Hadley woke up this morning right at 7am as I predicted. She was in a good mood, so I didn’t mind it. She participated in her usual morning routine of asking for apple juice, cereal and discussing how the events unfolded from the previous night. In the middle of her morning talk, she stopped and looked at me. She was very focused and slightly tilted her head to the side, furrowed her brow and said “what are you feeling?” I laughed really hard. The whole time I was laughing she kept her same straight face…waiting for my answer.

I told her I felt happy and proud of her. She then appeared to give this some thought and she said, “Yes…because I am not naughty.” And then as quickly as the deep thoughts came, they left. Her next question was, “can I watch meet the robins?”

I fear I will never understand what goes through that head of hers. I know…I know…Just wait until she is 16.

As for Zoey, she is still smiling away and happy as ever. No teeth yet. We have discovered she does not much care for green beens, but loves applesauce and bananas. Hopefully it is not just a vegetable thing.

Today Hadley had Ethan and Finn over again. The day did not go as smooth as the one before. But it turned out fine. Hadley tried out kicking…and by that I mean she kicked her friends, got timeout and then got spanked when she tried it from timeout. She cried a lot, and said, “I don’t like to kick!” I really think she may not try it again, I made a pretty strong statement about kicking. Or I could be spitting in the face of fate and she will try again soon. Time will tell.

The afternoon was blissful. The girls slept from 1:00pm until 4:45pm. I also caught up on much needed sleep, and it was really nice.

On Thursday nights I have been doing a ladies bible study. I got back home and it was close to 10pm. Eric and I were sitting on the couch talking and all of a sudden Hadley’s door swung open and she came running out of her room and gave me a big hug. She said, “mommy’s home, I missed you so much!” I was baffled at the fact that she was awake, and because she missed me so much, I let her sit with us and cuddle for a while.

This was one of those rare moments that she actually wanted me and not Eric, so I savored it. We will see how much I savor the decision in the morning when she is still awake by 7am.

This morning Ethan and Finn came over to play with the girls for a while since their parents had to attend chapel for the College. They had fun coloring and playing all kinds of games together. Hadley was sad when they left. Zoey loved that all three of them gave her attention at the same time.

At one point Hadley went and sat at the steps to the basement. When I asked her to move she said, “no!” So I told her she had to the count of three to move up the steps or she would sit in time out. So then I counted to one, and her response was “mommy, I don’t feel very well.” She said it with this tone of “if I don’t feel very well then there is nothing you can do to make me move, or sit in time out.”
She’s entertaining to say the least.

The girls both took long naps today, and I really needed the rest, so I was extremely excited about that.
Tonight at church was an Ice Cream Social to welcome the college kids back. Hadley enjoyed having some treats after her class. Her class has gotten considerably bigger since the one year olds moved up. Everyone keeps asking if she is in the right class because she is a head taller than all the other kids.

She loves the class and is meeting all kinds of new friends. Zoey still hangs out with us in class, but we rarely ever hold her because one of the other men in our class always grabs her from us. She is a little cuddle bug and adores the attention Larry gives her. We don’t mind it either!

We were up and moving early this morning, and that was ok because we had a play date to go to. Hadley has a new friend from bible class named Clara. She asked Hadley over to play since her big sister just started Kindergarten. The girls had a great time playing and Zoey even got to know Brody a little better, who is just two weeks younger than she is.

As we were leaving Hadley went to give Clara a hug, but then at the last second pushed her away. While we were in the car Hadley burst into tears. When I asked her what was wrong, she said, “I pushed Clara and I forgot to say I am sorry!” She carried on for a couple of blocks and eventually calmed down. Later on at home, this same thing happened again. I assured her we would see Clara later and she could apologize then.

A lot of people do not understand why I chose to stay home with our girls. I have heard my fair share of people preaching that it won’t give them good social skills when they only interact with me. I disagree with this because of all the people Hadley sees that are her own age. I also think that she is developing her conscience right now, and I am seeing that in the remorse she has for doing things the wrong way. Who can guarantee that she would learn these same things if someone else watched her all day?

Hadley took a few hours to settle in for her nap, and eventually slept for about a half an hour. She has been seeking out weird places to sleep lately and I think that has something to do with her difficult time napping. I secretly fear that she is getting too old for naps, or maybe that she is just not going to take the 2-3 hour naps that I am used to.

