confessional thursday {3.10.16}

i confess that since hadley's birth, i have lost or broken at least $500 worth of sunglasses. i cringe even typing out that dollar amount. pre-baby, i lovvvvved to invest in nice sunglasses because they would get a lot of use {sensitive blue eyes} and i would take really good care of them.

fast forward to 5-month-old hadley chewing and then chucking my designer glasses from her rear-facing carseat. my sunnies quickly became toys and soothers. they would get tossed in the diaper bag to make love with my car keys and come out all scratched up. or i would just lose them all together.

slowly but surely each member of my ray-ban arsenal met it's demise. as of monday, i was finally sunglass-less.

 

as a quick fix, i stopped in charming charlies and found this $5 pair to fit the bill.

 

last night i showed jon and he proceeded to tell me that they look better than any pair he's ever seen me wear {and he's totally a sunglass junkie too!}. needless to say, i'll be shopping the clearance rack from now on. bonus: they don't have those fancy-schmancy nose grippers that always mess up your hair.

{speaking of hair} i confess that sometimes i legitimately feel bad that hadley is destined to inherit my bedhead.

she already has to be a morning bather, otherwise she looks disheveled and frankly a little homeless by noon. just like me, i don't think she'll ever get to be one of those "get up and go girls." between the two of us, it takes us almost 2 hours from wake-up to get presentable and out the door.

i confess that yesterday my heart melted instantly when i came home to my mom, hadley and this little masterpiece.

my mom watched Hadley so i could get my hair done {oh hey there blonde} and meet my brother for coffee. i am 150% grateful that i don't have to worry even for a second when i leave her with her "uma." my mom knows hadley quirks almost as well as i do and i know she will be taken care of completely.

i confess that i am genuinely jealous of hadley's wardrobe. i seriously wish they made have her clothes in adult sizes.

case in point.

if you haven't looked before, check out www.burtsbeesbaby.com. i'm obsessed with their summer line. everything looks super soft and the pricing is really reasonable. plus it seems as though everything kind of coordinates which ignites a beautiful, ocd fire in my soul.

the racerback detailing kills me. fyi- they are currently running 20% off friends and fam sale {FRIENDS20}. treat yo self, i mean your kid.

a bust of a tuesday

today did not go at all as i had planned. originally, hadley was supposed to have her first dental appointment at 8:30, but her dentist was put on bed rest the day before - probably better after the trauma yesterday at the doctor ;). and then i was going to take hadley to see zootopia, her first movie in the theater! however, we awoke to rain, thunder, hail, and a tornado warning. needless to say, we stayed in for the morning.

 

by noon, hadley was stir crazy and driving me nuts so we decided to head to h-e-b to get our weekly grocery session out of the way.

hadley got her first coloring book {since apparently the doctor thinks she already knows how to color} with "magic" markers that only show up the special frozen paper.

 

precious cargo. not to be tacky, but bota's cab sav is basically my favorite wine ever.

also the cheapest.

 

if you're a mom, i'm sure you know the struggle of deciding whether to load up the kid or the groceries first. if you load up the groceries first, you can keep the baby with you while you take the cart back to the corral and they are never left unattended. however, if you load the kid first, you know they are safe from other cars in the parking lot.

 

i have finally found a solution and another reason I LOVE having a truck.

 i can load up, keep an eye on her the entire time, and she thinks it's a game.

 

on the way home, we stopped at the liquor store so i could pick up some vodka for my beloved moscow mules. we are having company over for dinner this week and potty training coming up so it was entirely necessary.

 

hadley was sooooo wiggly in there and she wanted to grab every glass bottle off the shelf. at the check out counter, i made some dumb joke about sweating more than i did when i was underage in a liquor store. it was not well-received {insert eye roll}. for the record, i'm 100% positive i never tried to buy alcohol in a liquor store with a fake id....wayyyyyy too chicken for that.

 

mule shrine.



 

post-nap, granddad stopped by for a visit and taught hadley how to use a clicky pen.

