15 Months Old

Some of my favorite pictures of Hadley from December 2008.

1st Concert: Michael W. Smith Christmas concert (went with Aunt Midge and Noah)
Grammy snapped this photo of Hollywood Hadley on Christmas morning
Her first car (received on Christmas morning)

Crazy after-bath hairdo (a nightly ritual if Daddy's the one giving her the bath)

Soooo excited to go swimming at the Rec Center with Daddy


Modeling the latest in toddler ski hat fashion
Mama and Little Miss Blue Eyes

"Simon and Garfunkel" do a Burger King Commercial

Is it weird that this commercial cracks me up? I love the "HA HA HA" part! (It's not enough to make me buy one of those burgers, though. Mushrooms and swiss cheese--NASTY.)

Oh, That Camel...

Adrian's parents, Michelea and John, currently live in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. (Dubai is the state you always hear about on the news that's part of the UAE.) Michelea was here shortly after Hadley was born and John arrived shortly before Christmas. We all received several Christmas presents from the UAE, but I think their favorite presents to give were the camels to the two smallest grandkids, Timothy and Hadley. Now, this isn't just your ordinary camel--it's a camel with the Dubai flag on it and it also plays some weird Arabic music. Lovely. Tim is 8 months older than Hadley so Benj warned us what we were in for. Tim LOVED that camel, and was just around the right age when he received it from Shell and Boo, who thought it was hilarious to be able to entertain your grandkids and annoy your sons all at the same time!

Fast forward to now...Hadley has discovered that she loves music and loves to dance whenever she hears it. Her version of dancing is a combination of some headbanging while holding up her "jazz hands" and it's so cute! So on top of the dancing and music, she's discovered the camel in her toy box and she figured out that it plays music. She can't get the music started herself so she'll bring it over to Adrian or I and practically throw it at us. Then the whining starts. She'll whine and whine until we start the music for her and then all is right with the world! She's a goof!

(Normally she freaks out quite a bit more, but I guess she was being reserved because I was videotaping her.)


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Ike

Hadley's Professional Pictures

Sunday

Sunday

We had a lazy day today. Gus has been acting super weird lately and really doesn't want anything to do with us. I don't know if it's a delayed reaction to Hadley or what. He spends ALL day outside and rarely comes in to say hi. The weather has been a bit cooler and is more fall-like, which he loves. He likes to curl up in the chair on the porch to nap. He is more of a cold-weather dog it seems, so maybe that's it, but we're just not sure. We've been trying to pay extra special attention to him by taking him on more walks, but the minute we get back in the house he heads back outside. It really isn't like him...

So Adrian thought it'd be a good idea to take him to a dog park. I dressed Hadley in her Cowboys gear and BabyLegs. Adrian hates the BabyLegs, but I think they're super cute and are perfect for such an outfit. Hadley may agree with her Dad, judging by the look on her face.

Hadley is at least 20 pounds now but not exactly a year old yet. But we decided that no one is going to be pulling us over requesting to see proof of that, so we put her new carseat in Adrian's car and this was her first trip forward-facing.
Once again, she doesn't look thrilled. She was so sleepy and zoned out, but refused to fall asleep. I kept wondering if she was getting a bit carsick, but I don't know. Not sure what her deal was.

We headed to Longmont and tried to find the dog park. No such luck, but we ended up finding a park with lots of trails and that seemed to suit us all just fine. TWO HOURS LATER we ended back at the parking lot where we started. Adrian thought it would loop back around, but it never did. So as far as we had walked out to this lake, then we had to walk all the way back. I wasn't prepared for such a long walk and was as winded as Gus was by the end of it. I had worn a blister on my heel and Adrian was sweet and let me wear his flip-flops. He said it was his version of chilvary, as in him laying a coat over a puddle for me. Made me laugh. Gus cooled off in a creek and was a much happier camper after that.

After such a long walk, we get home and everyone is pooped. Put Hadley in her crib and then Adrian and I crashed on our respective couches. Gus went back outside.

