Walking, walking, and more walking.

Thank goodness Hadley is more stable now because she just loves to walk.  We don't have to be her bubble as much anymore unless a sharp corner or hard edge is approaching.  When she gets excited about something, she nearly runs and then she gets a bit out of control.  It's pretty amazing to have her come walking to see me as fast as she can with a huge smile on her face when she hears me come home from work.  All in all, she doesn't like to sit still too often.

When Hadley is actually sitting still, she is often found sitting in her new "little" chair.  She loves to climb up in it and read her books.  She actually is pretty good about sitting on her bottom when we remind her.  

From 3-27-2009 - Thirteenth Month

Hadley officially turns 13 months tomorrow She seems to be over her milk protein allergy and she is eating lots of new foods now.  Yogurt, cheese and lots of new goodies make meal times more interesting for all of us.  She loves playing with the dogs, especially when she gets to hold the chuck-it as Sawyer fetches and brings back the ball to her.  Speaking of the dogs - they are doing well and getting to spend more time outside again as the snow is close to being all melted and the weather is warm enough for Hadley to hang out outside.  We're all excited about spending more time outside now that the warm weather has shown its face.

Hope all is well with everyone...  

Walk, walk, walk... from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

The Chuck-It. from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

Saddleback

We got away for 2 days to head up to Saddleback for the first time.  We stayed at a rental condo while Jess's parents condo is still being finished up.  It is beautiful country up here and we're glad the skies cleared yesterday afternoon and today to soften up the skiing and to also see the awesome views.  Here's a couple vids from today and I'll post some pics on Picasa when I return home.  

An afternoon at Saddleback... from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

Beautiful View. from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

Our trip to Illinois

Well, we probably traveled during one of the harder times - having a daughter who just got good at walking.  Man, she just does not want to sit still!  Can you blame her though?  For our first leg of our flight to our connection in Detroit she was non stop movement for 2 hours.  We were exhausted.  She must of been exhausted too because she slept on the entire second leg of the flight to Peoria.  Anyway, our visit was great and we got to see grandparents, great grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles.  We luckily had a great cottage to stay in on the grounds of the retirement village and that helped make it easy to keep Hadley sleeping well and in some what of a routine.  

We're now back to Maine and settling in to my second week of spring break from teaching.  We had a nice warm day today which gets me thinking about spring but also about some good spring skiing.  Before we know it, it will be summer.  A wise ex-coworker of mine once said, "Blink and you'll miss the rest of the school year."  

Here's some video from after we returned on a nice March day...I'll see if I can put a compilation of our Illinois video together before the week ends.  

A warm day in March. from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

Some birthday footage...

In order to post them somewhat quickly, I haven't edited these at all but just cut a short clip out of the video footage from Hadley's 1st birthday when we sang to her and then some walking and talking from today.  During the singing, I wasn't sure if she was going to cry or smile!  But, once she had a tast of her banana muffin birthday cake, she was definitely happy.  Now, she can't even walk by the tray of muffins in our house without trying to get one.  Hmmm, who did she get the sweet tooth from?

Singing Happy Birthday! from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

Walking and talking. from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

Hadley's 1st Birthday...

This will be quick because I'm exhausted from the par-tay, but Hadley had a great day of cake-eating, present opening, and lots of walking all over the house.  Here's a sample of the pics from today and we'll get the video downloaded later.  The rest of the pics are on our Picasa site.  

http://picasaweb.google.com/natesmith45

I know where my balloons are...

Are we multi-tasking too much?

http://www.wcsh6.com/life/programming/local/207/story.aspx?storyid=101472&catid=50

Walking...

She's had some long walks and some shorter but here's a sample of one during our snow day yesterday.  Whether walking or crawling, she does NOT want to sit still at all!

Walking... from Nate Smith on Vimeo.

Where are your toes?

Hadley sure is changing a lot lately and here's just a glimpse into what she's learning.  She can point out her belly-button, the fan on the ceiling, the two dogs by name and much more.  This video doesn't show it, but she is walking more than crawling now.  She's still quite dangerous with her walking but she can go quite a distance on her own.  I'll post a good video of her walking when we catch a good one on tape...it's hard to get video and catch Hadley while she falls at the same time!

What does Hadley know? from Nate Smith on Vimeo.