Our friends just got back from their cruise and so we went over to visit them this evening and see all of their pictures. They traveled to the Bahamas and it made us all jealous! Hadley had a lot of fun playing with Dawson, Makai and Lael. Lael is off and walking so Hadley has taken much more of an interest in her lately.

Hadley and Zoey were very tired and we left and headed straight home to put the girls to bed.

Today Zoey slept in until 7am. It was very nice to not get up with her in the night. The girls had a pretty normal day. Hadley mostly entertained herself with putting things into baskets and bags, carrying them around the house for a while and then emptying them out again. We also did some coloring and art work.

Eric came home early for lunch and headed back before it was time for Hadley to take her nap. As I was preparing her to lay down, she was looking exceptionally tired. We went into her bedroom to tuck her in and she came up with every excuse as to what she needed and why she needed to be out of her bed. After a while she gave up and stayed in her room. Shortly after though, she came out of her room and told me “I wasn’t really sleeping, I was just resting.”

Zoey took an extra long nap, so at least one of the girls got the sleep they needed.

Eric came home and took the girls outside while he grilled. After supper he took Hadley outside to play for a while. She has been becoming more “independent” lately and thinks that it is ok for her to go outside by herself. Eric is going to install a lock on the door where she can’t reach it so she can’t go outside without us. We are trying to give her independence over appropriate things, but going outside by herself is not one of them.

Hopefully the girls will go to bed early tonight because I am exhausted from Hadley’s lack of sleep.

Lindsey let me sleep in today, since I let her sleep in yesterday. That was great.

Church is later, now that the summer is over, so that means tired hungry girls sitting quietly. Or Hadley sitting for awhile and then getting rambunctious fast.

We got home and had some lunch. Hadley did not want to take a nap, but Grandma and Papa were coming over this afternoon, so we forced her to stay in her room. When they arrived, we went in to wake he up and she was passed out on her little couch surrounded by books. I don’t think she really slept, but what can you do?

Grandma and Papa weren’t planning on staying long, but Hadley wanted it even shorter. She was showing Grandma her new favorite movie, Meet the Robinsons (or Meet the Robins, as she calls it) and she asked if she could watch it. I told her that she could as soon as Grandma and Papa left. Hadley responded by saying to Grandma, “Can you leave?”

After a bit longer, Grandma and Papa hit the road and after hugs and kisses, Hadley enjoyed her movie while Linds caught up on a nap.

Tonight, Lindsey had a girls’ night out with friends, so Gerry and I took the girls to McDonalds. Zoey Belle was losing her mind the entire way there and back. As soon as we got home, I layed her on the floor and she was cool. I think she just hates her car seat.

Hadley only took about 6 attempts to get in bed. First, she wanted milk. Then to go to the bathroom. Then for me to fix her toy that she was playing with. Then I heard he kicking the wall. I went into her room and she immediately sat up. “Sorry, Daddy, I didn’t mean to kick the wall. I won’t do it. Sorry, Daddy.” How can I do anything to this kid?

Zoey Belle was looking tired, so I put her in her crib. She didn’t want a bottle of pacifier, so I left her lay. She looked around the room for bit and then fell asleep on her own.

Every time that Lindsey is gone, I definitely get a greater appreciation for the time and effort she puts in with the kids. I only had them for a couple of hours and they wear me out. She has them all day, everyday and sometimes I’m gone at night, too. She’s a super-mom in my book.

Today went by really fast for us. Hadley woke up and went to get donuts with Eric, just like they always do on Saturday mornings. When they got back Emma came over to play one last time. They are moving to Texas tomorrow, so it was the last time the girls will see each other for a while. It was time for naps when Emma left and as soon as the girls were up from naps, Emily and Glenn came over for supper. We spent the evening relaxing with them and just catching up.

When it was time for bed, Hadley stayed up and played in her room. We heard her talking and moving around, but we weren’t sure what she was doing. When Eric went to check on her she was curled up on her shelf to her bed giggling hysterically. Who knows what got into her, but she sure thought it was funny.

Today was a fairly uneventful day. It is nice to have those every once in a while. We are all happy that it is Friday because we love the weekends with Eric so much.