Adrian gave Hadley her bath tonight. Her first bath mohawk (stupid camera and stupid blurry pictures):

Hadley's Professional Pictures

The last time we had professional pictures done of Hadley was when she was 3-months-old. I've always taken a lot of pictures of her and emailed them out, but I've never been very good at printing and mailing them to relatives. So family--you're in luck! Pictures will be in your mailbox very soon! Here are a few of our favorites:

Ike

Ike is going to be a name that's going to be remembered for a while. I've been glued to the TV and the Houston Chronicle since the week of when Hurricane Ike made landfall on Sept. 12th. Adrian says I'm just a disaster junkie, but he doesn't know what it's like growing up along the Gulf Coast and how EVERYONE is glued to the tv during hurricane season. They taught us how to track hurricanes starting in elementary school! And then I remember at the local grocery store (we usually went to Kroger's) and at the end of the checkout stand they always had hurricane tracking charts posted there, too. So when it looked like Ike was headed straight for Galveston, I started getting worried.

Mom and Dad live in League City, on Clear Lake, which flows out into Galveston Bay. (Here's what I never understood: isn't a lake a body of water surrounded by land on all sides? So then how can it be called Clear Lake if it flows out into the bay? Do I not have the definition of lake correct?) My parents never felt like they were going to flood. On the street side of their house, Dad said they were about 17 feet above sea level. Here in Colorado all the town signs have the elevation on them as opposed to the population of the town. I think the elevation, or how high above sea level you are, may serve the people on coastal towns better than it does here! I digress...so Dad didn't think they were going to flood but Mom was nervous. I think honestly she was just tired of me calling and worrying and wondering if they were going to evacuate, so I think she convinced Dad to go and head to Dana's in Blanco (San Antonio). Mom did tell me that she told one of her friends that she was going to evacuate "to ease my kids' minds." She did it for us! I'm glad they did...

My friend Jamie and her family decided to ride it out at their house in Dickinson. She made me a nervous wreck! I was just so nervous because the news kept talking about at least a 20-foot storm surge and she said their house was 22 feet above sea level. So if that were the case, then they'd have at least 2 feet of water in their house. My friend Tif and her family (who live in the same neighborhood as Jamie) had evacuated to Granmommie's in Mineola.

So Ike hit land around 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning as a category 2 hurricane and thankfully there wasn't a 20-foot storm surge. Mom and Dad didn't flood but their neighbors said the water came up into about halfway in the backyard. That means it came up and over the bulkhead. Yikes. They have a second story back porch on the backside of the house and those two bedrooms that are on the porch have double-french doors. Dad thinks that the 100 mph winds and driving rain came right through those doors because the carpeting was soaked. They had to pull up the carpeting in those rooms and they have peeling paint. Then there were shingles everywhere so the roof was a bit damaged. They've already had some help with getting the roof repaired and the carpeting has been been pulled up from the rooms. Thankfully, no trees were down. They were without power for a few days, but they've been really lucky.

Jamie's house didn't flood. They didn't have much damage thankfully. Tif's fence is down at her house, but not much damage there either.

I think more of the damage happened in the older neighborhoods in Dickinson. They've got these really old pine and oak trees all around town, and it seems that at least every house or every other house has some trees down and/or trees on their house. Found these pictures: Hurricane Ike--Dickinson.

Galveston is a mess and I just can't imagine what it must be like to see it in person. The pictures online are scary enough. Those poor people of Bolivar Peninsula and Gilcrest...

Seeing all the coverage made me so homesick. Probably sounds a bit weird, but I think that part of TX will always be home and I recognized so many of the towns and landmarks on tv. I grew up there...I can't say that I'd really want to move back there, but it always will hold a special place in my heart.

Hooray for Footie Pajamas!

Colorado can't make up its mind if it's Summer still or almost Fall. The trees certainly think it's Fall because the leaves are starting to turn colors. The Peech girls certainly know it's Fall because football is on at our house 24/7 now--college (UT) and pro (Dallas Cowboys). Fall means time for footie pajamas for Hadley! I bought some for her probably at least 6 months ago and I remember thinking that I couldn't even imagine her wearing these at 12-months-old. They looked like they were way too long. Well here we are, and these footie pajamas aren't going to last long. Sheesh. Guess I need to invest in some 18-month ones!

Lately she only plays around on the first step. Ever since she fell from the second one, she's avoided learning how to climb them. For now.


She's so proud of herself when she walks with this toy! She'll push it across one side of the living room, and bang it on whatever door or piece of furniture nearby until you go over there to turn them around. Then she repeats it going across to the other side of the room. Fun game!


Walking with Daddy


Rest of the pictures (for the grandparents) here.

11 Reasons Why I Love My HadleyBean

Dear Hadley,
One day you'll realize what a slacker your Mama can be at times. I don't have one single page filled out in your baby book, but I do try to jot down the big milestones here on this blog. Saturday you turned 11 months old and here I am 2 days later thinking about writing you a letter telling you 11 reasons why I love you--11 reasons for every month you are old. Remember when I said I'm a slacker? Yeah, let's just not bring up why I didn't write you a letter in the previous 10 months!

