The Kiddos Update - Part 2

Hadley's turn.

Oh, Hadley. This chic is growing up and it's so much fun. She is now 3 years and 9 months old. She's pretty cool, just like her older brother.

She is definitely more carefree than her brother. Is it that she's a girl, is it that she's the second-born, is it her age, is it just her personality, or a combo of all of the above? Not sure, but she is what she is and it's fun discovering all of her.

Hadley happenings:

*While Grady compliments me by telling me that I'm soft, Hadley always looks at me and gasps and says, "Wow, Mama...you're pretty like a princess." Cuteness. By the way, the word 'pretty' is never said without the phrase 'like a princess' following right behind. :)

*Anything that happened in the past (yesterday and beyond) was "uh uddah day" (the other day).

*She is obsessed with "lips" (anything of the chapstick/lip gloss nature).

*She says 'what' and 'God' like she's British or an old Southern black preacher..."wawt" and "Gawd." It's really funny. She also says 'Mama' like that sometimes..."Mawmaw" (but not pronounced like the grandmother Mawmaw...remember, British).

*She is super obedient and easy these days. I tell her something and she says 'O.K.' Even if she really, really wants to do something else, she says, "O.K. Mama." Ahh, so nice.

*She says really grown-up things these days like, when I ask her a question, "Not really" or "I don't think so." :)

*Although she loves to play and get dirty, she also is very, very girly. Not disgustingly, annoyingly girly, but just cute girly. She loves her sparkly shoes. She loves to brush her hair and have her hair fixed. It doesn't have to be perfect (thank goodness), but she likes the process of picking out what she wants (braids, ponytails, barrettes, etc.). But, she's not a primper, so it's nothing obsessive. She looks in the mirror maybe once a day...she says "pretty" (she's got good self-esteem), and then she's done. :)

*She loves to play with her babies and take care of them. She also loves her real babies here (Eissa still to some extent and Cass) and is really calm and sweet in taking care of them.

*She will eat most anything, although recently has developed a distaste for one particular food. The first 3 years of her life she loved raisins. Now...not so much. She says they hurt her mouth. Joel told her that was silly...they don't hurt her mouth. But, I can relate...they probably hurt the taste buds part of her mouth. :)

*She's really, really affectionate. Every time we are reading books, for instance, she hooks her arms through mine and smashes her whole body up against my side. Every time I sit down by her, she rubs my shoulder and we have to nuzzle. It's sweet.

*She's very creative. For instance, when doing school, she always has to add a certain 'flair.' :) Like yesterday...she was supposed to be putting a circle around something. I looked over and she had started making the circle frilly (not just a straight-lined circle). I asked her why she was doing it that way. She said, "Because I want to make it pretty." She thinks outside the box...literally (ha ha ha...let me explain). "Uh uddah day" we were doing school and she was supposed to draw a line from the rabbit to the carrot. Both items were inside a box with lines sticking up randomly inside the box. She couldn't pick up the pencil and she couldn't touch the random lines on her way from the rabbit to the carrot. Hmmm...I told her those two rules (like the book said), but didn't think to tell her that she couldn't go outside the box to get from the rabbit to the carrot. She nodded her head and smiled letting me know she understood the instructions, then promptly moved her pencil from the rabbit to the carrot, without picking up the pencil and without touching the lines...very easily since she had gone around all the obstacles by just going outside the box. She looked at me like, O.K., that was easy...what's next? Cracked me up.

*Grady can get really excited about things, but overall he is pretty low key. Hadley is not. She is very expressive. I think Grady loves that about her. They're liked a married couple...balancing each other out. :) Ha ha ha.

*She has recently started sitting with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap...shaking her foot ever so slightly. :) Not because she is trying to act grown-up or prissy, but just because it has come naturally for her. It's not one of those things where she's said, "Look how I'm sitting Mama" and made a deal out of it. No, it's just one of those things I noticed one day...she sits like that sometimes...and then I look back over and she's stretching her foot up to her head or putting her foot in her lap, playing with her shoes. :) Funny.

*We might have to find a way to get this chic in a dance class. She's quite the dancer.

*She is a very loyal friend and loves to hang out with her friends (she doesn't call them by name usually...just 'my friends')...Sara, Audrey, Maira, etc. It's really cute. She is super social and remains a leader (whereas Grady is more of a follower...although all of his friends are way older which I'm sure has something to do with it...that little factor has never stopped Hadley, but does Grady).

It's so fun to watch Grady and Hadley together, how they interact, how they are different and how they are the same. It's such an honor to see the little adult female (I'm not sure why, but I don't really like the terms 'woman' or 'lady'...they both conjur up images in my head of not cool things) she is becoming, day by day. So, so fun. Can't wait to watch it all.

Now pictures and a little live action. By the way, had a major computer crash last Friday. Joel spent all weekend recovering our computer...thankfully we have it again. But, all the pictures/videos that we'd taken since we moved here to the apartment were lost. Sadness!! Anyway, here are some that we do have. (I have no idea why the captions aren't lining up with the pictures...I've been doing this blog thing a long time and know what I'm doing in that area, but today for some reason it isn't working...sorry.)



Hadley and Eissa taking care of their babies.
Loves Cass.
Hadley's swimsuit the other day. Eissa did have on a swim diaper...don't worry...not totally nude the whole time.
See what I mean about the legs? :)

We went over to some friends' house last night. Hadley's little friend put make-up on her. Too funny (also seen in that first picture at the beginning of this post...taken today). Hadley apparently doesn't even know the term 'make-up'...she just said that her friend drew on her with a marker. Oh dear...we take Christmas card pictures in a few days. :) Hilarious.


11-16-08 Hadley dancing around...Hi 5 style.

11-18-08 Hadley's eyes.