gender neutral.

i've been trying really hard lately to embrace the whole gender neutral, surprise sex idea of this pregnancy because jered is SO excited about it. i'm starting to get excited too :) it'll be fun. i have been on a mission to find a few gender neutral things to get us through the first little bit of having new baby around that are not plain white or covered in ducks (although i do have a few duck things and they're cute). hadleigh and i found this for baby two this week on sale:

isn't it precious? i think new baby will love it :)

18 months.

this sweet little face is 18 months old now! fastest year and a half ever... and i don't know what i did before she was here. she changes every day and seriously gets more fun by the minute. we went for her well check a few days ago, and she is doing everything as she should. she is currently 27 pounds and 33 inches tall, which puts her over the 75th percentile for both... not bad for our little "failure to thrive" baby! current loves include playing with sonny all day every day, cell phones, watching football with daddy, and copying everything mama does, including putting on chapstick, brushing our teeth, and wearing headbands. she loves to "read-read" every book in sight. she has started recently telling us when it's time to do things. she will walk up to her high chair and say "eat" when she's hungry, to the fridge when it's time for "moo-moo" (milk), and at night, we can ask her if she's ready to go night-night. when she's tired, she'll get up and walk into her room and go right to sleep when we lay her down! it's so great. she's becoming more of a picky eater, but she still loves pasta, bologna :), mandarin oranges and applesauce, and green beans. she's having fun learning to use silverware and has mastered the fork... the spoon is still a bit of a mess. fit throwing is a daily occurrence, but she will typically give it up when she gets ignored. she is quite the ham for the camera now, and there is nothing shy about her -- hadleigh will smile for most everyone. she is such a daddy's girl, but she cries every time i leave the house without her! we seriously couldn't ask for anything better...

trick or treat.

night night.

24.

24 weeks into the fastest pregnancy ever. only 16 short weeks to go until i have 2 kids under 2... pray for me. you'll notice that i'm wearing the same shirt in this picture that i was in my 20 week picture. not on purpose, but it makes it pretty obvious how much i grew in one month! there's a lot more stretch on the sides of that shirt now...

pumpkins.

hadleigh's mother's day out class went to the pumpkin patch last week... which basically consisted of a bunch of toddlers going outside to play at the church's "pumpkin patch." hadleigh had a great time. she made a few efforts to pick up some big pumpkins, but when she realized she couldn't... she resorted to picking up little ones and handing them to me one by one or throwing them across the pumpkin patch... nice.

shoes.

hadleigh has taken a recent intense interest in shoes. she likes to wear them from morning until night... she'd sleep in shoes if we would leave them on. she can say shoes now and frequently brings them to me to put on her -- she would wear 3 pairs at a time if she could. i got her these adorable house slippers at old navy and now we wear them at ALL TIMES if we are inside. no matter what. huge fits will be thrown if these shoes aren't present and on her feet always. aren't they cute?