1. I love your smile. Everyone says you have a smile that just lights up the room. It's true.

2. I love how when I pick you up out of your crib you will give me a huge grin and then pat my shoulder. I'm a patter when I hug so I think you've picked up on that.

3. I love how you've learned how to say Dada AND Mama (finally). Sometimes when you are ready to get up from your nap I hear you saying MamaMamaMama on the monitor. So cute!

4. I love your chubby cheeks. They're just so kissable! Your Daddy and I can't resist chowing down on them all day long.

5. I love your little "doydoydoydoy" babbling. You have this certain voice and babble that always cracks us up.

6. I love how you get a kick out of bath time. We wonder how long you'd stay in there if we let you. You are such a water girl. Maybe someday you'll be a snow skier AND a water skier!

7. I love how you're so easy-going (most of the time). We realized we're not the smartest parents sometimes, and we were discussing when to take away your pacifiers, and we had realized that Kim never gave you one during your naps at her house. Doh! I took away the one clipped to your car seat strap last week and you hardly noticed. Today I decided you were going cold turkey and you didn't have any pacifiers with either of your naps today. Then tonight I didn't let you have one before you went to bed. I guess it was a test. You only fussed for a total of 10 minutes before you passed out. You passed! I really blame the fussiness on teething more than the pacifiers, but see #8 for that.

8. I love that teething isn't too stressful--yet. (Word is molars are killer. Just a warning for you.) Easy for me to say, right, when I'm not the one pushing those little razorblades through my gums! It was just a couple weeks ago when I was talking to Gramps about you having 7 teeth. Then all of a sudden this week, there's tooth #8 on the bottom! When did that happen? I guess that's why the slight fever, diaper rash, and fussiness at night, but it's all very tolerable and manageable. You are using your crib rail as a teether a LOT lately, which it's irking me to see all those teeth marks, but I'm not sure yet what to do about it. I tried to buy some plastic thing to go around the railing but it didn't fit. Guess I have to find another alternative. Overall, you're a trooper with teething!

9. I love how you love Gus. You're starting to realize he's going to be your partner in crime. You share your toys with him and he shares his with you. These past couple days he's been following you around everywhere and constantly licking you. It was driving me CRAZY but you didn't mind one bit. I think you and he have a bond and some unspoken language. You get each other. I think he knew you were feeling a bit under-the-weather and was being protective of you.

10. I love your mobility. You are a mover and a shaker these days! One of your favorite places to be is inside the refrigerator. Just tonight Daddy said to me, "Watch this" and he called you into the kitchen by saying, "Hadley, the refrigerator's open!" It was hilarious to see how quickly your crawled into the kitchen to pull yourself up into the refrigerator. You thankfully don't pull anything out of there, you just like to bang on the shelves and drawers. You're pulling up on everything lately. You have this walker toy that just tonight you pushed from one side of the living room to the other. I was so bummed that I didn't grab the video camera in time! It's only a matter of time before you're taking your first steps. Then maybe we'll finally quit being rednecks and allow you to wear shoes. ;-)

11. I love how you love your Daddy and I. Sometimes it's a bit stressful because you're going through a weird phase where you only want he or I. You don't want to go to anyone else, be held by anyone else, or looked at funny by anyone else. You're ok to smile at the whole world when we're shopping somewhere, but no way do you want to be held by someone else. As much as it stresses me out, it's a warm, fuzzy feeling to be needed and wanted. You're as much of a Mama's girl as you are your Daddy's girl!

We love you, Hadley Bean!
Love, Mama
P.S. See #10 for how you got that bruise on your forehead. You attempted to climb the stairs but didn't manage getting back down so well. Oops! First of many bruises to come I'm sure.

Spaghetti Face

Here are a couple obligatory spaghetti face pictures of Hadley. Don't all parents have these sorts of pictures?

What a smug look on her face! She's pretty proud she got it everywhere.


More please!

Future Olympic Swimmer?

I wonder if we have a future Natalie Coughlin or Kirsty Coventry on our hands! We dream big, right?! Hadley has loved the water from day one. These videos were taken at our town's rec center. We try to take her once a week. She never stops smiling while she's there!

Notice how she likes to scoop up water in her mouth as she crawls along. There's a lot of coughing and back-patting usually after that.



