McKinstry Moments: Hadley's Special Days

Most days Reid is awake well before my other two get up and has Mommy all to himself. On the other hand, Caleb, the night owl, barely gets to bed some nights before we do and sneaks in a few extra minutes with one or the other of us once the house is still. In addition, Reid's nap schedule shifts here and there so he isn't always sleeping in the middle of the day when his siblings do, and on occasion Caleb skips his nap altogether. These are all snippets of time that I have with my boys by themselves that I don't often get to spend with this sweet girl, who is usually tucked in the middle.

Ever since Hadley was born, I have tried to make sure to have time specifically set aside for both the kids, but especially for Caleb because I know he thrived on it. Hadley is getting to the age where we are starting to see signs that she too is very interested in our undivided attention. Those "look-at-me" moments where she is trying to make sure that you are really focused on her are becoming more and more frequent.

One evening a couple months ago, Dave took Caleb to Taco Bell and the park for a boys' night and I met up with my mom at the mall for a bit of shopping. Usually Dave and I are out numbered with the kids, but with NaNa in the mix everyone got quality time that night. She took Reid to do a little shopping at Belk while Hadley and I checked out some things in Gymboree and the Children's Place. Thankfully, I have a little girl who loves clothes and accessorizing and who was enjoying our shopping as much as I was. She's a handful to keep up with, but she keeps me smiling.

We didn't have the whole evening together just the two of us, but that's okay. It was fun either way.

After a while we met back up with her baby brother for some more mall fun.

We found these bracelets in the sale bin at Children's Place. She was a happy girl to get them.

With Caleb it has been so easy to come up with ideas for things to do on our special days, because he is older. Actually, I have more outings lined up in my head than opportunities to take him. Hadley's still a bit limited in what she can do (for example, she's too little to tote a bowling ball), so it makes it a bit harder to come up with something unique. The thing I have to keep reminding myself is that it really doesn't have to be something exciting though. Just the quality time with our undivided attention is enough.

That's why this simple afternoon in the backyard a few months ago when her brothers were napping or playing in the house with Daddy was such a nice time together - a time where my eyes weren't racing, looking from child to child and making sure everyone was accounted for. I got to take in the details of her.

I found a fishin' worm and tried to show her...

...and I learned that she was not fond of creepy crawlies.

It is kind of hard to take one child and not the other when you know they would both love the outing - blueberry picking for example. To solve this dilemma, back in June I decided to take Caleb to Hartland Orchard one day and then come back with Hadley several days later.

Well, if you read my last post you saw that things fell through on my journey there with Caleb, and believe it or not, those blueberries had all been picked the following week when I took Hadley. They did have sour cherries available for picking that day, so even though we don't like sour cherries, we picked them. The fact that we weren't too interested in eating them didn't matter all that much anyway since I think it ended up only costing somewhere around $1.50. A small price tag on that time together.

Cherry picking may have been better for her anyway. She could clearly see the cherries on the tree to know what to pick and didn't need much guidance. She'd grab one for each hand and then here she'd come back to me to put them in the bag.

In several spots, the limbs were at just the right height for her. I'm glad we found something she could do herself. She loves being independent.

And, as evidence that I was there, I didn't have to take a selfie. Another picker got a few shots of us girls together.

It was such a calm, peaceful morning. I took a ton of pictures as you can tell, because I just wanted to capture that precious time. Sadly, photos just can't hold on to or reproduce the exact same feeling.

We didn't take any QT outings with Hadley in July, but this month we've stepped up our game. At my nudging, Dave took her on a daddy/daughter date night to Zinga for ice cream one evening recently after he got home from work. It was hard for Caleb to see them leave without him (hey, even I felt a little left out), but it's good for her to have time with Dave too. He's got to start training her early for how a man should treat her on a date. :)

Opening the door for his little lady

Side story: When I put this shirt on her a few days prior, this little cutie tried to lick the popsicle on it.

Daddy added in his own touch - a trip to Bath and Body Works to let her smell some pretty things. The sales people kept asking if they needed any help, but they were just having a good ol' time browsing.

Dave has also been wanting to take Hadley hiking for months just like he did with Caleb when he was her age. However, overprotective Mommy has been so nervous about my sweet girl going traipsing through the woods. Not that I don't think her daddy won't do a perfectly good job of taking care of her but...what if he got hurt or what if they ran into a bear or what if...

Knowing that they need time together and that he wants to introduce her to things he enjoys, I finally had to put my fears away and relent. We've been so busy there weren't really any opportunities to go though. Every time it was on the calendar something else came up. Finally though, just a couple days after their Zinga date, our church did a group hike. As I mentioned in my previous post, Caleb was supposed to go but ended up having to stay home, so Hadley got to go instead. I think God was protecting my nerves because I felt a lot less nervous since they were in a group...What did Hadley think? She loved it and was so disappointed the following week when Caleb and Dave went without her.

Dave did have to carry her a good bit to keep up with the others, but she did well for her age.

They took this backpack to make sure she didn't get to close to any of the drop offs, especially since she gets an independent streak in her sometimes and doesn't want to hold anyone's hand. She was proud to be wearing it anyway.

Hiking wears a little girl out

More girl time came this week - yesterday actually. Caleb started preschool, Reid went down for a nap, and we both got pedicures! Hadley asked me to paint her fingers too; the first time we've attempted that. I'll miss my fella at school during the day, but I think him attending preschool will provide a great opportunity for this little girl to get some of the extra quality time she's been craving.