Let's Dance!

Music is a hit in our household.  Riley has always been a lover of music and Hadley seems to share the love as well.  During the day I play music for the girls to keep them occupied while they play so that I can get some chores done and dance with them too!  I just so happened to be unloading the dishwasher today and looked over and caught Riley teaching Hadley how to dance with her arms.  It was such a sweet moment I had to run and grab my camera.  Of course once I got the camera out Riley refused to look in my direction because she didn't want her picture taken!  That's ok though, I got some cute shots of her dancing with Hadley.  I can't wait until Hadley is standing on her two feet and shaking her tail feather with Riley.  

After the song was over Hadley leaned over onto Riley's lap and then Riley proceeded to give Hadley a big hug.  Ahhh, I love these moments.  

After the dance party was over and I put the camera away, Riley insisted I take her picture with her baby.  I take advantage of any picture opportunity with Riley!  

The Count is 4

Hadley's two front teeth on top cut through about four days ago.  Phew! I was so glad when those suckers popped through because my little one has a super low pain tolerance.  Nothing seems to cure Hadley's pain, except for constant crying!  Of course now that these two teeth are through I've noticed  that it looks like a couple of more bottom teeth are on their way in.  Hadley's teething seems so very fast to me, perhaps because she now has 4 teeth and Riley only had 3 teeth when she turned 1.  I guess I'm glad that Hadley's teeth are coming in quickly.  With the way she is responding to the pain I want the teeth to come in as quick as possible so we can get this over with!  I hate how helpless I feel though when Hadley is in pain.  I try everything to soothe her poor gums, but nothing seem to do the trick.  I've tried teething tablets, motrin, baby orajel(which she HATES), teething rings.  Since her last two teeth have come in she has been in a better mood.  But I know it's only a matter of time before those bottom teeth start giving her issues.  Oh the joys of teething.  On a happier note, my baby slept through the night without a single peep last night!  Hallelujah!  Of course I don't want to jinx myself so I'm totally knocking on wood right now!

Operation Tough Love

I was truly blessed with Riley when she was an infant because she consistently slept through the night.  I was completely spoiled by her awesome sleep habits.  Then came my adorable little Hadley, who also had a great sleeping habit.  From the time she got home from the hospital she only woke up once a night to eat and then by about 2 months was sleeping through the night.  Once again, I am spoiled with getting my sleep while having babies.  That all ended a couple of months ago.  Ever since Hadley started teething she has been getting up constantly throughout the night.  Some nights I would be up every half hour trying to rock her back to sleep.  I never wanted to just let her cry because I was so afraid that she'd wake up Riley.  Well yesterday I had enough of getting up during the night.  For the past week I have only been getting about 4 hours of sleep a night and that just isn't enough for me to function on.  And it's not even 4 hours in a row, it's a total of 4 hours which is even worse.  I decided that since Hadley was sleep through the night for the past 4 or 5 months that she can do it again! Operation Tough Love went into action last night.  I decided that if and when she woke up that I was just going to let her cry herself back to sleep.  This is never an easy thing for me to do.  I did do it with Riley when she was younger and would wake up in the middle of the night so I thought it might work with Hadley too.  

Hadley woke up last night around midnight.  She started crying and I just turned the monitor down and rolled over and tried to ignore the cries.  She cried for about a half hour and fell back to sleep.  Then she woke up at 4am again and this time only cried for about 15 minutes before she fell back to sleep.  Hadley woke up for the day at 6am.  Ahhhh, mission accomplished.  She managed to put herself back to sleep while allowing me to not get out of bed! I did find it funny that she only woke up twice last night when all of the other nights she's up at least 4 times.   I can't even tell you how refreshed I feel today having had a full night of sleep.  The best part of this operation is that Hadley didn't wake up Riley!  Hooray!  I just hope and pray that this can continue because mama bear needs her sleep. 

I had to post these pictures because I thought they were adorable.  We have a bunch of pillows on the floor blocking Hadley(aka Miss I like to get into everything) from getting back to the cable wires and sockets.  Hadley's new thing is to crawl over to the pillows, lay down, and sprawl out!  

Isn't she just living the life?

Playtime

Riley is obsessed with being outside.  Literally from the moment she wakes up and walks downstairs she is asking to go outside.  I normally try to let her play outside during Hadley's morning nap before it gets piping hot and then after her afternoon nap we head back outside and then we head to the park after dinner.  Riley definitely gets a ton of outdoor time everyday, unless of course it's raining.  Riley loves driving around in her power wheels.  She is now the proud owner of two power wheels.  She has had her pink mustang and has added a pink jeep to her collection.  The good thing about the jeep is that we didn't pay for it.  The first Monday of every month is bulk pick up in our community.  People throw away all kinds of good stuff, not that I'm one for picking through other peoples junk.  Trey was driving down the road and spotted this jeep.  There wasn't anything wrong except it's missing the roll cage and radio.  But other than that it's in working condition and Riley was thrilled to death when Trey brought it home for her.  Now she switches between the two vehicles depending on her mood.  I'm starting to think she might be a little too much like her daddy!!  She is so good at driving around though.  By the time she's old enough to get her license she'll probably be a really good driver!  At least I hope so.