{insert another eye roll}

 

 

big monday @ the docs

i thought hadley's 18-month well check was at 9 am yesterday morning. it was actually at 9:45. we ended up arriving riiiiight at 9:45...if you were wondering about my {non-existent} time management skillz.

hadley was crazy clingy the entire time. i don't really blame her. she basically gets poked and prodded every time we go. she doesn't have great memories there despite her amazing doctor. i'm really hoping we can steer clear until her 2 year appointment. maybe by then all of the scary memories will have faded away.

hadley weighed in at 23 lbs and 7 oz today and her height came to 31 inches. this puts her in the 23% percentile all around. except for her head. that's in the 90%.

dr. fran was very impressed with her vocabulary, about twice as many words as she expects from an 18 month old. however, hadley only knows 2 phrases {'no mama' and 'i don't know'}. i guess most kids her age have a few more phrases in their pocket? the doctor did not seem too concerned though, especially since 'i don't know' is a full sentence. idk what to make of it all.

i did get a little nervous when dr. fran pulled out the crayons to test hadley's motor skills. i readily admitted that I have never really let hadley color on anything. she's still deep in the teething phase. the few times i have given her crayons at restaurants, she has just tried to eat them.

 

alas, she drew two lines on the exam table paper and promptly put the crayon in her mouth. box checked.

 

 

to reward her for being brave during her shot {last one until she's 4 years old, holla!}, we made a quick stop at starbucks for treats. hadley = pumpkin bread. mama = frappucino.

 

we then proceeded to wal-mart where i spent 30 minutes overthinking plastic egg fillers for next week's easter party with her play group. want to know what fits into an easter egg? 

a choking hazard. all the choking hazards. 

i landed on these rubber ducks. my logic is that they will obviously only be used at bath time so close supervision is already  required. god, i need more sleep, or something.

after naptime time hadley was running the slightest post-shot fever so we went for a walk in the most fabulous, cool spring weather.



note the wild hair and toothbrushes. big into dental hygiene around here. 

and in case you were wondering if the morgan household was still dealing with allergies...

 

hadley elizabeth at 18 months

 

HADLEY ELIZABETH MORGAN

 

age: 18 months

 

weight: 22 lbs 12 oz {~23rd percentile}

 

weight taken at a doc appointment last week. trying to kick some killer texas allergies.

 

height: we will find out at her 18-month well-visit tomorrow!

 

shoe size: toddler 5/6 {bricks for feet}

 

clothing size: 2t {she literally went from wearing 12-18m to 2t overnight...we essentially skipped the 18-24m range}

 

baby gap ftw! it turns out both of hadley's grandmas bought the same dress for her! great minds.

 

'firsts' this month:

- hadley started first gymnastics class. she loves hanging from the rings and crawling under the balance beams.

 

- we took our first trip to the zoo. hadley was mostly interested in hanging out with her friend lilly in the wagon, but we saw tigers, goats, monkeys and bears.

 

- she used her potty for the first time. we are planning to do the three-day potty training boot camp soon. hadley has a couple of important birthday parties to attend this coming saturday, but after that, it's game-on. jon will be in chicago for the big event, probably best for everyone. if it doesn't work out, we will try again in another month or so.

favorite toys:

- hands-down her bitty-baby is her favorite possession these days. we hosted a very large playdate last week and it was the only toy she wasn't willing to share.

 - her three plush lovies {two bunnies and a puppy}. she sleeps with one or all three lovies every night. she loves them all equally so it makes it easy for me to wash one when needed {huge parenting win, in my opinion}.

 

- my parents passed down my wooden name puzzle to hadley and she has been obsessed with it for several months. she can now say and identify numbers 0, 1, 4, and 9. she also knows the letters j, i, and a.

number 9 has gone rogue. a hippo and a toothbrush are currently filling the void.

 

favorite games:

- hadley loves to kick and throw her "frozen" ball and any balloon that ends up in our house.

- she loves to play hide-and-seek, which basically consists of her holding her breath behind my back and me pretending i don't know where she is.

 

favorite shows:

mickey mouse clubhouse and frozen pretty much rule our lives these days. i genuinely believe that someday i will miss hearing the hot-dog song when my baby girl is all grown up.

 

favorite foods:

she has turned into a picky little thing. she always seems too busy to eat a full meal so she grazes all day long. i'm pretty sure she lives off of willpower, string cheese, apple sauce pouches, peas, and turkey...and milk. SHE LOVES MILK.

 

new phrases:

{she has started putting 2+ words together this month}

"i don't know" - this cracks me up because i'm sure she hears me say this 5-10 times a day.

"no, mama" - i don't love this one so much. 