Going through the lazy river with Daddy.

Random

I haven't updated in a while. A lot going on. I'm just going to jot down some thoughts.

1. I have a new niece! Lauren Lynn Tharp was born on Wednesday, August 13 at roughly 2:15 p.m. CDT. She weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz., which was what I weighed when I was born. She's taking after her Aunt Meanie already! ;-) Things are off to a bit of a rough start. Lauren has spent her first week in the NICU due to severe acid reflux. She has these "episodes" where she turns blue because she stops breathing. They think it's because she just guzzles down the milk and then has to try and catch her breath. Very scary. They've put her on Prilosec and they're confident that will help. The latest word is that she'll get to go home this Friday. Dana is doing well but hard to spend all day at the hospital knowing you've got your other 2 kids (Cole and Katelyn) to worry about as well. My Mom is there still helping out Cody and the kids.

2. Hadley is getting tooth #7 on the bottom. She has 4 on top and 3 on bottom. She still has her Madonna gap.

3. I'm seriously addicted to the Olympics. I'm bummed swimming is over and I no longer get to watch Michael Phelps. Man, that guy is CUTE! Adrian's dad would call him "a bit of a wingnut" with those ears, but I can look past those ears...have you seen those abs/shoulders/arms? Whew.

4. The gymnastics judges are ticking me off. Why you gotta keep robbing the U.S. girls of the medals? Who does China really think they're fooling with their 12-year-old girls on their teams? I'm watching the individual balance beam competition right now. If Nastia or Shawn doesn't get the gold, I'm going to seriously LOSE IT. I'm gonna go Bela Karolyi on those judges! (And yes, I had to look up how to spell his name.)

5. I finally hit 10 pounds lost at Weight Watchers last week. I'm sure I've gained all that back with the amount of chocolate I've eaten this past week. Wednesdays are my weigh-in days. I'm wondering if tomorrow I can sneak it past the leader and weigh in on one foot.

6. The amount of chocolate I eat is directly related to my stress level at work. We're in the middle of this huge upgrade and there's a lot to do. We were just told yesterday that no one is allowed to take vacation from now until at least the end of October. October 25 is our "go-live" date. I'm dreading that day and that week of work.

7. My new favorite song is "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. I think I like it because of the gun shots in the middle of the song. How wrong is that? It's definitely not a song that I can listen to with Hadley in the car. I probably can't listen to it with Adrian, either. He frowns upon anything gangsta because he's a cop and all and can't really pretend to shoot your gun sideways gangsta style while you're listening to the song.

8. How sad is it that I pretend to be gangsta? And you can't really type out "gangster" instead of "gangsta." Doesn't have the same effect. (Affect?)

9. I looked through old pictures of Hadley on my phone and got sad. She's so not a little baby anymore. She's looking so tall lately. She's fitting more into 12-18 month clothes instead of 6-12 months. I'm having a hard time with shoes. She's standing and walking along the couch/tables, but only every once in a while will let go with one hand. So I can't decide what size shoes to get her, nor can I decide what kind. I'm thinking she's in a size 4, but I bought a size 5 of some brown shoes from Target because I'm already making my kid wear shoes too big for them because I know she'll grow out of them in 2 weeks. Sad. My mom used to tell me that because my feet were so big I should just wear the shoe box instead. Hahaha. Not funny. Anyway, my little girl is going to be a year old already next month on the 30th. I can't BELIEVE how fast time has flown by. She's the coolest thing EVER. I'm talking to everyone else but Adrian about baby #2. He's not ready to talk about it yet. I think my clock is ticking. I never thought I'd say that.

10. Shawn Johnson is so cute. Don't you just want to pinch her cheeks? OOOO--Shawn Johnson is in first place right now!!! It's Nastia's turn! Gotta go.

UPDATE: Shawn has the gold and Nastia has the silver. Those judges are safe...for now.

An Update in Videos

Lots going on at the Peech house. Not a whole lot of time to write a post. So here--enjoy the videos of Hadley!

Adrian did a bit of filming on his day off last week (07/24/2008). She almost laughs in the beginning. Wonder what Adrian was doing to cause that. Ignore Gus' stretch where he flashes his pink nutties. (I had to say that for my family's benefit. I'm sitting here laughing at myself that I actually typed that out! Are you singing this song to the tune of Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl?" "Gus has pink nutties...N-U-T-T-I-E-S!")