Hadley isn't big enough yet to ride around with Riley.  We put her in the mustang once with Riley and she enjoyed it for about a minute before she started crying.  Soon enough Hadley will be able to cruise around with her big sister instead of sitting in the stroller on the sidelines.

My Girls

I often wonder what it would have been like growing up with a sister.  I am always hoping that Riley and Hadley have a close relationship like my mom and her sisters do.  I know that they will have their moments of disliking each other.  I can already hear the arguments over who took who's clothes, shoes, make-up, etc.  I'm finding it funny though, Riley is already playing rougher with Hadley now that she's crawling around and getting stronger.  They are already fighting over toys so I can only imagine what it will be like when they get older.  I mean seriously, is it necessary for a 2 year old and an eight month old to fight over a little toy?  It doesn't even matter what toy it is.  If Riley is playing with something, Hadley crawls right over for it.  If Hadley is playing with something, Riley grabs it from her.  I'm trying my hardest to teach Riley to share with her sister and to explain to Riley that  Hadley doesn't understand the concept of sharing yet.  Boy do I have my work cut out for me!  All in all they play really well together.  It's just those moments where they have to have what the other one has.  This does stop at some point, right?  I guess I'll find the answer out soon enough.  I'm curious to see how the girls interact once Hadley starts walking.  I'm sure that's not far off.  She's crawling all over the place now and is into everything!  Hadley seems to find every crumb I manage to miss when I vacuum.  Riley crawls around the floor with Hadley and it's absolutely adorable.  Hadley can now clap which is exciting.  And Riley now says "love you!"  I've been waiting a LONG time to have her say that one.  She actually just started yesterday.  I have to ask her to say it, but I still like to hear it.  I love my girls so much.  They bring so much sunshine into my life.  I mean look at their faces, who couldn't love them?!?  (Please excuse Riley's bed head.   She just woke up from a nap and wouldn't let me brush her hair!)

Evening of Fun in the Sun

 Saturday we spent the evening at Ko'Olina with some friends of ours, The Derryberry family.  We all packed a cooler full of sandwiches, cheese & crackers, and some fruit to enjoy a nice dinner at the lagoons.  Evenings really are the best time to go to Ko'Olina because it's not as crowded and the parking is much better.  All of the kids were having a blast.  The boys all went snorkeling for a bit and the girls were frolicking in the water.  Hadley was enjoying sitting by the water and eating all of the sand.  I remember when Riley was Hadley's age at the beach and Riley would taste the sand and then realized it didn't taste good.  Hadley on the other hand was eating the sand and then just kept eating it.  Gross!  She is such a handful!  It was nice to be at the beach with Abbey because she took Hadley for a bit so I could get in the water with Trey.  I can't tell you the last time we got to go out in the water together.  It was a fun time.   Of course when we got home my bathing suit was filled with sand and I was itching like crazy.  I guess next time I should shower off before we leave the beach.  It was definitely a nice, relaxing  evening with the family and our friends.  We always enjoy ourselves at Ko'Olina and I look forward to our next trip out there!

Corben, Riley, and Gunner digging in the sand.

Here is Hadley contemplating eating some more sand!

Can't Keep Up

I find it to be more difficult trying to keep up with two kids.  Not with them getting into things, but with how fast they grow.  It seems like everyday there is something new happening with both Riley and Hadley.  Hadley is now officially crawling.  I have actually been waiting for her to crawl because Riley was crawling just before she was seven months old.  I'm not really sure what the average age is for a baby to start crawling.  I have just been going off of when Riley did things.  Of course Riley was early with everything, so I should probably not be doing that.  Anyway, I'm so excited for my little Hadley who has reached another milestone in her development.  Now it's time to get the baby gates up and make sure things are put up and away.  

Riley is now repeating lots of things that Trey and I say.  It's pretty funny to hear her when she is mimicking us too.  My mind has just drawn a blank on what she repeated the other day that Trey had said, but take my word for it, it was funny!  Now Trey has to seriously watch his sailor mouth around Riley.  The last thing I want to her come out of her mouth is foul language.  Riley can now open every door to the house, including the heavy door leading to the garage.  There is no more leaving Riley inside for a second while I take the trash out because the second the door shuts behind me, Riley is opening it to follow me.  Riley now gets herself up from her naps, opens her bedroom door and just comes walking downstairs.  It's like she's a big girl, but she's only 2!  Normally in the morning she calls for me to get her out of bed, but this morning Trey and I heard her door open and she went walking down the hallway.  We both agreed, our little baby girl is growing up.  I wish I could just bottle them up and keep them babies forever.  Since I know I can't do that I'm just trying to savor every moment.  

PS-  Riley is opening the front door as I'm trying to blog!