 

also, this is probably boring to most people, but i have compiled a list of all the words hadley can say. if you read my very first blog post, my mom did the same thing when i was this age. I just wanted to continue the tradition. i created this list over the weekend so i'm sure i'm missing some words:

mama

dada

uma

granddad

buddy

puppy

dog

kitty

lilly

pop {poppy}

nona {nonny}

plane

truck

tractor

car

tree

bird

toothbrush

bunny

leaf

girl

ball

balloon

moon

star

cloud

please

giraffe

shoe

boot

minnie

mickey

olaf

book

cookie

light

diaper

wipe

block

milk

cheese

egg

waffle

wagon

bubble

 

hadley cannot say f's. they come out as s's, so these words are not recognizable to the general public:

frog

fan

phone

flower

fish

 

final note: i love having my little sidekick with me all day long. we have so much fun together. lately, i have really felt the weight of my responsibility to protect her and teach to be kind, but firm, in this weird, scary {but beautiful} world.

 

stars in our eyes

sooooo sunday afternoon i caught hadley trying to hoist herself over the side of her crib using her crib bumper. what the what? i figured i had at least eight more years before she would be ready to move into a big girl bed. come hell or high water, girlfriend is staying put until she is at least two years old {i hope}.

 i removed the bumper. things are looking much more institutionalized around here.

 

in the evening, we joined my parents for mojitos, margaritas and dinner at jack allen's. 

hadley kept watch for the first star of the night.

 

she is ob-sessed with the moon, the stars, planes, birds...anything hanging from the sky. this shirt was MADE for her.

 

 

the obsession has carried over into our bedtime routine. every night she says goodnight to the moon from our back porch and we read one {or all} of her three favorite books.

 goodnight moon - on the night you were born - little owl's night

all of which give her plenty of opportunities to point out the moon.



gymnastics + zoo

big events happening this weekend for the youngest of the morgans!

 

on thursday, a friend posted in our online moms group that there were a few openings left in her daughter's friday morning gymnastics class.  it was like a sign from god. I had been researching first dance/gymnastic class options for the past week. the price for this class was far more reasonable than anything else i had seen.

 

needless to say, I went a little "dance moms" and hightailed it over to ymca to get on the list before it filled up. after we got signed up, there were only two spots left!

it's pretty cut-throat around here {joking}.

from there, were went to go find hadley's first leotard {obviously}.

i think this is more of a dance leotard, but there was fringe involved so i couldn't not.

 

the anticipation.

 

 

i absolutely love this age for girls. they are so sweet and {try to be} kind and forgiving of one another. there's no real drama yet and they are just figuring out the world together. if there's a disagreement, it's immediately forgotten. i think it is so important to protect that mentality through example.

per usual, the highlight of the morning was bubbles.



saturday i had to drop off a highchair rental at the austin zoo. we made a day of it. hadley's first zoo trip!

the drop off was at 2 pm which meant no nap {despite my best my best efforts}. we only got an hour and a half in with the monkeys, tigers, and lemurs before hadley could not handle life anymore and we headed home. nevertheless, it was a super cute adventure with lilly + family.

 

 

 

confessional thursday {2.25.16}

 



I confess that i subbed in for bunco last night and 90% of the ladies there were pregnant. like super cute pregnant. all of that baby talk started to give me the fever.

 

maybe it was the wine though.

 

it was definitely the wine. at the moment, things are wonderful in our home. we've got our groove and i'm not ready to shake that up. i mean, it's 8:15 am and i still have a sleeping baby.

i'm not sure what went down between these two kids at bedtime last night, but hadley is still sound asleep.

 

i confess that i am praying {i don't typically pray for this sort of thing} that hadley doesn't hate wearing this darling bonnet i ordered for her to use this summer.



besides the fact that i have ordered both of her swimsuits to match, i am so worried about protecting her perfect, fair skin in the harsh texas sun. this should provide a lot of coverage and i'm hoping she won't mind the brim. it's not floppy and in-yo-face like a bucket hat. fingers crossed. 

 

i confess that i spied on hadley for a good 15 minutes yesterday while she stared out of the dining room window.

she was pointing out all the things:

"weeeeee-ing" {swing}

"buddy" {the neighbor's dog, copper}

"dada" {our neighbor, not her dad}

"plane"

"truck"

"tree"

those tip-toes

 

she seemed a little embarrassed when she caught me watching.

 

i confess that i had grand plans for organization this week. the purchase of this ottoman was my only step in the right direction.

the tv console in the playroom left a lot of wires exposed for little hands to grab. this ottoman takes care of that and gives me storage for seasonal {and annoying} toys that i don't want to see {or hear} e'ryday.

can i please get a little credit for finding a ottoman with PERFECT dimensions?

thank you.