swansonx4: June 2009

Sunday, June 28, 2009

The New World Order

Since Hadley started walking any shred of control over the day I had (and believe me, it was a very, very tiny shred) has disappeared. I can't even run to get the camera anymore to document a cute moment, lest the scene I was to photograph has turned into an a) v. dangerous situation involving stairs and/or tripping over toys while carrying pokey toys or b) Hadley swiping something from Brooke leading to irate screams and whacks at Hadley or c) any other of a myriad of situations leading to Mommy's blood pressure skyrocketing to unsafe levels.

And....here I am, posting photos over a week old. We spent last Saturday night downtown at the Hilton. We played in the hotel pool and "enjoyed" (HARDEEEEHAR) a nice Father's Day dinner at Deschutes Brewing. I think my gift to Blake will be to not take him to dinner with children until they are, oh, I don't know, graduated from college? And they can pay????

Brooke made great strides in her pool skills. Blake bought her a life jacket and it was a miracle product. We all enjoyed the pool about a million times more when Brooke could float around unaided. She even practiced kicking and paddling. Hadley clung to me like terrified barnacle...the water was a little cold and Brooke was waving her "noodle" pool toy around like drunken samurai so I don't blame her.

Here are the photos:

This is approx. 4 seconds after being seated at the restaurant. It only went downhill from here.

How many pool apparatus can one child have??? Inflatable crab (stolen from baby sister), life jacket, and "noodle" (used to whack Daddy and allowed to float away so as to be able to shriek to have it brought back).

"Finally, I am alone in my crab toy."

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

She Walks!

I have been a bad blogger the last week or two. There was some big excitement regarding my car accident and finding a replacement car. We also went to downtown Portland and spent the night at the Hilton. We used the indoor pool and took Blake out for Father's Day dinner - I will post some of those photos tonight.

But the REALLY BIG NEWS is that we have a little walker on our hands!!! She was taking two or three steps at a time last week and then got the hang of it this weekend! Hooray for Hadley Grace Elizabeth!

Hadley Walks Two from morgan swanson on Vimeo.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Green-Eyed Monster

Grandma Julie sent Hadley a very, very cute lion for her birthday. Hadley was able to play with it for about 4 seconds before the Green Eyed Monster swooped in.

"Sister, do you see my special new lion from Grandma Yoo Hoo?! I love it so very much."

"Yes, Sister, yes I do. And it will be mine!"

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Parade and other festive things!

We have had a busy couple of days. Blake took Brooke to the Rose Festival Parade on Saturday. They were at the parade for FOUR hours. Brooke enjoyed it and came home telling me all about the marching bands, the people dressed as monkeys cleaning up after the horses and the "cowboy with the big teeth and the princesses". Turns out the "cowboy" was actually The Beast from Beauty and the Beast and he was the star of one of the floats. Kind of makes sense...he looked like a cow, he was a boy, he had big teeth (tusks) and he gave the rose to the princess.

The Cowboy and the Little Princess from morgan swanson on Vimeo.

Grandma Mary sent Hadley some bath crayons. They are a HUGE hit! Odd...I don't see HADLEY playing with them, though....

Miss Hadley had her one year check up. She is 99th percentile for head size, 25.3 pounds (97th percentile) and 30" inches long - which is incorrect - she was 31" two months ago - I doubt she shrank. Her doctor was very impressed with her words (Mama, Dada, Baba, NoNO!, more, hello, bye and uh oh) and the fact that she kind of "sings" Happy Birthday. She is a genius!