Zoey finally slept for a nine hour period last night. She fell asleep on Eric and Eric bragged about being the master of sleep habits…I told him he has a new job around here. My plan is for him to get the girls to sleep for hours at a time while I relax and read my magazines.

Other than that, there is nothing too new. We are having Emily and Glenn over tomorrow and Dondi and Julie will be coming to visit on Sunday with Grandpa and Grandma Schmit. It should be a pretty fun weekend.

Today Hadley had Ethan over to play. It turned out to be an interesting morning, because the two of them usually only see each other at church. They both had troubles sharing, but Hadley was getting the hang of verbally communicating with Ethan by the time he was heading out. She did a good job of telling him when she was not done with a toy yet, and then giving it to him when she was done.

It is good that she is getting used to sharing with other people besides just Dawson and Makai. I am also proud of how well she is doing verbalizing how she feels. She did tell me at one point, “I feel sad…I don’t want to share.”

Hadley also learned to start out her sentences by saying, “ok, the thing is…” Which is actually pretty funny, because that is word for word what Eric says.

Zoey is still not feeling great with her teeth so she has been taking little catnaps. Her sleeping at night is pretty restless and is waking up often. I have been really tired from being up so much in the night, but I am sure it will pass soon. (at least that is what I tell myself to make it through the day

For lunch we ventured out and got Wendy’s. We got a taste of what it would be like to move to a big city because due to all the road construction it took us approximately 35 minutes just to grab some food to eat. I do not think we are missing much by living in a small town.

Hadley started to fall asleep in the car, and decided that this was enough of a nap for her so she stayed up for the rest of the day. It actually wasn’t too bad, because she was fairly well behaved. Mid afternoon she asked to watch “Meet the Robinson’s” and I needed the down time, so we just relaxed. Eric came home and took Hadley out to play and got some pretty cute pictures of her.

Not that that is difficult these days.

Well, it is fitting that for the majority of this morning, Hadley was going around with her set of keys locking and unlocking all the doors. Mid-morning we decided to go outside and draw with the sidewalk chalk. After a little while, we were going to go inside for Hadley to get shoes on and figured out that our screen door had locked behind us. It has done this a few times, but Eric can usually jerk it open after a couple tries. Well, I had not brought my phone outside, and I also did not have on shoes. So, we just had to make the most of it and play outside for a while. (over an hour.) We did not bring any toys with us, so we had to be creative. We took turns with the girls in the swing, and by the end of it, I was working up a good sweat. And then Hadley had an accident, but to her credit, there really was nowhere for her to go except in her shorts. Shortly after this, the tantrums started. I threatened to take everything short of her life if she did not cooperate with me, and eventually she complied.

When Eric finally got home he opened the door with minimal effort. I was slightly irritated.

After eating lunch everyone settled in for naps, including me. We all woke up a couple hours later and decided to take it easy for the afternoon. Eric had come home from work not feeling well, so I allowed Hadley to put in Cinderella and cuddle with him quietly on the couch.

After supper Eric and Gerry took the girls to get Ice Cream. Hadley and Zoey had a really good time with the guys.

Eric bought Hadley a new movie, “Meet the Robinsons.” She woke up this morning and Eric had even wrapped it for her. She wanted to watch it immediately. She has been doing a pretty good job so far adjusting to us cutting TV out, so I was feeling confident that she could handle watching a movie. She loved it, and it also gave me an excuse to get some cleaning done.

I had been having a difficult time lately with keeping up on the housework and couldn’t figure out why it was piling up so much and then I realized, I am cleaning up after two other people!!! Zoey can’t really help that, so I figure I would cut her some slack. Hadley on the other hand is another story. So, we are going to start implementing some systems with her so she can help out more. They will be little things, such as clearing her own dishes from the table, putting her dirty laundry in the hamper etc… This should save me some time in picking everything up as well as teach her some sense of responsibility.

Zoey is still struggling through the teething process, and I believe this could go on for a while. She is just a little fussier than normal and needs a little bit more love and attention, but I am ok with giving her that!

After supper this evening Eric took the girls to the park. It was really nice to have the house all to myself, and it lasted for about ten minutes. Jenna called and desperately needed out of the house, so her and the kids came over, and we went in search of Hadley and Zoey. We couldn’t find them, so we went back home and called Eric, who said they were on their way back. The kids had fun playing in Hadley’s room, and by playing I mean dumping everything off of every shelf and out of every bin in sight. I have never seen anything like it. I think a tornado would have done less damage. But, the kids all had fun, and played together really well. They were giggling and laughing the whole time.

