Hadley Weekly!

Hadley is 51 weeks old and a few days shy of being ONE!

We had some big happenings this week!

Hadley is taking steps on her own! Out of the blue one night last week, she let go of the dishwasher and took a few steps towards me. I was so excited--squealing actually--that she immediately thought it was a game. Now, anytime she's holding onto something and I'm a few feet away, she starts giggling with excitement, lets go, and walks to me. So sweet!

I am completely done nursing! The transition to bottles full time and whole milk has been a smooth one for Hadley. She can still be picky about where and with whom she takes the bottle from but so far it's gone well. It's a little bittersweet for me but it felt like the right time for both of us!

Hadley continues to be a great eater! She loves cheese especially-- cheese sticks, grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas-- and to think there was a time she didn't tolerate dairy! She pretty much eats whatever we put in front of her and it's such a nice stage of her feeding herself almost entirely independently.

She's wearing 18 month clothes and growing out of most of her 12-18 month sizes.

Her recent new trademark is a high pitch scream when she's in the high chair. It is SO loud and she gets even louder when it awards her everyone's attention. If this is a sign of volume to come, we're definitely going to have a screamer on our hands!

Hadley is at such a fun age right now. If I could describe her in two words, it would be busy and determined. She will stop at nothing to get a desired toy, or off-limit things in the kitchen cabinet, and she's keeping up with big brother with no problem these days.

Looking forward to celebrating your big day soon Hadley girl!

Welcome Baby Fin!

Welcome to the world sweet Finley Blu Clark!

Our dear friends Ryan and Sharon welcomed their 3rd baby (can't believe it!) and he's a beautiful boy that looks just like their first boy, Bosten. The Clarks have just recently made a move back to North Carolina and to say we're beyond excited to be back in the same time zone is an understatement :) Looking forward to watching this little one grow. Love you already Fin!

Christmas at the Beach

We were quite the world travelers this Christmas with the hopes of seeing lots of family and grandparents. It was exhausting but our kids did so well-- I think Hadley was in a pack and play 8 out of 10 nights! After we got home from Missouri, we headed down to the beach to see my family.

The kiddos got some fun new toys from Gigi, including Tucker's cowboy "get-up", complete with cap guns! He doesn't even realize he hit the jackpot...

We visited with Mema...

and missed seeing Papa this time because he had a really bad cold :(

And we saw Pops - Tucker loved his new digger!

(Does anyone else have a hard time getting their 3 year old to smile in pictures? Awkward!!)

11 months old!

Better late than never!

11 months old

That sign looks yummy...

And I got it...

That bear looks yummy too...

Happy girl!

Christmas in Missouri

There's lots of blog-catching-up to do from December. But, we'll start with Christmas. Our kiddos are the definition of TROOPERS since we made the trek to Missouri (12 hours) all in ONE day, there and back. Tucker does so great in the car, mostly thankful to CARS, Curious George, and other animated characters, but it was Hadley we were worried about. At such a busy, active age, I thought she'd be frustrated to be in her seat for so long. But, she did incredibly well. With stops every now and then and the DVD to distract her as well, she survived with hardly any fussing at all. If we're being honest, I think I struggle to be in the car that long more than anyone :)

The kids had a lot of fun at Grandpa and Grandma's, especially with new toys-- or toys that are new to them anyway. Tucker's favorite things is the basement (such a novelty since we don't have those around here)-- all his toys are down there and he spends hours everyday hanging out with his best buddy, Grandpa, down there.

Hadley was practicing her walking there... still not doing it on her own, though.

We saw a lot of family...

Great-Grandma Seabaugh

{Tucker is enlightening her here about all the names of diggers}

Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Fiehler

We went to a Christmas Eve service...which was pretty impressive on the kids' part since it was their bedtime :)

Grandpa

Tucker Monthly

Tucker is 38 months old. "Old" is the key word. He seems like such a big boy these days which is of course, bittersweet. I love his independence, curiosity to learn new things, and the way he is in conversations... but I am seeing my "little boy" fade away a little too quickly.

Tucker LOVES to help Daddy cook. A few times a week, he helps Brad cook an "egg in the hole". He loves to get his "rapron" and stool and get down to business. I love to watch these two :)This was Tucker enjoying a treat at Kilwin's - a yummy store that sells fudge, chocolates, and other candy treats. This has become known as "the treat store". We've noticed right now that Tucker names stores by what we buy there. For example, if we buy a bib at a store, it's automatically the "bib store".

