Two and a Half

Hadley,

You are two and a half years old today.  Our hopes and dreams of being parents, one day, began with you.  We fall in love with you more and more every day; if that's even possible!!   

  To say that your "bankey" (blanket) is your favorite thing in this world would be a major understatement.  You never took a pacifier, even though we tried, so your blanket became your source of comfort from very early on.  You sleep with it every night and we don't leave home without one in the car.  You rub it against your nose and mouth, loving the texture.  And you are picky about which one you want at night; you never know which one you'll be in the mood for, but you surely let us know!  You also love, love, love to read and have enjoyed looking at books since you were very young.  You want us to read to you, but sometimes you will "read" books to us.  So sweet! 
Some songs you sing are:  Mary had a little lamb, The wheels on the bus, Twinkle, twinkle, little star, and Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.  You eat just about anything.  For breakfast you often request "oatmilk," but love scrambled eggs, too.  And probably your favorite food is "roni" (macaroni).  You even turn the carton of Easy Mac up at the end to drink the cheese out of it.  You also love hot dogs and have been known to eat two of those at a meal.

You absolutely love the outdoors. We blow bubbles and play with sidewalk chalk.  You love to get a toy shovel and play in the dirt....sometimes you don't mind getting dirty.  You can identify all your colors now, count to 10, and recite the alphabet when YOU want to.  You will rehearse these skills whenever the mood strikes; maybe during coloring, supper, car rides, bathtime, church, etc.  You use manners such as "peas, fank you, yur weccome, bess you, and skews me" very often, but sometimes forget.  You recognize the letter "G" for Glasgow, since it's on so many of Daddy's shirts and your initial, H, and say, "H for Hadley."  You also wear your days of the week socks to school every single day just to help you learn those!  It's tough being a child of two teachers...we expect a lot don't we? 

As you can tell, the two's (half-way thru) have proven to be unbelievably delightful, but challenging at times.  We had a period of temper tantrums but after a couple of weeks enduring those with loving discipline (sounds nicer than it felt at the time), you came out on the other side and looked and sounded like our Hadley again!  I'm sure we'll have more rounds of this in the future, but it's nice to know that you do recover.

I also love to ask you, "Hadley, what is love?"  Your response is sooo precious.  The first time I ever asked you that, you looked right at me, thought for a second, and said, "God is love."  Wow.  How right you are, my dearest girl, and above everything else in this world, that is what I want you to know more than anything.  God loved us so much that he sent his one and only Son to die on the cross for us.  Now THAT is the greatest love of all!

We love you to infinity and beyond
(as Buzz Lightyear says),

Mommy & Daddy