At bedtime, Hadley insisted that there were mosters in her room. She believed the hook in her ceiling was one of them. Eric had a creative idea of hanging one of her stuffed cats from that hook, and therefore turning it into a cat…thus not a monster. (Although I disagree, have you met Dignan?)

Today Zoey had her four month well baby visit. She did excellent! She is right on track for her weight, and in the 95th percentile for height. The only genes I seem to have given her is blond hair…and that is only in the front (the hair on the back of her head is still brown…with the exception of her bald spot.)

The poor girl got five shots and cried and screamed until she was silent and blue in the face. I was a little nervous she was going to pass out because she was so upset.

After supper, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a walk. We stopped by one of the shoppes downtown and got ice cream too.

Inside the shoppe Hadley saw a gumball machine and really wanted to try some. We thought we would let her give it a try, and she did really well. We explained that you chew it and not swallow it. She coughed a couple times and we were sure she had swallowed it, but each time we asked, she opened her mouth to show us that it was still there.

Hadley is also going through what we hope to be a phase. She wants to be a baby again, but it seems that she only wants a pacifier and none of the other things that babies get. It is actually easier for me to get her to do things this way, so I am ok with it. I know Eric is horribly annoyed about Hadley having a pacifier, but I really think that things could be worse. I will take this any day over her throwing temper tantrums.

We have had so much craziness the past few weeks that we haven’t been able to attend our home church for about a month. It was nice to get back in the swing of things. Hadley enjoyed class, and was relatively well behaved. The teacher said she “hit Ethan a little bit” I am not really sure what that means.

Zoey has been teething lately and that has put a cramp in her usually smiley attitude. She is mostly fussy and just not feeling too well. On a positive note, she has stopped spitting up nearly as much as she once did. Now she mostly drools and chews on things.

It was especially nice in the afternoon for us all to take naps. Eric and I have been feeling really run down lately, so it was very relaxing.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was uneventful and fairly peaceful.

This morning the girls were up early and Hadley’s mood was proving that she did not get enough sleep. There was one meltdown after the next. I attempted to get Hadley involved with me in the kitchen and it was actually pretty fun.

Last night we went out to the jungle that I call my garden, and we found some cucumbers, cantaloupe, tomatoes, and green peppers. There are also some berries, but I am pretty sure they are poisonous, and I did not plant any berries…like I said, it is a jungle.

We washed the tomatoes and peppers and we started to chop to make some homemade salsa. Then we started to work on cutting up the cantaloupe. This was especially hard for Hadley since she wanted “the whole fruit” to eat and didn’t understand that she wouldn’t want to eat the outer layer. Once she was finished throwing her tantrum, she decided she would just eat it as I cut it up and that seemed to work out better for both of us.

After we finished we thought we should enjoy the great weather and took a walk to the park. At first Hadley became shy and timid, which is not the norm for her. She said that going down slides made her “feel silly” and she didn’t want to do that. Eventually she gave in to her “inner child” and let loose. I have no idea what came over her and why she didn’t want to be silly.

The afternoon was just as eventful as the morning and Hadley had the opportunity to play with the Schwarz kids. They tore apart her room like usual and ran back and forth from the dinning room to her room, grabbing bites to eat along the way.

It made for a crazy and hectic evening, but it was fun watching the kids play together.

Today was a big day. I have previously mentioned that Hadley is a little attached to the TV. I was having difficulty keeping up with her and getting her involved in activities during the day and was hoping our time away would just resolve the problem for me. Isn’t it funny how that just didn’t work out?

We decided that first thing in the morning we would get Hadley involved in playing in her room and if she brings up “her shows” we would just redirect her. Well, the plan worked beautifully. It was successful…for today. At this point, I will take what I can get.

She was fun and active and such a doll to be around! I had a difficult time keeping up with her and Zoey because Hadley changes activities about every twenty minutes. As long as it keeps the TV off, I am ok with it. The problem came in when Hadley didn’t want to take a nap. As a last resort I put in a movie. Usually if I put her in front of a movie with a cup of milk she conks out right away. She decided not to today. It was ok though because for as tired as she was she was still well behaved.

