Breaking News: The Hadley Report

Well, well, well, we have much to report--so much has happened, in fact, that I've been a delinquent blogger. So without further ado, here's our news:

1. Hadley has started solids. "Solids" is a bit of a misnomer, since her meals are wonders of mushiness. We started with a batch of homemade brown rice cereal. Success. Then we gave her sweet potato puree. Fabulous. Then zucchini puree. Loved it. (And she smiles every time we say "zucchini." Come to think of it, it is a funny word.) Then sweet pea puree. Hated it. Gagged. Looked at us as if to say, "What are you DOING? This is GROSS." Oh, well. We'll try again in a week or so. My plan is to help her develop a taste for veggies before we give her fruit, but Jason is pushing to let her experience bananas, so she might get a treat tomorrow. (And might I add that I've made all of her food thus far, and those of you who know me well know that I'm not much of a chef. But I can steam and puree veggies with the best of 'em.)

2. Hadley has a tooth. Truthfully, it's more like a quarter of a tooth, but it's definitely above her gum line. She working on the other, so she'll have a matching pair right behind her bottom lip. She's been a pretty good sport about it all, perhaps because Jason has promised her a hamburger when she gets a few more in.

3. Hadley has discovered tags. Thanks to the attorneys of the world, every baby toy now comes with a tag telling parents, lest we're complete and total morons, that we shouldn't, say, leave our babies unattended on the playmat, or let them play with rattles if the parts come off. Hadley inevitably finds these tags and examines them closely, as if she's reading the warnings. She frowns slightly in concentration and uses her tiny fingers to flip them back and forth. I'm just hoping all of this tag-time won't inspire her to become a lawyer.

4. Hadley went to her first birthday parties--mine and Mumsie's. The candles on the birthday cake fascinated her. Otherwise, I'm not sure she noticed that we were having a party.

Happy birthday, Mumsie!

I love this one: my two birthday presents.

Snuggling Mumsie

Hadley makes every party more fun.

Daddy and Hadley at my birthday bash.

5. Hadley got an exersaucer. She digs it. See?

Don't let anyone tell you it doesn't take focus to play with the exersaucer.

"I love it."

"Look at all this stuff! It's wild."

6. And tonight, after her bath, on her changing table, Hadley figured out how to get her toes into her mouth. There she was, naked and happy, sucking on her toes and looking up at us with the most content look on her face, as if to say, "Finally! These are as good as I had imagined." Jason and I stood there and laughed, and she stopped her toe-sucking for a few seconds to smile back at us. Ah, bliss.

You know, when I was at Medill and covering federal court, I'd get a huge thrill out of tracking down crusty old Chicago defense attorneys who were representing whichever city official got caught breaking the law that particular week. I loved sitting in court and then racing back to the newsroom to file my story, in hopes that one of our client papers would pick it up and I could see my byline in print. And I still get a thrill when I see my byline in print. But none of those stories--not even the most dramatic wrongful conviction case I covered--was nearly as thrilling as writing about Hadley's little developments on this little blog. I hope that one day, I'll get to write again about misbehaving public officials, but I will never feel so excited to write about anyone or anything as I do writing about Hadley.

The other nice bit about this blog is that I don't have an editor to tell me to wrap it up, cut the mommy talk, quit being so darn lovey. So I take full advantage of my blank screen and the fact that this happy little blog gives me all the room I want to write about the little things that strike me as marvelous--and treat them like they're important breaking news because at our house, they are.