This is one of those blackmail videos--lots of nekkid baby butt pictures. Hadley LOVES her bath. All the drama and the tears and the whining instantly goes away when you put her in the bath. Not that she's a dramatic, whiny, tearful kid...she's mostly pretty happy and laid-back. She has her moments, though. Calgon...take her away!




Now in video format! Hadley taunts Gus because he got sent outside AGAIN! I don't even remember what he did this time. Poor Gus.

Oscar Meyer Has a Way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A

Apparently Hadley is NOT a fan of ham. She chowed down on bologna on Saturday but we didn't have any in the house to give her today. I thought I'd see if she'd eat any ham. I put a bunch of little pieces on her tray and watched her as she would put a piece in her mouth, suck all the salty flavor off of it, and then spit it out. Hilarious. She kept doing that over and over. Then I went into the kitchen to fix her something else to eat and I come back into the dining room and see this:
I have no idea how she got that piece up on the wall above her, but I'm sure she had fun doing it!

Mom, next time stick with the bologna, ok? (This is her new face. She even says "EWWWWWW" as she crinkles up her nose!)

Naughty Gus-Gus

Gus, if you wouldn't run off with my toys for the 500th time this morning and chew them to death then Mama wouldn't punish you and throw you outside.

I'm going to keep banging on the window to taunt you. Nanny nanny boo boo--I'm insiiiiiiide and you're nooooot!

Are you sorry yet? I'm not so sure. You don't look apologetic to me!

I Win the "Worst Mom of the Year" Award

Uncle Bob, Barb, and Eric from Chicago are here in Colorado camping and sightseeing for 2 weeks. This Saturday the plan was to meet them in Idaho Springs and then we were going to visit Mt. Evans. Hadley and I met Team Coleman at their house so we could caravan up there. I bring Hadley and the diaper bag in their house. You see where this is going now, don't you? I change Hadley's diaper. We then are all ready to go. I carry Hadley and the diaper bag out of their house. I put Hadley in her carseat. I get other things loaded in the car. We're all ready to go and we leave in 2 cars. Hadley, Jenny and Anna are in my car. I LEAVE THE DIAPER BAG SITTING ON THE SIDEWALK. I don't realize this until about 3 hours later. Are you kidding me???? I'M THE WORST MOM EVER. Thankfully, I had brought one 8-oz. bottle of water/Pedialyte. I also had Hadley's sweatshirt. I had absolutely ZERO diapers or anything for Hadley to eat. UGH.

Hadley didn't realize any of this until we were almost at the top of Mt. Evans. She started getting really cranky. I knew she probably had a wet diaper and I assumed she was also probably hungry. There was nothing I could do. She finally fell asleep. I sat with her in the car while she slept and everyone else got out and checked out the view from the top of Mt. Evans. We were only at the top for about 5 minutes and Jenny told the people in the other car that we'd meet them down at the bottom for our picnic lunch. We drive down and find a gift shop/restaurant. I carry Hadley out of the car, I head into the gift shop to inquire about diapers, and as I'm standing there talking to this lady, Hadley pees all over me. Nice. She was soaked, poor thing. They had one pack of medium Huggies and they sold them individually. I bought 3 diapers for $3 and also bought some Rocky Mountain animal cookies. They were the only baby-type food they had.

After the diaper change and all the cookies, Hadley was a happy camper again. We had our picnic lunch and Hadley devoured a ton of bologna--that was a first-time food. She also had some cherries. I think she was so hungry that she didn't pause to realize that she was eating new foods. (Usually she takes a few minutes to warm up to new tastes and textures.)

It really was a fun day, and as Uncle Giant said, Hadley never will remember any of it. But I sure will--my memory is very long for that sort of thing! We'll have to take her to Mt. Evans another time with a fully stocked diaper bag.

A Couple of "The Muppet Show" Favorites

When we were little Dana, Jenny and I used to have a Muppets record that we completely wore out. A few years ago I found a bunch of those old songs online, downloaded them and burned them on a cd. That cd became a family favorite. Ok, maybe it's mostly one of my favorites. I LOOOOOOOVE the Muppets and have never grown tired of them. I'm totally going to force Hadley to watch the Muppets. I'm hoping she'll like them as much as I did and still do.

"Day-O" by Harry Belafonte (The part at the end where Fozzy is trying to sing along is the best. Cracks me up!)



"Lydia the Tattooed Lady" (I laugh out loud every time during the part where Animal beats the drums and Lydia shakes it!)