I am also currently working on getting Zoey on a solid schedule. She had a really rough night last night…and rough is putting it gently. She was awake with gas nearly every twenty minutes from midnight until five and then finally slept until seven.

I allowed her to take a little longer of a nap in the morning but I still woke her up because I was hopeful that I could get her and Hadley down again in the afternoon. I chuckle to myself now about that…

The biggest event of today was Zoey’s first solid foods. I will admit that I have been dreading doing this because I feel like we are on the slippery slope of her turning into a toddler. I realize she is still only four months old, but as I fed her that first spoonful I could already envision dropping her off at school for her first day of kindergarten. I think it is slightly cruel that they only stay small for such a short time. Needless to say, I am really not wanting to let go of her being my baby. Eric says I spoil her…I probably do. What can I say…I like it when they don’t talk back.

The past two days Hadley has insisted on wearing her white princess dress that Nana bought her. It looks like a mini bridal gown complete with satin and glitter. Hadley spins around and acts like she is delicate and dainty, which anyone who knows her knows she is not. We really needed to go to Walmart, and we loaded up in the car to go just before lunch. As we drove out towards the interstate, the thought hit me that this may not be a good idea. Hadley would draw a lot of attention, and if she decided to throw a tantrum, we would definitely be looked at. So we headed out and picked up lunch and brought it to Eric at work instead.

After eating lunch we headed home and had a visit from Emily. The girls always enjoy seeing their aunt, and they enjoyed it so much that neither of them wanted to take naps. I can’t blame them, it is more fun to socialize sometimes than it is to sleep.

Nap time was short lived, but it was better than nothing. Eric also had his last softball games, so the girls and I decided to go support his team for the last time of the season. We really enjoyed it, and the girls behaved well. It was really nice to get out of the house.

We had a pretty good day yesterday. Hadley enjoyed helping me pick up her room and organize her toys. We separated her toys into clear plastic bins and she was having fun putting toys into their correct place. The girls took extra long naps, so I was able to catch up on some much needed cleaning.

Everything was in order until Jenna stopped over with the kids. All the bins were dumped out and toys were scattered everywhere. It was actually pretty funny because it was literally as I was snapping the last lid on the last bin when the Schwarz clan came barreling into Hadley’s room to play.

After their playtime Jenna helped us pick stuff up and Hadley told her one of the containers was for McDonald’s toys. (I am ashamed that we have so many) As Jenna was placing one of them in the bin she said “well this looks like a McDonald’s toy!” and Hadley replied “that’s right Jenna, Good Job!” It was especially cute because she rubbed Jenna’s arm in encouragement as she said it.

It has been very busy around here. I got back with the girls late last week, and they were home for Thursday, then we turned around and brought them to Fremont to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma for the weekend, while Eric and I played in the York Summer Games. We had a ton of fun, and it was nice to have a little break from being mom and dad. The girls are back and doing well.

Since there are too many stories to recall, and some that honestly, I do not want to relive, I thought I would just do a quick overview. Hadley had a blast swimming at camp. She even jumped off the floating dock (while wearing a life-vest and inner-tube.) She started throwing MONSTER temper tantrums. This has been especially fun. And by especially fun, I mean I would rather turn and walk the other way and pretend she is not my child when she starts in than deal with it. I am getting better at showing her that this won’t get her anywhere, and the tantrums are getting shorter. Thank you, God.

Zoey is just a big bundle of love. My only complaint is that she won’t stay like this forever. She is very ticklish especially by her neck. Her little giggle is more than I can handle.

And one little story before I go…

Yesterday, we took the girls to the park where they were doing the awards ceremony for the York Summer Games. Hadley was throwing sand so I gave her a time out. Eric took her to a specific spot to do her timeout while I took care of Zoey and Hadley told him “you go away.”

Later, she attempted to hit, so I gave her another time out. I took her to a tree to sit under for her time out and she cried, ” no, this is not time out!!! God made that tree mommy!!!”

How do you argue with that? We switched locations of our time out, and she sat and waited while sticking out her “boo-boo lip.”

So we’ve been gone for a week attending Flaming Pine Youth Camp in Northern Minnesota. I have a few thousand photos and lots of stories, so hopefully in the next couple days Lindsey and the girls will return home and you will have one heck of an update.