Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted anything. It's been a little crazy around here. Hadley has been recovering wonderfully from her palate repair. She's back to her happy, dancing self. At her last doctor's appointment she was allowed to eat anything that wasn't hard, crunchy, pointy, or chewy. She's been very happy with the selection! So far we haven't found anything she doesn't like -- now she has her favorites, but she's definitely not a picky eater. She's beginning to talk more. She still jabbers all the time, but she is beginning to say more "real" words. I hadn't really pushed her to try very hard before her surgery because I knew she didn't have the physical ability to make many sounds, so I didn't want her to have to re-learn everything after surgery. This week her favorite word has been "snow." We got about 4 inches over the weekend and she is fascinated by it. She likes to look at it and talk about it, but she doesn't want to touch it! One touch was quite enough for her -- she still doesn't care for cold things much.
She's grown and changed so much in the past 4 months. She absolutely loves to dance -- it doesn't matter what kind of music she hears, or where she's at, she starts dancing. This past weekend she figured out how to do a somersault, so now we just have to convince her that the tile floor is not the place to do them.
While she was in the hospital, my aunt and uncle sent her a stuffed dog -- he is her new best friend. She takes him everywhere with her. She hugs and kisses him and sleeps with him. When she comes home in the afternoon she is so happy to see him. She has 2 other stuffed dogs that she likes, just not quite as much. It's so good to see her playing with toys and attaching to one as her special toy. She's come a long way from the baby who didn't know how to play with a toy and was scared of stuffed animals.
Hadley really enjoyed her first Thanksgiving -- and we are certainly thankful for her. Of course her favorite part was the food! We celebrated with both of our families -- and I forgot to take my camera either time. While we were at Jeff's parents Hadley got to play with her cousin Madison again. They had a great time running and playing. Madison continues to amaze me at how well she does with Hadley. We took both girls to have a picture made for my mother-in-law for Christmas. They looked adorable in their matching "name" shirts and korker bows. What a pair they make -- Madison with her fair skin and red hair and Hadley with her black hair and olive skin! The actual appointment was somewhat of a disaster -- I would avoid using Sears if at all possible (we didn't really have any choice as there are no other studios around). But we got a couple (literally!) of shots that were ok.
Our Christmas decorations are up -- and boy are they different this year! -- and Hadley loves, loves, loves them. She needs everything turned on as soon as she goes downstairs or comes home. I only put up 2 trees this year and she loves looking at them. She's done really well with them -- she looks and sometimes touches, but she hasn't stolen an ornaments lately. She loves all of my snowmen and wants them to sing and dance constantly. It's driving Heidi nuts!
All of the shopping is done -- I still need a few stocking stuffers, but that's easy. I haven't wrapped anything yet -- still have to figure out when and how I'm going to pull that off. I'm curious to see what she thinks of the presents under the tree. No doubt some of them will travel around the house and look a bit different by the time Christmas comes.
Here are some of Hadley's Christmas pictures. I thought she did a great job. Some of her expressions are so funny.
