Miss Hadleigh Claire is Two and a Half

Little Miss Hadleigh Claire turned two and a half yesterday. She is growing and learning each new day and it is fun to observe her learn and interact with the world.

She still seems to be on the shy side, though we are daily overcoming that with pep talks about greeting people. She will now at least do a little wave of the hand when she sees someone, as opposed to giving them a stare down. I try to give her lots of warning, so for example, yesterday as she was eating breakfast before church I told her we were going to church and that she was going to get to see all of her friends. She gets really excited and immediately begins talking about her buddies Brennan and Jacob, and there are also other random friends she mentions, like Luke (who apparently now talks about Hadleigh too). I knew that she was going to see some of her "big girl" friends (which means my friends who love her almost as much as I do), so we went through the list of who else she might see...Jess and Courtney and she will go down her list talking about her big girl friends. And I remind her that it is always important to greet her big girl friends with either a wave or a hello. She did well yesterday and was running around giving folks a general wave, or sticking out her tongue...not sure where she picked that up...um...Dave?

Speaking of that, a couple weeks ago Jess came over to watch the girls while we attended one night of Living in Grace (a recent leadership training at Intown). I had been telling HC that Jess was coming over and she was getting really excited, which usually happens when I tell her someone is coming over. Usually when the person actually makes an entrance she will not look at them or greet them, but become shy for a few minutes...however this time when Jess walked in the door she screamed JESS and then got off the couch and started running toward her, as if to give a hug. She got almost to Jess and then paused like she realized what she was doing and thought better of it, but with some coaxing she followed through and gave Jess a big hug...we were all amazed, but hoping that will continue.

Hadleigh loves Annelise. They will sit in the playroom and just laugh and laugh and play together, so it seems for the time they mutually enjoy each others company. The other day Annelise was fussing and Hadleigh went over to pat her back and tell her it's ok. I then watched this hilarious transaction...Hadleigh looked at Annelise and said, "Oh Baby, do you want a cheerios?" (which always makes Annelise quiet) then, "Ok Baby, say 'more please'" then she took Annelise's hand and helped Annelise rub her tummy (which is the sign for more), then "Good job Baby, here you go" and she handed Annelise a handful of Cheerios. Hilarious!

She is becoming more independant and wants to help choose her own clothes, including panties (by the way I hate that word, but it is so cute when HC says "panties" so we continue to use it). Every morning I ask who she wants wear...Curious George, Elmo, Zoe, Minnie Mouse, Tinkerbell, it does get tiresome, but if she is in a good mood upon waking up it generally goes fast. She also likes to dress herself, and the only problems she seems to have is getting socks on, so that is fun to watch.

We learned some new things about the little Miss this month. It has now become completely clear that she is really attached to home. I thought that one of the reasons she struggled to sleep while we were in California was the time change, and while I think that did not help things, I have also come to realize that she just sleeps better in her own bed. I mean, who doesn't? However, even our week trip to Asheville seemed to cause massive amounts of turmoil in the sleeping area. This was difficult to handle. She woke up in the middle of the night crying several times, she struggled to take naps, she woke up early, it was a struggle. And then that made all the rest of the day REALLY pleasant let me tell you. That is kind of a bummer overall. Of course we are still going to take trips, but I am going to have to weigh these things more into consideration when we do travel.

Of course now that we are home she is back to sleeping 14 hours at night and 3-4 hours in the afternoon. And honestly, she NEEDS that much sleep. She sleeps more than Annelise, though honestly Annelise could use some more sleep. HC is a different child when she has slept well.

Our church schedule has switched around and we are now attending the first service and will have our fellowship the second hour. I am actually glad for this because Hadleigh will be joining us in the big service for singing. She LOVES singing, but when we attended the second hour I did not feel comfortable dropping her off for nursery, picking her up in the middle and then dropping her back off. She would not have handled that well at all. Now she comes with us immediately and before the offering we took her down to her class. This happened for the first time yesterday. I actually did not get to be with her and Dave because I was greeting in the nursery (since I am a room mom this year). However Dave said she LOVED it. He said that in between each song she said, "In Christ Alone?" I cannot wait until she gets to sing that in the big service, or any of the other songs she knows.

She begins preschool this week. Last week was actually the first week of school, but we missed it since we were on vaca. I am excited to see how she does, and I am sure she is going to love it. Some of the same kids from her class last year will be there this year too, and of course her buddies Brennan, Jacob and Anne Marie will be with her too. Her teacher is wonderful and I look forward to hearing all about it. We actually get to do carpool this year, so I drop her off and pick her up and never have to get out of the car. That will be super since I have Annelise, but I am wondering how she will do when they go to take her out of the car this week. Time will tell!

One hap that I forgot to mention...the little Miss is swinging in a big girl swing. She has occasionally asked about swinging in a non-baby swing but I have always ignored the requests. Or I would let her sit in it but really would not push her. Imagine my surprise when I happen upon Dave and Hadleigh at our place in NC, and she is swinging, not only in a big girl swing, but on a plank of wood swing and flying higher than Dave's 6'2" head. Yikes! But she is amazing and apparently gets the whole "hold on" thing. So she has graduated and now gets to go "real high" in a big swing. Who knew?