Christmas has been so sweet with Tucker this year. It was fun to get out all of our Christmas decorations including the beloved Little People nativity scene. This was one of several creative additions this holiday season :)

Tucker went to his buddy, Carter's 2nd birthday party. Carter loves firetrucks and he actually had a real firetruck visit the party. All of the kids loved it! They had hats, masks, and were able to crawl all around the truck.

This month there were a few fun firsts. First school performance and first church performance (more in another post). This officially made him seems so old and I had several flashbacks of doing this as a child. As predicted, he was pretty shy--not singing the songs as well as he did so loudly at home :) But, during both performances, he eventually warmed up a little which I was happy to see!

Church performance... in Christmas PJ's!

I wish I wrote down all the funny things that come out of Tucker's mouth. This age is hilarious--he's so great at communicating what he's thinking, constantly giving us the play by play of what he's doing, what he's thinking, or what questions he has. He's still so observant and curious of everything around him. He remembers the most random things and it truly is hard to get anything past him.

He still loves diggers but anything from the CARS movie is coming in at a close second these days. He is using his imagination a lot these days and he's content to play with his cars. He likes to watch Mickey Mouse and Handy Mandy and this month, lots of Christmas shows. He loves to sing and I catch him singing songs he's learning at school and church.

Speaking of school, he loves it! I feel like he has learned a lot and seems better socially from being there. We are THRILLED with how this Fall has gone there.

And Tucker is still pretty sweet to Hadley. This month as Hadley became more and more active, she was much more into his stuff which was not popular with Tucker! We've had to talk about sharing and "keeping your hands to yourself" daily and sometimes hourly. But, outside of those moments, he seems to genuinely enjoy being around her and constantly wants to give her hugs. It's sweet to watch them interact more and more now that she's getting older.

We love you Tucker man! Life is better, busier, more entertaining, and more funny with you in it!

Hadley Weekly!

Hadley is 49 weeks old. It's hard to believe she''ll be ONE in less than a month! I'm terribly behind on updating (it's been about a month) so I'm sure a lot has been happening these last few weeks.

BUSY and DETERMINED. These are the words that come out of our mouths daily as we describe our little girl (this sounds nothing like her mother of course). She is into EVERYTHING and you can't turn your back for a few minutes or she'll be climbing the stairs, pulling something off a counter, or putting a "choky" in her mouth.

She still loves Tucker's toys the best - especially the ones he's holding. He is pretty annoyed with her these days for this reason but we're trying to teach him to go where she can't reach :)

She's still not walking but she'll stand for a bit without holding on and it seems like she doesn't feel the need since she can scoot along the furniture so easily and crawl so efficiently.

A few weeks ago we had her first sickness. She seemed pretty fussy for a few days and we started to hear the "barking cough" so I headed to the dr. Turns out she had a double ear infection and the early signs of croup. She went on an antibiotic and a steroid for the croup. The croup never got too bad and cleared up after 24 hours, thankfully. But, about 3 days after she was finished with the 10 day antibiotic, she broke out into a rash ALL over her body. After a little bit of time, we started to wonder if it was an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin. After watching for about 24 hours, we took her to the doctor because it had gotten worse (see icky picture below). They did diagnose it as a reaction to the medicine and told us to let it run its' course. Thankfully, it didn't seem to bother her at all. It's actually still faintly there so it's still working it's way out of her body slowly. We won't be doing anymore medicines in the "cilin" family so hopefully no sickness anytime soon!

She's still taking 2 2-hourish naps and sleeps like a champ at night. Things are in a good rhythm and this age makes things begin to feel much more manageable. BUSY, but manageable.

She's started dancing to music, "talking" much louder, and turning anything into a drum. She likes to make noise :)

She got to hang out with her first cousin, Scarlett over Thanksgiving. These two are going to be sweet friends as they get older!

This "first" Christmas season with her has been sweet. The lights provide entertainment for her, she has left the Christmas tree alone much more than I though she would and she enjoys our Little People Nativity scene.

Picking out her first Christmas tree!

Life with our little girl is nonstop and "on our toes" but we wouldn't trade it!