Little precious moments: to remember

I love the way you:

*Shake your little head 'yes' or 'no'.

*Call your pacifier 'Bee'

*Say 'Bye-bye! See ya!' 

*I love the way you say "DORA! DORA!" 

*I love that when I ask you if your name is "Ruthie" you say yes. Not only do you say yes, but when I call you Ruthie, to get your attention, you actually respond to it. Love my little Ruthie girl. 

*I love that when we brush your hair you whisper "pretty, pretty!" 

*I love that you are very particular about what songs you like to listen to when we drive in the car. You're current favorite is the Pitch Perfect sound track. You love HEY MICKEY!

*I love the way you say "Banana." It's everybody's favorite.

*I love when you go down the slide you yell "weeeeeee!!!" 

*I love the way you hold your hands to pray. 

*I love the way you try and say "Love you," but most the time it just comes out as "YOUUUU!" 

...I love everything you do. 

18 months: little love letters

-Growth:
*You are 24 pounds.
*You are exactly 2 ft. tall. 
*You are wearing 18 or 24 month sized clothes.
*You are wearing size 4 or 5 shoes, depending on the shoe of course. 

-Eating: I hate to say this, but I feel like you're becoming a little bit of a picky eater, like Mommy.
*When we go to work, 3 times a week, you don't really eat "meals." You just like to snack all day.
*Some of your favorite snacks include: pretzels, popcorn, chips...anything crunchy really.
*Another one of your favorite snacks is mixed fruit. You're obsessed with eating a bowl of strawberries, grapes, and sliced banana.
*Your newest discovery is yogurt. You really enjoy it. I'm not sure if it's because you really like it or if it's because it has Dora on the package?
*You also recently discovered granola cereal. You love to snack on that as well.

-Sleeping:
*You still love to sleep.
*You usually take a nap from about 1:30 or 2 until 4. Sometimes, if you're really sleep, we have to wake you up at 5:30!
*You still like to start getting ready for bed around 8 pm.
*You still love to have Daddy give you a bath before bed.
*Something that we started when you turned one year old is: after Daddy give you a bath, he gets you in your jammies and ready for bed. Then we all sit in your room and we read a different Bible story every night. Then we pray. I taught you how to"open, shut them" before prayer. I think Bible and prayer have become your favorite part of the night. Sometimes you ask to do it in the middle of the day before nap time. Side note: We have already read through your Children's Bible one full time since we started. Now we started over and are almost half way, again! It's the only book you will sit still and actually let me read to you.

-Developments/Events: It's been about six months since I've done a little love letter, but most of your events have been documented in other posts:
*Started going to "Kidz Klub"
*Went to the pumpkin patch
*Thanksgiving at Grandma and Punkin's house
*First family trip to Branson, MO
*Christmas
*Experienced your first "real" illness. Sure, you've had a few ear infections, but that's no biggie. On 12/28/2012 you came down with a stomach virus. You had lots of vomiting and diarrhea (TMI!) Naturally, you so lovingly passed this virus along to Mommy and Daddy. WOW! It was killer. I felt even worse for you, after I knew how horrible it was to us. Luckily, it passed after a few days.
*You've gotten most of your teeth now. You're still getting your molars.
*You've started brushing your teeth. You like doing this. But you really like the spitting part at the end.
*You discovered how to stick your tongue out. You think that's pretty funny.

My sweet Hadley girl, it has been so fun grow and change. You've changed so much just since you turned one. You learn things so quickly and are so smart. You are so funny. You are usually easy to please and easy to get along with. We are best friends. You even say so :)

I'll love you forever and ever. I promise!

Love, 

Mommy

Christmas 2012

PREFACE: GET READY FOR PICTURE OVERLOAD!

I'm a little behind on posting pictures of Christmas this year, but this is more than I can say for Thanksgiving. Naturally, I forgot to take a single picture during Thanksgiving :-/ I'm also behind on this post because all three of us have been sick. Like deathly, down for the count, SICK! There is a nasty little stomach flu going around here and it has been horrible. Today is the first day, in four days, I've started feeling better.

So here we are:

Hadley's BIG Santa present: Kitchen and PLAY ROOM!

Hadley's first reaction seeing her new play room. I think she loved it! Look at that little tongue!

Hadley checking out her kitchen. She is obsessed with cooking in it.

Nanny Wanda and Papa Ronnie bought Hadley this toy shelf for Christmas. We filled it with the toys she had already. Obviously, they seemed brand new! :)

Santa also left one more present under the Christmas tree: laptop! She walked in the room and saw it and immediately dropped to her belly to check it out.

One of the gifts Mommy and Daddy got her. Baby girl loves to sing. Naturally, she got a microphone.

After Christmas at our house, we head over to Lee's parent's and grandparent's houses. 

First stop: Nammy and Papa Brian's!

Nammy and Papa got Hadley a stroller for her baby dolls. She went right to it before she even knew it was really for her.

Nammy and Papa with their little bitys. Kind of blurry, but it was a "seize the moment" kind of picture.

Lee with his "dad hat" as he calls it. He has been wanting a hat like this for the summer in the garden.

Hadley Ruth thought she needed to try it on too!

Cousin love. My joy!

Then we went next door for Christmas at Nanny Carol and Papaw Wayne's: 

Leslie giving Nanny Carol her quilt that she (Leslie) made. The quilt is made from Carol's father's old pearl snap shirts and quilt left behind from Carol's sister, Sue. Tears all around! So sweet!

Hadley's fancy fur coat from Nanny and Papaw. Hadley girl loves coats.

Well that was our Christmas, in a nutshell. We really enjoyed Christmas this year. Hadley is at such a fun age to enjoy unwrapping gifts and seeing her excitement over her new things. She is still very much enjoying her play room and especially her kitchen. There is a great feature of her kitchen: the stove lights up and makes "sizzling and cooking" noises. When she turns it on she always warns me, "HOT! HOT!" Sweet girl! She is spending most of her time either cooking us food in her kitchen or sitting at her new table and chairs (also from Nanny Carol and Papaw Wayne) playing on her laptop. She is still as busy as ever.