morning when I could feel it. She won't let me see it, but there surely is one there.
• Two. That's how many black eyes this kid has had in her life. Yesterday's black eye brought to you by forgetting to put my hands out when I'm bending down to sit/pick up a toy. 
• If your name is Hadley, you are too cool for baby food. I give her baby food, she takes a few spoonfuls, and it's SHAKE-A head everywhere until I get big girl food. That said, I need to meal plan a little better b/c I only give her baby food to get her fruits/veggies in for sure. I need to make sure I have soft big girl food so she doesn't think I'm trying to pull a fast one on her - which I am. Can make for some very frustrating meal times!
• Milk. We're moving to it! Last night I gave her formula in a sippy to show her that more than just water can come out of there. Go figure - you'd have thought I tried to give her ketchup or something and that she'd never tasted formula in her life. Sorry, kid. Bottles are for babies and when you turn one, you're not a baby anymore and we're sick of washing bottles by hand. The end. Get with it, sista...

 That's all for now. I am SO EXCITED about putting up Christmas decorations all over the house that I must go do more before time runs out and it's New Year's. I'll work on uploading the walking video but forgot how I do that...

Hadley's 1st Walk

SAHM for a day

So today I'm a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM). Morgan's 3 year well check was moved to today from last Friday and when I didn't have a sitter (knew about this a few weeks ago), Adam would be traveling, and I just didn't feel like bothering anyone else to watch my girls, I decided that since I don't have to worry about a maternity leave (i.e. losing time off anywhere), that I'd just take the day and spend it with the girls. It's been lovely. If they were all like this, I might consider it. However, I am no fool and know we'd all get sick of each other eventually. Alas, I'm enjoying my day with them today.

Morgan's appt went well and lucky duck - she got the flu mist instead of the flu shot and did 1 bajillion times better than I would have. I'd vote for the shot/sore arm every day over someone misting junk up my nose. I thought she was getting a shot so I brought along a tiny candy bar she picked out from her halloween stash (reserved only for desserts) but she had to have it anyway even though there was no shot involved. Stinker knows how to drive a bargain.

Morgan is currently 39.25" tall (92nd percentile) and 33.75lbs (73rd percentile). All seemed well and no worries for now. May nap time continue to be nice and long, as mommy's been procrastinating something fun with other fun things. For real. They're all fun today. :)

Hadley - 11 Months

I'm so annoying. I know KNOW I just blogged about Hadley being 10 months old two posts ago. Right? No? You're wrong. This is going too fast but at the same time I'm so excited for each new month of Hadley and I'm ridiculous. It's cool. And yes, I know I'm a day late again. That's how I roll. HADLEY HIGHLIGHTS COMMENCE (along with a few pics)

• Hadley stands on her own by letting go of furniture sometimes, but can stand alone when set down for quite a few seconds.
• She LOVELOVELOVES walking around with ANYone who will hold both of her hands. One hand to work on balance? As of today, gets pissed, cries/yells, and gets down on all 4s. Stinker.
• She's eating lots of table food but always starts out a meal with some baby food. She's routinely the last one at the table and is currently making up for lost time while sick a week or two ago and eating her weight in anything near her. I am not sure she's growing, however, as she's still totally comfy in her 12 month clothes with no real sign of busting out of them any time soon. SO not like Morgan. I think. I'll have to go back and check. 
• Hadley is a talker. Today it was more like a screamer but upon further investigation, it was mosly b/c she was starving.baby.why.don't.you.feed.me. She says "hi, dada" but not necessarily on demand. 
• She LOVES her daddy and gets visibly excited when Morgan or I announce that he's home. She now crawls to the breezeway door to wait for him to come in. It's freaking adorable. 
• She continues to be a great sleeper when she's feeling fine. Not feeling well? Bye bye sleep. I think that's typical and to be expected though. Speaking of sleep, she now has ALL of her bumpers in her crib (oh no worst mother ever) b/c we are SO tired (quite literally) of going up in the middle of the night b/c she flung her paci out of her bed in her sleep or b/c she's being sassy. It worked and now we're not going up nearly as much for that. 
• Hadley loves to play and is enjoying putting things in and out of containers, loving on any baby that makes noise, reading any touchy/feely books, playing on the iPad/Pod, and the play kitchen (freaking LOVES the play kitchen). She also loves this new butterfly bath toy (that is played with at any waking moment by both girls) that Morgan was lucky enough to receive in the mail for her birthday. She fights over shares it nicely with Morgan, though, since it is technically hers. 
• Stairs. Hadley has a golden love of scaling stairs (going up, not even close to going down). She stands at the gate on the single step that she can go up and looks around to see if anyone notices that she is in danger yet wants to go upstairs NOW. And then feel free to take her down and go up again. She had a blast with our sitter, Molly, going up the stairs 6x while I had Morgan at basketball today b/c Molly's cool like that and let her. BFFs for sure.
• Hadley got plowed over by Jessie yesterday. She was standing at her kitchen playing nicely when I came around the corner from the basement steps just in time to see Jessie excited about something and run THROUGH her. Aww, Hadley's first (tiny) black eye. Jessie is SO lucky I knew she was too excited to realize she did something terribly wrong (Hadley went from standing to flat on her side in 0.0001 seconds. I saw. It sucked) or I might have murdered her a little. That dog...
• Ask Hadley if she wants puffs. She will get a wide eyed look of "Iloveyougivethemtomenow" and point to the top of the China cabinet where they are stored (we are classy. we don't store all things out of reach in the pantry, oh no. they are out for the world to see) while putting on her best sad puppy eyes. If you give them to her, BFF. If you deny her and make her eat such things as fruits, veggies, chicken, or the like, prepare for wrath. But then compliance, and asking again within two more bites. Or less.
• She's super pleasant, guys. (when she's not sick. she's not really the best sick kid ever) She's almost always happy, easy to please, and wants to try new things all the time. She loves to be super baby (flying through the house) and "going to the rescue" which involves a parent holding Hadley and running after Morgan all yelling "to the rescue!" (thank you, Diego, for that workout). We love her to pieces and can't believe how much faster she's getting older than it feels like Morgan did. PS. We're SO THRILLED we have less than a month of formula left. I just sent a big tub to Mary's last week. I just opened our last big tub today. We have a small tub left. When that's all gone, it's milk, baby! WOO! Happy 11 months, Hadley Elizabeth. We love you!

