Hadley at 2.75

 

It almost seems impossible that my next entry for Hadley will be for her THIRD birthday!  She continues to amaze us each day with the things that she knows and understands!  It's really remarkable to watch her learn, overcome obstacles, & play the big sister role.  We still struggle with getting her to play independently, but she has grown leaps and bounds in this area just in the past few weeks, so we're hopeful that she will continue improving in this area more and more!

Here's what Haddy's up to these days:

• She graduated from the high chair to a booster seat at the table
• We enrolled her in dance class for the fall (mostly because there were no 2-yr-old preschool programs in the area)
• Haddy can sing the ABCs (she finally added in the L yesterday!) and count to 13 (she counts on after this, but as is the case with many kids, gets a bit mixed up on the tricky teens!)
• She loves the VeggieTales characters and will sing the songs over and over again (particularly "Oh Where is my Hairbrush?", "The BellyButton Song", and the theme song.
• She loves playing with her cousins (she got to see ALL of them for the family beach pictures)
• Haddy would love to give up naps, but still needs them & generally doesn't put up much fuss about going down for them.  We will skip them from time to time if we have lots going on, though
• She knows all of her upper and lower-case letters & almost all of their sounds
• Haddy loves the computer & is learning to use the mouse & keyboard a couple of times a week
• She still has no interest in the potty, but did tell us that she would "use the potty on Tuesday" Haha
• Hadley loves to swim and play in the water.  She will jump in by herself (wearing her Puddle Jumper) & doesn't need help to paddle herself around
• She really wants to learn to ride a bike, but it seems that she's still just a bit too short
• She still loves the color purple & now calls Daddy's favorite color orange (instead of orn-jin, as it was previously known) 
• Haddy has taken an interest in coloring and drawing
• She knows how to write an H and a T - we're working on her "a" next, so she can start learning to write her name 

So far this summer, Haddy's gone camping (her first camping trip to Parker Dam & her first fishing experience where she mostly wanted to just pick blueberries off the bank), to the Cape May Zoo, to the beach house (where she went mini-golfing & on a boat for the first times, & also went on a surrey ride), to a farm, to a family picnic & to the Frenchville Picnic.  She also met some of Mommy's friends from high school (and their kids) at a playground & she went to see her first movie on a date with Daddy!

 

 

 

Hadley is now over 3 feet tall & weighs about 28 pounds.  She wears mostly 2T-3T clothing, however she still does have a few 24m skirts & shirts thrown into the mix.  She is still in size 4 diapers, however I hope we can proudly tell you that she's in "big girl underpants" by the next update!  Haddy is a great breakfast and lunch eater (she loves any kind of "salad" sandwich - egg salad, tuna salad, etc.), but definitely continues to fight us at dinner time, especially over her vegetables.

 

Haddy's first trip to the Penn State Creamery

Haddy's fish (Nemo) that she won at the Frenchville Picnic & keeps at MumMum & Pops' house (please don't tell her that Pops had to buy a replacement Nemo already!)

Haddy's first boating experience