Ana has been in a beginning drama class at Journey Theater Arts Group in Beaverton since January. Tonight, to wrap up the session, her class performed a final “showcase” of Charlotte’s Web. Ana was cast as Charlotte. It was her first time ever performing in front of an audience and she was nervous but you would never have known. She did an amazing job and I am so proud of her. (Pardon the wobbly recording; I was holding my iPhone up in the air in an attempt to see more of the show while Hadley was sitting on my lap!) Enjoy!
Well, it’s official! Hadley is now walking. She’s been doing it more and more over the last couple days. Now I’d say she is walking about half the time (she still crawls when it’s really far or when the ground is “questionable”). She knows she can do it and she is so cute as she just WALKS across the room. It’s been a long time coming (she’s almost 16 months) but considering her broken leg added a little bump in the road, I’d say she’s doing pretty great. We are SO proud of her!
Yesterday Ana was playing with my phone and made this lovely little movie. It was just too cute not to share. It’s always nice to see inside the mind of a four, excuse me, almost FIVE year old. Enjoy!
Her facial expressions kill me. I love her so much.
To celebrate that she is NINE months old today, Miss Hadley decided she would officially become a CRAWLER!
She’s been slowing getting it over the last few days, but today was her first long stretch of crawling! She had been crawling a few inches then would stop and sit down, putting her back further than where she started. So, understandably, she got a little frustrated and didn’t try too hard. But once she built up a little more confidence (plus a little sisterly motivation) and didn’t give up, SHE DID IT. My baby is now mobile. Let the baby-proofing begin!
Sim was playing around with some of the video footage we shot using our new GoPro HD Hero 960 video camera (which we took turns wearing on the head strap around Great Wolf Lodge) and made this “movie trailer” using iMovie. It is pure awesomeness. Behold:
We started out our trip to Seattle with our traditional picture on the hotel bed.
Then took a few minutes to admire the view…
And enjoy our little family in our beautiful hotel room.
While we were in Seattle, we made our way through a list of things we HAD to do. Visit our friends, Ryan, Ciara, and Juniper. See the Space Needle/Wheedle on the Needle. And of course, eat the homemade donuts at Lola. Once we finished those items, we were free to continue on with Phase Two of our little mini vacation. We told Ana we were heading home. Along the way, I said I needed to stop and use the bathroom. When we pulled over, this is what happened:
Yep. We planned a one night stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.
So we got to do another hotel bed picture.
Then the girls were ready to hit the pool.
Ana was super excited because she grew since the last time we visited GWL and she could go on more of the areas in the water park. Like the Big Foot Pass obstacle course…
and riding the family-size raft down the River Canyon Run.
I think Ana’s favorite thing was swimming around in the giant wave pool.
Hadley had a great time watching all the chaos of the water park.
Then we saved some time to play MagiQuest.
While Hadley snoozed in the Baby Bjorn.
Eventually all good things come to an end and we had to leave. But we had another amazing time at Great Wolf Lodge and cannot wait to go back again! You can see all the pictures here and here.
Yesterday we got the all clear from Hadley’s pediatrician to start her on solid food. Being a traditionalist, I went with rice cereal. But the times being what they are, I bought organic brown rice cereal. I pumped a little fresh milk so it was the perfect temperature (I.e. the temp that I know Hadley likes) and mixed it into her cereal.
First we gave her the spoon to get familiar with the taste and texture.
Then Ana gave her the first spoonful of cereal. (I had to run the camera and Sim was shooting video. Good thing we had an eager assistant, huh?)
Hadley ate the cereal like a champ! She was so eager to eat, she even grabbed on to the spoon!
She kept opening her mouth and going back for more.
She was loving it!
Excluding what dripped on her bib, Hadley ate the entire bowl of cereal I made.
Here is a little bit of video as well:
We ate our dinner after Hadley finished (normally her meals won’t require so much fanfare and we can all eat together, but the first meal required more dedication.) and she kept watching each bite we took, just waiting for us to feed her some more. Clearly, this girl was ready for solid food!
You can see all the pictures of Hadley’s first solid food here. Enjoy!
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be.
— James Matthew Barrie
A fairy was born yesterday. Hadley laughed for the first time. It was only appropriate that her first laugh was for Ana.
Ana was entertaining Hadley while I made lunch and Simeon was downstairs working. We both heard Hadley laugh and ran into the room. Ana was SO excited that she was the first one to make her laugh.
But the second laugh? That was all me. AND we managed to get it on video. Please ignore me making a complete fool of myself (that’s what Hadley prefers) and my husband, the laughing camera man. But I doubt you will even notice those things because Hadley and her beautiful laugh totally steal the show. Enjoy.