Miss Fussbucket

We've had an interesting week with Hadley. She's definitely crawling and into everything. She's always not far behind if you leave her to go into another room. And if she's in the kitchen with you, then that means she's in either Gus' food or water bowl. "No" doesn't do anything--I've already had to pop her hand several times. Then she'll look at her hand, then look at me, with this look on her face like "did you just do what I think you did?" She usually doesn't cry if you do that either. She may shriek with annoyance but that's about it. Oh man--we're in for it. She's stubborn like the rest of the family! Adrian thinks she's going to push my buttons even worse than he and Gus do. I'm sure she will.

All week she's been doing this horrible shrieking noise and it's super annoying. I think she does it out of frustration, but not really sure. I also think she's getting those 2 other teeth on top, but I could blame everything on teething. That's what I hate about teething. Sidenote: she's got a gap between her two front teeth on top and Jenny calls it her Madonna gap. Funny! So along with the possible 2 new teeth, she also has had diarrhea, which yes, points again to teething. THEN to go along with all of that, she's had this horrible diaper rash that had only gotten worse due to her runny diapers. It got so bad that it was bleeding, so on Thursday Adrian and I called in an appointment with the pediatrician. Pediatrician diagnoses it as a yeast infection. Yuck. Pediatrician suggests putting Lotremin on it, which is a cream for athlete's foot. Adrian says, "so she has athlete's foot on her hoo-ha?" He's a comedian, that one! Odd thing is that the Lotremin has helped and I think she's back on the mend.

She's been quite the fussbucket all week. She's a good kid for the most part, but between the whining, and the crying, and the wrestling her down every time you have to change her diaper, she really has worn me out. Today I decided I was really tired of those nasty diapers so I decided she was only getting oatmeal and water/Pedialyte. She hasn't had any diarrhea all day--only wet diapers. Whew. Maybe this week will be a better one. (Aunt Midge and Uncle Giant did babysit Hadley on Thursday night so Adrian and I could go out to dinner and see a movie. So nice to have a date night and to have Hadley spend some time with her aunt and uncle. They're practicing on how to deal with a whiney kid for when Willis gets here!)

Took this video tonight before she went to bed. She's getting so big! The two staples of all our home vidoes: Gus following her every move and "Law and Order" on in the background. Oh--and that blue toy that she's playing with? That's one of Gus' chew toys. She plays with it more than he ever has.

Me and Bob Mugabe

I saw this here: http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/

You should be warned that the website sometimes has very graphic and heartbreaking pictures on it. I haven't talked about Zimbabwe on here much because I tend to voice my rants usually through emails to certain people instead. Maybe one day I'll get brave and talk about my "typical American spin/opinion" on Zim. Until then, only probably a select few of you will understand this video.

Take Your Cousin for a Drag

I came across this video last night and had to share. John took this on June 23 and I cracked up when I watched it! So many funny characters! Tim and Hadley, Gus and Damyn...just overlook our crazy overgrown grass, ok?


from Kerri on Vimeo.

Patriotic

I'm trying out a new blog template. I think it's a bit too busy, but it is July, so maybe I'll keep it up for the month.

Need to download the videos of Hadley crawling. Will try to get that done soon.

In the meantime, here are a few recent pictures.

Gus salutes the flag on our front porch














The Peechs on the 4th (Adrian had to work mandatory overtime that night)














Hadley still loves those pickles!

SO TIRED

It was our maintenance weekend for work so I showed up yesterday around 2:00 p.m. and didn't get home until around 9:30 a.m. this morning. I'm so very very tired. Adrian had taken off work yesterday to watch Hadley. He was supposed to sleep today so he could go back to work tonight. Needless to say that didn't happen. He called in sick (he actually really doesn't feel well and I think he caught Hadley's sinus-y cold) and he watched Hadley today while I caught a few hours of sleep.

Watching Hadley usually means trying to constantly redirect her because she's in Gus' toybox, or Gus' dog food, or trying to play peek-a-boo with the rug by the front door, or making this horrible screeching noise that would drive ANYONE to drink...seriously, what is up with that noise? Is it because she's sick? Is it because her 2 front teeth came in and she's got 2 more on top trying to break through? That noise is HORRIBLE and no matter what you tell her, she still continues to screech. She doesn't really feel good, we can tell, but she still does try to be happy and smiley.

I'm so zoned. I'm going to go veg on the couch.