That polar bear is now tiny.

And funny, apparently. No wait. That's

my mom being ridiculous behind daddy with 

the camera to get me to smile. 

BAH HA HA HA HA I'm 11 months old!!

Still hilarious!

This is how thrilled they were for pictures. Seriously.

But we managed to get a relatively decent one. 

With some Morgan toes to boot. 

Snuggles for my little sis

11 months. Toes. Baby Love.

The Shenanigans of our Daughters

Our daughters have been full of it this week and it makes me giggle but also roll my eyes a little. Each one had a good one last night...

Hadley 
(scenario - I went upstairs to get clothes for the girls for the morning, Adam was initially playing with Hadley and then was helping Morgan eat yogurt in the recliner b/c why on EARTH would you eat something like that at a table??)

• I took the baby gate down b/c when I took my first step up the stairs, Adam was touching her and playing and I was sure he had her under control (HA). (PS. If Hadley sees anyone head for the stairs, she's gone baby gone and trying her best to follow.)
• I heard Adam get Morgan her snack. I heard them talking. I thought I heard Hadley head for the stairs (sometimes she crawls loudly - slap slap hand slap) but I figured hey, he was playing with her and I'm sure they're playing more.
• I got ready to go to Hadley's room to get her clothes and voila. She is RIGHTTHERE. Little Miss Hadley scaled the entire flight of stairs silently, on her own, without dying. I'm not sure how this happened but we'll just thank God that he was the one who stood behind her while she was doing so. Adam didn't realize I took down the gate. I didn't realize he stopped watching her. GEEZ. 
• PS. She thought she was the COOLEST baby ever for having scaled the steps with God. 

Morgan
(scenario - it's 3am and all is right with the world b/c we are all sleeping)

• (over the monitor, loudly, of course) "DAAAAAADDDYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! I need to FLOOOSSSSSSSS!" 
• Me: "What did she say she needs?!" 
• Adam: "Floss. OMG."
• Me back in the monitor b/c Morgan's is a two-way: "Morgan, sweetheart, it's the middle of the night and we don't need to floss now. You can floss when you brush your teeth in the morning. Go back  to sleep, OK?"
• Morgan, sadly: "Okay....." ::63 seconds later:: "Mommy! I have to go to the bathroooooom!" 
• Me: "Ok, go ahead, we're going to see if you can do it all by yourself this time, ok? You don't even have to tell us when you're done - you can just go back to bed." 
• Morgan: "Ok." gets out of bed and goes all by herself! Triumph! 
• Me after she gets back in bed: "Way to go! You did it all by yourself! Goodnight, see you in the morning!"
• Morgan: "Thanks, Mommy, goodnight." 

It's an interesting life we lead. Good thing we pray a lot, right? ;-)
PS. Morgan's Grandma Sherri received a call this morning to let her know that her flossing influence has certainly left a lasting impression on her oldest grandchild. Super. ;-)

Morganisms

Morgan made us giggle multiple times tonight. Here are two gems I thought we should remember in the future sometime...

1. Adam at bedtime: "Morgan, go potty so we can get you to bed." Morgan apparently heard, "Go dance around the kitchen in your undies," as that's what I turned around from doing the dishes to see her doing. 
2. Adam forced Morgan and I to make him brownie mix after dinner tonight. While Morgan was doing some initial mixing, she sprayed some powder on the stove top. I then did the same thing on a smaller scale 3 seconds later. The conversation went a little something like this...

Me: "See? Everyone makes mistakes, even mommies...and daddies..."
Morgan: "And Morgans..."
Me: "And Marys too, right?"
Morgan, with a look of shock and hilarity: "NOOOOOOO THEY DOOOOOON'T! Marys don't make mistakes!"
Me: "They don't???"
Morgan: "Nope, Marys don't make mistakes." That will be a gem to tell Mary tomorrow afternoon when I pick the girls up. :)

And then some pictures of the last few days. I feel like I could filter the 9,000 pictures I routinely post on Facebook of my kids but I feel it's a good way for those back home in WI to see what they/we're up to. Either way, enjoy. Maybe I'll put a few on anyway. Or all of them. Geez.

Before leaving for her first basketball practice! So awesome!

This baby LOVESLOVESLOVES getting itches.

(gentle fingernails running over her back)

Cutest.Big.Girl.Ever.

Yup. That's Hadley. Sliding all over and missin' a sock.

Just looking at the ball, no barfing baby hangover.

Using her Jake sword/handle/magnifying glass to check out the map

11/06/12 - first time she really wrote her name on her own.

She will now be called Moorgan. :)

"I did it! I ate the biggest baby dinner EVAH!"

Hey, Hadley. There was a time change. FYI.

Morgan + time change + put her to bed late 2 nights in a row = done. She's got it, even if she's up earlier a bit the past few mornings.

Hadley + time change + put her to bed late 2 nights in a row = epic fail. She's been up at 5:45 or so all mornings even when we put her to bed so late she could turn inside out to sleep. Learn, baby. Learn.