And she's off!

Hadley, that is. The past few weeks before this one, Hadley's expressive language skills began taking off. They've continued this week as well (she's saying "shhhh" for shoes, etc) but I've really noticed her receptive skills exploding this week, too.

My throat really hurt yesterday, I was tired, and didn't have it in me to make a great dinner. So...thank you, HyVee, for providing my family with yet another healthy rotisserie chicken that I didn't have to cook/prep/get anything dirty preparing. We got home, settled, and I asked the girls if they wanted to watch a show (something I haven't let them do in AGES upon getting home b/c hello, they should be able to play and not watch TV). Of course I received an enthusiastic YES and turned on the much requested Diego (the animal rescuer, in case you were wondering). Morgan watched it like usual but Hadley was so enthralled that Morgan and I were yelling her name (she's got this new thing to stand thisclose to the TV) and she didn't even flinch. I tried sitting her in the middle of the floor and directed her to "sit by the baby" and plopped a baby next to her. Nope. She grabbed the baby and showed her how close she could REALLY get to the TV just to see better. Fail.

So finally I gave up whatever I was pretending to do, grabbed Hadley, and plopped her next to me on the recliner, where she continued NOT moving. Morgan joined us. I've never seen Hadley that still voluntarily while awake ever. She sat for the entire episode and didn't even flinch while I was playing with my phone (something she's always dying to get her little hands on). It was bliss, I got to snuggle with my girls for a half hour, and was able to rest a bit.

A few Hadley funnies:

1. Last night I was pouring Hadley some milk while she danced around and giggled like it was me waiting for a bottle of wine to be uncorked after having a baby (ie. no wine for 10 months). All of a sudden she started mooing like a starving cow - turns out she saw the cow on the side of the milk carton. Hilarious. We mooed together and then she drank 6oz of milk in 10 seconds. 
2. Hadley took a digger last night over the vacuum extension hose and got a big, fat, bloody lip. Nothing the iPod couldn't cure. Best.Parents.Ever.
3. Size...I *think* she's growing. She's certainly getting taller b/c her 18 month pants (most) don't hang down over her toes, but last time she was in a few weeks ago for being sick, she hadn't gained much weight (I think still in the 21s). Also, she still only has 8 teeth and has lots of room in her size 3 shoes. This one's an odd duck - I was used to Morgan looking at a pair of shoes and outgrowing them...same with pants and other clothes...but she's well into her 18 month clothes, no more 12 month things left out, so maybe there's hope that all the new 2T stuff I got her for the summer WILL work out?!? A mommy who spent money on cute things can hope. ;-)

A few Morgan bits:

1. Morgan gets to go to a birthday party for a good coworker friend of mine's daughter (I never know how to write that grammatically correct) who is turning 4. She's so very excited that she sang Happy Birthday to Campbell already while I was doing her hair this morning. Added bonus? Moms are all but required to wear sweats. My favorite.
2. She's sad today b/c her Grandma Sherri and Grandpa Al aren't able to come visit b/c Grandpa's sick. :( But we have things to do that are fun and with the new snow, all bets are on playing/freezing outside all weekend and lots of crying when it's time to come in. I'm way pumped. 
3. Morgan has been talking a lot lately about not wanting to go to sleep alone at night. When I offer to sleep in her bed FOR her, I receive an emphatic no. She's so weird. 
4. And last but not least, we made our own family night at the Y Tuesday night. Morgan got a new, small basketball with a gift card from Toys 'R Us over the weekend so we wanted to go try it out. Hadley also brought along the small basketball she got for her birthday from Adam. We found an empty racquetball court, grabbed an adult basketball to mess with, and let the girls go crazy. Crazy it was. Hadley pretty much just chased hers and Morgan all over the place and was enthralled at times with the glass wall. She also LOVED to watch the people on the court next to us when we went out of our court for one reason or another. Morgan played and played and ran the track with me for a while too - and kept up pretty well! It started getting close to time to leave and we prepped them with time warnings (ie. 5 minutes left, 2 minutes...) and then when it was time to go she totally melted down. She begged and begged to go back and play basketball and we were the worst parents ever for making her leave on a weeknight to get to bed. Needless to say, both girls had fun and it's going to be great to do this with them on a routine basis as they get older. And if I do say so myself, when not defended or impeded by anything, I still got moves. LOL I kid, I kid.

 Have a great weekend, all!