Nine Months

Hadley turned nine months old on Sunday, May 25th!

At her nine month doctor's appointment, Hadley weighed an even 20 pounds (Collins weighs an even 40!) and she is 27 inches long. She's in the 76th percentile for weight and 21st percentile for height.  She wears mostly size 12 month clothes (18 month pajamas!) She still takes about 6 ounces of formula and is sporadic on eating food. Lately she's been kind of off because of how much she's been sick or up at night or both. When she does eat baby food, her favorite is green beans! On 6/7 she fed herself a bite of cheese ravioli for the first time!

She's more and more interested in what we eat and drink, and wants a sip of water every time I drink some around her. She is starting to wave bye-bye and still says "da-da" a lot. She knows to look at Collins and me when we ask where we are,and has recently started saying "ma-ma" some (5/31)! She's close to saying "baby" and "pa-pa."

She has just recently started dancing when she stands (another trick!) and has done the last part of pat-a-cake where she "throws him in the pan"! She just doesn't do that part consistently :) She can clap (5/27), and loves to do so for herself! She has learned to shake her head "no" (6/1) and it is the sweetest thing...for now. It takes her whole little body to make her head shake!

Hadley loves bath time (still) and has figured out how to splash, splash, splash! She is also pretty hard to bathe at this point, and even harder to get a diaper and clothes on after her bath. She's got places to go! Speaking of which, she usually falls asleep in the car seat anytime we go somewhere. This trait is VERY different from what her brother did/does! She hums herself to sleep. Jake said she sounds like a little bumblebee burrowing :)

We had high hopes for her tubes. So far they haven't made a big difference in her sleeping. In fact, she woke up four times Saturday night. I did some research and learned that sometimes there is discomfort a few days after this procedure when the doctor has had to drain some stuff. We have kept Tylenol in her last night and today and she seems to be a little better tonight. Maybe soon she'll be able to rest better.

As I always say, she is a sweet, sweet baby who loves her family! She is genuinely excited when she sees each one of us. And we are always so excited to see her too. She is a precious jewel!

Grammy spent the weekend with us!

Building Progress

A few weeks ago I was able to take a tour of our new office space since two originally invited people were not available and I happened to be close by for an invite. ha!

The Ferg (student center) is going to be SO different than it was even last semester. The building was built in the 70s, so lots of alumni will be shocked when they come back during football season!

We are scheduled to move back sometime in August and we cannot wait!
 

Looking from the Career Center balcony out the new main entrance of the building. To the left is one of two fire places in the lobby area!

Travis and Mary Loyd pretending to be architects.

This is our new conference room with a drop-down ceiling

Rockin' the hard hats ;)

I think this will be my office. The view from this angle is of another part of the building, but who cares.

Looking out from Career Center front door.

Tubes for Hadley

Our little princess had surgery this morning to get tubes put in her ears. We used the same surgeon as we did with Collins because we love Dr. Loftin!

We had to be at the surgical center at 6am and, of course, she could not have anything to eat or drink after midnight. That made me really nervous because she is used to eating when she wakes up during the night. Ashley and a few other friends advised us to wake her up at 11 or 11:30 to make sure she gets in one last feeding. Being the great mom I am, I set my clock for 11pm and slept right through it. Granny says that's because God knew we needed sleep more. I like that perspective.

Hadley woke up anyway twice during the night. I rocked her the first time and prayed and prayed that she wouldn't be hungry or need a bottle to go back to sleep. God is good! Jake rocked her the second time and had a little trouble getting her back down (she pops back up after laying her down), but she finally slept. We woke her up right before getting in the car this morning.

Collins went with us until after Hadley came out of surgery (around 8am), then Jake took him to preschool where he enjoyed a day of pizza and bouncy houses. In true Collins fashion, he talked to everyone in the waiting room and on the staff. :)

 Dr. Loftin told us to expect surgery to last about 10 minutes. It was a little longer with Collins because he also removed adenoids, but said Hadley was too young/little to do that. So, when it had been 35 minutes we started to get a little anxious.

Finally, Dr. Lofin came out and told us he had to suction some pus and blood from behind her ears, then put in some drops to help with the swelling. He said he didn't know how she ever stopped screaming and that if our ears looked like hers did we'd be miserable. :( Poor baby girl. I said I wish we had not waited nine months, but he assured me we couldn't have done anything much sooner; six months is usually the earliest they recommend tubes.

Hadley was pretty ill when we got to her after surgery. I tried to feed her a bottle, but she was just mad. She pretty much cried and fussed the whole time Jake took Collins to school, then fell asleep on her daddy as soon as he got back. She slept through us putting her in the car, and slept more on my chest after we got home. She was a little fussy throughout the day, but felt a lot better post afternoon nap. She is asleep now and we'll see if tonight will be any better than it has been being! Teething may still be an obstacle, but I'm sure her ears feel a ton better.

Thank you to all who prayed for our sweet girl last night and this morning!

All smiles going back for surgery!

Sweet baby :)

Not quite as sweet here... ;)

Finally getting some rest.

Saturday Fun

Jake went fishing with his dad last weekend so the kids and I had the weekend to ourselves.

That statement makes it sound like I was looking forward to having them by myself for the weekend, but honestly I was a little nervous. You never know what kind of moods you will get, or who will be sick. But God gave us a wonderful weekend filled with good moods, good weather, and naps!

I took them to the Quad for a Chick-fil-A picnic lunch and the weather was perfect. Collins got to ride his bike and Hadley enjoyed her stroll. Then we went to Steel City Pops and Collins chose a strawberry popsicle that he took forever to eat enjoyed very much! We went home for a nap and Hadley decided she didn't really need one, then we went to eat at Jalapeno's when Collins woke up. After dinner we stopped by the neighborhood playground and let them play and swing. I wish I had taken my camera out of the car because Hadley LOVED the swings!

Love my sweet babies :)

Loved the grass!

Didn't realize I took a pic of a squirrel!

Standing on the Mound

Gorgas library

He had to go, obviously.

Preschool Sunday

Sunday, May 18, 2014

This is a bow! haha

Planting and Cooking

Jake and Collins have planted some tomatoes, squash, and okra for us this summer! Collins loves helping in the yard. And playing in dirt.

Lately, Collins has wanted to make his own breakfast on weekends...with minimal supervision. Here he is cooking cinnamon toast, but twice he has also made scrambled eggs. He's cracked a total of about 8 eggs and has yet to get a piece of shell in the bowl. He takes after his dad.

I was trying to capture his pretty eyes while the sun was coming in on them, but he couldn't stop himself from eating or making a face!