Photo shoot in the park

It was so pretty outside today that we were inspired to dress Hadley in a cute outfit and go take some pictures at the park. Hadley really enjoyed herself and had fun watching all the people and checking everything out. She is usually such a ham for the camera, but she was so interested in everything going on around her, it was hard to keep her attention!

Pigtails!

Hadley updates

Hadley loves sitting up on her own now that she's gotten much better at it. In fact, I'll put her on the floor on her belly hoping she'll attempt to crawl and she'll just manuver herself into the sitting position instead. Then she'll go back down on her knees and then back up to sitting, back and forth constantly. I think maybe she's trying to figure out the best way to do it, because she tries new ways of moving each time. She must be pretty flexible, too because she'll sit on the floor in a full split and just go from laying on her tummy up to sitting just by keeping her legs out to the sides and pushing up with her arms. Pretty creative if you ask me!

I still wouldn't say that she's crawling yet but she has made a few steps forward just in the last couple days. She's finally moving forward with her arms (which we have waiting for her to do for weeks) so I think any day now she'll be taking off.

Thankfully, Hadley has turned out to be a great eater. She didn't start off that way (as you all know my difficulties with the breastfeeding) but now she does great with her bottles and she's liked all of the baby food we've given her. She's also been a very CLEAN eater. She rarely spits food out and she doesn't try to grab it when I'm feeding her, either. It's not uncommon for her to leave her bib totally clean after a feeding! We're just starting her on some finger foods now so we'll see how that goes...we gave her a couple pieces of shredded cheese yesterday and she wasn't a big fan. She doesn't have any teeth yet so we pretty much have to stick to things that will be able to dissolve in her mouth or that are already mushy (like pieces of banana).

Her hair is getting super long now...she is definitely sporting quite a mullet! I should probably cut it, but I just can't bring myself to do it. As you can see from this photo, it's long enough to braid!

Maybe she needs a helmet

A friend asked me recently if I missed the days shortly after we brought Hadley home when she was so little and new and I quickly responded that, no, I didn't miss that because as she learns more things and is able to do more, it is really exciting and fun and I am just trying to enjoy each stage. It's been fun seeing her try to crawl and talk and sit up but the last week or two have been somewhat difficult.

As she tries to crawl, she's figured out how to push off with her legs, but she still hasn't put that together with moving her arms forward so sometimes she falls right on her face. I really don't know of any way I can keep that from happening, but I hate to see her cry. I just try to keep her away from the legs of the coffee table or anything else hard...but there's not much I can do about the floor.

She's also figured out how to push herself up from a crawling position up to a sitting position. She's pretty good at sitting on her own but every now and then she will still fall over. Because of this, I get so nervous when I see that she's pushed herself up to sitting and I run over to sit next to her so I can catch her if I need to, but she's still fallen over a couple times and bonked her head on the floor. I know it's all part of what happens as she figures out how to do things, but man, do I feel so bad when she hurts herself!

This week we've had a couple days where she has just been SO fussy. She's usually such a happy baby so I have no idea what's had her so out of sorts. I'd try putting her in her Jumperoo or on the floor so she can crawl or in her swing and she just starts fussing or flat out cries with everything. She calms down when one of us holds her in our lap, but even then she'll start crying after a few minutes sometimes. She doesn't have a fever and she still doesn't have teeth coming in as far as I can tell, so the only thing I can figure is that she's just been getting tired more often and needs more sleep during the day. Maybe it's a growth spurt? Whatever it is, I hope it passes quickly.

7 month photos

Here are pics from Hadley's 7 month photo shoot. She was being a little wiggle worm so I was not too successful in getting a good shot of her just sitting nicely on the couch. Oh, well....these goofy shots are much more fun!

Ya gotta love her little Popeye impersonation!

Power nap

It is rare moments like the one that happened last night that just make me melt. Hadley was fussy because she was tired but it was too early to put her to bed for the night. So I pulled her into my lap and she just laid her head down on my chest and let me rub her back until she fell asleep. It was so sweet!! She had a 30 minute power nap on Mommy and then she was good to go until it was bedtime.

Doll Baby

Today we dressed Hadley in the precious little outfit her cousins sent us and it looked so cute, I just had to see how her little white bonnet would look with it. I could swear she looks like a little porcelain doll. :-)