Shell & Boo's Visit

Adrian's parents are here visiting from Abu Dhabi so it's been a bit busy at our house lately. Hadley has enjoyed spending time with Shell and Boo. She's also gotten quite a bit of time in with her cousins, Danielle, Hunter, Damyn and Timothy. Here are a few recent pictures.

This is her new smile where she crinkles up her nose. (Mom says she gets this from the Lindelsee side of the family.)
Shell and Hadley (can you see the resemblance??!!)
Hadley's new favorite teething item: gherkin pickles!
A lady came up to me and asked me how old Timothy and Hadley were. I said Timothy was 17 months and Hadley was 9 months. She got this really strange look on her face and I couldn't figure out why. Then it dawned on me--I said, "They're COUSINS!! They're not both mine!" Very funny!
Sidenote: I've added links to photo albums on the left-hand side of the blog. Go there if you want to see all the Waterworld pictures.

Michelea, John and Hadley in Estes Park
Finally!! I somehow see something of myself in this picture of Hadley! Not sure what it is, though.
Getting her first taste of ice cream at Damyn's birthday party
Chillin' at the house
Gus likes to back up and sit in Hadley's lap. He doesn't like to miss out on any fun.

Love Bites...

...or, she's got teeth and she knows how to use them.

That means I'm done with breastfeeding! Friday, June 6 was Hadley's last day. I can't say that either of us knew that it was going to turn out that way on that fateful morning, but those two toofers did us both in. I yelped loud enough that her bottom lip stuck out and she almost cried. But then she does what she always does when I tell her "no"--she laughed at me, the little booger! Kinda hard to stay mad at a face like this...

Viva la Vida! Viva la Coldplay!

My friend Lee has been talking about Coldplay's new song "Viva la Vida" for a few weeks now. She's been raving about it and saying how much her son Jackson loves it, too. I didn't really pay much attention until I actually/finally heard the song. WOW. I don't know what it is about that song, but it seriously gives me goosebumps. And I don't even like Coldplay! Or at least I didn't use to. Everyone always raved about them and I never got the appeal. I think I get it now. Their new song has got me hooked. I danced with Hadley in the living room to it when they played it live tonight at the MTV movie awards. (Yes, I'm 32-years-old and still watch the MTV movie awards. And no, if there are bands like the stupid Pussycat Dolls on there when Hadley gets a bit older, she WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to watch that channel. Thankfully, there weren't things like parental controls on t.v.'s when we were growing up!)

**Sidenote**
I'm also the idiot who used to dislike U2. What was I thinking? Now I think if I ever saw that band play live I'd probably cry. They're that cool. But I still will stand my ground with Bruce Springsteen. Not a fan.

I'm All a Twitter

I'd heard about Twitter before but never really looked into it. I did some research on it tonight and I think maybe this could solve the issue with not being able to send/receive text messages from John and Michelea in Abu Dhabi. Adrian says I'm making things complicated, but you know me, I love the latest and greatest techy gadgets and applications! I'm a computer nerd--what can I say? So you may start to see some weird "twittering" going on near the lower left side of my blog. I'm trying to figure it all out.

In other recent news, on Friday I all up and quit pumping rather suddenly. Most of you will know what I'm talking about. I usually go to "my office" at work 3 times a day. Now, I like to call it an office, but it's more of a room with an electrical outlet that happens to have a lock on the door, happens to have a sink in it, but no window or anything fancy like that. It does have a slider plate on the outside of the door to let people know when it's IN USE. Most people tend to not pay attention to that sign even though I always am VERY SURE to slide the sign to IN USE and lock the door every time I'm in there. I still have nearly peed my pants in fright over someone attempting to come into my office when it's IN USE. Can people not read??? Can you imagine the horror of having to face my co-workers if someone did ever barge in there when I'm pumping?

So Friday I only got the chance to pump once all day. Lately I haven't really been feeling very motivated I must admit. It was getting to be a chore, Hadley is past 6 months old (my original goal), and I just wasn't really into it anymore. It was becoming very inconvenient at work. I don't know how I can say it's inconvenient when I'm not having to pay a whole lot for formula every month, but still. Right around when Hadley was 7 months old I started pumping only 4 ounces each time and then we were supplementing her bottles with formula. Her bottles were half and half. I guess I had gotten over my weirdness about Hadley getting formula. Why there is so much pressure put on women regarding what it is your feeding your child is beyond me. Like you need one more thing to stress about when you've just had a kid. Ridiculous.

My new plan is that I nurse Hadley for her first feeding of the day and then also the last feeding. I've cut out the middle three. I anticipated it being a lot more difficult than it has been. It's not so bad. What I didn't anticipate is the stupid guilt. Why the heck do I feel guilty about this??? She's still getting breastmilk, but she's not getting it as often. The kid isn't going to starve. (Have you seen her chunky thighs lately?) I don't know why I feel so guilty, but I do. But then again, I'm SO GLAD to pack away that pump. I know I'm not going to miss my "office" either when I go back to work on Tuesday!

I guess I needed to get all this off my chest. Pardon the pun. ;-) Let's call this my first TMI post!

And now to counteract all the TMI-talk, here are a few recent pictures of Hadley.

On Wednesday I was home sick with a sinus infection and Hadley greeted me like this in her crib. Can you tell she's grinning behind that bar and all proud of herself? She's also trying to use it as a teething ring.

Hadley grabs whatever it is you have in your hand and has to chew on it. On this day, it was Adrian's beer. I tried to tell her beer wasn't allowed until she was 21, but I'm betting she's going to be one of the youngest volunteers of the GABF since her Mom is a Brew Crew Captain!

All tuckered out, asleep in her swing.

Sweet & Innocent

The Joys of Being a Mom

Hadley was sick this week. We had nasty projectile vomit at our house. And yet, it was ok and we got through it. It was the first time Hadley puked like that but we got through it.

So Wednesday night I had just gotten done feeding Hadley. She was standing up on my lap and was over my shoulder. I was about to burp her but before I could start pounding her back (that kid STILL hates to be burped), she throws up ALL OVER EVERYWHERE. It was over my shoulder and on the back of the couch. It was all down my back. I looked at her and it was all over her face. Then she decides to make her raspberry noises and she proceeds to get nasty vomit IN MY MOUTH. So gross. So I'm just sitting there sort of stunned and Adrian is right next to me on the other couch. I said, "HELLO??? Can I get a little help here?" And he looks at us with this shocked look on his face and might've said something like, "What happened?" He missed the whole dang thing!! I don't know how he missed the horrible gagging and choking sounds she was making when she was throwing up. And I'm pretty sure I probably said something when I realized I had throw up IN MY MOUTH. But no, he missed the whole thing.

So we take Hadley upstairs and Hadley goes straight into the shower with Daddy. Now before you get all creeped out, Hadley showers all the time with Daddy and she loves it. It doesn't bother her one bit. She won't shower with Daddy forever either, so don't get all weird about it. Anyways, she continues to throw up in the shower. I get her out of the shower and try to get her lotioned up and diapered. She keeps throwing up. She had eaten carrots for dinner so it was this weird orange-y color. I take her temperature rectally (I know, can you believe I can actually do that?) and it was 102.1! At this point I'm getting stressed out. I can handle most things with her no problem. There are things that she does that stresses Adrian out and they're no big deal to me. But this was my "big deal" and my turn to be stressed. I couldn't handle the gagging and choking and the throwing up. It scared me. So I asked Adrian if he could take over and he did with no issues. It's such a relief to know that we really are a team and it's so nice to know that we can trade off on things and it's ok.

Adrian called our pediatrician's office whose on-call service then in turn calls the nurses at Children's Hospital. A nurse called us back. She said every kid in the state seems to have this stomach bug right now and it's every single phone call she's getting. She gives us very specific instructions on how to care for Hadley and I take copious notes. Adrian heads to the grocery store to get some Pedialyte because we didn't have any at the house. I guess that stuff is supposed to be a staple at your house when you have a kid, but guess we didn't realize we were getting to that point yet! At this point, Hadley's already passed out in her crib and sleeps all through the night until about 6:30 the next morning. She never threw up again. Adrian was off work Thursday and Friday, so he took care of her. She was fussy and clingy on Thursday, but understandably so. Her temperature was still 101 when I left for work that morning. Adrian got over his fear and disgust of the manner in which to take an accurate temperature and it was down to 99 that afternoon.

We survived Hadley's first stomach bug and projectile vomit episode. Ahhh, the joys of being a Mom and first-time parents, right? We wouldn't change it for the world!

Adrian took this picture of us on Thursday after I got home from work. Hadley took a nap on the couch with me and she drooled all over me. So, no, those aren't nasty pit stains! Can you tell she's still feeling a little under the weather?















Here's a little smile.















On Saturday, Hadley and I laid around in our pj's and took some pictures.















Getting kisses from Gus






























I could just eat Hadley up in this last picture. I love my sweet baby girl SO MUCH! Happy Mother's Day!